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The Prisoner (Der Gefangene)

Christian Rohlfs

European Art

Made in the aftermath of World War I, this woodcut of a man behind bars, perhaps a prisoner of war, evokes physical and psychic trauma. Christian Rohlfs’s bold, jagged lines emphasize the man’s emaciated body and the force with which he grips the bars.

Rohlfs died one year after the infamous Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich, in which modern works, including his own, were exhibited by the Nazis to defame and mock the art and artists.
MEDIUM Woodcut with watercolor (hand-coloring) on wove paper
  • Place Made: Europe
  • DATES 1918
    DIMENSIONS image: 25 × 19 3/4 in. (63.5 × 50.2 cm) sheet: 26 3/8 × 22 1/4 in. (67 × 56.5 cm)  (show scale)
    SIGNATURE Signed, "Chr. Rohlfs" lower right in pencil
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 65.161
    CREDIT LINE Carll H. de Silver Fund
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Christian Rohlfs (German, 1849–1939). The Prisoner (Der Gefangene), 1918. Woodcut with watercolor (hand-coloring) on wove paper, image: 25 × 19 3/4 in. (63.5 × 50.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Carll H. de Silver Fund, 65.161 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 65.161_acetate_bw.jpg)
    STATE State II
    IMAGE overall, 65.161_acetate_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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