Landscape with Trees and Water

Mueller was member of the Brucke group of German expressionist artists. Although his art showed many of the formal characteristics of that style -- angular shapes, jagged lines, and solid colors applied in flat surfaces -- its mood was softer and more lyrical, in contrast with the intensity of the work of his peers. His ideal was the simplicity of early Greek art and ancient Egyptian painting. One of his contributions to the group was his rediscovery of the technique of distemper, a water-based paint that could be easily applied in thin layers over large surfaces and was typically used for flat wall painting and decoration. Mueller liked its matte surface and found it far more flexible than oil. Although nature often appeared in his work as a backdrop for nude bathers, in this sheet he depicted a pure landscape, with two trees in the foreground acting as surrogates for human figures. Rather than an actual site, the scene probably represents an imaginary landscape. Bold, swiftly drawn black lines are juxtaposed with a restricted palette of loosely applied greens and blues. The combination of chalk and gouache creates subtle variations of texture among the different elements of the landcape. The broad simplification and decorative qualites of the composoition evoke Matisse's Mediterranean and Moroccan landscapes.