Portrait of Miss N. (Miss Nenninger V) 1922

Ludwig Meidner made this print of Miss N. using etching. It's all about the nervous energy of the lines, right? Like, how they swarm around her face and clothes, trying to capture something essential. I can imagine Meidner hunched over the plate, scratching away with his needle, trying to get it just right, but also not wanting to lose that raw, immediate feeling. What's Miss N. thinking? She's in the process of becoming and being seen. It's a weird spot to be in. Look at the way the lines are thicker in some places, thinner in others. That's the pressure of his hand, the speed of his thought. It's like he's wrestling with the image, pulling it out of the darkness. You see hints of other German Expressionist artists, too, like Kirchner or Heckel, but Meidner's got his own thing going on. And that's what it's all about, isn't it? Artists talking to each other, pushing each other, trying to make sense of the world in their own way.