Käthe Kollwitz
| Käthe Kollwitz | |
|---|---|
Käthe Kollwitz, 1919
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| Born |
Käthe Schmidt 8 July 1867 Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) |
| Died | 22 April 1945 (aged 77) Moritzburg, Saxony, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Movement | Expressionism |
| Spouse(s) | Karl Kollwitz |
Käthe (Schmidt) Kollwitz (German pronunciation: [kɛːtə kɔlvɪt͡s]), (8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist, who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including The Weavers and The Peasant War, depict the effects of poverty, hunger, and war on the working class. Despite the realism of her early works, her art is now more closely associated with Expressionism. Kollwitz was the first woman elected to the Prussian Academy of Arts.
Kollwitz was born in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), East Prussia, 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 Evangelical State Church in Prussia and founded an independent congregation. Her education was greatly influenced by her grandfather's lessons in religion and socialism.
Recognizing her talent, Kollwitz's father arranged for her to begin lessons in drawing and copying plaster casts when she was twelve. At sixteen she began making drawings of working people, the sailors and peasants she saw in her father's offices. Wishing to continue her studies at a time when no colleges or academies were open to young women, Kollwitz enrolled in an art school for women in Berlin. There she studied with Karl Stauffer-Bern, a friend of the artist Max Klinger. The etchings of Klinger, their technique and social concerns, were an inspiration to Kollwitz.
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