Kathe Kollwitz
German painter, sculptor, and printmakerEarly Years / Family Life
Kathe Schmidt Kollwitz was born the fifth child in her family. Her father, Karl Schmidt, was a radical Social democrat who became a mason and house builder. Her mother, Katherina Schmidt, was the daughter of Julius Rupp, a Lutheran pastor who was expelled from the official State Church and founded an independent congregation. The early death of her younger brother Benjamin also left an impression and in childhood Kollwitz was afflicted with anxiety.Education
Kollowitz' education was greatly influenced by her grandfather's lessons in religion and socialism. Her father encouraged her talent for drawing and arranged for private instruction before sending her to art school for women in Berlin.1884 / School for Women Artists
Influences
realists Max Klinger and Wilhelm Leiblthe realist wrtings of Zola
Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch
Themes in Artwork
deathpoverty
suffering
illness
war
injustice
Timeline
- 1876 / born on July 8th in Konigsberg, East Prussia
- 1884 / attends the School for Women Artists in Berlin
- 1885 to 1890 / studies with Stauffer-Bern (Berlin) and with Herterich (Munich)
- 1890 / completes first etchings
- 1891 / marries Dr. Karl Kollwitz who settles in a working class area of north Berlin
- 1892 / son Hans is born
- 1896 / son Peter is born
- 1898 / the graphic cycle A Weavers'Rebellion is shown at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung
- 1898 to 1903 / teaches at the Berlin School of Women Artists
- 1902 to 1908 / works on the series Peasant War
- 1904 / visits Paris, meets with Rodin and Steinlen
- 1907 / spends one year in Florence (Villa Romana Prize)
- 1910 / first attempts with sculpture
- 1914 / son Peter is killed on October 22 in WWI
- 1917 / her fiftieth birthday exhibition at Paul Cassirer's gallery in Berlin
- 1919 / becomes a member of the Prussian Academy of Art
- 1919 to 1920 / works on a commemorating woodcut dedicated to Karl LieLknecht, a revolutionary socialist who was assassinated in 1919
- 1922 to 1925 / woodcut series War and Proletariat
- 1927 / journey to Moscow
- 1928 / head of the Master Class for the Graphic Arts at the Academy
- 1932 / dedication of the war memorial The Parents at the military cemetery in Vladsloo, Flanders
- 1933 / Hitler comes to power - after resignation from the Prussian Academy of Art Kollwitz looses her position as head of the Master Class for the Graphic Arts
- 1934 to 1935 / cycle of eight Lithographs titled Death
- 1936 / is not allowed to exhibit anymore - her works are removed from museums and galleries
- 1940 / Karl Kollwitz dies
- 1943 to 1944 / evacuated to Nordhausen - moves to Moritzburg, near Dresden upon invitation of Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony
- 1945 / dies on April 22nd in Moritzburg, shortly before the end of the war
Examples of Work
Woman with Dead Child / 1903 / etching
The Mothers / 1921 / pen and brush
The Widow / 1923 / woodcut on paper / 15 x 9 inches