Skip to Main Content

Artwork Page for Birth of a Child (Geburt eines Kindes)

Details / Information for Birth of a Child (Geburt eines Kindes)

Birth of a Child (Geburt eines Kindes)

1914
(Austrian, 1886–1980)
Austria
Tempera paint and charcoal
49.4 x 56 cm (19 7/16 x 22 1/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2017.102
© Fondation Oskar Kokoschka / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ProLitteris, Zürich
Catalogue raisonné: Strobl & Strobl 802
Location: not on view
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Download, Print and Share

Print

Did You Know?

The large wall mural for which this painting on paper was a preparatory study was never executed because of the onset of World War I in Europe.

Description

Oskar Kokoschka made this drawing as a preparatory design for a wall mural on the theme of the inevitability of death. His energetic strokes of color portray a woman giving birth aided by three female attendants. The newborn’s absence and death is relayed in the lifeless pallor of the mother. The wall painting was to have been painted within the reception hall of a new cemetery complex in Breslau, but was never constructed because of World War I.
A colorful painting with energetic strokes depicting a scene of a woman giving birth, aided by three other people. The woman giving birth is painted in a gray shade. The three people surround her and are painted in brighter colors.

Birth of a Child (Geburt eines Kindes)

1914

Oskar Kokoschka

(Austrian, 1886–1980)
Austria

See Also

Visually Similar by AI

    Contact us

    The information about this object, including provenance, may not be currently accurate. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@clevelandart.org.

    To request more information about this object, study images, or bibliography, contact the Ingalls Library Reference Desk.

    All images and data available through Open Access can be downloaded for free. For images not available through Open Access, or any image with a color bar, request a digital file from Image Services.