133. Self-Portrait as a Soldier. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. 1915 CE. Oil on canvas.

• Form
  • Nightmarish quality
  • Colors are nonrepresentational but symbolic, chosen to provide a jarring impact
  • Expressive quality of horrified facial features and grim surroundings
  • Tilted perspective moves things closer to the picture plane.
  • Main character has a drawn face with a cigarette hanging loosely from his lips.
  • The eyes are unseeing and empty; without pupils; the iris reflects the blue of his uniform.
  • The bloody stump of a hand represents losses in war, loss of the artist’s ability to paint, his creativity, his artistic vision, and his inspiration
  • Sharp angular lines reinforce a sense of violence and anxiety
• Context
  • Kirchner became an ‘’unwilling volunteer,’” a driver in the artillery in WWI, to avoid being drafted into the infantry
  • He is wearing the uniform of his field artillery regiment
  • He was declared unfit for service; he had lung problems and weakness and suffered a mental breakdown–there is a scholarly debate as to whether he faked these ailments to avoid service.
  • This self-portrait was painted during a recuperation period
  • His life was plagued by drug abuse, alcoholism, and then paralysis
  • The artist feared that war would destroy his creative powers