|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Spaightwood Galleries
120 Main Street, Upton MA 01568-6193
Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867-1945): Self-Portraits
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of the greatest graphic artists of all time, Kollwitz, the granddaughter of a radical preacher and the daughter of a union organizer, a pacifist, a lover of children, and a socialist, spent her life in an autocratic state which, whether ruled by the Kaiser or the Nazis, hated everything for which she stood. The first woman to be elected professor at the Prussian Academy, she lost her position as soon as Hitler came to power. The two prints shown at German Expressionism—Der Agitationsredner / The Agitator (Kl. 224) and Verbrüderung / Fraternal love (Kl. 199b)—seem to sum up the possibilities that Kollwitz foresaw for her country in the 1920s, either to follow those voices inciting hatred and setting each against the other or to find a way for all to live together in loving harmony. Kollwitz's art shows us one who responded to her country's choice with anguished protest, as if each print might finally be the one to bring Germany back to her senses.
Selected bibliography: Herbert Bittner, Kaethe Kollwitz: Drawings (NY: Yoseloff, 1959), Tom Fecht, ed., Käthe Kollwitz: Works in Color (NY: Schocken Books, 1988), Martha Kearns, Kathe Kollwitz: Woman and Artist (Old Westbury CN: Feminist Press, 1976), Mina C. Klein & H Arthur Kathe Kollwitz: Life in Art (NY: Schocken Books, 1975), August Klipstein, The Graphic Work of Käthe Kollwitz: Complete Illustrated Catalogue (NY: Galerie St. Etienne, 1955), Hans Kollwitz, Ich sah die Welt mit liebevollen Blicken: Kathe Kollwitz: Ein Leben in Selbstzeugnissen, ed. Hans Kollwitz (Hannover: Schmidt-Kuster GMBH, 1968), Hans Kollwitz, ed. The Diary and Letters of Kaethe Kollwitz, trans. Richard and Clara Winston (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1988), Kathe Kollwitz, Das Neue Kollwitz Werk (Dresden: Carl Reissner, 1933), Kathe Kollwitz, Die Graphische Kunst von Kathe Kollwitz (Berlin: A v Der Becke, 1932), Kathe Kollwitz, Käthe Kollwitz Mappe (München: Georg D W Callwey, n d), Malcolm E Lein, Kaethe Kollwitz (St. Paul: Minnesota Museum of Art, 1973), Otto Nagel, Die Selbstbildnisse der Kathe Kollwitz (Berlin: Henscelverlag, 1965), Otto Nagel, The Drawings of Käthe Kollwitz (NY: Crown Publishers, Inc , 1972), Fritz Schmalenbach, Kathe Kollwitz (Konigstein im Taunus: Die Blauen Bucher, 1986), Elizabeth Prelinger, Käthe Kollwitz (Washington, D C : National Gallery of Art, 1992), Carl Zigrosser, Prints and Drawings of Käthe Kollwitz (NY: Dover, 1969)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Self-portrait seated at a table n. 2 (Kl. 14v). Original etching with aquatint, c. 1892. Edition: a pencil-signed impression from a von der Becke edition after 1922 with his drystamp. A very good impression with rich surface marking and good plate tone. This is one of Kollwitz' earliest self-portraits. Here she presents herself at about twenty-five years of age seated at a table with her papers—probably drawings or prints—spread out in front of her. Image size: 178x128mm. Price: SOLD.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Self-portrait seated at a table n. 2 (Kl. 14vb). Original etching with aquatint, c. 1892. Edition: an impression from a von der Becke edition c. 1931 with his drystamp. A very good impression with surface marking and good plate tone. This is one of Kollwitz' earliest self-portraits. Here she presents herself at about twenty-five years of age seated at a table with her papers—probably drawings or prints—spread out in front of her. Image size: 178x128mm. Price: $1525.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
