Illustration to Voltaire, "Candide" 1948

Imre Reiner made this illustration to Voltaire’s *Candide* with ink on paper. The palette here is simple, stark, black on beige, but I feel like I can see so much in these marks. I’m drawn to the face of the main character. It’s like a Rorschach test, with all these little hatching marks and cross-hatching. It reminds me of those optical illusion faces that shift depending on where you look at them, or how you tilt your head. In this one drawing, Reiner manages to convey the whole absurd range of human emotions, from euphoria to despair! The puppets looming behind the figure echo this sense of ambiguity. Are they pulling his strings, or are they reflections of his own internal turmoil? It makes me think of Goya’s etchings, where the meaning isn’t fixed but emerges from the process of seeing. It’s not just about what’s there, but about what we bring to it. It's such a conversation starter.