Käthe KollwitzGerman, 1867–1945Self-Portrait at a Table
May one see it?
Unknown
Amsterdam, Netherlands
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Käthe Kollwitz is one of the most famous female artists of the early 20th century, best known for her socially engaged work and numerous, penetrating self-portraits. This one dates from the beginning of her career. Kollwitz depicted herself at a table, seated under a bright lamp. In this way she was able to work out the strong contrasts of light and dark in the etching.
Rijksmuseum
Particulars
- Accession number
- RP-P-2011-36-129
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Rijksmuseum
- Image: Rijksmuseum — public domain
Meanwhile, in the life of Käthe Kollwitz
The whole life1891
Marries the physician Karl Kollwitz
She married Karl Kollwitz, a doctor who tended the poor of Berlin; the couple moved into a large apartment that remained her home until it was destroyed in the Second World War. Her husband’s nearby practice supplied motifs from the lives of workers, which, in her own words, she found beautiful.
13 June 1891
Married: Karl Kollwitz
1892
Birth of her son Hans
In 1892 Käthe and Karl Kollwitz’s elder son, Hans, was born.
14 May 1892
Son born: Hans Kollwitz
1892–1896
Hauptmann’s “The Weavers” inspires a new cycle
Between the births of her sons Hans and Peter she saw Gerhart Hauptmann’s play The Weavers, about the failed revolt of the Silesian weavers in Langenbielau in 1844. It inspired her to drop a series of etchings she had planned to illustrate Émile Zola’s Germinal and to produce a cycle on the weavers instead.
