Portrait of Georg Swarzenski 1921

This is Max Beckmann's portrait of Georg Swarzenski, made with pencil on paper sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Look at the nervous energy of the lines that make up the face, they’re all hatching in different directions, giving this portrait a real sense of depth despite the sparseness of the medium. The textures are all there in the way Beckmann has built up the tones with these simple marks, notice how his brow is so much darker than his cheek, giving him a real sense of gravity. I can’t help but look at the eyes, magnified behind those glasses, which are staring right back at you, unblinking. You get the sense he is really trying to see you. Beckmann, like many of his German Expressionist contemporaries, was always interested in what he called ‘the metaphysical aspects of reality’. This portrait feels like just that, not just a likeness, but a glimpse into the soul. It reminds me of some of Otto Dix’s portraits, but with a little more humanity, and less satire.