"Marode" (Ailing) by Max Pollak
"Marode" (Ailing)
Max Pollak
Title
"Marode" (Ailing)
Artist
Max Pollak
1886 - 1970 (biography)Year
c. 1917 /18
Technique
drypoint
Image Size
3 7/8 x 9"" platemark
Signature
pencil, lower right
Edition Size
not stated; presumed small
Annotations
pencil titled, lower right; Friedl Pollak Collection stamp in lower left sheet corner; stamped on verso, "Made in Austria"
Reference
Paper
thin ivory wove
State
published
Publisher
artist
Inventory ID
22619
Price
SOLD
Description
During World War I, Pollak was appointed painter of the Austrian Army and documented the stark landscapes of the places where his battalion was stationed. One of his specialties was portraiture and with his drypoint, Marode, he employed his lines to define illness, defeat, exhaustion, and pride in the unique faces of four men. Two of the men bear the uniforms and caps of the Austrian army and the other two appear to be peasants caught up in the disaster of war. Marode is a marvelous study of the human face and the various emotions it can project in unguarded moments.