Charcoal, blotted, on grey Ingres paper, NT 559
The depictions of lovers are among the most unusual and at the same time less-known works by Käthe Kollwitz. These impressive, moving compositions are devoted to the theme of love and physical union. They show men and women in intimate situations ranging from affectionate tenderness to explicitly sexual situations.
This work is the only one of her stylistically heterogeneous representation of lovers that can be dated with a certain degree of probability around the year 1909. The drawing is stylistically close to the works created at the same time for »Farewell« (e.g. NT 616), where a personification of Death tears a child from its mother. The other love scenes are also dated around 1909 in the catalogue raisonné, although there is a lack of evidence to allow precise dating.