Little material is available at present about the precise conditions of her execution.
She was aroused at 2 a.m. with no time allowed for dressing. She appeared in her
wrapper unattended except by the regular prison chaplain at the military prison of St.
Giles.
-George Bellows
Of all the atrocities of World War I, few caused as much ire among the American public
as the summary execution of a British Red Cross nurse, Edith Cavell, who was accused by
the Germans of helping Allied soldiers escape. Despite pleas from around the world,
she was executed by a firing squad in October 1915. Bellows painted this scene and created a lithograph on the subject.
The artist and printmaker Joseph Pennell, upon viewing the painting, is supposed to
have commented on Bellows' ability to paint accurately this scene, although not present at
the event. Bellows reportedly answered, "It is true, Mr. Pennell, that I was not
present at Miss Cavell's execution, but I've never heard that Leonardo da Vinci had a
ticket of admission to the Last Supper, either."
Buy the catalogue An American Pulse: The
Lithographs of George Wesley Bellows.
