Lovis Corinth (1858-1925)

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

Johann Baptist Zwecker (1814-1876)

Young Love Düsseldorf, 1840 Etching 24.1 x 28.7 cm  This Romantic etching is a highly atmospheric scene of love and death on a moonlit mountainside, taken from Heinrich Heine’s ‘Buch de Lieder’. ‘Love, O Love, it was your might, brought us to our sorry plight’. Their existence blighted by self-destructive love, ghostly figures rise from … Read more

David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690)

David Teniers the Younger The Bleaching Ground Possibly Antwerp, the 1640s Oil on canvas 85 x 120.5 cm The women of an unidentified town gather for the first spring wash after the long winter months. The setting is a communal bleaching ground with its wells and an open wash house to the right. This is … Read more

Adolph von Menzel (1815-1905)

A Study for ‘Contribution’ Germany, about 1884 Carpenter’s pencil with stumping 22.9 x 15.2 cm Menzel was the leading master of later nineteenth-century German art. In its deftness and subtlety of line and modelling, it compares with the life drawings of Degas, also represented in the Barber collection. The drawing is a study for the … Read more

Caspar Johann Nepomuk Scheuren (1818-1887)

The Castle by the Sea Düsseldorf, 1858 Watercolour over pen and pencil, partly heightened with white and gold 47.2 x 60.5 cm This depiction of Ludwig Uhland’s poem of the same name creates an atmosphere of melancholy and nostalgia typical of Romantic art. The king and queen, dressed in black in the middle frame, are … Read more

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)

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

Peter Herwegen (1814-1893)

Memories Germany, 1873 Watercolour over pencil, partly highlighted with gouache in gold 32.6 x 44 cm This watercolour is an allegory of the arts commissioned by the Buhler family of Berne. Alongside the attributes of painting, sculpture and architecture the intricate gothic design includes the Swiss city’s heraldic bear and key landmarks. The composition emulates … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

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

Franz Marc (1880-1916)

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

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

Self-Portrait in Profile Berlin, 1927 Lithograph on Japanese paper 59 x 45 cm Kollwitz portrays herself with signs of aging and a careworn expression, working against the traditional portrait of the woman as timeless youth. The head, as the most vital part of the body, symbolizes the artist’s wisdom and her sympathetic mentality to society. … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

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)

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)

OTTO DIX (1891-1969)

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)

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

Johann Baptist Klauber (1712-1787)

Henricus I (Henry the Fowler) Augsburg, 1745-50 Engraving 572 x 762 mm Klauber, a successful print maker and publisher in Augsburg, was greatly influenced by nature and medieval history. This richly detailed scene is one of thirteen he created featuring birds and hunts. A 10th-century German king, Henry I is generally considered to be the … Read more

Adrian Ludwig Richter (1803-1884)

Genoveva Dresden, 1848 Etching 420 X 250 MM This tender portrayal of a mother and child is based on an 8th-century folk tale that was popularised during the 19th century. Condemned and abandoned by her husband, Genoveva and her child found sanctuary in the forest, where they are tended to by a doe. Richter endows … Read more

Carl Wilhelm Kolbe (1759-1835)

A Youth Playing the Lyre to a Maiden at a Fountain in Luxuriant Vegetation Dessau, 1803 Etching The wild and overgrown foliage of this scene is a distinctive feature of Kolbe’s extraordinary and original art. He termed such images ‘Kraüerblätter’, or ‘vegetable leaves’. The intricate detail of the enlarged shrubbery is accentuated by the distinct … Read more

Peter Anton von Verschaffelt (1710-1793)

A Rhinoceros called ‘Miss Clara’ (1738-1758) Bronze, Model and Cast: Perhaps Mannheim, Germany, about 1770 24.5 x 46.7 x 15 cm Plinth: 4 x 33 x 7.5 cm An enterprising Dutch sea captain, Douwe Mout van der Meer (1705-?), brought a young Indian rhinoceros to the Netherlands in 1741 and then toured her extensively across … Read more

George Grosz (1893-1959)

Querschnitt – Platin & Co. Germany, 1920 Lithograph 675 x 535 mm Overlapping scenes of wounded soldiers, prostitutes and bourgeois businessmen in a crowded and war torn metropolis were typical of Grosz’s work following the end of World War I. In 1914 and 1917 he was called up for service but was discharged within months … Read more

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

Woman with dead child Berlin, 1903 Etching 425 X 490 mm The stark, animal-like figure of a woman passionately embraces the corpse of a young boy. In 1914 this became reality for the artist when her younger son, the model for the dead boy, died in the early months of the First World War. The … Read more

ALBRECHT DÜRER (1471-1528)

The Bath House Nuremberg, about 1496 Woodcut 388 X 282 MM Dürer depicts an open-air bath house of a kind that was popular in northern Europe around 1500. Male figures are shown at different ages and in varied and complex poses, created by a network of crisp lines that curve and trace the surface of … Read more