The Hunger, plate five from Die Hölle

Max Beckmann used a relatively blunt and clear lithographic line throughout the print cycle Hell. The simple forms and contrasts highlight the raw emotions and fundamental social differences he emphasized. Given that he made these prints in the tense moments of June/July 1919, it is not surprising that he emphasized the crude state to which Germans had been reduced. His simple, schematic of the style and concept of Goya’s series The Disasters of War. Such images formed a devastating critique of the atrocities of war as experienced in World War I.