Spaightwood Galleries

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 immediately below—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 away 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 this 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, Käthe Kollwitz (Greenwich: New York Graphic Society, 71); 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).

Verbrüderung / Fraternal love (Kl. 199b). Original lithograph, 1924. Edition: 400 signed impressions. A good impression with the remains of old paper-tape around the borders verso. A powerful image of the possibility of humanity's search for love as a relief from pain and oppression. Included in German Expressionist Prints & Drawings, 1989 (LACMA, p. 52). Images size: 235x170mm. Price: SOLD.

Verbrüderung / Fraternal love (Kl. 199b). Original lithograph, 1924. Edition: 400 signed impressions. A good impression of this powerful image of the possibility of humanity's search for love as a relief from pain and oppression. Included in German Expressionist Prints & Drawings, 1989 (LACMA, p. 52). Images size: 235x170mm. Price: $2250.

Der Agitationsredner / The Agitator (Kl. 224). Original lithograph, 1926. Edition: 25 signed impressions on Japan, 50 signed impressions on white Bütten, and an unsigned edition. Ours is one of the 50 on white Bütten. A powerful and painful study of the politics of the 1920s. Image size: 314x216mm. Price: $6000.

Self Portrait (Kl. 122 vii b). Original soft-ground etching and aquatint, 1912. Published in Johannes Sievers' 1913 Catalogue Raisonné of her etchings and lithographs. Ours is a signed impression. Klipstein lists only 30 signed impressions printed by Richter published in 1920, but Richter was also involved in the 1913 catalogue according to its title page. A beautiful rare signed impression. Image size: 140x99mm. Price: SOLD.

We also have a very good impression printed in black ink before the von der Becke edition with light matburn away from the platemark (click here). Price: $1975.

Self Portrait (Kl. 155 vi b). Original etching with aquatint, 1921. 120 signed and numbered impressions on off-white Butten paper with full margins (complete paper size not shown). A very rich impression of this important self-portrait with very good plate tone. Printed in black 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. Signed impressions of this work are almost impossible to find. Provenance: Galerie St. Etienne, NYC. Image size: 217x266mm. Price: SOLD.

We also have a good unsigned impression with plate tone published by Münchner Verlag in 1947. Printed in bistre ink. Price: SOLD.

Deutschlands kinder hungern!/ Germany's children are starving! (Kl. 190 A.III.a.1). Original lithograph, 1924. One of Kollwitz' most frequently illustrated works, this was first published as a poster then without text as here. Published by Richter with his blind stamp lower right. One of Kollwitz' most important works. Image size: 405x275mm. Price: $3625.

Szene aus Germinal / Scene from Germinal (Kl. 21 iv/iv, Knesebeck 19 IV/IV). Original etching, drypoint, and sandpaper, c. 1892-1893. Kollwitz was working on a series of prints based upon Zola's novel, Germinal, which deals with the hard fate of the working classes, when, after attending the premiere of Hauptmann's play on the Weavers' Revolt on 26 February 1893, she decided instead to do her series on the Weavers' Revolt instead. This piece represents the fight between Etienne and Chaval over Catherine and her horrified response to their struggle. There are some proofs printed by Felsing before the Seemann edition of 1917 (from which our impression comes) with the addition of the engraved script upper right giving the address of the printer ("L. Angerer, Berlin impr.") and "Käthe Kollwitz rad." bottom left and "Verlag E. A. Seemann, Leipzig" bottom right. This edition was unsigned, with occasional impressions with complimentary signatures. There are no later reprints. An uncommon print. Image size: 239x528mm. Price: $3600.