Children play an important role in the work of Käthe Kollwitz. Being a mother was one of her central life experiences. The artist discussed her difficulties in reconciling her professional activities with her family life with the writer Lou Andreas-Salomé. She said that marriage and children had priority and an artist who did not enjoy both would wither away – both as a human being and an artist. In a conversation with her son Hans she summarises in 1926 as follows:
There are three things that have been of importance in my life – having had children, a faithful life-long companion and my work.«
Käthe Kollwitz, Letters of Friendship
Looking at the order in which she mentions these things, it does not come as a surprise that her work comprises many depictions of her children and grandchildren. Käthe Kollwitz also addressed the fundamental experience of being a mother, which includes the fear of losing her children or leaving them behind after her own death.
Käthe Kollwitz, Child’s Head, en face, (Hans Kollwitz), 1893, brush and grey ink, washed, NT 72
Käthe Kollwitz, Hans, Summer in Fiascherino, July 1907, pencil on paper, NT 424
Käthe Kollwitz, Peter in his Bed, reading, c 1908, pencil on drawing paper, NT 444
Käthe Kollwitz, Mother with a Child in her Arms, final version, 1916, crayon lithograph (transfer), Kn 136 A II
Käthe Kollwitz, Worker Woman with Sleeping Child, 1927, crayon lithograph (transfer), Kn 234 I c
Käthe Kollwitz, Two Chatting Women with Two Children, final version, 1930, crayon lithograph (transfer), Kn 250 c
Käthe Kollwitz, Three Boys playing Marbles, 1909/1910, black chalk, NT 582
Käthe Kollwitz, Two Children at the Bannister, c 1927, charcoal on faded drawing cardboard, NT 1149
Käthe Kollwitz, Family Group, c 1928, charcoal, blotted, on Ingres paper, NT 1184