Illustration for Dostoevsky's "The Possessed" 1913

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky created this illustration for Dostoevsky's "The Possessed" with a real sense of the physical world. The rain seems to come at you, created with these layered, diagonal strokes of colour. Dobuzhinsky builds up the image with these hazy marks, which, for me, speaks to the act of image making. He’s not trying to trick you into seeing a realistic scene, but instead is laying down marks, one by one, to conjure a mood. Look closely and you see the surface is alive with texture. The way the dark shades are dragged and smudged across the surface, it feels almost as if he's wrestling with the image, searching for the right balance of light and shadow. The glowing lamp is a beacon, a bold contrast to the otherwise sombre tones. Like a symbol, this lamp has a life of its own. It reminds me of the prints of Käthe Kollwitz, they both share this interest in the texture and process of image making.