The last blow 1918

This drawing was made by Charles Dana Gibson using ink on paper. What strikes me is the sketchiness, the way Gibson lets the lines stand out, almost like a rushed note. The woman with the 'Democracy' headband has such a strong arm, rendered with a network of quick, confident strokes. Look at the smoke billowing behind her, it’s almost as if he built up the form with scribbles, dense and atmospheric, a real contrast to the precision of her face. It reminds me of some of those old war drawings, a kind of raw immediacy, where the process feels so present, you know? The whole thing's got this energy, like a snapshot of a thought, a gut reaction to the events of the time. You see that in the work of Kathe Kollwitz too, that same sense of art as a direct response to the world, blurring the lines between observation, feeling, and action.