This hand-colored wood engraving by Erik Obermann depicts two figures trudging homeward through a winter night, their exaggerated facial features and body language conveying exhaustion and hardship. The smaller figure on the right appears subordinate to the taller man on the left, who brandishes a walking stick in a gesture suggesting authority or dominance. A cottage glimmers in the background.
The print belongs to the European tradition of social caricature descended from Hogarth and Rowlandson, wherein grotesque physiognomy and posture satirized class hierarchies and human folly. Such satirical wood engravings served as precursors to the sequential narrative and visual exaggeration that would define the emerging comic strip medium.
About this artifact
- Creator
- Obermann, Erik
- Date
- 1908
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.
Part of our mission to preserve and restore the public-domain heritage of the medium.