Double Portrait (green background) 1908

Richard Gerstl made this double portrait with oil on canvas in Vienna, Austria, sometime in the early 20th century. Look at that green background, all choppy and alive, like wind through leaves, making the figures emerge. I can imagine Gerstl working fast, putting down strokes of contrasting color, smearing them together, taking a brush full of white to pull the figures forward from the background. The paint is pretty thick, not quite impasto, but the brushwork is definitely visible and expressive. You can sense his hand in the swirls and jabs of color. There’s something unsettling in the way he captures the two figures; their blank stares are unnerving. Gerstl was part of a really interesting generation of Austrian Expressionists who were finding new ways to express psychological realities through painting. These artists were like having a conversation with each other, pushing the boundaries of representation, and inspiring each other in the process. I think painting is like that, an ongoing exchange where meaning is always shifting.