Reinecke Vor König Nobel Und Seiner Gattin, Braun Dem Bären Und Dem Kater Hinze 1920

Lovis Corinth made this print, Reinecke Vor König Nobel Und Seiner Gattin, Braun Dem Bären Und Dem Kater Hinze, using lithography, with broad strokes of black ink dominating the work. The colours are pale - mostly browns and yellows - except for the flash of blue above the characters' heads. I imagine Corinth in his studio, leaning over the lithographic stone, scratching and etching, trying to make something emerge from the darkness. It's like he's wrestling with the image, pulling it out of some primordial soup of ink and emotion, a blurry tale of animal hierarchies, all crowned by a king, of course. Look how the forms are built up with these quick, energetic marks. The thick, dark outlines give the figures a sense of weight, almost like they're pushing against the boundaries of the paper. It's raw, it's immediate, and it's full of feeling. It reminds me of the work of other expressionists like Beckmann, who used similar techniques to convey a sense of unease and alienation. It’s all connected, this painting thing, this looking thing, this feeling thing.