Käthe Kollwitz

Kollwitz’s method of working a copper plate has been the subject of much discussion among artists and scholars. It is likely that she laid a sheet of paper over a copper plate prepared with soft ground; she then drew on the paper with a hard pencil, producing a soft, grainy texture. Kollwitz also impressed the soft ground with fabric and Ziegler’s transfer paper. Her use of transfer paper to create a minute, overall dot pattern on many of her intaglio prints has often been mistaken for photolithography. A close look at this sheet will reveal the dots created by this innovative technique.