A Kiss for the Kaiser

Kerr Eby

1919 · Drypoint · Drawings and Prints

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."

Artist

Kerr Eby

Date

1919

Medium

Drypoint

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Phyllis Brevoort Eby, 1962