In Breakfast of the Birds, Gabriele Münter takes a surprising viewpoint: depicting from behind a woman seated at her dining room table. The woman-sometimes identified as the artist herself-looks out the window onto a wintry landscape, where a group of titmice and a robin are perched on the snow-covered limbs of a tree.

This painting demonstrates the signature elements of Münter's style: broad, thick, quickly applied brush strokes; heavy, dark outlines; the ambiguous use of perspective (as in the tilted tabletop, which clearly reveals everything on it but which does not conform to the angles from which the other elements of the picture are being viewed); and the lack of modeling, which makes the empty plate, for example, seem two-dimensional.

Münter frequently painted images of women in domestic interiors. Here the figure, sporting a decidedly modern haircut, seems to ignore her modest meal in favor of birdwatching. While critical interpretations vary, many scholars view this as a painting that stresses the contrast between indoor and outdoor spaces, emphasizing the woman's solitude and her physical and emotional isolation.