This painting is by Emil Schwabe (1856–1904), who studied art at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art but made his career mainly in Berlin. The figure in the center of this canvas is likely a liberal journalist or lawyer, perhaps Jewish. He appears to take issue with the arrogant views and dismissive postures of his two interlocutors: on the left, a figure who might be a National Liberal or Conservative landowner; on the right, a priest, professor, or member of the Catholic Center Party. Bismarck looms over all three figures. As to which “questions” were “unresolved,” the painting’s date–1887–suggests that the men may have been debating Bismarck’s social insurance legislation. But the possibilities, like the answers, are virtually endless.