Apocalyptic Vision by Ludwig Meidner

Oil, 1912.

Apocalyptic Vision

Art work details

Original Title :
Apocalyptische Vision
Year of production :
1912
Artist:
Ludwig Meidner
Medium :
Oil painting
Materials:
Oil paint, Canvas
Dimensions :
height: 72.8 cms; width: 88.4 cms
Credit Line :
Purchased from Mr Siegfried Oppenheimer with assistance from the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund
Copyright :
© Ludwig Meidner-Archiv, Jüdiches Museum der Stadt Frankfurt am Main
Tags:
Nudity, Death, Meidner

This is the earliest of Meidner’s apocalyptic landscapes, a series of paintings he produced in his Berlin studio during the summer of 1912. These paintings of burning cities and fleeing people, coming just before the outbreak of the First World War seemed to be an uncanny prediction of what was to come.

Meidner shows a landscape breaking apart, with earth rising up, dead vegetation and distorted limbs of the three naked victims. Behind are the ominous signs of powers uncontrolled by man, the smoking volcano, blackened sun and flaring comet.

V & A Purchase Grant Fund

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