Käthe Kollwitz

Around 1910, Kollwitz turned away from historical imagery toward more socially critical works. This drawing acts as a preparatory design for the etching (seen below). Two parents, hunched over in misery, carry their dead child after an accident. In the print, a crowd of stunned children surrounds them. Kollwitz evokes the metaphorical “invisibility” of the lower classes, which are literally and metaphorically run over by governmental neglect and the increasing momentum of modern culture.