Jesus Christ and the sinner 1926

Emil Nolde made "Jesus Christ and the sinner" with oil on canvas, though when, exactly, is a bit of a mystery. Look at how the paint is applied, kind of raw and immediate, like he's wrestling with the subject right there on the canvas. The textures are really something – see the way the colors are layered, those fleshy pinks and bruised greens, like he's building up the emotional temperature of the scene. I'm drawn to the red patches of color, particularly on the face of the 'sinner'; how the red is almost violent, like a rash, mirroring the inner turmoil of the figures. This feels linked to the German Expressionist movement, which was obsessed with capturing intense feeling. Think of other artists from that time, like Kirchner and Heckel, all trying to dig into the messy stuff of human experience through paint. Ultimately, it's a reminder that art doesn't need to be pretty to be powerful. Nolde's work invites us to embrace the strange, uncomfortable, and unresolved aspects of being human.