An der kirchenmauer / By the Church wall: Self-Portrait (Kl. 19 VIb). Original etching, 1893. Edition: from the von der Becke edition after 1931 with his drystamp. The face and hands of the subject are clearly modelled upon Kollwitz herself, making this a self-portrait, even though, according to Nagel, its inspiration was a homeless woman sitting by a church. Image size: 215x129mm. Price: $1750.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Tod und Frau / Death and Woman /self-portrait (Klipstein 103, Knesebeck 107 VIIIb). Original Line etching, drypoint, sandpaper, soft ground with imprint of granulated tone paper and Ziegler’s transfer paper, and roulette, 1910. 50 signed and numbered impressions (state Vd). After this edition, the plate, which was damaged in the war, was reworked: among other repairs, roulette lines upon the child’s right foot and the woman’s right upper leg; the entire background appears as if it had been cleaned; the script at left (At left: "Orig. Rad. von Käte Kollwitz") and right ("Druck v. O. Felsing, Berlin-Chlttbg.") is still partially visible. Our impression is from a von der Becke edition between 1963/65 and 1972, in brown on thick, soft velin, with von der Becke’s Munich embossed seal. After this edition, the plate was no longer printed; the plate exists (Kunstsammlung Akademie Berlin, loan). One of Kollwitz' most frequently illustrated prints. Image size: 393x391mm. Price: $3850.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Death, woman, and child /self-portrait (Kl. 113 xiv; Knesebeck 108 XIV/XVb). Original etching, 1910. Knesebeck describes states XIII and XIV as follows. State XIII: Richter edition of 1921--"With engraved script along the lower edge of the plate: at left: "Orig. Rad. von Käte Kollwitz"; at center: "VERLAG VON EMIL RICHTER, DRESDEN"; at right: "Druck v. O. Felsing, Berlin-Chlttbg." The edition was printed in brown on copperplate paper; it was unsigned, but occasionally had accommodatory signatures. Some proofs with Richter’s stamp of the artist’s signature and with Richter’s embossed seal. XIV: Richter’s address was removed. Published in an edition by von der Becke, circa 1931; printed in brown, on copperplate paper, most signed "Kollwitz” in lower right; XV: The remaining script removed. Editions by von der Becke as of 1946/48 with either his Berlin or Munich drystamps.
Ours lacks Richter's address, but still has the script lower left and lower right, and lacks von der Becke's drystamp, fitting Knesebeck's state XIV. The plate exists and is on loan to the Kunstsammlung Akademie Berlin. One of Kollwitz' most frequently illustrated prints. Image size: 393x391mm. Price: SOLD.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 122 vii.e). Original soft-ground etching and aquatint, 1912. Published by von der Becke c. 1945. Good impression with plate tone. Remains of old tape on rear, stained well away from the image. Image size: 140x99mm. Price: $1975.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 133d). Original lithograph, 1919. 25 signed impressions on Japon plus 175 on Bütten in 1919. There were also two additional editions, one by Emil Richter and a 1931 von der Becke edition, both of unknown size, a few of which were signed, but others (like ours), were not. Some creasing in the margins; lower left corner has a repaired tear on the right. Reproduced on the cover of Renate Hinz, Käthe Kollwitz, Graphics, Posters, Drawings (NY: Randon House, 1981). Image size: 340x290mm. Price: $2875.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 145 1b / IIIb). Original lithograph, 1920. From the first edition published in Karl Pfister, "Deutsch Graphiker der Gegenwart" (Leipsig, 1920) in an edition of 600 impressions with a text verso: "Käte Kollwitz: Selbstbildnis / Originallithographie." There were also two other editions, one by E. Richter and a 1931 von der Becke edition. Image size: 235x200mm . Price: $2600.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 155, von Knesebeck 171 vi: b). Original etching with burnisher, 1921. States I-V show Kollwitz making corrections; state VI is the final state. Von Knesebeck describes state A as proofs before the first edition, which was published in two parts: 30 impressions on imperial Japan paper (State B) and 120 signed and numbered impressions on either ribbed laid paper or on velin, as ours, which is signed in pencil lower right and numbered 30/120 lower left (State C). Ours is a superb impression with the blacks printing very darkly both on the shoulder and the hand supporting her head. One of Kollwitz' greatest self-portraits, another impression of this print was acquired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts several years ago. Like ours, their impression has a very small paper flaw just above the hair center right by the platemark (perhaps impurities in the paper mix). State D consists of editions since 1947 with damage in the lower plate. Image size: 217x266mm. Price: $8750.