Pieta
1937 - 1939 (postume geut 1961)
Käthe Kollwitz
This is a Pietà: a mother mourning her dead son. It is a very personal work of art: Käthe Kollwitz loses her son Peter in WWI. After two weeks at the war front, he is killed as an 18-year-old volunteer. 23 years later, the artist writes in her diary: “I am working on a small sculpture in which I try to represent the old man plastically. It has now become something like a Pietà. The mother sits with the dead son between her knees. It is no longer pain, but after-dreaming.”
Details
- Plan number: C12
- Zone: Collection pavilion
- Title: Pieta
- Creator: Käthe Kollwitz
- Date: 1937 - 1939 (postume geut 1961)
- Material: bronze
- Acquisition: donation, 1963
- Object number: MID.B.212
The artwork is typical of her production in the late 1930s. The Nazis forbade her to work, which meant that she could only make a few sculptures and concentrated on graphic work. She expressed her protest in figures such as this ‘Piëta’, which, despite their small size, are still monumental and impressive.
Käthe Kollwitz’s representation of human suffering is universal and timeless. Her empathetic portrayal of the sorrow that ordinary people are confronted with strikes a chord with many.
The life and work of German artist Käthe Kollwitz are marked by the tragedy of two world wars. War and poverty are central themes in her expressionist oeuvre. Her research into the horror and suffering of war, but also into social injustice, ensured that the Nazi regime turned against her.
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