Slaapkamer met drie figuren en een dode man op het bed 1914

Max Beckmann made this image of a bedroom scene, featuring three figures and a dead man on the bed, using etching, or drypoint. Imagine him, bent over a metal plate, scratching furiously, the image born from a tangle of dark lines. This is a stark scene, right? There’s a raw, immediate quality to the marks, kind of like a cry etched in metal. Beckmann was working in Germany during a time of immense social upheaval, and his work is often filled with a sense of alienation and angst. You can feel that here. The figures seem trapped, maybe even complicit in the violence of the scene. There's something about the way the lines converge and diverge that creates a claustrophobic feeling. The bodies, distorted and contorted, seem to press against the edges of the frame, and the dark shadows amplify the sense of unease. It reminds me of Goya’s Disasters of War – a similar unflinching gaze at the dark side of humanity.