Artwork
Gretchen Murdering Her Child
Gretchen Murdering Her Child is an ink drawing by the Impressionist artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze. It dates from 1852 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower center in pen and brown ink: E. Leutze, Christmas 1852
About this work
Overview
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze’s 1852 drawing, executed with pen and brown ink on wove paper, captures a moment from Goethe’s drama Faust. The composition shows a woman standing in water, cradling a lifeless child, both dressed in flowing gowns. The scene is rendered in muted tones, emphasizing a somber, tragic atmosphere.
Subject & Meaning
The work illustrates the episode in which Gretchen, driven to despair by the events of Faust, harms her infant. Leutze’s portrayal focuses on the emotional weight of maternal anguish, using the watery setting and the figures’ downcast expressions to convey loss and moral collapse.
Technique & Style
Leutze employs fine pen work and extensive cross‑hatching to model form and suggest texture, especially in the garments and the surrounding foliage. The restrained brown ink palette and careful line work align the drawing with mid‑nineteenth‑century Realist tendencies toward detailed, observational rendering.
History & Provenance
Although Leutze is chiefly remembered for large historical canvases such as Washington Crossing the Delaware, this intimate drawing reflects his early engagement with literary subjects. Created in 1852, the piece remains part of the artist’s lesser‑known oeuvre, documented in catalogues of his drawings and exhibited in occasional retrospectives of his work.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (May 24, 1816 – July 18, 1868) was a German-born American history painter, best known for his 1851 painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
![Study of Half-Length Figure with Pole [verso], by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze](https://artifactworldgallery.com/img/emanuel-gottlieb-leutze--study-of-half-length-figure-with-pole-verso--13a43a492f70c459-w320.webp)
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Untitled
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Studies for a Monument with Angels Reaching Down to a Praying Figure [recto and verso]![Sheet of Studies [recto and verso], by John Flaxman](https://artifactworldgallery.com/img/john-flaxman--sheet-of-studies-recto-and-verso--af59e52d5279d768-w320.webp)
Sheet of Studies [recto and verso]