Badende in Landschaft
This conversation is connected to Badende in Landschaft.
Otto Mueller was a member of Die Brücke and the quietest painter in the group — where Kirchner and Heckel worked in sharp angles and electric color, Mueller's palette stayed muted and his forms stayed soft. His nickname was "Gypsy Mueller," possibly a reference to his Romani heritage. Badende in Landschaft dates from around 1920, painted in distemper on burlap — Mueller's preferred technique, which produced a dry, matte surface unlike anything else in German Expressionism. Two nude figures stand among trees, their bodies flattened into the same earthy tones as the landscape around them. He painted bathers in landscapes obsessively for his entire career. In 1937, the Nazis seized 357 of his works from German museums as degenerate art.