Cain 1917

Lovis Corinth made this oil painting called 'Cain', and look at the drama, right? You can see that he’s built this image up through layers of frantic brushstrokes in blues, greys, and blacks. I can almost feel the angst and energy that went into making it. Imagine Corinth standing before the canvas, wrestling with the complexities of guilt and remorse through paint. The paint is applied so thickly, it’s almost sculptural. Look at the way he renders the contorted figures and the birds circling overhead. Those marks aren't just descriptive; they're charged with emotion. I think Corinth is channeling something primal here, tapping into the timeless theme of human suffering and moral reckoning that you also see in the work of someone like Francis Bacon. It reminds us that artists are constantly in conversation with each other, drawing inspiration from the past while pushing the boundaries of expression, allowing us to think and feel in new ways.