Melancholie

Melancholy depicts a woman seated behind a table, a bowl and platter set before her. A female nude, perhaps one of the artist's models, stands behind her. As one of the original members of the Expressionist group known as Die Brücke (The Bridge), Schmidt-Rottluff mastered the powerful vocabulary of hatchings and gouges that made for the strongest of Brücke woodcuts. After the breakup of the group in 1913, his subject matter became increasingly introspective, as in this heartfelt image of mute sadness.