Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection Update

Among the items acquired by the Military Collection over the past several months, is a rather interesting hand-colored lithograph published in Mannheim, Germany by Korwan in 1841 after a drawing by R. Sabatky. Entitled Der Deutsche Michel bis zum Jahre 1841, it depicts a sleeping Michel wearing a patchwork shirt with the names of various German states such as Saxony, Baden and Bavaria. His mouth is fastened by a padlock. To his right is the Austrian Chancellor Metternich who is drawing blood from Michel’s arm, the blood turning to gold in the bowl. A bulldog, representing John Bull of England, removes a money purse from his pocket, while a French soldier cuts off his sleeve. Michel’s head is being caressed by a Russian cossack. Above the group is a vignette representing soldiers drilling and marching, a man holding a violin and raising a glass to toast (“Es lebe de Rhein”), a battlefield scene with a man standing with one leg on another man (“Es lebe der deutsche Kraft”), and a large cannon with gun crew. In the clouds, Napoleon can be seen with a spyglass.

Michel is a symbolic and emblematic figure in German nationalism. As he sleeps, other European powers are taking advantage of him by exploiting his lands and wealth. The padlock represents the Karlsbad Decrees, designed by Metternich, which introduced strict censorship on the German states represented on his shirt. The trade imbalance between the states and England is represented by the bulldog, while France’s territorial claims on parts of the Rhineland is denoted by the soldier cutting the sleeve. Other known variations of the print include representations of the Pope and German soldiers parading.

According to Rudolf Wagner, the purpose of the image “was to prompt Michel’s awakening…by shaming German compatriots into waking up to a nationalist commitment.”

See:  http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/ojs/index.php/transcultural/article/view/7315/2916

The war between France and Prussia in 1870-71 attracted considerable attention from the world’s press and numerous journalists flocked to France to cover the fighting and the subsequent events in and around Paris culminating in the Commune. The Illustrated London News dispatched two artists, William Simpson (1823-1899) and Robert Thomas Landells (1833-1877), and their numerous sketches were sent back to London and engraved in the weekly issues of the paper. Some of  Landells’ sketches were flown out of the besieged city by balloon post.

The Military Collection has recently acquired several original sketches by Landells depicting events in the war. These complement other sketches by the artist of the campaign in addition to pictures drawn by him at the conclusion of the Crimean War in 1856.

Several years ago, the collection also acquired a letter by Landells to Simpson from the headquarters of the Crown Prince of Prussia, at Versailles written on November 4, 1870, which provides a brief insight into the life of a ‘special’ artist on campaign. He described his quarters as being satisfactory but that the march up “was pretty rough” and suggests to Simpson that he, too, should try to get similar accommodations as “you will find the Saxons and the Prussian Guard Regiments charming people.” Landells goes on to state that “the lines around Paris are too extended for one artist” but that “we are all getting awfully tired & bored with the whole affair.” The artist describes the work as “risky” and “one does not get sufficient material for the trouble.”

The sketches are paired with the corresponding engraving as published in the Illustrated London News.

In 1918, the noted American artist, George Bellows (1882-1925) created a series of 5 oil paintings and 20 lithographic prints titled the WAR chronicling the activities of the German army in Belgium during August 1914. In particular he focused on some of the alleged atrocities committed by German soldiers against civilians and described in the Bryce report.

The Military Collection has been acquiring the lithographs from the War series, the most recent acquisition being Village Massacre, otherwise known as Massacre at Dinant.  Bellows drew his inspiration from an article published in Everybody’s Magazine in February 1918 by Brand Whitlock, titled “Belgium: The Crowning Crime”; Bellows may also have read an abridged version of the Bryce report that had appeared in the New York Times on May 13, 1915.

Unlike the other prints in the series, Village Massacre which also appeared as an oil painting, focused on a particular event. On August 23, 1914, German troops entered Dinant, a town of 7,000 inhabitants in the province of Namur, Belgium, situated at a strategic crossing point of the River Meuse. Throughout the invasion, the Germans claimed that they were continuously fired upon by francs-tireurs or armed civilians so they considered any retribution towards those suspected of such acts as fully justified. Although they were constantly under fire from French troops across the Meuse, the Germans believed that civilians were partly responsible and took extreme measures. One of the first atrocities involved the arrest of 43 men who were summarily executed. Another group of civilians hid in the cellars of a woollen factory but were forced to give themselves up; the women and children were taken away and 31 workers shot. In another incident around 5.30 pm, 27 men found in a bar were executed by firing squad. In all, 312 inhabitants were killed by the Germans on the 23rd.

In the scene, Bellows depicts a group of men, women, children and nuns standing in an open space while the rifles of the Germans can be seen off to the left; the officer’s sword has dropped for the command to open fire. It is possible that the artist chose the moment in front of the Tschoffen house where 137 civilians were massacred although according to eye-witnesses, women and children were removed before the firing started. It is not clear why Bellows chose to depict the atrocities in Belgium four years after the fact, but in a preface to an exhibition of some of the lithographs in November 1918, he wrote: “In presenting these pictures of the tragedies of war, I wish to disclaim any intention of attacking a race or a people. Guilt is personal, not racial. Against that guilty clique and all its tools, who let loose upon innocence every diabolical device and insane instinct, my hatred goes forth, together with my profound reverence for the victims.”

Sources:
George Bellows and the War Series of 1918. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1983.
With my profound reverence for the Victims. New Paltz: Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, 2001.
John Horne and Alan Kramer. German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.