Arrest with Weeping Woman, n. d.

Cartoonishly overdrawn and theatrically constructed is how the five figures appear that Rudolf Schlichter (1890–1955) brings together in a tightly packed encounter in his ink drawing Arrest with Weeping Woman. By positioning them across the entire sheet, above or seemingly behind one another, he gives the scene spatial depth.
In the center is the title-giving female figure in a black dress, spilling heavy tears from sad dark-shadowed eyes. Despite her virtue-signaling black veil, the figure has something dissolute about her. The emaciated convict in the foreground, two soldiers in ornate uniforms in the background, and a mysterious male figure with a pointy profile and a priestly cap complete the scene. Applying the ink with brush and pen and taking a disillusioned, relentless look at social conditions, Schlichter, an exponent of New Objectivity, achieves narrative compaction in this piece.

MH, 2021