What is expressionism?
Expressionism is a style of painitng in which the artist seeks to express the inner world of emotion rather than external reality. Expressionism started in the 20th century. It was developed as an avant-garde style before the great war. Later the style extended to a wide range of art, but also it can be found in music, dance, literature etc. The term expressionism can be suggestive of fear. Matthias Grünewald and El Greco are famous expressionism artist.
The picture above shows the famous painting : Bildnis Rosa Schapire, painted by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in 1919. Schmidt-Rottluff made several portraits of Rosa Schapire. Schapire was one of the first supporters of the Brücke group. Schmidt-Rottluff was a founding member of the group. Brücke was a German expressionist group set up in 1905. It means bridge and it might have had the intention to convey the idea of a large bridge between the artist and society. This painting shows expressionism, because you can see that this is not the real colour of the woman. The colours Schmidt-Rottluff chose are chosen because they show an specific emotion.