The British Journal of Psychiatry (2005) 187: A6
© 2005 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Psychiatry in pictures
ALLAN BEVERIDGE
Do you have an image, preferably accompanied by 100 to 200 words of
explanatory text, that you think would be suitable for Psychiatry in Pictures?
Submissions are very welcome and should be sent direct to Dr Allan Beveridge,
Queen Margaret Hospital, Whitefield Road, Dunfermline, Fife KY12 0SU, UK.
Text by Dr David Milnes. Maria en den Ruinen was painted at the
prisoner of war camp in Castleford, Yorkshire in 1946 by Arthur Braun, a
captured German soldier. Before the war Braun had trained in the neue
Sachlichkeit (‘new objectivity’) style and in the camp he
painted with bitumen and powder paints mixed with linseed oil, his canvas
being a bed-sheet from the local convent. The painting reflects a tragic
period in the artist's life. Traumatised by his experiences fighting on the
Russian front and then being taken prisoner during the allied invasion of
France, he was transported to America where he received the news of his wife's
death during the bombing of Freiburg. The diary of a fellow prisoner of war in
America describes him as being in a ‘state of shock’.
Mental imagery is associated with both post-traumatic shock and grief. The
face of this Madonna bears a striking resemblance to his wife, the mountains
and ruins to the remains of his home city of Freiburg. The careful
composition, mixing and laying down of pigment would have acted as a form of
graded exposure to haunting memories. Deprived of a body and funeral ceremony
Braun was able to sublimate his grief through the symbolic act of laying her
image to rest upon a bed sheet, the artistic process acting as the catalyst
for his emotions. Painting owned by Dr David
Milnes.
