Die gestörte, aber glücklich wieder errungene Nachtruhe (Der Floh); 3 1862

Here we see a drawing, "Die gestörte, aber glücklich wieder errungene Nachtruhe (Der Floh); 3" by Wilhelm Busch, held at the Städel Museum. The composition is immediately striking for its economy of line. Busch captures a figure reclining, seemingly asleep or at rest, with swift strokes of pencil and minimal color washes. The color palette is subdued, limited to pale blues and reds that highlight key areas such as the pillow and perhaps the face, drawing attention to the vulnerability of the sleeping figure. The use of line, particularly the sketch-like quality of it, gives the piece an immediacy and rawness. It invites consideration of the psychological undercurrents at play. Is this merely a depiction of sleep, or is it an exploration of disturbance and uneasy repose as the title suggests? The looseness of the drawing style undermines any sense of fixed meaning, and suggests that the meaning is unstable. The drawing's formal qualities, its lines and delicate colors, serve not just to represent a scene, but to evoke a sense of transient unease, questioning our own perceptions of rest and disturbance.