Visit to Madame Germaine's in Méricourt (Besuch bei Madame Germaine in Méricourt) from The War (Der Krieg)
Otto Dix
German, 1891–1969
(1924)
An etching with aquatint and drypoint by Otto Dix that stages a grotesque, intimate encounter between a wounded soldier and a corpulent brothel madame to confront viewers with the ugly, absurd human aftermath of war.
Scratchy, incisive lines and deep blacks render two bulbous, tattooed bodies with exaggerated features so their comic gestures read as both lurid and painfully real.
Produced for Dix’s 1924 portfolio The War, this print exemplifies the New Objectivity’s unsparing realism and helped shape a modern visual language for critiquing wartime trauma and social decay.
Medium
Etching, aquatint, and drypoint from a portfolio of fifty etching, aquatint and drypoints
Dimensions
plate: 10 1/16 x 7 9/16" (25.6 x 19.2 cm); sheet: 18 1/2 x 13 7/8" (47 x 35.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller
Accession
159.1934.36
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
![Near Langemarck (February 1918) (Bei Langemarck [Februar 1918]) from The War (Der Krieg)](https://www.moma.org/media/W1siZiIsIjEzNDIxNyJdLFsicCIsImNvbnZlcnQiLCItcmVzaXplIDEwMjR4MTAyNFx1MDAzZSJdXQ.jpg?sha=c98b7c72148cb206)