Dostoevsky [illustration for Book V, chap. V: The Grand Inquis] 1949

Fritz Eichenberg made this illustration for Dostoevsky’s 'The Grand Inquisitor' using a technique that looks like drawing, maybe with charcoal. The strokes are loose, like he’s thinking out loud. The texture comes from these short, quick marks, building up the darks and lights. Look at Dostoevsky’s beard; it's a storm of lines that somehow become soft and dense. It feels like Eichenberg is wrestling with the image, trying to pin down the weight of Dostoevsky’s ideas. Then, just behind him, there is the faintest suggestion of Christ on the cross. Eichenberg’s work, with its moral and social themes, reminds me a bit of Käthe Kollwitz. But where Kollwitz is all about the heavy weight of tragedy, Eichenberg has this raw, restless energy. It’s a reminder that art doesn't have to give you all the answers; sometimes, it just needs to show you the questions, still burning and unresolved.