Stalag Scene

© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2024. Image credit: Ben Uri Collection

How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

Michonze shows an exterior scene in Stalag XC with the exhausted soldiers huddled in their uniforms either standing talking in small groups or resting on the ground, dozing or gnawing hungrily at potatoes. While they are surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by an armed sentry, two birds resting lightly on the barbed wire posts point to the possibility of freedom. Although more realistic than many of Michonze's works, this small but powerful watercolour shares with them a surreal, naive and allegorical quality. Michonze drew on his own experiences: having enlisted in the French artillery in 1939, he was taken prisoner in June 1940 and transferred to Stalag XC at Nieburg-on-Weser in Germany. He witnessed the sufferings of Russian prisoners of the Red Army held in terrible conditions in drawings (some later worked up into paintings).

Ben Uri Gallery & Museum

London

Title

Stalag Scene

Date

1940–1942

Medium

pencil & watercolour on paper

Measurements

H 28 x W 38 cm (E)

Accession number

2020-02

Acquisition method

purchased, 2020

Work type

Drawing

Signature/marks description

Signed and numbered (lower right corner): 'Michonze / 67.760 / Stalag XB'

Tags

This artwork does not have any tags yet. You can help by tagging artworks on Tagger.

Ben Uri Gallery & Museum

108a Boundary Road, St John's Wood, London, Greater London NW8 0RH England

Not all locations are open to the public. Please contact the gallery or collection for more information
View venue