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Spaightwood Galleries
Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945): Men
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Most of Kollwitz' prints focus on the suffering and joys of women, which sometimes includes the suffering and joys of the men with whom women interact. Sometimes, however, men take center stage in the theater of the lives that Kollwitz presnets to us. We herewith present several examples.
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Sitzender mannlicher akt / sitting male nude (Klipstein 4 ii/ii, Knesebeck 4 II e/ 4 IIf). Original line etching and drypoint, 1891. Ours is one of the examples of Knesebeck's next to the last state of this print: Editions between 1946/48 and 1963/65, in brown or brown-violet, on various papers, among which lightly yellow or yellow-brown imitation Japan, later on thick, soft velin, some with von der Becke’s stamp of the artist’s signature and/or with von der Becke’s three-line Berlin-Halensee embossed seal. Ours is a fine clear sharp impression in brown-violet ink on velin with von der Becke’s three-line Berlin-Halensee embossed seal. Kollwitz here offers a glimppse of something like Shakespeare's "unaccomodated man" in Act iii, scene iv of King Lear: "Unaccommodated / man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked / animal as thou art." Image size: 295x315mm. Price: $1800.
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Plowing (Kl. 94 ix b). Original etching and aquatint, 1906. Edition: Our impression from the von der Becke edition with his blindstamp. Plate 1 of The Peasants' War. The plate has been destroyed. Signed in the plate. One of Kollwitz' most important woks, it is frequently illustrated in books, including those by Zigrosser, Hinz, Fecht, and the Kleins. The image depicts a peasant almost horizontal with the effort required to pull the plow, taking the place of a missing ox and offers us a glimpse of man as an elemental being heavily burdened by his labors and rising up out of the dirt as if in a moment of new creation. Image size: 312x440mm. Price: $1950.
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Bein Dengeln / Sharpening the scythe (Kl. 90 x / xii b, Knesebeck 88 XIb/XIVc). Original etching, drypopint, sandpaper, aquatint, and soft ground, 1905. Edition: Printed by Otto Felsing and published by Richter in 1921. Engraved lower right corner: "Druck von O. Felsing, Berlin S.W." with the added engraved annotation "1921" lower right. Plate 3 of The Peasants' War series. Remains of old tape on the reverse. A brilliant impression of one of Kollwitz' most famous images: a peasant sharpening his scythe and dreaming of revenge. Image size: 298x298mm. Price: $3200.
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Bein Dengeln / Sharpening the scythe (Kl. 90, Knesebeck 88 XIVc/XIVc). Original etching, drypopint, sandpaper, aquatint, and soft ground, 1905. Edition: Published between 1963 and 1972 on soft thick vellum with von der Becke's Munich emboossed seal. Plate 3 of The Peasants' War series. A brilliant impression of one of Kollwitz' most famous images: a peasant sharpening his scythe and dreaming of revenge. Image size: 298x298mm. Price: $2600.
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Inspiration (Kl. 91, Knesebeck 86 VIIc/X). Original etching, 1905. Edition: designed for The Peasants' War cycle, but not included. Before the engraved script of the 1921 Richter edition and before the row of nearly vertical lines at the middle section of the lower plate edge of the 1946/48 Von der Becke editions. Apparently a proof from the 1918 Richter edition. Printed by Felsing. This is one of Kollwitz' most powerful etchings (but then so are so many others!). Image size: 567x297mm. Price: $3650.
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Inspiration (Kl. 91 ix/ix, Knesebeck 86 X/X). Original etching, 1905. Edition: designed for The Peasants' War cycle, but not included. Printed by Von der Becke (with his dry stamp). Image size: 567x297mm. Price: $2750.
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Verbrüderung / Fraternal love (Kl. 199, von Knesebeck 204d). Original lithograph, 1924. Edition: a. Proofs before the edition. Edition as frontispiece for Henri Barbusse, Der singende Soldat/Mit Einleitung/Die logische Brüderlichkeit [The Singing Soldier/With Foreword/The Logical Brotherhood] (Verlag Friedrich Dehne, Leipzig, 1924). The book was published in an edition of 1,400 copies (700 copies in German and 700 copies in English). b. Some copies [of the book] produced exclusively for the artist, on ribbed laid paper, with the printed comment at the colophon: “Dieses Exemplar wurde für Käthe Kollwitz hergestellt.” [This copy was made for Käthe Kollwitz]. c. 400 deluxe edition copies (200 in German, 200 in English), signed, on ribbed laid paper. The parchment bound book measures circa 330:250 mm. There also are identical separate proofs, possibly also with sheet dimensions larger than those of the book. d. 1,000 general edition copies (500 in German, 500 in English), on wood-free, smooth paper, of which ours is one. Not signed, occasionally with accommodatory signatures. The half-linen book measures circa 330:250 mm. There also are identical separate proofs, possibly also with sheet dimensions larger than those of the book. A good impression of this powerful image of the possibility of humanity's search for love as a relief from pain and oppression. Included in German Expressionist Prints & Drawings, 1989 (LACMA, p. 52). Images size: 235x170mm. Price: $2250.
