The Expressionist artists, as well as those later influenced by the movement, such as Leon Alex, will often resort to an aesthetic of ugliness as well as scary or disturbing subjects. Expressionism, which started in Germany in the early twentieth century, was one of the most important avant-garde movements. It appeared as a reaction to the difficult social and political context of the country, from the period before the First World War.

In the work Pessimism, the branches of the trees metamorphose into menacing claws, as the artist's goal was to capture the subjective, emotional, human perception of reality and not the objective reality itself. Unlike the other avant-garde movements, such as Fauvism or Cubism - which were primarily concerned with the visual impact of shape and color - expressionists pay special attention to the subject, which is usually strongly emotionally charged, meant to convey the inner experience of the artist.

The raw, porous, and primitivist texture resulting from the lithography technique is used to increase the serious and heavy emotional impact of the work. From the beginning of expressionism, German artists will choose their technique in a way to give a primitivist aspect to their work: in terms of painting, one can see a raw and seemingly "untidy" brushstroke, while in terms of the graphics, woodcuts, the wood fiber - used as a board in this technique - will be allowed to stand out in the final image.