Interior with Woman 1917

Here's a drypoint etching, *Interior with Woman*, made by Lovis Corinth sometime between the late 19th and early 20th century. Look at those marks, a flurry of them, like a swarm of bees around the figure! The whole image is built up through these incredibly active, almost nervous lines. It's all hatching and cross-hatching, giving the whole scene a real sense of interiority, not just in terms of the location, but in terms of mood, too. The thing about drypoint is that the marks are made directly into the plate which gives the lines a fuzzy, burred texture when printed. Focus on the face – see how the density of marks create a brooding, somewhat melancholic air, with pools of shadow around the eyes and mouth. The lines aren't just descriptive, they're expressive. It makes me think about the way that artists like Käthe Kollwitz used printmaking to convey psychological states, where the process is as much about feeling as it is about seeing. It's a testament to the power of art to explore the human condition.