Das Ehepaar (The Married Couple)
1920
Medium
lithograph on pale brown paper
Dimensions
sheet: 59 × 46 cm (23 1/4 × 18 1/8 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Collectors Committee
Accession Number
2006.24.2
Art Historical Context
**Das Ehepaar (The Married Couple)**, a poignant 1920 lithograph by Hoerle, captures the realities of post-World War I Germany. Hoerle, a key figure in the Cologne Progress (Gruppe Progress)—an avant-garde collective founded that same year—blended Expressionist distortion with emerging New Objectivity to portray everyday life amid social upheaval. Created during the Weimar Republic's early days, the work likely reflects the era's economic hardship, marital strains, and human resilience, themes central to the group's mission of confronting war's aftermath through unflinching realism. Printed o...