Self-Portrait as a Prisoner (in Russia), 1917

Rudolf Wacker (1893–1939) created numerous self-portraits during his artistic career, such as this 1917 Self-Portrait as a Prisoner (in Russia). Like many of his contemporaries, the artist had to fight for his survival in a senseless, gruesome conflict in World War I; he was taken prisoner by the Russian Army in 1915. The self-portrait created during this time shows the artist gravely affected by strain and exhaustion. He succeeds in capturing his mental state on paper with only a few strokes. His lips are slightly parted, as if he was choking on a word; his eyebrows are raised and his face is hollow and angular. Wacker wrote in his diary, “Once again I find myself in a valley of pessimism. – The sorrow of the world is taking hold of me in nameless sadness […].” Wacker spent five years in captivity before he was able to return to Bregenz in the province of Vorarlberg in 1920.

AS, 2024