The Fisherman 1926

Max Liebermann made this drawing with charcoal, I’m guessing, or some other dry, powdery medium. Look at the tree. The marks dance around on the page, building form out of scribbles, like a mosaic. I can imagine Liebermann, standing at the easel outside, squinting through the light and trying to capture the feeling of the fisherman, the tree, the water. It’s like he is reaching out, not so much to describe the external reality of a scene, but the internal, felt experience. It’s a kind of optical mixing, like Impressionism. There’s a kinship, here, with other artists like Adolph Menzel and Käthe Kollwitz, who used drawing and printmaking to capture the spirit of ordinary life, and I suppose that's something artists will never stop doing, since we keep getting inspired by each other. It's a beautiful conversation.