Large Bridge (the _Eiserne Steg_ in Frankfurt am Main) 1922

Here we see Max Beckmann's rendering of the Eiserne Steg in Frankfurt, made with etching. It's a real symphony of black lines, isn't it? There's something gritty about how Beckmann digs into the plate, creating these thick, almost frantic lines. Look how they build up the bridge's structure, and then dissolve into the smoke and the reflections on the water. It's like he's wrestling with the scene, trying to capture not just what it looks like, but what it *feels* like to be there, amidst all that industrial energy. That little figure at the bottom with the horse and cart - it's easy to miss, but it anchors the whole image, pulling us into the scene. You can sense the echoes of artists like Kirchner in the rough angularity and the flattened perspective. And yet, Beckmann's got his own thing going on, a kind of anxious energy that makes you wonder what he's really trying to tell us about this bridge, this city, this moment in time.