  About the Artwork
  
  
  Jacques Lipchitz dedicated several drawings, prints, and a sculpture to the struggle between the ancient Greek hero, Theseus, and the Minotaur, the monster imprisoned in the labyrinth in Crete. Here, as the creature raises his horns and roars, Theseus wrestles his foe from behind. The artist connected the heroism of Theseus to that of Charles de Gaulle, leader of the Free French Forces in World War II. As Lipchitz wrote in his 1972 memoir, “The Minotaur is Hitler and I was thinking about de Gaulle as Theseus . . . I had heard the first speech of de Gaulle from England, in which he said that France had lost a battle but not the war, and it would survive and become victorious.” In May 1940 Lipchitz and his wife fled from Paris before the city was occupied by the German Army. By 1941 they arrived in New York City, where he made this print.
  
  
  Title
  Theseus
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1943
  
  Artist
  Jacques Lipchitz
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1891–1973
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  French and  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Etching, liquid-ground aquatint, and engraving printed in black ink on heavy, cream wove paper
  
  
  Dimensions
  Plate: 13 7/8 × 11 1/4 inches (35.2 × 28.6 cm)
  Sheet: 19 1/2 × 15 inches (49.5 × 38.1 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Prints
  
  
  Department
  Prints, Drawings &amp; Photographs
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, Lee and Tina Hills Graphic Arts Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2011.36
  
  
  Copyright
  Restricted
