What first catches the eye in Liegendes Mädchen c is the unapologetic boldness of color—an electric turquoise bed, a wall of molten orange, and the figure herself outlined in strokes that seem to hum with energy. The girl reclines with one arm behind her head, her body at ease but her cheeks ablaze with an improbable red, as if the room’s heat has settled in her skin. The palette is not concerned with naturalism, but with sensation: the violet of her dress, the acid yellow of the bedside table, and the patch of red at the foot of the bed all pull the viewer’s gaze in restless circuits.

The brushwork is loose, almost impatient, as if the artist wanted to capture not just the pose but the very mood of an afternoon spent in private reverie. Painted around 1917, this work belongs to a moment of great transformation in European art, when artists like Alexej von Jawlensky—a Russian émigré working in Germany—were pushing the boundaries of the figure and color alike. Expressionism, the movement Jawlensky helped shape, was less about describing the world than about transmitting an inner intensity, and scenes of everyday life became vehicles for pure feeling. Little is recorded about this specific painting’s early journey, but its presence in a modern auction (Christie’s, sale 2313, lot 440) hints at the continued fascination with these charged, intimate moments.

The world that produced such works was one of upheaval and searching, and the painting invites us to linger, to see how much can be said with a handful of colors and a single, unguarded pose.