Besiegt 1920

Wilhelm Kuhnert made this drawing, Besiegt, with graphite, a humble material to depict the drama of life and death. You can see the mark-making, the artist's hand moving swiftly to capture the taut muscles and wild expression of the standing stag. I can imagine Kuhnert in the field, squinting in the sun, trying to capture the scene before him. The texture is palpable. It feels like you can reach out and touch the coarse fur of the deer. The quick marks and hatching create a sense of depth, as if the animals are really there, breathing and bleeding. The emotion conveyed is so raw, so immediate! I think of Courbet, maybe Delacroix, artists who also weren't afraid to look directly at life, at struggle. It makes me wonder what Kuhnert was thinking, what he felt as he drew. It’s a timeless image, this depiction of one stag facing the mortality of another. Artists have always looked to each other, to the past, to find ways to express what it means to be alive. And to remind us that even in defeat, there is a strange kind of beauty.