Existing comment:
George Bellows Imagines German Atrocities
In 1918, George Bellows responded to reported German atrocities in Belgium with a series of hard-hitting drawings, lithographs, and paintings. The title, translated as May God Punish England was a German army slogan attributed to poet Ernst Lissauer (1882–1937). Bellows imagined a horrific scene in which German soldiers -- some of whom are shown smiling or laughing -- crucify three men. Bellows' treatment of the subject recalls Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) religious traditions that depict the suffering Christ -- suggesting broader human anguish at the hands of a violent throng. |