Otto Greiner (1869, Leipzig – 1916, Munich), was a printmaker and draughtsman of enormous talent and he also got some recognition as a painter. Many of his paintings are monumental in format, draw on mythological subjects (like the one I posted here: “Ulysses and the Sirens”, 1902; formerly at Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig; now lost), and as well as his drawings profit from masterly depictions of the nude human figure. These nudes, often in unusual poses with scarce parallels in his century, are considered Greiner’s major artistic legacy.

Also often he resorts to lurid scenes with ghastly figures, as in these pen-and-ink drawings below, both showing views of the Crucifixion. In the first one, which I like most, everything except Christ himself, and perhaps Death at his left, bewilders me. Maybe the laughing monster at Christ’s right represents the Devil, but the sneering soldiers holding a woman each (one of them looks quite like a transexual and very much like a prostitute) are weird and puzzling, even chilling: But maybe I am too impressible.

---

---