Inspiration Jershöft
Since 1920, Schmidt-Rottluff spent almost every summer in the small fishing and farming village of Jershöft in Pomerania near the Baltic Sea. The fishing village of Jershöft was a place of peace and calm at a time that was, after all, the very turbulent post-war period, especially in terms of the uprising of extreme political forces in Berlin, where he was living. So Schmidt-Rottluff devoted himself to rural life. Workers, farmers or fishermen doing their daily chores become the motif of paintings that depict the people in their social living environment.

Depictions of rural life
The painting "Fischer mit roten Netzen" (Fisherman with Red Nets) deserves special mention, as it belongs to the main works from the series of pictures dedicated to workers and craftsmen. Schmidt-Rottluff's endeavors to achieve the desired monumentality with highly dynamic painting becomes clearly tangible. Generous, simplified forms and large areas determine the character of the composition. Schmidt-Rottluff captures the contours of the figures and objects, such as the nets, with rapid, almost sketchy brushstrokes. The contours are almost always black. Within the area-defining boundaries, the color develops a magnificent, luminous life of its own. It is always the same tones he preferred, and which blend into a harmonious whole: a strong blue, an olive-colored ocher and a reddish brown. Occasionally, fishermen and boats take on sculptural forms, attain an increased expressiveness.

Colorful and dynamic surface painting
In the pictures of workers, craftsmen and fishermen, Schmidt-Rottluff developed a color surface painting that gave his art a a strong presence and expression. Zones of pure colors intertwine and add a dynamic rhythm to the surface. Sometimes the forms on the color surface even seem to dissolve into a sort of color abstraction, whereby a reference to the actual motif remains visible. The artist also uses the black contours to define different forms, thereby creating a sense of space by arranging the individual parts of the picture. In “Fischer mit roten Netzen”, the artist depicts the process of fishing, maintenance of the nets, and describes the hard work of the fishermen in dynamic gestures and rhythmic movements. Schmidt-Rottluff shows people without the usual physiognomy in an expressive movement. They are rhythmic pictorial processes that can’t be found in earlier works. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s works from the post-war years still show notions of the expressive surface style characteristic of the pre-war period, however, they evoke a far more emotional, less calm impression. [MvL]