Two nude women, painted in vibrant coral peach and bubblegum pink, stand under a red umbrella in a landscape in this stylized, vertical painting. The scene is painted with areas of flat or streaked color with visible brushstrokes throughout. The women and umbrella take up most of the picture. The woman on our left stands facing our right almost in profile. Her skin is vivid peach. Slashes of red outline her breasts, groin, and legs. Her hair, eyes, and eyebrows are painted with black strokes. She stands on one leg and stretches the other in front of her to overlap the far foot of the other woman. The first woman hooks her arm through the elbow of the other, who stands facing us to our right. This second woman has vivid pink skin also outlined in red. Her face is a darker shade of pink, resembling a mask, and her eyes are parallel strokes of black and blue. Her left arm, on our right, hangs by her side, and she holds the umbrella with the other arm. She either wears a hat or her hair is painted with alternating bands of black, red, and brown, and there is a red flower or bow to one side. Black lines in the candy-red umbrella suggest a rib on the underside and the handle. Cobalt-blue branches of a tree above the women has blue and green leaves. The landscape beyond them is made up of bands of acid green, yellow, saturated blue, and cool green.

Two Girls under an Umbrella

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Two nude women, painted in vibrant coral peach and bubblegum pink, stand under a red umbrella in a landscape in this stylized, vertical painting. The scene is painted with areas of flat or streaked color with visible brushstrokes throughout. The women and umbrella take up most of the picture. The woman on our left stands facing our right almost in profile. Her skin is vivid peach. Slashes of red outline her breasts, groin, and legs. Her hair, eyes, and eyebrows are painted with black strokes. She stands on one leg and stretches the other in front of her to overlap the far foot of the other woman. The first woman hooks her arm through the elbow of the other, who stands facing us to our right. This second woman has vivid pink skin also outlined in red. Her face is a darker shade of pink, resembling a mask, and her eyes are parallel strokes of black and blue. Her left arm, on our right, hangs by her side, and she holds the umbrella with the other arm. She either wears a hat or her hair is painted with alternating bands of black, red, and brown, and there is a red flower or bow to one side. Black lines in the candy-red umbrella suggest a rib on the underside and the handle. Cobalt-blue branches of a tree above the women has blue and green leaves. The landscape beyond them is made up of bands of acid green, yellow, saturated blue, and cool green.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Date
1910
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 95.3 x 80.3 cm (37 1/2 x 31 5/8 in.) framed: 119.7 x 104.8 x 7 cm (47 1/8 x 41 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)
Department
CMC
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Collection of Arnold and Joan Saltzman

Art Genome Taxonomy

12 tags

Subject Matter

  • Nude Both · 99%

    The catalog description identifies two nude women, and two unclothed human figures are clearly visible at the center of the image.

  • Human Figure Visual · 99%

    Two recognizable standing human figures occupy most of the composition.

  • Figures in Nature Both · 98%

    The figures are shown outdoors among trees, vegetation, and open terrain; the catalog describes the setting as a landscape.

  • Landscapes Both · 97%

    Vegetation, open ground, distant horizontal bands, and the catalog’s description establish an outdoor landscape setting.

Styles and Movements

  • Expressionism Interpretive · 86%

    The saturated non-naturalistic palette, emphatic contouring, simplified forms, and spatial distortion visually align with Expressionism; the supplied catalog does not state a style classification.

Visual Qualities

  • Bright and Vivid Colors Both · 99%

    The image uses saturated coral, pink, red, cobalt blue, green, turquoise, and yellow passages, consistent with the catalog’s description of vibrant color.

  • Contour Line Visual · 95%

    Dark and red linear marks visibly outline limbs, facial features, breasts, the umbrella, and selected landscape elements.

  • Flatness Visual · 88%

    The scene is constructed from broad, relatively flat or streaked areas of color with limited conventional modeling and spatial illusion.

Medium and Techniques

  • Painting Both · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art classifies the work as a painting, and the image visibly presents a painted composition with brushwork and areas of applied color.

  • Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork Visual · 97%

    Distinct, energetic brushstrokes remain visible across the figures, umbrella, vegetation, and ground.

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The National Gallery of Art identifies the medium as oil on canvas.

Time Periods

  • 1900 - 1917 Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog dates the painting to 1910, within the 1900–1917 period.

Source & rights

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Two Girls under an Umbrella. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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