Käthe Kollwitz

After a visit to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, Kollwitz wrote in her journal:

I saw a beautiful Filippo Lippi-Mantegna-Van Der Goes, and a painting by an unknown of around 1440: the Trinity [the painting is now attributed to Konrad Witz]. To the right you see the meeting of Mary and Elisabeth. They stand facing one another, dressed in wide mantles, which enfolded the whole into one group. They are holding their mantles open, and in their swollen abdomens you see the coming children, Jesus and John. The faces are earnest and dedicated. How beautiful it all was. It lifted me out of the daily dreariness of politics. [Entry of February 1922]

For the present print, Kollwitz carved on a softer wood than previously. The soft wood allowed her to use a file on such details as the women’s necks and fingers, lending the composition a sculptural quality with almost no use of actual line.