Die Freiwilligen (The Volunteers), plate 2 from the portfolio Sieben Holzschnitte zum Krieg (Seven Woodcuts about the War)
Käthe Kollwitz, Die Freiwilligen (The Volunteers), plate 2 from the portfolio Sieben Holzschnitte zum Krieg (Seven Woodcuts about the War), 1921-1922; published 1923, woodcut on thick, smooth, beige wove paper, Gift of Mr. Frederic Rothchild, © artist or other rights holder, 76.38.3
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- Title
Die Freiwilligen (The Volunteers), plate 2 from the portfolio Sieben Holzschnitte zum Krieg (Seven Woodcuts about the War)
- Related Titles
portfolio (original language): Sieben Holzschnitte zum Krieg
portfolio (translated): Seven Woodcuts about the War
translated: The Volunteers
- Artist
- Date
1921-1922; published 1923
- Medium
woodcut on thick, smooth, beige wove paper
- Edition
33/100
- Catalogue Raisonné
Knesebeck 173 IV
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
image: 13 3/4 in x 19 3/8 in; sheet: 19 1/4 in x 26 1/2 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
edition: 33/100, graphite, lower left
signature: Käthe Kollwitz, graphite, lower right
- Collection Area
Graphic Arts
- Category
Prints
- Object Type
relief print
- Culture
German
- Credit Line
Gift of Mr. Frederic Rothchild
- Accession Number
76.38.3
- Copyright
© artist or other rights holder
- Terms
German Expressionist Käthe Kollwitz initially accepted the conflict as a necessary evil. Her nineteen-year-old son volunteered soon after war was declared and was killed in battle just two months later. Kollwitz was devastated. She struggled to find meaning through her art, experimenting with woodcut for the first time, a medium in whose stark contrasts and jagged forms the artist found expressive power. In 1923 she published a portfolio that focused on the anguish experienced on the home front. Eschewing anecdotal detail, Kollwitz created iconic images that epitomize grief and suffering. Here, Death, personified as a skeleton, leads five unwilling recruits—including Kollwitz's son Peter and his friends—into the slaughterhouse of war.
- Exhibitions
1991 Inner Visions: German Prints from the Age of Expressionism Portland Art Museum; The Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum; Duke University Museum of Art; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; Tacoma Art Museum
2006 From Anxiety to Ecstasy: Themes in German Expressionist Prints Portland Art Museum
2014 This is War! Graphic Arts from the Great War Portland Art Museum