One of the few artists celebrated during her lifetime and now revered, Käthe Kollwitz is, amazingly, still not a household name in the UK.
Her inclusion in Making Modernism at the Royal Academy gives us the chance to experience a more diverse range of her work, a few examples of which are here.
A talented artist from the get-go, her self-portrait above echoes Rembrandt in both pose and style
This later one above, made when she was 70, is very different and even more compelling.
Marriage to a doctor working in deprived neighbourhoods exposed her to the lives of the poor as well as the experiences of mothers and children. Just look at the delicacy of this drawing below.
The baby here is so tiny it is almost hidden in its mother’s hands.
Printmaking was one of her favourite mediums as it permitted multiple images; this etching below is one of her most famous. The anguish is palpable and, apart from the emotion, I have rarely seen toes captured so well.
A surprise for visitors is this pair of charcoal drawings showing the intimacy of lovers leading to speculation that she had an affair. Whether she did or not is almost beside the point: they convey passion and tenderness.
I do highly recommend this show if you can see it before it closes on 12th February.
