Self-portrait, 1915

Crayon lithograph (transfer), Kn 134 c

Käthe Kollwitz, Self-portrait, 1915, crayon lithograph (transfer), Kn 134 c, Cologne Kollwitz Collection © Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln

This transfer lithograph was created shortly after the death of her son Peter, who fell as a volunteer as early as October 1914 in West Flanders. It shows Käthe Kollwitz with heavy eyelids, swollen from weeping, looking blankly into the mirror.

In her diary she summed up the impact of this blow of fate in 1917:

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That point in time marked the beginning of old age, my walking towards my grave. That was a rupture. A bending down so low that I will never be able to stand straight.«
Käthe Kollwitz, Diaries, 12 October 1917