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Der Agitationsredner / The Agitator (Kl. 224). Original lithograph, 1926. Edition: 25 signed impressions on Japan, 50 signed impressions on white Bütten, and an unsigned edition. Ours is one of the 50 on white Bütten. A powerful and painful study of the politics of the 1920s. Image size: 314x216mm. Price: $6000.
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Vier manner in der kniepe (Kl. 12 iiib). Original soft-ground etching and aquatint, 1892-93. Edition: from the edition of unknown size published in 1921. Kollwitz here captures the conspiratorial and oppressive atmosphere of the German Empire in the late 19th century. This work, while not part of the series, shows Kollwitz already thinking about the themes to be explored in it and could be, von Knesebeck suggests, an early version of Beratung / Conspiracy. Image size: 125x150mm. Price: $1600.
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Der Trauernde / The Mourner (Kl. 137 v Ab, Knesebeck 145bis). Original etching, aquatint, sandpaper, reservage and soft ground with the imprint of laid paper, 1919. A powerful and painful study of the politics of the turbulent period after the end of the First World War in Germany. The attorney Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) along with Rosa Luxemburg led the Marxist organization "Spartakusbund" and participated in the foundation of the KPD [Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands = Communist Party, Germany]. On January 15, 1919, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were murdered by the voluntary militia. Käthe Kollwitz was horrified by the "scandalous, despicable murder". She received permission to draw Liebknecht in the mortuary. Under her impressions of the funeral, which resulted in a mass demonstration of the work force, Kollwitz began the Liebknecht memorial as an etching. According to a diary entry of March 15, 1919, "Today I began work on the ‘Lamentation’”. Late March, 1919, she wrote: "I am working on ‘Funeral’. In the process of working it out it has gradually become a farewell to Liebknecht." As of early October, 1919, Kollwitz revised the Liebknecht memorial as a lithograph (nr. 146), and in fall, 1920, she executed it finally as a woodcut (nr. 159). About the first, etched version, Kollwitz remarked to Heinrich Becker in a letter dated June 1, 1929 (Käthe Kollwitz an Dr. Heinrich Becker, Briefe, Bielefeld, 1967, p. 3): "A series of state proofs exists for the etching ‘Memorial for Karl Liebknecht’. The plate is spoiled and was not completed." No edition was published until after Kollwitz' death. Ours seems to be Knesebeck's 2nd state between 1946/48 and 1963/65 and before the 1963/65-1972 editions with von der Becke's Munich seal. Image size: 274x160mm. Price: $1900.
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Gefangene, Musik hörend / Prisoners listening to music (Kl. 203, Knesebeck 224 II/II). Original crayon lithograph, 1925. Ours is a pencil-signed impression from the final state, after the listener at left was ground out and his head was placed lower. Only the upper half of his head and and an eye are visible. There were proofs on Japan for members of the Kunstverrein (Art Association) of Kassel (1925-27) and an edition of 30 signed impressions published by von der Becke c. 1931, of which ours is one. A haunting image of men beaten down and numbed by their lives, one of whom (the man on the right) appears to be finding some consolation in the music compared to the man in front, who simply seems shell-shocked. Rare. Image size: 334x330 mm. Price: $8650.
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Hambrgger Kniepe / Hamburg Tavern (Kl. 55 iv c/d, Knesebeck 55 IIIc of IIId). Original soft-ground etching and aquatint, 1892-93. Edition: from the edition of unknown size published by von der Becke between 1946/48 nd 1963/65 with von der Becke's three-line Berlin-Halensee embossed seal. In a rare moment, Kollwitz here captures the amusement of two men dancing in a pub while a laughing woman watches them (and us!). Image size: 192x247mm. Price: $2000.
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Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.
To purchase, call us at 1-800-809-3343 (508-529-2511 in Upton MA & vicinity) or send an email to sptwd@verizon.net. We accept AmericanExpress, DiscoverCard, MasterCard, and Visa.
For directions and visiting information, please call. We are, of course, always available over the web and by telephone (see above for contact information). Click the following for links to past shows and artists. For a visual tour of the gallery, please click here. For information about Andy Weiner and Sonja Hansard-Weiner, please click here. For a list of special offers currently available, see Specials.
Visiting hours: Saturday and Sunday noon to 6 pm and other times by arrangement. Please call to confirm your visit. Browsers and guests are welcome.
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