Wilhelm Morgner; Mann in Landschaft (Man with Landscape); 1913; charcoal on cream laid paper; 18 5/8 in. x 24 13/16 in. (47.31 cm x 63.02 cm); Wilhelm Morgner; a student of Georg Tappert (1880--1957); connected through his teacher with the pre-World War I art scene in Berlin. Franz Marc (1880--1916) and Vassily Kandinsky (1866--1944) invited Morgner to exhibit with the Blue Rider group; and this association not only opened many more doors to the young artist; it also deeply influenced his work. Combining the view of a miner at work with a panoramic mountain landscape and a cosmic vision; this drawing expresses Morgner's view of the human condition. Characteristically; he chose not to draw the harbinger of the coming spiritual age; Kandinsky's beloved blue rider; but the laborer; who toils away unseen. Morgner was drafted in 1913 and killed in action shortly after; Tappert rescued his work from oblivion. In retrospect; it has proven impossible to see Morgner's ecstatic landscapes as anything other than a foreshadowing of the tragedy of modern warfare.