Collection Publications: Klinger to Kollwitz Labels2

The emotional content that pervades much of Kollwitz's work was greatly shaped by the events she experienced during World War I. In 1914 her younger son, Peter, volunteered for the army and soon after was killed in action. In Mothers the central image of the woman enclosing her two children in the protection of her arms represents the artist with her sons, Hans and Peter. During and after the war, Kollwitz's prints and sculp­ tures explored the themes of death, misery, and the relationship between mother and child. Mothers was originally intended to be part of Kollwitz's Krieg (War) series. The lithograph is the second version of this composition; the first was an etching of 1919 of which no edition was published.