It is impossible not to be drawn first to the sheer exuberance radiating from the figure at the heart of God, that Eisenbach! by Moriz Jung. The man’s laughter is so forceful it seems to shake his entire body, his plump hand pressed to his ear as if to better catch the music blaring from the golden horn of the gramophone. The artist has chosen a palette of bold stripes and zigzags, echoing the vibrations of sound and the frenetic energy of early twentieth-century urban life.

Every detail, from the electric yellow of the waistcoat to the exaggerated arch of the eyebrows, is designed to amplify the sense of indulgence and delight. Created in 1911, this print belongs to a world on the cusp of modernity, when recorded music was transforming domestic leisure and the gramophone was a marvel of the age. Such images, often playful or satirical, were popular in illustrated magazines and postcards, poking fun at the excesses and novelties of bourgeois existence. Moriz Jung was known for his sharp wit and lively line, and here he captures both the optimism and absurdity of a society reveling in new pleasures.

History has kept few traces of this particular print, now held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but its humor and vitality invite us to imagine the laughter echoing far beyond the frame.