Oskar Kokoschka
Romana Kokoschka (Die Mutter des Künstlers) (Portrait of the Artist's Mother)
1917
Caught up in the euphoria and patriotism of the onset of World War I, Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka voluntarily enlisted in the military and served a brief period at the Russian front before being wounded. In July 1916, after recovering from his wound, he returned to action on the Isonzo front as an official war artist in the "Kriegspressequartier" (War Press Section), the Austro-Hungarian central military propaganda unit assigned to document events taking place on the battlefields of the war. Severely shell-shocked after a bridge near him exploded, he was sent to a hospital in Dresden to recover. This portrait was made during or soon after one of his mother’s visits in 1917. The quick, expressive strokes and high contrast shading evoke a sense of internal turmoil and melancholy. [Exhibition label, 2015]
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Artist
Oskar Kokoschka
(Austrian, 1886–1980)
- Title Romana Kokoschka (Die Mutter des Künstlers) (Portrait of the Artist's Mother)
- Date 1917
- Medium Lithograph
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Dimensions
unframed | 20 3/8 x 16 3/8 in.
- Credit line University purchase, Kende Sale Fund, 1946
- Object number WU 3801
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Technique
lithography
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Work type
print
World War I: War of Images, Images of War
Getty Research Institute, 11/18/2014 - 04/19/2015
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/11/2015 - 01/04/2016
Musée Würth France Erstein, 09/27/2016 - 01/08/2017
Opening Exhibition of Mark C. Steinberg Memorial Hall
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 04/29/1960
Inscription [LR:] Mutter d. Kunstlers Oskar Kokoschka
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