Tänzerin 1919

Christian Rohlfs made this painting, 'Tänzerin,' with loose charcoal strokes and watercolor washes. I can imagine him dancing with the brush himself, trying to capture the expressive movement of the dancer. The red seeps and stains around the dancer like she's radiating heat. I know as a painter that the real work comes in when trying to wrangle a pose. It's hard to get a body right, the weight of it, the energy of it, especially a dancing one. The dancer's pose, with her arms outstretched and gaze lifted, makes me feel she's in a state of ecstasy. It reminds me of Kirchner’s drawings of dancers. There is something eternal about the way artists look at other art.