Reiter (Rider) 1925

Lovis Corinth made this small etching called Reiter, or Rider, using an etching needle on a metal plate. The image, all in brown ink, is made up of many lines moving in different directions, like he’s almost scribbling the scene down as fast as he can. I can imagine Corinth holding the etching needle like a pencil, quickly scratching into the metal to capture this fleeting moment of a rider on horseback. The horse's body is defined by bold, sweeping marks, while the rider is more subtly rendered. Did he want to capture the energy and movement of the horse, with the rider almost as an afterthought? The surface feels alive, full of potential energy. Looking at it reminds me of the work of other German Expressionists, who used a similar expressive line to convey emotion and inner states. Artists are always bouncing ideas off each other, even across decades and generations! This piece shows that etching, like painting, can embrace gesture, and ambiguity, and offer many readings.