Käthe Kollwitz

In this sketchy, contemplative drawing, Käthe Kollwitz, for whom self-portraits were a mainstay, concentrated on her face and hands. Kollwitz studied Albrecht Dürer’s compositions of hands at Berlin’s Kupferstichkabinett (Cabinet of Prints and Drawings) and was fascinated by their expressive qualities throughout her life. “Only the total attitude and the face and hands speak to me,” she wrote in her journal in 1919. On the edge of this page is a quick study of one of the working-class women Kollwitz also so often depicted.

In 1923, Germany experienced a terrifying economic inflation. Vast numbers of workers were unemployed and their families starving. The recto of this sheet has a preparatory drawing for the woodcut Unemployed, one of three in the series The Proletariat, published in 1925. Working from dark to light tones, Kollwitz brought out the despair and hunger experienced by millions. The artist may have been thriftily reusing a sheet from an earlier drawing. The verso reveals a contemplative self-portrait and a quick study of one of the working-class women Kollwitz so often depicted.