Illustration to Voltaire, "Candide" 1948

Imre Reiner made this illustration to Voltaire’s ‘Candide’ using black ink on paper. Imagine the dipping of the pen, and the dark ink bleeding into the fibers of the page, as his hand moved to create this scene! The marks are kind of scratchy and raw, but that’s the beauty of ink. The image shows a central figure with a pained expression, maybe Candide himself, surrounded by abstracted, almost puppet-like characters. I bet Reiner was thinking about the absurdities of Voltaire's story, the strange mix of comedy and tragedy. See how the lines around Candide’s face are thick and almost frantic? You can almost feel the weight of his confusion and the chaos around him. It reminds me a bit of other satirical artists like Grosz or even some of Goya’s darker prints. Artists are always riffing off each other, you know? Playing a game of telephone across time. Ultimately, what’s so cool is how Reiner uses simple lines to convey such complex emotion. It leaves so much open for us to interpret, making the image as alive and uncertain as Candide's own journey.