Kerr Eby
No Man’s Land–St. Mihiel Drive
1918
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Kerr Eby
No Man’s Land–St. Mihiel Drive
1918
Physical Qualities
Mezzotint and drypoint, Sheet: 273 x 412 mm. (10 3/4 x 16 1/4 in.)
Plate: 215 x 328 mm. (8 7/16 x 12 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Edward Joseph Gallagher III Memorial Fund
Object Number
2012.550
These two prints bookend a time of great upheaval and despair. Kerr Eby’s print depicts an ominous cloud hanging over a mass of soldiers representing the retreat of the German army through the ravaged fields of France in 1918 as World War I came to a close. That cloud, which was said to follow the German soldiers for days, was dubbed “the cloud of blood.” Martin Lewis’ print shows a snowy nighttime scene in rural America. A car that has lost its way shines its headlights on a snowbank at an apparent dead end. "Which Way?" was created in 1932, a time when Americans were praying for a way out of the Great Depression. Looking for answers, they found only dead ends. The hollowness of victory, as well as the toll that war takes on both people and the landscape, is matched by uncertainty about the future of America.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2012; Edward T. Pollack Fine Arts, Portland, ME
New Arrivals: Gifts of Art for a New Century
Inscribed: lower center in graphite: "Kerr Eby. imp."; by later hand, lower left in graphite: "6545"
Markings: WM
