Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz (1867 – 1945), Essay Example

Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz is often considered to be a bona fide artist who in every sense attempted to put forth her thoughts in the most memorable way. Not only is she an inspiration to many artists but has also received recognition from various social circles. Kollwitz played a significant role in enhancing girl-child education following her childhood experience. She exhibited indescribable determination to pursue her education despite the exclusion of girls in the education system during her time. Despite various trials and tribulations occurring during her life, Kollwitz managed to leave a permanent impact in the field or art.

Personal Life History

Kollwitz was born as the fifth child in her family on July 8, 1867. She was born to Karl and Katharina Schmidt in Königsberg, East Prussia. Given that her grandfather was a religious leader, Kollwitz’ education was highly influenced by religion and socialism (Kollwitz and Zigrosser vii). Her talent in art however became visible at an early stage and at twelve; her father enrolled her for lessons in drawing and plaster casts copying (Bittner 2). By the time she was sixteen, she was already drawing working people, peasants and sailors. Kollwitz’ desire to go to college was curtailed by the fact that no colleges were admitting young women by then. She therefore had to go Berlin where she joined a women’s art school in 1884 (Kollwitz and Zigrosser viii). She was greatly inspired by Max Klinger’s and Karl Stauffer-Bern’s techniques and social concerns. This may explain why Kollwitz’ works portrayed common social problems such as war, poverty and hunger. Kollwitz later studied in Munich School for Women Artists (gseart 1). It was during this period that she realized that graphic arts was what she wanted to do and not painting. Kollwitz married Dr. Karl Kollwitz, a workers’ health insurance fund physician, in 1891 (Kollwitz and Zigrosser viii). They lived with him in Berlin and had two sons. Kollwitz visited Paris twice while working on her famous work, The Peasant War, between 1902 and 1908. It was during this period that she joined Académie Julian for lessons on how to sculpt (Bittner 6-7). During the same period, she was hired as a free-lance artist with a Munich monthly known as Simplizissimus. Most of her drawings in the Simplizissimus issues portrayed how working class women lived (Kearns 107).

Kollwitz became the first woman to be nominated as a professor in Preussische Akademie der Künste in 1919 (NMWA 1). When the national-Socialist regime was established in 1933 however, she was forced to resign by the Nazi Party authorities. Further, the Nazi authorities ordered the removal of her work from museums. Kollwitz lost her son Peter in 1914 in World War I and her husband to an illness in 1940. Her house was bombed in 1943 in an air raid during the war and many prints, drawings and documents got lost (Kirjasto 1). Kollwitz spent her final months in Moritzburg at Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony’s estate where she had found refuge. She died just before the war ended, on April 22, 1945. The number of prints made during her time totaled 275, in woodcut, etching and lithography (Kollwitz and Zigrosser xxii).

Works of Art

Käthe Kollwitz’ work encompassed Naturalism and Expressionistic qualities (Kearns 18-22; Kollwitz and Zigrosser xiii). Her works of art were mostly in the form of woodcut, etching and lithography. She also made portraits, virtually images of herself, with are said to have been over fifty; and an idiom of continuous self-appraisal (Kollwitz and Zigrosser xxii). Her major themes revolved on suffering, poverty and injustice. Most of her sculptures and other works of art envisioned suffering peasants, victims of war and the effects of poverty. She even flaunted death in her final major cycle of lithographs. Her motivation to work was highly influenced by her own feelings, observations and what she clearly grasped in others (Kearns 81). She was particularly keen on the lives of the working class and women in Germany and would often sketch their forms in her husband’s waiting room. Drawings such as Waiting for the Drunkard, Homeless, Down the River and Unemployment for example all depicted the poverty endured by Germany’s working class between the 19^th and 20^th century. It is notable that most of Kollwitz works of art used women as the medium for expression (Kearns 81-83). She came up with various pieces made from woodcuts, lithographs and etchings including: The woman and the Dying Child, Mother and Two Children, Piece Worker, End, Woman at the Cradle, Raped, Workman’s Wife, the Prisoners and Workers Going Home among others. She also did a number of pieces as propaganda against war. Examples are Never Again War and the Volunteers (Bittner 11).

While Kollwitz worked on a numerous pieces of art, her major works of art can be explained in terms of cycles. In each of these cycles, she made a number of art pieces based on a particular observable phenomenon.

