Käthe Kollwitz

The death of her son Peter as a soldier in World War I devastated Kollwitz. In two different prints entitled Mothers, Kollwitz depicted women protecting their young children. The preparatory drawing (1999.92) for the first print reveals her initial emphasis on the haggard mother at left. Only later did she add her own self-portrait to the final lithograph seen here.

On February 6, 1919, Kollwitz wrote in her diary: “Today on Peter’s birthday I can do it. I drew the mother, who encloses both her children, it’s me with my own children, born of my flesh, my Hans and my little Peter” (cited in Martin Fritsch, ed., Käthe Kollwitz:

Zeichnung, Grafik, Plastik. Leipzig: 1999, p. 192).