The Dead Man (Der tote Mann)
Medium
drypoint [trial proof]
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1952.8.257
Art Historical Context
**The Dead Man (Der tote Mann)**, created by German Expressionist Wilhelm Lehm in 1915, captures the profound anguish of World War I a stark, elongated figure. Lehmbruck, renowned for his sculptures of slender, spiritually charged forms, translated his style into this haunting drypoint print amid the war's early devastation. As a trial proof from the National Gallery of Art's Rosen Collection, it offers a rare glimpse into the artist's experimental process, printed before final refinements. Drypoint technique involves scratching directly into a metal plate with a needle, raising a burr that y...
About the Artist
Wilhelm Lehmbruck
Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881–1919) was a German sculptor whose elongated, melancholic figures rank among the most moving works produced by European Expressionism. Born in Duisburg-Meiderich into a working-class family, Lehmbruck studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Düsseldorf and later at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he mastered the academic tradition before pushing beyond it toward a more pers...