Anno Domini MCMXVI Post Christum Natum
1916
Medium
lithograph
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1951.10.240
Art Historical Context
Ernst Barlach's *Anno Domini MCMXVI Post Christumum* (1916), a lithograph, captures the artist's distinctive Expressionist style during a pivotal moment in history. Barlach, a German sculptor, printmaker, and, was a leading figure in early 20th-century Expressionism emphasizing raw emotion, spiritual depth, and human suffering over realistic depiction. Created amid the devastation of World War I—then in its second gr year—the title, Latin for "In the Year of Our Lord 191 After the Birth of Christ," evokes a poignant contrast between sacred timekeeping and modern catastrophe, inviting reflectio...
About the Artist
Ernst Barlach · 1870–1938
Ernst Barlach (1870–1938) was one of the most powerful German Expressionist sculptors of the early twentieth century, an artist whose work fused medieval spirituality with modern existential anguish to produce images of haunting emotional force. Born in Wedel, Holstein, Barlach studied at the Hamburg School of Applied Arts and later at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts before traveling to Paris, wh...