Original crayon lithograph on smooth, light gray paper. Hand signed by the artist “Käthe Kollwitz” in pencil, lower left. Three editions were printed by Hermann Birkholz, this work being from third edition of three according to Knesebeck. The stone was destroyed.

Image: 21” x 14 1/2”, sheet: 23 7/16" x 17 7/16"
Catalogue reference: Klipstein 147; Knesebeck 160 A III/III

Käthe Kollwitz is an artist who defies easy classification. Because she was, at some point in her artistic career, an expressionist, a social realist and a visionary, she was never labeled as a member of one particular movement. Few, if any artists of the twentieth century, have used a more expressive approach to form and few created a more powerful emotional language. Throughout her life, her inspiration laid in her sympathy with the struggle of the impoverished working class in the face of rapid industrial change and the horror of war.