The Impressionists provided the push that cast painting off from its long history of smooth representations of reality. Dutchman Vincent van Gogh used energetic brushstrokes and vivid colors to impart emotional impact to his paintings. Norwegian Edvard Munch used flowing lines to depict anguish and love, while Austrians Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele handled eroticism and death. Influences from outside the arts include Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis and the calamity of the two World Wars. Experimentation with the expressionist style was perhaps most important in Germany.
Expressionist art is dynamic and psychological.
The artist shows us his or her subjective, emotional reaction to objects and places by exaggerating colors, shapes, and movement. Figures can be pathetic, ugly, or hostile , in defiance of classical beauty and even natural appearance. The human figure is ideally suited to the expressionist picture because of the range of emotion that a person is capable of exhibiting. The figure in this picture has a look of total serenity on his or her face, and the body language implies that he or she has been lifted into a higher spiritual realm in the presence of the sacred bulls. Due in part to the importance of the graphic arts to expressionism, strong lines and bold, black outlines are often featured.