How did color help Oskar Kokoschka express emotion in his landscapes?

Oskar Kokoschka, a leading figure in Expressionism, utilized color in his landscapes not merely to capture visual reality, but to convey the emotional essence of a scene.12

While his early landscapes initially appeared to align with Impressionism due to their bright palettes and focus on light, his intent differed significantly from the Impressionist goal of representing what strikes the eye. Instead, Kokoschka employed color to project his own emotional interpretation of the environment.2

A primary example of this technique is his 1909 painting Dents du Midi. In this work, he rendered a snowscape using warm colors, a deliberate departure from the cool tones an Impressionist might have used to realistically depict the light reflecting off the snow. By prioritizing subjective emotional expression over objective observation, Kokoschka transformed his landscapes into vehicles for psychological and humanistic insight.21