Woman and Children Going to Their Death (Fraumit Kindern in den Tod Gehend)

Art Historical Context

Käthe Kollwitz's woodcut *Woman and Children Going to Death* (1924) captures the harrowing human cost of war with unflinching emotional power. Part of her seminal *War* series (*Krieg*), this print depicts a mother leading her children toward an inevitable fate, evoking the devastation Kollwitz witnessed during and after World War I.ly influenced by the loss of her own son in 1914, the German artist channeled her grief into works that mourned civilians—especially women and children—caught in conflict's crossfire. As a master of Expressionism, Kollwitz favored woodcuts for their raw, graphic intensity. The medium's bold black-and-white contrasts and carved lines amplify the figures' angular forms and desperate gestures, stripping away illusion to confront viewers with stark reality. Printed during the Weimar Republic's turbulent years of economic strife and social upheaval, the series served as a powerful anti-war statement, blending personal sorrow with universal pleas for peace. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Rosenwald Collection, this work exemplifies Kollwitz's lifelong commitment to social justice through art. Its timeless urgency reminds us of war's enduring scars, inviting reflection on humanity's fragility.

About the Artist

Käthe Kollwitz · 1867–1945

Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was a German artist whose powerful images of poverty, war, and maternal grief established her as the foremost practitioner of socially engaged art in early 20th-century Europe. Working primarily in printmaking—including etching, lithography, and woodcut—as well as drawing and sculpture, Kollwitz created works of raw emotional power that gave voice to the suffering of wor...