Lot Essay
In her catalogue raisonné, Lorenz debates the date of the drawing as it comes from a 1915 sketchbook, yet the subject relates to the 1913 motif 'Die Trauernden'.
The inscription along the lower edge of Klage are the two first lines of the Biblical psalms no. 137:
'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our harps (...).'
The psalm reflects the Jewish people's yearning for Jerusalem, following their exile from the city after its conquest in 586 BC, as well as their hatred for the Holy City's enemies with sometimes violent imagery. These two first lines express the sadness of the Israelites people echoing, in this drawing entitled Klage or 'lamentation', the suffering of the World War I victims.
The inscription along the lower edge of Klage are the two first lines of the Biblical psalms no. 137:
'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our harps (...).'
The psalm reflects the Jewish people's yearning for Jerusalem, following their exile from the city after its conquest in 586 BC, as well as their hatred for the Holy City's enemies with sometimes violent imagery. These two first lines express the sadness of the Israelites people echoing, in this drawing entitled Klage or 'lamentation', the suffering of the World War I victims.