Curator, Deborah Wya: Here there are three examples of Kirchner’s working process. The first is a sketchbook drawing where he must have been taken with the kind of proud demeanor of one of the streetwalkers as she crossed the street. It's done in just a few lines.
And next we see a pen and ink study, much larger. Now the woman is seen in full scale, but also he's filled out the scene and the environment. At this stage, the scene seems rather friendly and benign.
Now you turn to the pastel of the same scene. It takes on a very different feeling. You just feel anxiety and tension the minute you look at this. The bright red dress immediately identifies this as a woman of the night, as a streetwalker.
But mainly it's the way he's applied the pastel, the actual strokes. They're put on with a kind of vehemence so the whole city street, it's become electric.