Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 2 3 4 / 4 Next

Käthe Kollwitz

Study for Unemployed; verso: Self-Portrait and Standing Woman, ca. 1910

Description

Maker

  • Käthe Kollwitz, 1867-1945, German

Title

Study for Unemployed; verso: Self-Portrait and Standing Woman

Year

ca. 1910

Medium

Gouache and ink on grey paper; verso: graphite on grey paper

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • gouache,
  • ink

Techniques

  • brush

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

46 x 34.6 cm (18 1/8 x 13 5/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Signed in pencil in LR:Kathe Kollwitz

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Drawings and Watercolors

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

62.113

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Facing Artists

February 27 - July 31, 2009

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.

Dreams and Nightmares

November 5, 2004 - January 23, 2005

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.

Expressionist Visions

December 4, 1992 - January 24, 1993

German Expressionist Prints and Drawings

June 20 - August 16, 1986

Recent Accessions

September 3-22, 1963

Related

Käthe Kollwitz

Unemployed, 1924-1925

More objects +

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in Copyright. This object is Study for Unemployed; verso: Self-Portrait and Standing Woman with the accession number of 62.113. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use