Drei Mädchen Im Profil 1918

Otto Mueller painted these three girls in profile using tempera on canvas; it's about 91 x 71 cm. Just imagine Mueller in the studio, shifting, stepping back, tilting his head. The painting emerges, stroke by stroke, almost tentatively. See how the tan color is dragged, almost dry, over the surface? What does that drag mark do to the surface? It builds it, but it also erases, creating a ghostlike echo. Mueller’s girls remind me of Kirchner's figures—that same melancholy, a shared exploration of human form, but with Mueller's own quiet, contemplative spin. He's not just copying life, but thinking and feeling through the paint. He's in conversation with other painters, borrowing and riffing. Painting is an ongoing experiment—what can color do? What kind of feeling can a line communicate? There's no right answer, just the endless possibility of seeing and feeling in new ways.