“Mountains in Winter” is an artwork created by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1919, firmly placed within the Expressionism art movement. As a landscape painting, it vividly captures the essence of its genre through striking, non-naturalistic colors and bold, gestural lines characteristic of Expressionism.
The artwork showcases a series of jagged mountain peaks enveloped in what appears to be the blue and white hues of snow and ice, suggesting a cold, winter environment. The sky presents a dramatic contrast with its deep red tone, in which a stylized yellow sun sits, surrounded by swirling clouds or perhaps the wind. The intense colors and stylized forms serve to express and evoke the emotional response to the natural scene, rather than to depict it realistically. The interaction of color, light, and shadow underlines the dynamic quality of the mountainous landscape, hinting at the sublime power and majesty of nature as felt by the artist. The rough and almost tactile textures reinforce the painting’s raw and expressive quality, making it a striking example of Kirchner’s work and the Expressionist aim to convey subjective emotions over objective reality.
