Carnival

In Max Beckmann’s Fastnacht—the German equivalent to Mardi Gras—a masked man and woman are alone in a bedroom. Both wear the costume of the harlequin, a character in traditional improvisation theater. The night sky beyond the curtained window suggests that the festivities have ended. The mood is now somber. The drypoint process facilitated Beckmann’s vision of a bleak post-World War I Germany by producing angular, velvety black lines. Like Beckmann’s other graphic works, this image is printed in black and white.