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 155 vii/vii, von Knesebeck 171 vi: d). Original etching with aquatint, 1921. Published after 1947 by von der Becke with his two-line Muenchen22 drystamp lower right. A very rich impression of this important self-portrait with very good plate tone. Printed in dark bistre ink. One of Kollwitz' greatest self-portraits, another impression of this print was acquired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts several years ago. Image size: 217x266mm. Price: $3750.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 155 vii/vii, von Knesebeck 171 vi: d). Original etching with aquatint, 1921. Published after 1947 by von der Becke with his two-line Muenchen22 drystamp lower right. A very good impression of this important self-portrait with very good plate tone. Printed in bistre ink. One of Kollwitz' greatest self-portraits, another impression of this print was acquired by the National Museum of Women in the Arts several years ago. Image size: 217x266mm. Price: $3250.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 168 xiv/xiv, Knesebeck 193, Zigrosssr 42). Original woodcut, 1923. 275 impressions signed in pencil lower right published in 1923, of which this is one, plus an unknown number of unsigned impressions. Published by Emil Richter in Ludwig Kaemmerer's Kaethe Kollwitz (Dresden, 1923) and numbered in the book colophon 201 of 275. One of Kollwitz' most striking prints. Image size: 150x155mm. Price: SOLD.
One of Kollwitz's most memorable self-portraits, this stark self depiction is illustrated in Otto Nagel's Käthe Kollwitz (1971), Nagel's Die Selfbildnesse der Käthe Kollwitz (1965), Elizabeth Prelinger's Käthe Kollwitz (1992), published by Yale to accompany the retrospective at the National Gallery of Art , and Zigrosser's Prints and Drawings of Käthe Kollwitz (1969),
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Self Portrait (Kl. 198, von Knesebeck 209). Original crayon lithograph, 1924. This is one of Kollwitz's most expressive self-portraits and is frequently illustrated in books on Kollwitz, including Gerhard Strauss' study, where it is reproduced on the front cover. Our impression is a collotype published by von der Becke with his 3-line Berlin-Halensee drystamp. The collotype was presumably made after Kollwitz's studio was destoyed by bombs in 1944. A new plate was made ( c. 1944-1946) from one of the impressions of the original lithograph and printed with the concurrance of either Kollwitz or her son Hans by von der Becke, who had been printing her new works from the 1930s on. Image size: 282x221mm . Price: $1750.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Self-portrait in profile facing right (Kl. 265 iii/iii). Original lithograph, 1938. Fine impression on wove paper. Kollwitz, like Durer, Rembrandt, and Picasso, often portrayed herself in her art. In this very famous work, she shows herself as old but unbowed. This is her last self-portrait. Image size: 475x290mm. Price: $4000.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.
To purchase, call us at 1-800-809-3343 (508-529-2511 in Upton MA & vicinity) or send an email to sptwd@verizon.net. We accept AmericanExpress, DiscoverCard, MasterCard, and Visa.
For directions and visiting information, please call. We are, of course, always available over the web and by telephone (see above for contact information). Click the following for links to past shows and artists. For a visual tour of the gallery, please click here. For information about Andy Weiner and Sonja Hansard-Weiner, please click here. For a list of special offers currently available, see Specials.
Visiting hours: Saturday and Sunday noon to 6 pm and other times by arrangement. Please call to confirm your visit. Browsers and guests are welcome.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|