"Babylon the great is fallen..." XVIII.2
1876 to 1900
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View on museum website →Medium
woodcut
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1946.11.149
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the National Gallery of's print collection will encounter Bernard Reder's evocative woodcut, *"Babylon the great is fallen..." XVIII.2*, created between 1876 and 1900. This work, part of the esteemed Rosenwald Collection, draws its dramatic title from the Book of Revelation in the Bible (18:2), evoking themes of divine judgment, downfall, and apocalyptic ruin. Reder, known for his expressive and often monumental forms, channels this biblical prophecy into a stark, monochromatic print that captures the era's fascination with spiritual and moral reckonings amid rapid industrializatio...
About the Artist
Bernard Reder
Bernard Reder (1897–1963), born in Czernowitz, Bukovina—then part of Austria-Hungary and a vibrant center of Jewish and Hasidic culture—was the son of a Jewish innkeeper. At age four, he began drawing, but World War I interrupted his youth when, at 17, he was conscripted into the Austrian army and served in the trenches. After the war, Reder enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, studying...