Word by the Way

Kerr Eby

1919 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

In this print, Eby portrays soldiers in a noncombat situation, conversing outside a dugout, a tangle of barbed wire visible behind them. As an American army sergeant in the war, the artist was able to observe the daily life of soldiers, both in combat and at rest. He made sketches constantly, capturing preparations for major offensives as well as quotidian moments such as this. He later translated the drawings into prints—first in 1919, when he returned from the war, and then again in the late 1920s and early 1930s, as a reflection on his experiences and a warning about the human and environmental costs of military conflict.

Artist

Kerr Eby

Date

1919

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Phyllis Brevoort Eby, 1962