Series of 7 etchings about the uprisings during the German Peasants’ War from 1524 to 1526
Käthe Kollwitz again turns to a historical event. The uprisings of peasants against the oppressive living conditions in the 16th century ended with a bloody defeat. Kollwitz reworks the subject into a non-historically defined, timeless depiction of suffering and oppression.
She read the extremely successful work Allgemeine Geschichte des großen Bauernkrieges (General History of the Great Peasants’ War) published by the historian Wilhelm Zimmermann (1807-1878), probably not the original edition but an illustrated popular edition with excerpts published in 1891. She modelled her remembered figure of “Black Anna”, who cheered on the peasants, on the only historical female figure of the Peasants’ War known by name: the “Black Court Woman” Margarete Renner. She probably inspired Kollwitz to etch “Losbruch” in 1903.
The fact that a complete cycle on the Peasants’ War could be created at all is due to the 50th anniversary of the Association for Historical Art. In the spring of 1904, the Dresden connection held a competition in which 37 artists participated with 126 graphic works. The etching Losbruch by Käthe Kollwitz received the “most applause” and she was subsequently commissioned to etch an entire cycle by June 1908 as an annual gift to the members.
Käthe Kollwitz herself in a letter from 1907:
The sheet Sharpening the Scythe
The third sheet from the Peasants’ War cycle shows an elderly peasant woman in a half-figure portrait. She is taking a break from sharpening the edge of a scythe. The threatening-looking eyes and the sharpening of the scythe declare her readiness to fight.
In the process of creating the work, which can be traced back to the preliminary work “Inspiration” from 1904, the artist’s endeavor to focus her depiction on the essentials becomes apparent. Instead of showing the whole figure, she chooses a concentrated section, in the center of which are the face, hands and scythe.
Kollwitz also refrains from using symbolist elements, as they are still present in the preliminary work in the form of the genius, who as a winged being inspires the peasant woman to revolt.
The sheet Battlefield
The etching from 1907 is the sixth sheet from Käthe Kollwitz’s cycle Peasants’ War. The sheet Battlefield shows the collapse of the uprising. At night, a woman searches for her fallen son on the gloomy battlefield. In her left hand she holds a lantern in order to be able to identify her child among the numerous fallen, who are faintly visible in the darkness of the depiction. The woman’s hand and the head of the fallen are the only ones illuminated, drawing the viewer’s eye to the delicate gesture with which the woman touches the chin of the man lying in front of her.
In contrast to the etching, the sketch for Battlefield is in vertical format. The face of the suffering woman is still in the foreground here. The pencil drawing from a private collection bears the title “Mother with dead son”. Not surprisingly, Kollwitz had developed the sheet On the battlefield since 1903 from intensive representations on the theme of “Woman with dead child”. The artist’s preoccupation with the motif of the woman mourning for her child led to a significant change in style. Narrative elements gave way in favor of a concentrated representation on the single motif.
