Focus on Self-Portrait as a Soldier and explore the Visual analysis.
Self Portrait as a Soldier depicts Kirchner smoking a cigarette which hangs loosely from his lips. Common analysis of this suggests that Kirchner has chosen to depict himself within a state of thought. This draws on firm precedence for the act of smoking as "a symbol for metamorphic imagination, while tobacco itself intoxicates the mind". Within 'Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Self Portrait as a Soldier', Peter Springer postulates that the soldier's dark blue eyes emanate lifelessness and emphasise constant preoccupation with the horrors of war through their reflection of the blue military uniform. Kirchner uses an intense bright blue to create the uniform's fabric. This tonal choice sharply contrasts with the lighter, sickly yellow hues of the soldier's skin. Critical interpretation of the work stresses how these colour choices drain the soldier's face of vitality which emphasise his weakness and despondency. In 'The diagnosis of art: Ernest Ludwig Kirchner's nervous breakdown' by Jeffery. K Aronoson, and Manoj Ramachandram, the use of jaundice green and gory red colours are said to highlight that the injury is recent and unhealed. Much like the psychological scars of Kirchner's military service. Kirchner has juxtaposed his stump against the long, distorted fingers of his left hand which appears claw like. Art historians have speculated that distortion of these fingers is intended to create a paintbrush for a hand. For many art historians, Kirchner's fictitious self-depiction as an amputee is notable. The imagery of self-amputation may underscore the loss and fear felt by Kirchner regarding his artistic abilities and manhood following military service. Behind his self-depiction Kirchner has included a naked female figure. The use of harsh black outlines to define the woman's emaciated figure emulate strong Primitivist influence. Peter Springer, among others, suggests that the relationship between Kirchner's self-depiction and the female figure hints at tension and animosity. It is proposed that the differences in scale between the two subjects emphasises the corruption of power and imbalance of gendered autonomy and responsibility.The careful selection and amalgamation of visual and symbolic features in Self Portrait as a Soldier can be read as Kirchner's ultimate condemnation of military conscription. The Allen Memorial Art Museum propound that Kirchner's exaggerated depiction of the severe psychological and physical consequences of military service underlie an "unshakeable, almost pathological fear of the effects of war on himself as an artists and human being". Similarly, Claudia Siebrecht divulges that "through his art, Kirchner revealed himself to the world as a man crippled by the experience of war, and as someone whose pre-war existence and masculine self-had been eradicated."
military uniform Ernst Ludwig Kirchner stump Primitivist paintbrush Allen Memorial Art Museum self-depiction Kirchner