As Josua Grübler Found his Way: Josua and Priska (Wie Josua Grübler seinen Weg fand: Josua und Priska) (in-text plate, page 214) from Neben der Heerstrasse (Off the Main Road)
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
German, 1880–1938
1923
A small woodcut illustration by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner for a 1923 illustrated book, using bold carved shapes and stark black-and-white contrast to dramatize a tense encounter between Josua and Priska.
What strikes you is the raw, jagged carving—angular, rhythmic strokes and flattened, expressive faces rendered in high-contrast black ink that push against the calm of the surrounding text.
The print shows how Kirchner and fellow Expressionists revived the woodcut as a modern medium, marrying folk craft’s immediacy to avant-garde emotional intensity and bringing powerful imagery into the format of the illustrated book.
Medium
Woodcut from an illustrated book with twenty-four woodcuts
Dimensions
composition: 2 3/8 x 3 1/16" (6.1 x 7.7 cm); page: 7 1/2 x 5 1/8" (19 x 13 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of G. David Thompson
Accession
210.1964.16
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
