Tod und Frau (Death and Woman)

Käthe Kollwitz, artist

1867–1945

Tod und Frau (Death and Woman), 1910

Where object was made: Germany

Material/technique: soft-ground etching; sandpaper; aquatint

Dimensions:
Plate Mark/Block Dimensions (Height x Width): 447.67 x 447.67 mm
Plate Mark/Block Dimensions (Height x Width): 17 5/8 x 17 5/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 32 x 24 in

Credit line: Gift of Ernest J. Bubieniec

Accession number: 1976.0087

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label:
"Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums
Kollwitz’s prints address oppression, injustice, war, and loss. In this etching, the female figure is caught between the clutches of Death and the grasping embrace of a child.

Archive Label 2003:
Much of the work of artist Käthe Kollwitz serves as an indictment of the social conditions in Germany during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Images of death, war and injustice dominate her work, which resounds with compassion for the oppressed. In her haunting etching Tod und frau, or Death and Woman, Kollwitz portrays a sickly woman who struggles with the figure of Death.

Kollwitz actively promoted women’s involvement in the arts. In 1914, Kollwitz was elected president of the Women’s Art Union, a group dedicated to “securing the right of women to teach and study in all public art schools.” She also helped found the Society for Women Artists and Friends of Art in 1926.