Working Class Woman
Print
1903 (printed)
1903 (printed)
| Artist/Maker |
Kollwitz (née Schmidt) was born in 1867 into a politically radical family. She had originally intended to become a painter, but under the influence of the German etcher Max Kinger she turned to drawing and printmaking. These media she thought more sympathetic to the working-class subjects she encountered, especially after her marriage in 1891 to Karl Kollwitz, a doctor working in one of Berlin's poorest districts. A number of her prints from this period depict - with unsentimental naturalism, but evident sympathy - the careworn features and dispirited demeanour of the proletarian women who consulted her husband. She made no more individual portraits of this kind after the First World War - in which her younger son was killed - instead taking up more universal themes and archetypal images of poverty, grief and suffering.
Object details
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| Titles |
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| Materials and techniques | Colour lithograph on paper |
| Brief description | Colour lithograph, by Kathe Kollwitz, entitled 'Brustbild einer Arbeitfrau' [half-length portrait of a working class woman], 1903 |
| Physical description | Bust portrait of a woman in black, blue, and yellow/flesh-tone |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | Kollwitz (née Schmidt) was born in 1867 into a politically radical family. She had originally intended to become a painter, but under the influence of the German etcher Max Kinger she turned to drawing and printmaking. These media she thought more sympathetic to the working-class subjects she encountered, especially after her marriage in 1891 to Karl Kollwitz, a doctor working in one of Berlin's poorest districts. A number of her prints from this period depict - with unsentimental naturalism, but evident sympathy - the careworn features and dispirited demeanour of the proletarian women who consulted her husband. She made no more individual portraits of this kind after the First World War - in which her younger son was killed - instead taking up more universal themes and archetypal images of poverty, grief and suffering. |
| Bibliographic reference | Timmers, Margaret (Ed). Impressions of the Twentieth Century: Fine Art Prints from the V&A's Collection. London, V&A Publications, 2001. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.6208-1906 |
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| Record created | December 5, 2002 |
| Record URL |
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