Portrait of Otto Mueller, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1915

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's portrait of the reclining Otto Mueller utilizes a variety of non-naturalistic colors and a crude drawing technique to achieve an image that feels as if it's in motion. Otto's slim green suit is rendered in impatient dashes contrasting the intense fixation on representing every crevice of his face. The usage of woodblock printmaking in Kirchner's practice exists as more than a tool, the texture of the carved wood is evident in the compositional space and addresses Kirchner's interest in representing modern life authentically through considering the Gesamtkunstwerk or the 'all-embracing art form'. These techniques would become the standard for the early German expressionist group Die Brucke (The Bridge) of which Kirchner was a founding member, until the groups' disbandment in 1913. The Gesamtkunstwerk was a central ideal to the creative practices of many members of Die Brucke interested in creating the clearest and most profound expression through the blending of then dominant schools of impressionist and post-impressionist styles and the revival of German Gothic woodcut printmaking amidst rapid industrialization and the rise of the cosmopolitan Berlin. Kirchner's subject matter shifted drastically in 1918 after spending several years resigned to roaming Swiss sanitoriums he fled from the urban scene in entirety, creating genre works that documented the daily lives of the Swiss Alps rural communities, such as the triptych "Life in the Alps". Reminiscent of Northern Renaissance artists like Pieter Bruegel or the Limbourg Brothers.