Tänzerinnen 1928 - 1930

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this watercolor, Tänzerinnen, with an almost playful lightness of touch. You can see how the whole image seems to be built up from brief, almost scribbled lines. I love the way Kirchner uses color here – these transparent washes overlapping and creating new, unexpected hues. Look at how the pink of one dancer’s dress merges with the blue of another’s coat, creating a soft, lilac shadow that suggests depth and form. The application is so immediate, so direct. The way the colors bleed into each other, creating these soft, blurred edges, makes the whole image feel like a fleeting impression. The figures seem to be in motion. Kirchner, and the other Expressionists, were really interested in the immediacy of the moment, and the way that artmaking could be a direct translation of feeling into form. You might see echoes of Matisse in Kirchner’s work, that same emphasis on the expressive power of color and line, but with a rawer, more urgent energy. It's like they're having a conversation across time, each pushing the boundaries of what painting can be.