Evening

The sharply chiseled, mask-like faces in this painting are much influenced by Oceanic sculpture. Max Pechstein’s scene represents his wife, Marta, and her sister against an expansive plain around Leba, a fishing village in the Baltic region of Germany. Although produced some years after the dissolution of Die Brücke, the angst-ridden atmosphere and the intense, abstract colors, as in the green contours around the eyes, are reminiscent of the best Expressionist work.