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120 Main Street, Upton MA 01568-6193

Updated: 4-20-09
Home / Gallery Tour 1 / German Expressionism / Gallery Tour 2 / Artists

Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945): Images of Women I

Kollwitz: Introductory / Kollwitz Self-Portraits / Kollwitz 2: Weavers' revolt / Kollwitz 3: Mothers
Kollwitz 4: Tragedies / Kollwitz 5: Women / Kollwitz 6: Women 2 / Kollwitz 7: Peasants' War / Kollwitz 8: Men

German Expressionism: Survey I / Survey II / Survey III

"Käthe Kollwitz and German Expressionism" featured over fifty works by Käthe Kollwitz plus additional works by Ernst Barlach, Rudolf Bauer, Max Beckmann, Peter Behrens, Heinrich Campendonck, Marc Chagall, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger,
Conrad Felixmuller, Hans Fronius, Otto Greiner, Georg Grosz, Erich Heckel, Hannah Hoch, Karl Hofer, Wassily Kandinsky,
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Oskar Kokoschka, Ludwig Meidner, Edvard Munch, Gabrielle Munter, Heinrich Nauen,
Emile Nolde, Max Pechstein, Hilla von Rebay, Georges Rouault, Rudolf Schlichter, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Siegfried Schott,
Georg Tappert, Wilhelm Wagner, and others.

German Expressionist Drawings

The Russians: Chagall, Sonia Delaunay, Goncharova, Larionov, and Malevich
As might be expected of an artist active at the end of the nineteenth century and for much of the first half of the twentieth, Kollwitz' frequently created images of women; unlike her malle colleagues, however, almost none of them were nudes (there is one very early figure study of a woman; there is also one study of a naked man). Kollwitz seems to have been much more interested in examining the joys and the sorrows of being a woman, which often means the joys and the sorrows of being human.
Stehender weiblicher akt / Standing nude (Kl. 46 iic). Original etching, 1900. Our impression is from the von der Becke edition after 1931 with the publisher's drystamp. Fine impression on vellum. Image size: 177x137mm. Price: $1750.
Schwangere frau / Pregnant Women (Kl. 108 vib, Knesebeck 111 V). Original etching, aquatint, drypoint and soft ground with the imprint of laid paper and Ziegler’s transfer paper, 1910. 50 signed impressions printed by Richter in 1918; our impression is from State V, the Richter edition of 1921, which Knesebeck describes as follows: "With engraved script along the lower edge of the plate. At left: 'Orig. Rad. von Käte Kollwitz'. At center: 'VERLAG VON EMIL RICHTER, DRESDEN'. At right: 'Druck v. O. Felsing, Berlin-Chlttbg.' Richter edition, 1921. In brown, on copperplate paper. Not signed, but occasionally with accommodatory signatures. Some proofs with Richter’s stamp of the artist’s signature and with Richter’s embossed seal." After state V, the engraved script present on our impression was removed and there were editions by von der Becke in 1931 and again, after the roulette was retouched, in 1946 and 1948. The plate has been destroyed and there will be no additional impressions pulled. Image size: 377x235mm. Price: $3250.
Frau mit ubereinandergelegten handen / Pregnant woman with folded hands (Kl. 41 vi, Knesebeck 41 vib / viib). Original etching, 1898-99. From a von der Becke edition after 1931 (with the publisher's 2-line Munchen seal). A very rich and clear impression on copperplate paper in brown ink before the later over-inked editions. In a 1927 study, this work, with Kollwitz's facsimile inscription, is titled Shwangere / Pregnant Woman. Paul Prouté listed an unsigned impression of the fourth state for $3000 in their Autumn 1990 catalogue. Image size: 286x228mm. Price: $2450.
Frau mit ubereinandergelegten handen / Pregnant woman with folded hands (Kl. 41 vi, Knesebeck 41 vib / viib). Original etching, 1898-99. From a von der Becke edition after 1931 (with the publisher's 2-line Munchen seal). A very rich and clear impression on copperplate paper in brown ink with lots of detail in the image. In a 1927 study, this work, with Kollwitz's facsimile inscription, is titled Shwangere / Pregnant Woman. Paul Prouté listed an unsigned impression of the fourth state for $3000 in their Autumn 1990 catalogue. Image size: 286x228mm. Price: $1875.
Frau mit ubereinandergelegten handen / Pregnant woman with folded hands (Kl. 41 vi, Knesebeck 41 vib / viib). Original etching, 1898-99. From a von der Becke edition after 1931 (with the publisher's 2-line Munchen seal). A rich and dark impression on copperplate paper in brown ink with detail in the left side of the image; the right is now very dark with lots of inkk left on the plate after wiping. In a 1927 study, this work, with Kollwitz's facsimile inscription, is titled Shwangere / Pregnant Woman. Paul Prouté listed an unsigned impression of the fourth state for $3000 in their Autumn 1990 catalogue. Image size: 286x228mm. Price: $1750.
Mutter mit kind auf dem arm / Mother with her child in her arms (Kl. 110 iv, Knesebeck 114 V/VII d). Original etching, 1910. Edition: an unsigned impression from the edition printed by Otto Felsing. "With engraved script along the lower edge of the plate. At left: "Orig. Rad. von Käte Kollwitz". At center: "VERLAG VON EMIL RICHTER, DRESDEN". At right: "Druck v. O. Felsing, Berlin-Chlttbg." Richter edition, 1921. Proofs in brown, on copperplate paper. On illuminated areas, such as the child’s cheek, there is no plate tone. Not signed, but occasionally with accommodatory signatures." This joyful etching is one of the few that Kollwitz executed that shows people enjoying life's innocent pleasures. This is one of Kollwitz's most sought-after etchings. Image size: 193x131mm. Price: $2750.
Uberfahren / Run Over (Kl. 104, Knesebeck 110 IVc; plate destroyed). Original etching and soft ground with the imprint of laid paper and Ziegler's transfer paper, before September 1910. Edition: published as the first annual premium of the "Freunde graphischer Kunst," Leipzig, 1913. There are also some separate proofs signed by the artist. Printed on thick, firm velin. In the first state, only the dead child and her parents are visible. Kollwitz then added the horrified children following their dead playmate. Image size: 248x317mm. Price: $2850.
Beim Artz / At the Doctor's (Kl. 150, Knesebeck 157 III/III). Original crayon lithograph, 1920. Edition: 30 signed and numbered impressions on Japon paper plus an edition on Bütten before text; 30 signed and numbered impressions on Japon paper plus an edition on Bütten and an unsigned edition on poster paper with text. Our impression is a signed impression on poster paper with the text trimmed off printed in Prussia as a large edition on thin, brown machine-made paper, occasionally signed as ours. According to a doctor who examined the image, the child is suffering from tuberculosis or "consumption," as it would then have been more commonly known. Since there was then no cure for the is highly contagious disease, the mother is hearing not simply a death sentence for her son, but probably for herself and any other children she might have. Image size: 190x253mm. Price: $5250.

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