Klage (Lament)

Maker

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (artist)
1891-1969

Title

Klage (Lament)

Date of Production

(or 1913?) 1915

Medium

pen and black ink with brush on paper

Dimensions

Height: 31.6 cm
Width: 22.2 cm

Accession Number

LD.2020.HK.17

Mode of Acquisition

Karshan Collection, long-term loan, 2020

Credit

Promised gift by Linda Karshan in memory of her husband, Howard Karshan. On long-term loan to The Courtauld Gallery, London

Copyright

Location

On display

Label Text

Likely inspired by Otto Dix's military service during the First World War, this harrowing image of naked mourning women conveys a shocking sense of violence. The figures are enmeshed in a net of slashing pen strokes. Ink splashes out in unruly blotches. The sheet is scored with deep lines, revealing how Dix dug into it as he drew. His aggressive, raw and sexualised treatment of the female figures creates a deeply uncomfortable image made in the teeth of war. The inscription at the bottom is a quote from the Bible; in it, the Jewish people, held in captivity after the destruction of Jerusalem, lament their fate and yearn for their homeland.

Provenance

kept in the artist's studio until his death, 1969; Galerie Klihm, Munich, 1971, lot 536; Private collection, 1976; sale of that collection, Christie's, London, 24 June 2009, lot 165 (repr.); purchased there by Howard Karshan (1933-2017); Promised gift by Linda Karshan in memory of her husband, Howard Karshan. On long-term loan to The Courtauld Gallery, London.

Exhibition History

Modern Drawings: The Karshan Gift, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 19/11/2021-09/01/2022

World War I and the Visual Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 31/07/2017-07/01/2018

Modern Times: Responding to Chaos: Drawings and Films, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 16/01/2010-14/03/2010

Literature

Modern Drawings: The Karshan Gift, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 20 Nov. 2021 - 9 Jan. 2022
cat. no. 4
Fig. p. p. 51, detail on p. 52

Modern Times: Responding to Chaos: Drawings and Films, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 2010
Fig. p. p. 24

Lorenz, U., Otto Dix, Das Werkverzeichnis der Zeichnungen und Pastelle, Bonn 2002
vol. 1, no. FW 5.3.6 on p. 219
Fig. p. p. 219 ...More

van Lil, K., Otto Dix und der Erste Weltkrieg. Die Natur des Menschen in der Ausnahmesituation, PhD thesis, Munich 1999
Fig. p. pl. 27

Conzelmann, O., Der andere Dix, sein Bild vom Menschen und vom Krieg, Stuttgart 1983
p. 103
Fig. p. fig. 148 on p. 103 ...Less

Inscriptions

Inscription: Recto: upper left, graphite, signed: "Dix"; lower edge, black ink: "Sie sassen an den Wasserbächen babylons / und weinten. Und hatten ihre Harfen an den Weiden hängen" [They sat by the waters of Babylon / and wept. And had their harps hanging on the willows. First two lines of Psalm 137].

Label: HK.17: Frame, Verso: Courtauld label applied at upper left; upper centre, black ink printed on white label: “The Metropolitan Museum of Art / World War I and the Visual Arts / July 31, 2017 – January 07, 2018 / Howard Karshan / Otto Dix / Klage (1915) / Karshan1”; lower centre, black ink printed on white label, with image of the drawing: “TMP 2013-013.19 / Otto Dix / Klage (Lament), 1915, / 1915 / ink, 12 ½ x 8 11/16 in. / (31.7 x 22.2 cm)”.

Information on this object may be incomplete and will be updated as research progresses. We are particularly committed to addressing any discriminatory or offensive language and ideas that might be present in our records. To help improve this record, and to enquire about images of The Courtauld Gallery Collection, please email gallery.collectionsonline@courtauld.ac.uk. Find out more about using and licensing our images.

____________________________

Buy a print from our collection