Illustration to Balzac, "La Bourse" 1942

This is Imre Reiner’s Illustration to Balzac’s “La Bourse,” and it's made using some kind of printmaking technique. Look at the way he’s built up this image out of marks and lines. I see a basket overflowing with flowers. There’s something so free in how he’s approached this image. The lines are loose and gestural, and he’s let the ink spread and bleed a little. He uses this lovely hatching to suggest shadow and volume. The whole thing has a kind of raw, immediate energy. It feels like it could almost be a Cy Twombly, they both had a similar sense of rhythm. Consider the lines that make up the flowers themselves. They’re simple, almost childlike in their directness, but they capture the essence of the blooms perfectly. The way these lines dance across the page creates a sense of movement and vitality. It reminds me of how art is often not about what you see, but about how you see it, and how you feel in the seeing.