Surrender of the Troops

Inscriptions

Inscribed, on reverse, lower left side, in graphite [partially erased]: D 27 / 5-566

Label

Before a mass of standing soldiers, a group of men and women prostrate themselves and weep in horror. One kneeling man tears at his hair in distress, while the women behind him raise their hands to the sky in prayer. Others throw themselves on the ground. Before such an emotional display, the soldiers at the right stand impassively, accepting the surrendered weapons. With figures dressed in classical armor and robes, the scene seems to represent a battle narrative from ancient Greece or Rome. The impassioned reactions of the conquered men and women, however, are timeless. The artist has captured real feelings of grief and fear in war. This quickly sketched drawing is likely a study for a larger work, perhaps a painting of a poetic or historic subject.

From the 2023 exhibition Recording War: Images of Violence 1500 – 1900, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming

Exhibition History

Recording War: Images of Violence, 1500-1900, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 20-August 20, 2023.

Provenance

Collected by Barbara Jaffe Stahl (1930-2004) and David Gerald Stahl (1926-2013), Manchester, New Hampshire; bequeathed to their children Susan E. Hardy, Nancy R. Wilsker, Sarah A. Stahl and John S. Stahl, 2013; given to present collection, 2014.

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Subject