Death, Woman and Child, Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz
Death, Woman and Child
de
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Käthe Kollwitz: Tod, Frau und Kind, Druckplatte. Stiftung Archiv der Akademie der Künste, Kunstsammlung, Berlin

Käthe Kollwitz

Death, Woman and Child, 1910


Blatt
561 x 730 mm
Platte
404 x 407 mm
Physical Description
Line etching, drypoint, sandpaper, and soft ground
Inventory Number
SG 4349
Object Number
SG 4349 D
Acquisition
Acquired in 1964 from the collection of Helmut and Hedwig Goedeckemeyer
Status
Can be presented in the study room of the Graphische Sammlung (special opening hours)

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About the Work

Kollwitz repeatedly depicted mother and child, naked bodies inseparably intertwined. When she expands these compositions to include the figure of Death, it is not as a detached vis-à-vis. Rather, Death joins the embrace.

With this physical—indeed, corporal—‘entanglement’, the artist achieved a new and entirely unconventional way of formulating the classical pictorial subject.

About the Acquisition

Immediately after World War I, the art connoisseur and bibliophile Helmut Goedeckemeyer (1898–1983) began amassing one of the largest collections of prints by Käthe Kollwitz. He supplemented these holdings with works of late nineteenth-century French and German printmaking, illustrated books by Max Slevogt, Alfred Kubin and others, and small-scale sculptures by such artists as Aristide Maillol. His collection ultimately encompassed more than 5,000 works. Goedeckemeyer’s close ties to the Städel Museum date back to the 1920s. From 1959 onwards, he and his wife Hedwig were members of the Städelscher Museums-Verein (Städel Museum Association). The City of Frankfurt acquired his Kollwitz collection for the Städtische Galerie (Municipal Gallery) in 1964. He made several gifts to the Städel collection of prints and drawings over the years, and in 1970 presented the museum with Honoré Daumier’s “Ratapoil” (inv. no. St.P391).

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Last update

10.10.2024