What does his image suggest about the mood of the man who painted it? Is the “Lone Man” the artist—and if so, how so? Is the loner oppressed—is he lonely, or merely alone? independent? Consider the following: the late nineteenth-early twentieth century was marked in much of central Europe in particular by both explosive cultural, socio-economic, and industrial expansion, but also by a marked kind of emotional malaise. It is the era when Sigmund Freud was first making an impact on how people thought about the unconscious and the importance of dreams. What of these issues and ideas might we see expressed in this painting?