Portrait en buste de Gerda aux bras levés
ca 1913
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner captures a burst of spontaneous energy in this sketch of Gerda Schilling, a dancer and his muse during his Berlin years. With her arms thrown high above her head and a chic, choppy bob, she looks like she's mid-performance or perhaps just stretching awake. The frantic, scratchy lines are a hallmark of German Expressionism; Kirchner wasn't trying to create a polished portrait, but to capture the raw, nervous energy of the moment. It feels less like a formal study and more like a quick, passionate note jotted down in a sketchbook before the moment vanished.