Interieur met drie generaties van een familie 1918 - 1919

Max Beckmann etched this family scene, capturing three generations, using hatching and cross-hatching. I imagine him hunched over a plate, tools in hand, scratching, layering, building up tones, all in reverse. Look at that baby. All the figures in the image seem vaguely melancholy, but there's something especially sad about that child. Perhaps Beckmann was contemplating family relationships, the passage of time, and the weight of history? There's a tension between the interior scene and what looks like a skyline with a crescent moon, hovering above the family. It reminds me of Otto Dix. Artists are always wrestling with their materials and what to express, and it is hard. But artists like Beckmann remind me that this struggle is where meaning resides and it encourages me to keep going back to the studio. I wonder what he would make of all the art happening now?