A Kiss for the Kaiser
Based on events experienced by Eby’s unit in France, A Kiss for the Kaiser depicts the sheer power of World War I military technology, which unleashed an unprecedented level of devastation. While he fought in both world wars, the artist did not intend for his work to glorify combat, weaponry, or the wartime experience. World War I had a decisive effect on Eby’s art: before it began, he made landscapes and seascapes, but after witnessing its horrors, he wrote that the war had left him with "little taste for the more charming aspects of nature and with more of an awareness of the relentless elemental forces in our lives."
Artwork Details
- Title: A Kiss for the Kaiser
- Artist: Kerr Eby (Canadian (born Japan), Tokyo 1889–1946 Norwalk, Connecticut)
- Date: 1919
- Medium: Drypoint
- Dimensions: Plate: 7 5/16 × 5 5/8 in. (18.6 × 14.3 cm)
Sheet: 10 11/16 × 8 15/16 in. (27.1 × 22.7 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Phyllis Brevoort Eby, 1962
- Object Number: 62.554.58
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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Kerr Eby
1913
Kerr Eby
1924–46
Kerr Eby
1930
Kerr Eby
1940
Kerr Eby
1920–21
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