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Lot Essay
The Belgian painter and printmaker Henry de Groux was best known for his monumental painting Christ aux outrages ('The Mocking of Christ') of 1896 (Palais du Roure, Avignon). The present, extremely rare lithograph seems to have served as the basis for an illustration of a text by the artist's friend, the French Catholic writer and critic Léon Bloy (1846-1917). A photolithograph of the centre-right part of this image only was printed in the first edition of Bloy's Sueur de Sang, published between 1892-94 in the journal Gil Blas (see Davenport, fig. 60 and footnote 3). It is a collection of short stories inspired by the author's horrific experiences of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. De Groux's composition illustrated Le Fossayeur de Vivants, the story of a man searching and robbing the wounded and the dying on the battlefield at night, before burying them alive. The title of the lithograph, inscribed in pencil on the support sheet, is a quote from this text, and it differs from the quote chosen as title for the published illustration ('C'est une chose, Monsieur, dont le Dante n'a point parlé').
The present lithograph shows a pile of bodies, some naked, some partially dressed, lying on stretchers or on top of each other, with some cartwheels sticking out above the gruesome mass, and a man carrying a vaguely Christ-like figure over his shoulder. This central scene with a stretcher below is reminiscent of Rembrandt's Descent from the Cross by Torchlight (see lot 112), while the dead bodies thrown carelessly on top of each other recall similar compositions from Goya's Desastres de la Guerra (see lot 130), such as the unforgettable plate 12: 'Para eso habeis nacido'. The stark black-and-white contrasts, the expressive force and the apocalyptic tone of the print however make it also a precusor to the dark visions of Otto Dix's Der Krieg of 1924. Nancy Davenport described his art as combining 'Symbolist imagery, Baroque theatre and Epressionist rage...' (Davenport, p. 153).
Although never published in the present form, this lithograph by Henry de Groux is a remarkable and shocking contribution to the important tradition of depicting and denouncing the horrors for war, beginning with Jacques Callot's Misères de la Guerre (see lot 86).
The present lithograph shows a pile of bodies, some naked, some partially dressed, lying on stretchers or on top of each other, with some cartwheels sticking out above the gruesome mass, and a man carrying a vaguely Christ-like figure over his shoulder. This central scene with a stretcher below is reminiscent of Rembrandt's Descent from the Cross by Torchlight (see lot 112), while the dead bodies thrown carelessly on top of each other recall similar compositions from Goya's Desastres de la Guerra (see lot 130), such as the unforgettable plate 12: 'Para eso habeis nacido'. The stark black-and-white contrasts, the expressive force and the apocalyptic tone of the print however make it also a precusor to the dark visions of Otto Dix's Der Krieg of 1924. Nancy Davenport described his art as combining 'Symbolist imagery, Baroque theatre and Epressionist rage...' (Davenport, p. 153).
Although never published in the present form, this lithograph by Henry de Groux is a remarkable and shocking contribution to the important tradition of depicting and denouncing the horrors for war, beginning with Jacques Callot's Misères de la Guerre (see lot 86).