Kerr Eby, born Tokyo, Japan 1889-died - In the Open - 1924-1927 - T-Shirt

This etching shows a column of horses and mounted riders crossing an open field, with a horse-drawn artillery gun carriage at the centre of the scene.

Visual Elements & Composition

The image is built in pale buff, sepia brown and charcoal. The buff dominates the plate, giving the open ground a dry, bare quality, while the sepia and charcoal define the horses, riders and wheels. A diagonal composition drives the eye across the horizontal rectangle of the plate. Mounted riders in military caps sit among the animals, and an overturned gun carriage with spoked wheels breaks the line of the march, so the movement of the scene stops abruptly.

Meaning & Symbolism

Kerr Eby, born in Tokyo, was an American artist whose career spanned the early twentieth century and who was best known for his illustrative and printmaking work. His depictions of the First World War are among his most powerful, and this scene draws on that wartime world: the artillery, the military caps and the overturned carriage point to the cost of war carried across open country. The title places the figures in the open air, so the landscape becomes part of the story as much as the men and animals do.

Wearing the Artwork

An etching of this kind is built for close looking, and a tee carries it to the chest, where the diagonal of the riders and the broken carriage sit at the centre of the wearer's view. As the wearer moves, the field opens and the riders cross it, so the image is seen in motion rather than fixed on a wall.