"An Innocent Victim at the Hands of Cultured Butchers", stone lithograph, circa 1915-1916.
Having apparently just murdered (or worse) a Red Cross nurse, a German corporal pauses for a light lunch and a beer before having his squad remove her body. This is undoubtedly one of the most classic "atrocity-image" posters from World War One.
Medium size: measures 19 ¾" x 14 ½". Credited in the margin to the E. F. Chelnokov lithography firm in Moscow. An unusually quiet image of implied horror. Far more Russian prints sought to enrage the Russian population by presenting scenes of multiple German crimes, ranging from bayonetting babies to firing squads executing nurses, all happening in what appear to be villages being turned into Teutonic three ring circuses. The text here reads in part that what is happening here is "a foul, bloody deed by the monster Germans"! "An Innocent Victim at the Hands of Cultured Butchers" has shown up many times over the decades since the war whenever authors have sought to document public reaction to war crimes; the Hoover Institution Archives here in the United States made available its copy of this image to Stephen M. Norris for use in his excellent book about lubki, A War of Images.
The print is in very good condition. There are four minor tears in the margin have been stabilized by the careful application of acid-free tape.
A War of Images, by the way, is one of the very few publications in English that deals with the long tradition of Russian printmaking. If you collect Lubok prints but are unfamiliar with it, we recommend it highly.
Item# 31105
$340.00 Add to cart
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