Trees in the Sun 1920 - 1921

Lovis Corinth made this print, "Trees in the Sun", using a technique that feels like drawing with acid. Look at the scratchy energy, the light struggling to burst through those inked lines. This isn't a calm, pretty picture of nature. It’s restless, like a winter day when the sun can't quite decide to stay. The lines are all exposed, laid bare. I get the sense Corinth wasn't trying to hide the work that went into it. You can almost feel him wrestling with the plate. Check out the tree on the left, how the lines swarm and thicken, anchoring the whole scene. It reminds me of some of Kirchner's raw, nervous landscapes, but Corinth has a different kind of grit. It's like he's saying, "Yeah, nature's beautiful, but it's also a fight, a struggle to even see it."