Mondesfinsternis bei Vollmond – an der Donau 1943

Karl Wiener made this sketch of a lunar eclipse on the Danube in 1943. What might it have meant to create an image like this, at that place and time? The Danube, one of Europe's great rivers, flows through Wiener’s native Austria. His sketch invites us to contemplate the relationship between nature and culture, and between a particular place and the sweep of history. Made during the height of the Second World War, the eclipse could be read as an omen or simply as a record of a moment of dramatic natural beauty. Either way, the almost complete blotting out of the moon might evoke the dark shadow that had fallen over Europe. To interpret this image more fully, the historian might consult weather records, personal letters and diaries, or even folklore about eclipses, in order to uncover the meanings it might have held for the artist and his contemporaries.