Street Scene, n. d.

His eye for remarkable details enables the Karlsruhe-born graphic artist and painter Karl Hubbuch (1891–1979) to capture the characteristics of five promenading figures in his pen and ink drawing Street Scene and to render their movements and their relations to each other perceptible and credible, using the sparing means of compact pen strokes. Two younger, fashionable ladies are flanked by a sporty companion wearing a cap. A distinguished gentleman with a hat and cane is approaching them in an accentuated upright posture. Between them in the background, a stout, bald man leaning slightly forward with a rounded back seems to be propped up on a railing that is hinted at with rapid strokes. With lose, casual strokes, Hubbuch indicates high buildings that suggest the atmosphere of a big city. As a representative of objective realism, he becomes an astute chronicler of social upheaval in Germany in the interwar and postwar years.

MH, 2021