Child and Railroad Train (Primary Title)
Kind und Eisenbahn (Primary Title)

Conrad Felixmüller, German, 1897 - 1977 (Artist)

1921
German
Works On Paper
Prints
etching and drypoint on wove paper
Sheet: 19 3/8 × 20 7/8 in. (49.21 × 53.02 cm)
Plate: 13 5/8 × 17 1/4 in. (34.61 × 43.82 cm)
2009.149
Not on view

Although Felixmüller did not specify this work as a portrait, his oldest son, Luca, who would have been three in 1921, likely inspired it. The artist’s younger son, Titus, later recounted that he and his brother often became muses for their father’s compositions:

“Watching one of his children playing, be it with a wooden train, a cat or a paper hat, would end with the categorical demand: ‘Just keep standing still like that, I will be back with pencil and paper.’ We then knew what was in store for us; we had been trapped into being his models again.”

Signed and dated in graphite lower right: "Felixmüller/ 1921"
Stamp on verso lower left: "Gedruckt von/ Walter Künzel/ Dresden"
Inscribed in graphite beneath image lower left: "35/40." Inscribed in graphite in center of lower margin: "Kind und Eisenbahn." Inscribed in graphite on verso, upper left: "72/ (203)"; lower left: "203"
The Ludwig and Rosy Fischer Collection, Gift of the Estate of Anne R. Fischer
©artist or artist’s estate

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