?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
KÄTHE KOLLWITZ Selbstbildnis im Profil nach rechts.
Lithograph on smooth, cream wove paper, circa 1938. 475x290 mm; 18 3/4x11 3/8 inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of 220. A very good impression.
This is Kollwitz's (1867-1945) last printed self-portrait, made by the artist on the eve of World War II and following a life that had been ravaged by war. Her son Peter was killed in action as a soldier in World War I. She made only several proofs of this lithograph during her lifetime, before setting it aside during the war; the edition of 220 was printed posthumously in 1947 by her estate. In July 1936, Kollwitz and her husband were visited by the Gestapo, who threatened her with arrest and deportation to a Nazi concentration camp; they resolved to commit suicide if such a prospect became inevitable. She outlived her husband who died from an illness in 1940. She was evacuated from Berlin in 1943. Later that year, her house was bombed and many drawings, prints and documents were lost. Kollwitz died just 16 days before the end of World War II. She had spent decades, since the death of her son, creating haunting works of art that showed the true horrors and cost of war. Nevertheless, in one of her last journal entries before her death, she wrote, "One day, a new ideal will arise, and there will be an end to all wars. I die convinced of this. It will need much hard work, but it will be achieved . . . The important thing, until that happens, is to hold one's banner high and to struggle." Klipstein 265; Knesebeck 273.
