Last Interview with Smerdyakov (Book XI: Ivan Fyodorovich, facing p.484) 1949

Fritz Eichenberg made this illustration for The Brothers Karamazov using wood engraving, a process of carving into the end grain of wood. It's a laborious process, but look at the detail he coaxes out of it. I am drawn to the tension between light and shadow, the way the characters emerge from the darkness. The shadows aren't just dark, they seem to have a life of their own. The lines create texture, like the fur on the coat of the figure on the right or the wizened face of Smerdyakov. Notice how his body seems to coil, and his hands nervously clutch at his sock. There is a rawness, an immediacy that speaks to me. Eichenberg was influenced by artists like Käthe Kollwitz, who also used printmaking to address social and political issues. Like Kollwitz, Eichenberg’s work invites us to contemplate the complexities of human nature, and the shadows that lurk within.