Melancholie c. 1924

This is Melancholie by Karl Wiener, and it looks to me like it was made with ink, maybe even ballpoint pen. Look at that cross hatching of the ink: like scribbles, the image almost comes out of the dark—the light coming from the front of the figure really makes her pop. I can almost feel what it was like for Karl to make this. I'm imagining he was thinking about being alone and what that feels like. The figure is contained in her dress—that bright, assertive blue—but the marks show the loneliness and her interiority. You feel all the feeling behind her like she is the sole inhabitant of her emotional world. Maybe Karl was thinking about other artists, too. People like Edvard Munch, whose paintings echo the emotional intensity you see here, as well. Artists are always referencing each other and having a conversation that goes back years. It's so amazing. We can all draw on and learn from each other.