Kollwitz first major cycle of works was about the Silesian weavers, their oppression and their 1842 failed revolt. The cycle was inspired by Gerhart Hauptmanns’s play known as “The Weavers, which stage showed the above themes (Bittner 4). She made a naturalistic expression of the misery, courage, hope and doom that was eventually suffered by the workers, without necessarily illustrating the drama literary. This cycle was dubbed the weavers’ Uprising.  She made six works in this cycle with three being lithographs while the other three were etchings. The lithographs portrayed poverty, death and conspiracy. The lithographs on the other hand expressed the Weaver’s march, the riot and finally the end. The Weaver’s cycle received wide acclaim from the public after it was publicly exhibited in 1898. As a matter of fact, it is considered Kollwitz’ most commended creation (Brittner 4-5). The approval of its nomination for Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung gold medal in Berlin by Adolf Menzel was however withheld by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The Peasant War was the second major cycle that Kollwitz completed. This cycle, which she worked on between 1902 and 1908 expressed Southern Germany’s early years of the violent revolution which began in 1525. The Peasant War was a period in which peasants took arms against the church and feudal lords after being treated as slaves for a long time. Due to family commitments, Kollwitz had to abandon the Peasant War work from one time to another due to family responsibilities (Kearne 106-108). The Peasant war just like most of her works dramatized the subject from a woman’s perspective. Kollwitz had drawn much inspiration from Black Anna, the woman who incited the Peasant war. To Kollwitz, she catalyzed the serf’s passion to take action against further humiliation, both as a woman and as a serf. Kollwitz used the “passive” woman, who was depicted as a victim of rape and the “active” woman who expressed outrage through her indignation gnarling face (Kearns 105). It is notable that none of Kollwitz’ women were symbols of feminine beauty; they have peasant bodies, strong and enduring; working hard in order to survive. Kollwitz attempted to bring out their inner strength. According to Kearns (106), the release of The Peasant War in 1908 confirmed Kollwitz’ stature as one of Germany’s greatest graphic artists.

After the loss of her son in World War I in 1914, Kollwitz became inspired to do art work on the effect of the war on women, which she undertook for the next few years (Bittner 9-10). She immediately began working on The War, a series of woodcuts depicting effects of the war. Examples of some of her works included the Survivors, Killed in Action and Widows and Orphans. She later made a monument called the Mourning Parents, in memory of her son who died in the war and a number of lithograph collections entitled Death.

Death is considered to be the last major cycle that Kollwitz undertook between 1934 and 1935 (Kirjasto 1). She made eight stones on death with examples being The Call of Death, Woman Welcoming Death, Death as a Friend, Death in the Water and Death Struggles with a Woman.

Criticisms

While Kollwitz’ work has often been praised by various artists and social activists, her work was not without any criticism. Her work was in certain circumstances viewed as politically motivated even though she claimed to be a social expressionist. After the war for example, historians in the West dismissed Kollwitz’ work as propaganda (Kirjasto 1). Her work was once described as “positively distasteful” by a New York Times reviewer. The ‘subversive’ nature of her work is said to have been the reason why Kaiser Wilhelm refused to grant approval for the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung award in which she had been nominated (NMWA 1)

Conclusion

Käthe Kolwitz can be categorized as an expressionist, given that most of her work was based on observable social phenomena. Her feelings played a great role in influencing her ideas as indicated by her reaction to her son’s death in the war. It is notable that despite the various challenges, she has been considered as one of the most influential women artists of the 20^th century.

Works Cited

Bittner Hubert.  Kaethe Kollwitz, drawings. South Brunswick, NJ: T. Yoseloff, 1959.

Galerie St.Etienne (gseart). Käthe Kollwitz German, 1867-1945. Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.gseart.com/artists.asp?ArtistID=67

Kearns, Martha. Käthe Kollwitz: woman and artist. New York: Feminist Press, 1976.

Kirjasto. Käthe Kollwitz(née Schmidt) 1867-1942. Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kollwitz.htm

Kollwitz , Käthe and Zigrosser Carl. Prints and drawings of Käthe Kollwitz. United States: Courier Dover Publications, 1969.

National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). Käthe Kollwitz German, 1867-1945. Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.nmwa.org/collection/profile.asp?LinkID=511