Tickets
English
DonateMembership
Tickets

Herzeleide

1979
Not on view
In Wagner’s opera Parsifal, Herzeleide, a grieving widow, raises her son in seclusion to protect him from danger. When Parsifal leaves home to fulfill his destiny, she dies of a broken heart (Herzeleide means "suffering heart" in German). Kiefer found his composition in a book from the Nazi era, a time when mothers were exalted for sacrificing their sons for the war. In the reproduction that was Kiefer’s source, a farmer’s wife looks at a document stating that her farm must be inherited by one son; in his watercolor, Kiefer replaced the document with an artist’s palette.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Herzeleide
  • Artist: Anselm Kiefer (German, born Donaueschingen, 1945)
  • Date: 1979
  • Medium: Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper
  • Dimensions: 18 7/8 x 14 1/8 in. (47.9 x 35.9 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1995
  • Object Number: 1995.14.25
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Anselm Kiefer
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Böhmen liegt am Meer (Bohemia Lies by the Sea), Anselm Kiefer German, Oil, emulsion, shellac, charcoal, and powdered paint on burlap
Böhmen liegt am Meer (Bohemia Lies by the Sea)
Anselm Kiefer
1996
Armor, Steel, leather, German, possibly Lower Saxony
Armor
German, possibly Lower Saxony
ca. 1540–50 and later
Garden View, Brooklyn, Fidelia Bridges American, Watercolor and gouache, with traces of graphite underdrawing, on tan hot-pressed wove paper, American
Garden View, Brooklyn
Fidelia Bridges
ca. 1867
Winter Landscape, Anselm Kiefer German, Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper
Winter Landscape
Anselm Kiefer
1970
Armor, Steel, leather, German, possibly Lower Saxony
Armor
German, possibly Lower Saxony
ca. 1540–50 and later

Related Content

Publications

Books, guides, and catalogues published by The Met.

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.