Riley Gunderson
History of Modern & Contemporary Art
Rory O’Dea, Katrina Orsini
October 14, 2019
Formal Analysis: “The Reaper,” Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The painting, “The Reaper,” by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was created in the years 1919 and 1920. The painting is composed of oil paint on canvas. It is currently displayed in a thin black frame at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, New York. “The Reaper,” by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is a perfect example of Expressionism in Europe in the twentieth century.
The main subject of the painting is a male figure in the center of the canvas. The figure serves as the focal point of the piece, with his entire body shown from head to toe. He stance suggests physically demanding, he is hunched forward with bent knees and is looking down. Holding a farming tool of some sort, he appears to be working on the land he is surrounded by. The figure is depicted with bright red, almost neon hair, and a mustache of the same color. He is wearing modest, blue clothing composed of long pants and a plain shirt that appears to have the sleeves rolled up to the figure’s elbows. The figure is thin but athletic enough to be working in such a physically demanding position. The main subject’s facial expression is very ambiguous. His face seems gentle and solemn, yet also perhaps content or focused. He seems to be an older man, although his age is ambiguous as well. He is surrounded by greenery and loosely painted flowers. The climate seems warm or temperate because of the colors, sense of light, greenery, and clothing. There also appear to be no shadows in the painting, making it seem as though it is placed in a time of day with diffused lighting, such as early morning or evening where the sun is not strong.
There is a cat sitting to the right of the main figure and it is looking forward at the viewer. There is one other, smaller figure at the top right corner of the painting who is depicted at a fraction of the size of the larger figure, suggesting that he is at a distance behind the main subject. This smaller figure is looking down, with his body facing away from the viewer. He is holding the same tool as the main subject, but is not in use but instead is resting over his shoulder. The figure stands with his hand to his chin, seemingly pensively, and appears to be looking down at a patch of greenery. The figures are both depicted with relatively accurate proportions, but are also very stylized and not realistically rendered. None of the subjects are interacting with each other in the painting, the two smaller subjects seem to be there to provide context and support for the main figure in the center. That cat seems to be a companion or friend to either the painter, Kirchner, or to the main subject.
The painting is composed of bright, saturated colors, with subtle use of neutrals in the main subject’s face, in the cat’s fur, and in the flowers surrounding the figures. The overall palette of the piece is quite limited, with only reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and blues. There is not much variety in value in the painting and it has little contrast besides that provided by the color’s relationships to one another. The human figures are shown with bright pink skin tone and bright, almost neon red hair. They are wearing clothing made of different shades of blue. The cat is painted in red and purple, and the flowers in light pink, purple, and orange.
The paint is applied in a thin but opaque matter, and is relatively even along the entirety of the painting. Some subtle texture is present throughout the piece but it seems as though it was not intentionally applied, but was instead just circumstances of making the painting. The painting seems to have been made with fast and intentional strokes, providing expressive and representational movements. There appear to be no outlines, leaving the differentiation between figure and ground to be completely reliant on color usage. The usage of color also is utilized to bring the viewer’s focus to the main figure. His bright red hair stands out against the dark green shrubbery surrounding it, and practically the only use of bright orange is used on his farming tool, which is also surrounded by complementary dark blues and greens.
The composition overall is very dynamic. The viewer’s eyes move around the canvas, beginning at the main figure in the middle, then spiraling to the right with the cat, then above to the smaller figure, and then around to the left side of the canvas and back to the main subject. The space itself is also painted to suggest slow and natural movement. The loose and visible brushstrokes used to make up the grassy environment suggests a light breeze or wind which is swaying the grass in the field. The combination of vertical, diagonal, and horizontal lines add to this feeling as well. The space seems very idyllic and fruitful. The scene captured in this painting seems to be an everyday, routine occurrence. Although it is not realistically represented, this still seems like an illusionistic space that the viewer could enter into if permitted.
This painting is a prime example of the techniques and attitudes of German Expressionist painters in the twentieth century. Expressionism, like impressionism, utilizes a high level of gesture and palpable brushstrokes. The movement was rooted in the authenticity of the self and one’s psychological truth, it was therefore used primarily as an outpouring of emotion into painting. Kirchner was from Germany, the epicenter of expressionist painting. He moved to a peasant town in Switzerland in 1917 as an attempt to escape his wartime and urban experiences in Berlin. He wanted to lead a more peaceful and quiet life, a theme of many European painters at this time of mass industrialization in major cities. Kircher’s use of bold colors, emotional intensity, raw pigment and energetic brushstrokes in this painting, “The Reaper,” exemplifies the formal qualities of expressionist painting at this time in art history. His act of moving from the big city to the peasant countryside as well shows the collective attitude that modernity was depleting culture. Due to all of these reasons, “The Reaper,” by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is a perfect example of Expressionism in Europe in the twentieth century.
