Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Artistin Marcella, 1910
Quote below from: Norbert Wolf. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1880-1938: On the Edge of the Abyss of Time. Cologne, Germany: Taschen, 2003. (p. 36)
“The composition is marked by intrinsic monumentality and clarity. The girl’s pose is very casual, one knee raised, her head resting on her right hand. A relaxed, introverted mood, underscored by the cat asleep in the foreground, pervades the scene. Wine bottles in the background contribute to the bohemian atmosphere. The simplicity of the composition is deceptive, for its structure is extremely refined. The motifs are arranged along a rising diagonal from lower left to upper right. Smooth, homogenously opaque colour fields limited to a few intense hues, including a dominant green, and closed contours establish a compositional rhythm.”
