Like woodcuts, the technique of dry point engraving became a preferred tool of expressionistic graphic arts. Max Beckmann’s clumsy line with anarchically moving effect superbly characterizes a theme of expressionism: the often unconsciously operative energies of the human personality in its revolt against the circumstances that it meets with.
Beckmann wrote and illustrated the comedy »Ebbi« in 1921. The plot is set in the decadent city milieu, one of his favourite subjects.