Two Cocottes c. 1910

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this drawing, 'Two Cocottes', with ink and colored pencil. I’m thinking of those sweeping lines and hatchings, the pink and blue stains—how they wrestle with the blank page. Like Kirchner is trying to capture a fleeting moment, maybe in a busy café or theater? I can almost feel him standing there, sketching rapidly, trying to keep up with the ever-changing scene before him. His lines are raw and urgent and filled with the nervous energy of the city. There is a flurry of marks, and I can imagine the way that he might have attacked the paper, scratching and smudging the colored pencils. The hats themselves become these looming forces of nature, tilting and vibrating against each other. It makes me think about other artists like Paula Modersohn-Becker or even Alice Neel—the way they captured people with an unflinching eye. Ultimately, artists inspire each other across time and space. Kirchner's drawing reminds us that painting, like life, is messy and uncertain, and it's in that ambiguity that we find the real juice.