Man Lying with Branch

Anselm Kiefer

1971 · Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper · Modern and Contemporary Art

Kiefer was inspired to produce this watercolor by historical depictions of trees emerging from human forms, especially an illustration from the fourteenth-century Ashburn Manuscript housed in the Laurentian Library in Florence. This medieval image, which is concerned with rebirth through death, is one of the sources of Kiefer’s interest in alchemy. The watercolor presents a naked man lying on the ground and holding a lifeless branch that emerges from his bloody abdomen. Made on the occasion of Kiefer’s marriage, the drawing is also dedicated to his new wife; placed below the man’s body, the dedication "Anselm for Julia" furthers the sense of transformation involved in life’s passage.

Artist

Anselm Kiefer

Date

1971

Medium

Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, in memory of her father, Joseph H. Hazen, 2000