Girl, with Another Rubbing Her Belly 1910

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this etching, Girl, with Another Rubbing Her Belly, using a reductive palette and a sparse approach to mark making. It's all about the line, or rather the gaps *between* the lines; how they define the figures, their weight, and their setting. The process feels laid bare. The overall texture comes from the network of hatched marks that render the form of the standing woman. This is not just a formal device for modeling depth, but it also shapes our emotional experience of the work. It is a technique that recalls the way in which the German Expressionists were influenced by the graphic style of woodcuts. But Kirchner's linework is more sinuous, almost sensual, and it’s a long way from the tortured angularity we associate with his contemporary, Käthe Kollwitz, who also used etching. Kirchner’s vision embraced ambiguity, hovering on the brink between emotional intensity and detached observation.