Jacobs kamp med englen 1905 - 1906

Oluf Hartmann made this graphite drawing, "Jacob's Struggle with the Angel," probably sometime around the turn of the last century. It looks like it was done on a scrap of paper torn from a notebook. What grabs me is the sheer energy in those graphite lines. They're not just describing a scene; they're embodying the struggle itself. You can almost feel the physical exertion, the wrestling, the spiritual tension. The layering of lines creates depth and shadow, but also a sense of chaos, of being caught in the moment. It’s not so much about clarity as it is about the raw experience. And then there's the blank space around the figures, the emptiness of the paper. It amplifies the intensity of the struggle, as if the figures are battling in a void. This reminds me of Rodin, actually, the way he captured movement and emotion in his sculptures. Like Rodin, Hartmann seems less interested in perfection and more in the messy, visceral reality of human experience.