Black Mother by Ernst Neuschul

Art work details

Original Title :

Negermutter

Year of production :

1931

Artist:

Ernst Neuschul

Medium :

Oil painting

Materials:

Oil paint, Canvas

Dimensions :

height: 100.5 cms; width: 65.5 cms

Credit Line :

Purchased from Campbell and Franks Ltd with MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund assistance

Copyright :

© The Artist’s Estate

Associated Groups :

Novembergruppe

Tags:

Weimar Republic, Green, Children, Neuschul

Neuschul’s paintings of unemployed workers, Gypsies and black people provoked Goebbels into having his pictures vandalised in an exhibition in 1933. Neuschul portrays the breastfeeding mother with a monumental dignity, her watchful eyes indicating an awareness of potential threat.

Neuschul studied in Prague and Vienna where he was fascinated by the unorthodox paintings of Klimt and Schiele and the Expressionist Kokoschka.

In 1920 he moved to Berlin and became an exponent of the New Objectivity movement. Neuschul’s socially committed depiction of daily reality under the Weimar Republic was distinguished by his compassion for his subjects.

You can read an extended essay about this work and the history of breastfeeding here.