- Artist/Maker:
- Felix Nussbaum
- Bio:
- German, 1904-1944
- Title:
- Study of Skeleton Playing a Clarinet for the Painting "Death Triumphant"
- Date:
- c. 1944
- Medium:
- Pencil, gouache, and chalk on paper
- Dimensions:
- 10 7/8 × 8 13/16 in. (27.7 × 22.4 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Purchase: Gift of Mildred and George Weissman Philanthropic Fund of the Jewish Communal Fund
- Accession Number:
- 1985-140
- Copyright:
- © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Not On View
After the Nazis took power in 1933, the Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum fled Germany. Arrested in Belgium, he was interred at the St. Cyprian camp but escaped and while in hiding, created several works that record his harrowing experience. This drawing, one of a series of skeletons playing musical instruments, is a study for the artist's last know painting, Death Triumphant, dated April 18, 1944. In July 1944, Nussbaum and his wife, who had been in hiding in Brussels, were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. They were murdered upon arrival to the camp on August 3, 1944, a month before the liberation of Belgium.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.