Preparatory Drawing for a Print Series on the History of Germany (Die Geschichte des deutschen Volkes in fünfzehn Bildern)
1851-1853
Medium
Pen and black ink
Dimensions
each: 20 1/2 × 29 1/8 in. (52 × 74 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2014
Accession Number
2014.475.6
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, rising German nationalism following the failed revolutions of 1848, artist Carl Heinrich Hermann created this drawing as part of *Die Geschichte deutschen Volkes in fünfzehn Bildern (The History of the People in Fifteen Images), a ambitious print series from 1851–1853. Hermann, a German history painter influenced by Romanticism and the Nazarene movement, sought to chronicle key moments in Germany's past, fostering a sense of shared identity during a time of political fragmentation. Executed in pen and black ink on a scale—20½ × 29⅛ inches—this sheet exemplifies the me...
About the Artist
Carl Heinrich Hermann · 1802–1880
German, Dresden 1802–1880 Berlin