Description
Although created several years after the end of World War I, this drawing shows that workers engaged in war production were as vulnerable to serious hazards and death as the soldiers at the front. The mine workers, with their bandaged arms, are set against the soot-lined streets of a town in the industrial Ruhr Valley. The work effectively demonstrates the cruelty and senselessness of the war as a society-wide phenomenon.
Provenance
The artist to his son, Titus Felixmüller (born 1920), Germany [London 1994 exh. cat.]; sold, Christie’s, London, Oct. 7, 1999, lot 183, to a private collector; sold, Christie's, London, Feb. 10, 2005, lot 658, to Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2013.
Accession Number
198865
Medium
Brush and pen and black ink on cream laid paper
Dimensions
64.6 × 50 cm (25 7/16 × 19 11/16 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
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