After the battle
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| After the battle |
|---|
| Roland Strasser , 1914/15 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 209 × 260 cm |
| Army History Museum Vienna |
After the battle there is a painting by Roland Strasser from 1914/15 . The large-format picture (209 × 260 cm) was painted with oil paint on canvas and is exhibited in a prominent place (room group First World War ) in the Army History Museum in Vienna .
Emergence
In the art group of the Austro-Hungarian War Press Quarter (KPQ), which was directly subordinate to the Austro-Hungarian Army High Command , around 280 war painters found employment in the course of the First World War . Some of them were already recognized artists before the war, others only discovered their talent when they were drafted in the winter of 1914/15, i.e. at the time when the Austro-Hungarian army had extremely high casualties of 1.27 after the grueling fighting on the Balkan and Eastern Fronts Millions of dead, wounded, prisoners of war and the sick. In order to avoid military service in one of the so-called march and land storm formations that were now sent to the front as personnel replacements (whose deficits in terms of equipment and training were known), many people fit for military service reported to the Austro-Hungarian war press headquarters, be it as war reporters, photographers, theater mime or as a war painter. For this reason, their comrades in the fighting troops always referred to them as "slackers" and "cowards". In order to keep their relatively secure post at the KPQ (only one war painter died during the entire course of the war), they worked very productively, so up to February 1918 alone around 9,000 works were shown in 33 war painting exhibitions. Among these paintings, graphics and sculptures , however, depictions critical of the war can only be found very rarely. The censorship was strict and the constant threat of being transferred to the fighting troops was omnipresent. Those artists who nevertheless dared to submit works critical of the war were in the minority. One of them was Roland Strasser, who was only 22 years old when the war broke out in 1914 and was one of the first war painters to be sent to the KPQ. As the son of the famous sculptor and painter Arthur Strasser , who also include the Marc-Anton - plastic in front of the Vienna Secession had created, Roland Strasser has the best references have. He also studied at the Vienna Academy with Josef Jungwirth (1869–1950) and from 1911 at the Munich Academy with Angelo Jank .
Image description
The painting is signed “ Roland Strasser ” in the lower right corner , but not dated. He probably painted this painting in the winter of 1914/15 under the impression of the enormous losses of the Austro-Hungarian Army and in doing so emphasized the dreary situation, especially of the cavalry , in this case the Austro-Hungarian Dragoons . While in the pre-war period the colorful Austro-Hungarian army was often depicted in a dashing way on parade grounds , extensive maneuvering fields or idealized landscapes , Strasser shows his scenery on a muddy mound of earth. In the center of the picture crouches a dragoon, still in splendid adjustment at the beginning of the war , he is now wearing his helmet in gray camouflage while he is eating a meager meal. His physiognomy is marked by resignation. In the foreground of the picture sits his comrade, wounded in the foot and head, who directs the viewer's gaze to the center of the picture with his head and thus acts as a repoussoir figure . Various items of equipment, empty eating utensils and cans as well as a rifle that has broken through in the middle are scattered around the two foreground figures. In the left half of the picture stands a fully adjusted soldier, hooded against the cold, with the signal horn strapped to his rucksack, whose posture directs the viewer to the gruesome scenery in the background: a fully loaded corpse cart pulled out of the picture composition by emaciated horses becomes; in front of it a heap of boots that one took off the dead man to be able to use them again. A single rider is shown in the background, also on an emaciated horse. Of the other, once so splendid battle horses of the kuk cavalry, which are particularly rich in tradition, nothing can be seen in this picture. The inadequate adaptation to a contemporary image of war came to light before all other branches of the army, especially with the cavalry. Dragoons, hussars and lancers went to war in their colorful peace uniforms, although the days of battle cavalry were long over. Their attacks failed due to the superior firepower of Russian artillery and machine guns , resulted in high losses and forced the once proud cavalrymen into the trenches . Strasser's monumental composition shows, relentlessly reduced to the essentials, what war is: death, suffering and need. Nothing is left of the pomp and splendor of the pre-war period.
reception
The painting is one of the central works of the permanent exhibition on World War I in the Army History Museum and is on the chronological tour at the turn of the year 1914/15. It symbolizes the end of the "old" Austro-Hungarian army.
literature
- Walter F. Kalina: "After the battle". A painting that symbolizes the end of the “old” Austro-Hungarian army , 2019, online on HGM-Wissensblog
- Walter F. Kalina: After the battle , in: Viribus Unitis. Annual report 2014 of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902551-61-0 , pp. 15-17.
- Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914–1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 .
- Army History Museum / Military History Institute (ed.): The Army History Museum in the Vienna Arsenal . Verlag Militaria , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-69-6 , p. 113.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914-1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 , pp. 178–185.
- ↑ Stefan Rest, M. Christian Ortner , Thomas Ilming: The Emperor's Rock in World War I. Uniforms and equipment of the Austro-Hungarian army from 1914 to 1918 , Vienna 2002, p. 12.
- ^ Walter F. Kalina: After the battle , in: Viribus Unitis. Annual report 2014 of the Army History Museum , Vienna 2015, p. 15.
- ^ Army History Museum / Military History Institute (ed.): The Army History Museum in the Vienna Arsenal . Verlag Militaria , Vienna 2016, p. 113.
- ↑ M. Christian Ortner: "It's not about hurray patriotism" The military historian M. Christian Ortner explains in an interview why his Army History Museum is "not a petting zoo" and Austria is "not a national term". on diepresse.com, accessed on April 11, 2018.