Käthe Kollwitz was confronted with death early in her life. So died three of her siblings. All her life she had a conversation with death, the sister once wrote. At the age of 20 Kollwitz came to the Munich before the turn of the century. Kollwitz had grown up in Königsberg and studied in Berlin at a drawing school for girls. She came to Munich at her father's request. He was concerned about her artistic career, as she had become engaged to the medical student Karl Kollwitz. She liked the tranquil Munich. Her fellow students, however, mocked Käthe. Because an art student who was at the same time well bourgeoisly engaged, one did not like to see that. In addition to the judgmental looks of the others, Kollwitz also had difficulties in artistic terms. In her opinion, the others were much more talented in painting. When she then discovered a brochure about painting and drawing, she realized that she was actually not a painter. Now her true talent could unfold. Through drawing, Kollwitz was able to bring out the essential in people like no other person. Thus she was able to develop her penmanship, the work with charcoal, pen and pencil, to the highest level of mastery. By interpreting her time, she was able to discover a reality that remains hidden to most artists.
Kollwitz often accompanied her husband to his patients and got to know the misery in the poor districts of Berlin. She felt a certain beauty in the suffering and gloom of proletarian life. From her encounters with the workers, Kollwitz developed a sense of obligation to serve the workers with her art. Even if many contemporaries did not recognize any sense of purpose in art, their highest ideal was to work with their art.
Kollwitz, however, never wanted to be seen merely as a performer of the proletariat. She recognized early on that people suffer not only from their class-related circumstances, but also from the inescapable laws of life, of separation and death. The year 1914 and the associated outbreak of the First World War underpinned her view of the suffering of life once again. Käthe Kollwitz had two sons when the war broke out, Hans and Peter. Peter was 18 years old when the war broke out and he volunteered for the front. Only 18 days after Käthe Kollwitz brought her son to the train station, he had fallen. Käthe Kollwitz could not get over the death of her son. © Meisterdrucke
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Käthe Kollwitz was confronted with death early in her life. So died three of her siblings. All her life she had a conversation with death, the sister once wrote. At the age of 20 Kollwitz came to the Munich before the turn of the century. Kollwitz had grown up in Königsberg and studied in Berlin at a drawing school for girls. She came to Munich at her father's request. He was concerned about her artistic career, as she had become engaged to the medical student Karl Kollwitz. She liked the tranquil Munich. Her fellow students, however, mocked Käthe. Because an art student who was at the same time well bourgeoisly engaged, one did not like to see that. In addition to the judgmental looks of the others, Kollwitz also had difficulties in artistic terms. In her opinion, the others were much more talented in painting. When she then discovered a brochure about painting and drawing, she realized that she was actually not a painter. Now her true talent could unfold. Through drawing, Kollwitz was able to bring out the essential in people like no other person. Thus she was able to develop her penmanship, the work with charcoal, pen and pencil, to the highest level of mastery. By interpreting her time, she was able to discover a reality that remains hidden to most artists.
Kollwitz often accompanied her husband to his patients and got to know the misery in the poor districts of Berlin. She felt a certain beauty in the suffering and gloom of proletarian life. From her encounters with the workers, Kollwitz developed a sense of obligation to serve the workers with her art. Even if many contemporaries did not recognize any sense of purpose in art, their highest ideal was to work with their art.
Kollwitz, however, never wanted to be seen merely as a performer of the proletariat. She recognized early on that people suffer not only from their class-related circumstances, but also from the inescapable laws of life, of separation and death. The year 1914 and the associated outbreak of the First World War underpinned her view of the suffering of life once again. Käthe Kollwitz had two sons when the war broke out, Hans and Peter. Peter was 18 years old when the war broke out and he volunteered for the front. Only 18 days after Käthe Kollwitz brought her son to the train station, he had fallen. Käthe Kollwitz could not get over the death of her son. © Meisterdrucke
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