20th-century

George Bellows (1882-1925)

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George Bellows Nude, Miss Bentham  New York, 1906 Oil on canvas 181 x 89.5 cm Bellows painted this striking nude when he was studying at the New York School of Art. It demonstrates his confident ability to apply paint directly and quickly as well his admiration for earlier European realist artists, such as Manet and … Read more

Lovis Corinth (1858-1925)

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Christ on the Cross (Christus am Kreuz) Berlin, 1919 Woodcut Plate: 51 x 43 m; mount: 73 x 59 cm  Christ is shown at his crucifixion, his head crowned by a searing sun and his body scored by the deep lines carved in the wood. Corinth uses chaotic hatched lines to emphasis Christ’s emaciated body … Read more

Antoon Derkzen van Angeren (1878-1961)

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Two Skulls Dutch, 1908-9 Etching 30 x 39.7 cm This etching revives the distinctive Dutch seventeenth-century painting category of vanitas still-life. One or more skulls in isolation was a tradition established by Angeren’s seventeenth-century predecessor, Hercules Seers (1589/90-1633/38).  Purchased 2001 (No. 2001.1).

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)

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Merz V Berlin, 1923 Lithograph Paper: 55 x 44.5 cm; mount: 81 x 61 cm  This print is a combination of abstract, geometric forms and is one of a series of six works called ‘Merz Mappe’. Freshly printed fragments of paper, discarded from the printing process, were applied to a lithographic stone to create this … Read more

André Derain (1880-1954)

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La Chute de Phaëton (The Fall of Phaeton) France, about 1905 Brush, pen and black ink 64 x 35.8 cm Phaethon, son of Helios the sun-god, persuades his father to let him drive his sun-chariot, but wreaks such havoc that he is struck from the sky by Zeus (Ovid: Metamorphoses II, 150-327). A popular theme … Read more

Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957)

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A Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, ‘Froanna’ (Gladys Anne Hoskins 1900-1979) America, 1940 Pencil and coloured chalks on blue paper 48.3 x 31 cm This portrait of the artist’s wife Gladys Hoskins (1900-1979), known as Froanna, was made in America where Lewis spent the war years. The artist bought the distinctive blue paper in a … Read more

Jacques Beltrand (1874 – 1977)

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La Baigneuse (The Bather) France, about 1910 Colour woodcut 19.1 x 18.8 cm Beltrand helped pioneer the use of water-based pigments in printing in France, inspired by Japanese printmaking techniques. Water based inks can produce subtle and delicate images, whereas more traditional Western woodcuts are often use oil based inks and are bolder or harsher in … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

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Self portrait with stylus Frankurt, 1917 Drypoint 47.5 x 33 cm Beckmann depicts himself holding the tool needed to produce such a drypoint print. The use of tense and wiry lines testifies to his derelict state, having been discharged from the German army after suffering a complete mental and physical breakdown, Yet, his intent gaze … Read more

Graham Sutherland (1903-1980)

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La Petite Afrique British, 1953 Lithograph This print is a study of a natural form that evokes a twisted and decaying human body, drawing comparisons with the Crucifixion images in Print Power. In 1953 he was working on the commission of a tapestry for Coventry Cathedral; there are echoes of that design in the small … Read more

Joan Miró (1893-1985)

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Help Spain (Aidez L’Espagne)  Spanish, 1937 Stencil print 31.5 x 24.5 cm  A Catalan farmer raises his fist in defiance of the Fascist attack against Spain’s Republican Government. In Miró’s handwritten inscription he describes the Fascists as a spent force as opposed to the people, whose creative determination will surprise the world. Purchased 2000 (No. … Read more

Franz Marc (1880-1916)

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Lion Hunt (after Delacroix) Berlin, 1913 Woodcut on handmade Japanese paper 28.2 x 34 cm; mount: 63 x 51.5 cm  Marc uses the woodcut technique to simplify this composition, taken from a Delacroix (1798-1863) painting of 1855, so creating strong shapes that are typical of the German Expressionist style. The eye is drawn to the … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

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Resurrection  Frankfurt, about 1918 Drypoint on laid handmade paper 37.3 x 44.6 cm; mount: 72.5 x 59 cm  This print repeats, in reverse, the composition of a large mural (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart) that Beckmann began in 1916 but never completed. Bodies cover the ground in various states of suffering and death, many distorted, some horribly mutilated, … Read more

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

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Prophet Berlin, 1912 Woodcut 49.5 x 36.5 cm; mount 73 x 59 cm In this deliberately roughly-cut woodcut of an unnamed prophet, the thick hair and beard merge with the blackness of the background. Nolde pursued a unique spiritual path and sought to express his own, truly German, art. Purchased 1996 (No. 96.5)

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

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Birds in Green, Rain USA, 1959 Etching with aquatint and mixed techniques printed in colours Forms of birds and hands frequently appear in this pattern of lines. Highly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories of the mind, Ernst experimented with automatic drawing, in which he used uncontrolled strokes in an attempt to represent the unconscious visually. … Read more

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

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Help Russia Berlin, 1921 Lithograph A suffering and emaciated man is embraced by two pairs of tough-looking hands. Designed as a propaganda poster during the Russian Civil War, this lithograph demonstrates the artist’s sensibility to the social conditions of the working class. The print medium serves as a useful tool for spreading pacifist and political … Read more

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (1889-1946)

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Sur La Terrasse, Montparnasse, Paris Paris, 1919-1920 Lithograph 390 x 495 mm A fragmented, crowded vision of Parisian nightlife. In this image a lively crowd socialises under a canopy of trees, while cars speed beneath flashing signs and lights around them. Nevinson created a painting of the same title and subject in 1925. During this … Read more

OTTO DIX (1891-1969)

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Chalk Cliffs in the Sun German, 1916 Black chalk on beige paper 284 x 208 mm The experience of war was a dominant theme in Dix’s work until the 1930s. Taken from a sketchbook compiled during the artist’s service in the German field artillery during the First World War, this drawing depicts a devastated landscape … Read more

OTTO DIX (1891-1969)

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Soldiers’ Graves Between the Lines Düsseldorf, 1924 Etching and aquatint 192 x 287 mm The full moon leers over the churned earth of a rat-infested mass grave; shattered body parts erupt from the soil. This nightmarish image is part of Dix’s print cycle Der Krieg (War), 1924, based on his memories as a soldier. Like … Read more

GEORGE BELLOWS (1882-1925)

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The Life Class New York, 1917 Lithograph 354 x 494 mm The Life Class was one of a series of lithographs that Bellows produced with the printer George Miller. It may have been based on drawings made much earlier in his career, and it certainly relates to an earlier time. The potbelly stove and other … Read more