Portrait of Georg Swarzenski 1921

Here's Max Beckmann's pencil portrait of Georg Swarzenski, hanging out at the Städel Museum. Beckmann really goes in on this guy's face, doesn't he? I mean, you can tell he’s thinking, really thinking about the head, its shape, the bone structure, the way the light hits those glasses. I imagine him circling Swarzenski, trying to pin down the essence of the man with these quick, dark lines, almost like he's wrestling with his own perception. Look at those eyes peering out from behind the lenses! They're so knowing. You can see Beckmann is trying to convey the weight of intellect, maybe even a little bit of the subject’s soul. It reminds me of some of the older masters who sought to capture not just a likeness, but the inner life of their subjects. Like they believed that the true self could be found in the face and translated onto the page through keen observation and a sensitive hand.