Expressionism emerged in the early 20th century as artists increasingly rejected realistic representation in favor of emotion, distortion, and intense color.
Particularly influential in Germany and Austria, Expressionist artists explored anxiety, spirituality, isolation, modern city life, and the psychological experience of being human.
The following works are among the best-known paintings associated with Expressionism and its immediate precursors.
Famous Expressionist Paintings
1. The Scream – Edvard Munch, 1893
Edvard Munch’s The Scream is arguably the most recognizable image associated with Expressionism, although it was created before the movement formally emerged.
A ghostlike figure stands on a bridge with its hands pressed against its face while the landscape behind it twists into waves of red, orange, and blue.
Munch deliberately distorted both the figure and its surroundings rather than attempting to reproduce reality accurately.
The curving lines and unnatural colors make the entire landscape seem to participate in the figure’s anxiety. This transformation of an internal emotional experience into a visual image profoundly influenced later Expressionist artists.
2. Street, Dresden – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1908
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a founding member of Die Brücke, one of the most important groups in German Expressionism. In Street, Dresden, he depicts fashionable pedestrians moving through a crowded modern city.
Kirchner uses vivid colors, angular figures, compressed space, and simplified faces to create an atmosphere that feels energetic but strangely uncomfortable.
The people are physically close together yet appear psychologically disconnected. Rather than celebrating modern urban life, the painting suggests the anonymity and alienation that could accompany the rapid growth of European cities during the early 20th century.
3. The Large Blue Horses – Franz Marc, 1911
Franz Marc was fascinated by animals and believed they represented a purer relationship with nature than modern human society.
In The Large Blue Horses, three powerful horses dominate the composition, their rounded bodies echoing the curves of the surrounding hills and landscape.
Color was especially important to Marc. He often assigned symbolic qualities to particular colors, with blue associated with spirituality and masculinity.
The intense blues, reds, greens, and yellows therefore do more than describe the scene. They transform the landscape into an emotional and spiritual vision of nature.
4. Self-Portrait with Physalis – Egon Schiele, 1912
Egon Schiele developed one of the most distinctive approaches to portraiture of the Expressionist era. His Self-Portrait with Physalis shows the artist staring directly at the viewer, his face framed by dark hair and the delicate branches of a physalis plant.
The composition appears relatively simple, but Schiele’s sharp outlines and intense expression give the portrait considerable psychological power. His unconventional approach contrasts strongly with traditional idealized portraiture.
Schiele frequently used self-portraits to investigate identity, mortality, sexuality, and vulnerability, making his own appearance a recurring subject of artistic experimentation.
5. Improvisation 28 (Second Version) – Wassily Kandinsky, 1912
Wassily Kandinsky believed that colors and shapes could communicate emotion in much the same way that music does. Improvisation 28 (Second Version) demonstrates his movement away from recognizable subject matter toward abstraction.
Across the canvas, energetic black lines intersect with areas of blue, yellow, red, and other colors. Certain recognizable forms can still be detected, but they appear within a composition that increasingly depends upon the interaction of color, line, and movement.
Kandinsky’s experiments were enormously influential in the development of abstract art. He was also a key figure in Der Blaue Reiter, the Munich-based group that became one of the principal forces within German Expressionism.
6. The Night – Max Beckmann, 1918–1919
Max Beckmann’s The Night is a powerful and disturbing painting created in the aftermath of World War I. It depicts a violent scene inside a cramped room, where several figures are caught in a chaotic struggle.
Beckmann deliberately compresses the space and distorts the bodies, making the viewer feel trapped within the scene.
The painting reflects the political instability, violence, and social anxiety experienced in Germany following the war. Sharp angles, exaggerated figures, and a dark, claustrophobic composition heighten its emotional intensity.
Although Beckmann resisted being categorized as an Expressionist, The Night is frequently discussed in relation to German Expressionism and the transition toward the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movement.
7. The Bride of the Wind – Oskar Kokoschka, 1913–1914
Also known as The Tempest, Oskar Kokoschka’s The Bride of the Wind was inspired by his turbulent relationship with Alma Mahler. The painting depicts two lovers lying together while dramatic, swirling forms surround them.
Mahler appears asleep, while Kokoschka portrays himself awake and staring outward. Around them, energetic brushstrokes create an environment that seems to move like a storm.
The turbulent surroundings can be interpreted as a reflection of the emotional intensity of their relationship. Kokoschka therefore transforms a portrait of two people into a broader exploration of love, uncertainty, desire, and emotional turmoil.
8. Death and the Maiden – Egon Schiele, 1915
Death and the Maiden is among Egon Schiele’s most emotionally charged paintings. Two figures embrace tightly in the center of a sparse and unsettling landscape, yet their closeness does not create a straightforward feeling of comfort.
The painting is generally connected with Schiele’s separation from his longtime companion and model Wally Neuzil after he decided to marry Edith Harms. The male figure resembles Schiele himself, while the woman has been associated with Wally.
Their embrace therefore carries a powerful sense of attachment and separation. The unusual poses, angular bodies, and barren surroundings reinforce themes of love, loss, mortality, and emotional uncertainty.
9. Fate of the Animals – Franz Marc, 1913
Fate of the Animals is dramatically different from the peaceful vision of nature found in many of Franz Marc’s earlier paintings. Animals appear trapped within a fragmented landscape crossed by jagged diagonal lines and intense areas of color.
The composition seems to be breaking apart around them. Trees splinter, forms overlap, and animals struggle within the chaotic environment, producing an atmosphere of violence and destruction.
Marc originally gave the painting a subtitle commonly translated as “The Trees Show Their Rings, the Animals Their Veins.” Created shortly before World War I, the work later acquired an especially poignant reputation because Marc himself was killed during the war in 1916.
10. The Last Supper – Emil Nolde, 1909
Emil Nolde frequently explored religious subjects, but his treatment of them was radically different from traditional academic religious painting. In The Last Supper, Christ and the apostles are crowded closely together, their simplified faces illuminated by intense, unnatural colors.
Nolde sacrifices realistic anatomy and perspective in favor of emotional immediacy. The figures appear almost primitive in their simplicity, while their exaggerated expressions emphasize the spiritual drama of the scene.
The painting demonstrates a central principle of Expressionism: a work of art did not need to look realistic to communicate something powerful. Through distortion, color, and vigorous brushwork, Nolde transformed a familiar biblical event into an intensely emotional encounter.