Klagelied (Lamentation)
Framed: 46 1/2 × 48 7/8 × 2 3/4 inches (118.11 × 124.14 × 6.99 cm)
“The figures convey the feeling of lamentation far more powerfully than if they more literally resembled human beings; they are sorrowing masses, as distinguished from mere weeping men and women.”
—Collector, Arthur Jerome Eddy, former owner of Lamentation
Lamentation may represent Albert Bloch’s attempt to enliven a biblical story through the visual language of abstraction. Although drapery disguises their age, gender and race, the somber figures make gestures that speak volumes. Their curvilinear rhythms and proximity emphasize the power of a shared experience. Could the deliberate generalizations suggest a universal notion of grief that transcends time, place and religion?
Arthur Jerome Eddy (1859-1920), Chicago, IL, by 1915-1920;
Probably inherited by his wife, Lucy Orrell Eddy (1863-1931), Chicago, IL, 1920-1931;
By descent to her son, Jerome O. Eddy (1891-1951), Skull Valley, AZ, 1931-January 20, 1937;
Purchased at his sale, The Late Arthur J. Eddy, Extraordinary Collection of One Hundred and Ten Modernistic Paintings and Antique Oriental Rugs, Williams, Barker & Severn Co., Chicago, IL, January 20, 1937, lot 158, by Leo Buntman (d. 1995), Chicago, IL, 1937-1986;
Acquired from Buntman by Harold J. (1922-2009) and Ruth Lasky (d. 2020), Evanston, IL, 1986-1998;
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1998.
of Modern Paintings by Albert Bloch of Munich, exh. cat. (Chicago:
Art Institute of Chicago, 1915), 7, 11, 13 (as Lamentation); Arthur
Jerome Eddy, Cubists and Post-Impressionism, rev. ed. (Chicago:
A. C. McClurg, 1919), 202; Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Late Arthur Jerome Eddy of Munich, exh. cat. (Chicago:
Art Institute of Chicago, 1922), upaginated; First National Exhibition of American Art, exh. cat. (New York: City of New York Municipal Art Committee, 1936), 17 (as Lamentation); Williams, Barker
& Severn Co., Chicago, 20 January 1937, lot 158; Maria Schuchter,
“Albert Bloch,” Ph.D. diss., Universität Innsbruck, 1991, 103,
149; Henry Adams, Margaret C. Conrads, and Annegret Hoberg,
eds., Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider, exh. cat. (Munich:
Prestel-Verlag, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
and Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1997), 34, 209, pl. 18;
Annegret Hoberg and Henry Adams, eds., Albert Bloch: Ein amerikanischer Blauer Reiter, exh. cat. (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, in association with Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1997), 34, 209,
pl. 18; Julie Aronson, “New at the Nelson: Painting by American
Blue Rider Joins Collection,” Calendar of Events (Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art), Summer 1999, 2, cover.
