Artist
Käthe Kollwitz(German, 1867–1945)German, 1867–1945
CultureGerman
Titles
- Die Eltern (The Parents), Number III
- from the portfolio Krieg (War)
Date1922–1923
MediumWoodcut on Japanese paper, trial proof of second version of state III/VII
DimensionsBlock: 14 5/8 × 17 3/4 in. (37.1 × 45.1 cm)
Sheet: 15 1/2 × 18 5/16 in. (39.4 × 46.5 cm)
Sheet: 15 1/2 × 18 5/16 in. (39.4 × 46.5 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Alvin S. Romansky Prints and Drawings Accessions Endowment Fund
Object number2003.983
Not on view
Explore Further
Department
Prints and DrawingsObject Type
printmakers and sculptors in the first decades
of the 20th century. She often expressed an
immediate empathy for the less fortunate
by showing victims of poverty and war, while
her strong sculptural sensibility also found
expression in the graphic impact of her
roughly hewn woodcuts. This print of two
parents huddling together and collapsing
in on each other relates to the deep, abiding
grief that Kollwitz felt after her youngest
son died in 1914 fighting in World War I.
Provenance[Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, Germany, 1951, auction 14, lot 1693]; Sauerwein Collection, Munich; Ingeborg Tremmel (1925-2002), Munich; [The Tremmel Collection, Ketterer Kunst, Munich, May 6, 2003, lot 668]; [Garton & Co. Print Dealers and Publishers, Devizes, England, 2003]; purchased by MFAH, 2003.
Exhibition HistoryAcquisitions of the Last Five Years: Selections of Modern and Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Upper Brown Pavilion, July 15, 2005 - October 15, 2005.
Exhibited: "Going with the Grain: Woodcuts from Houston Collections," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Cameron Gallery, January 31 - April 19, 2009.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Recto: Inscribed in graphtie, below image, lower left: 2 Fassung 3. Zust 10 [2nd version, 3rd state]
Recto: Signed in graphite, below image, lower right: Käthe Kollwitz
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, lower left: Kollwitz Eltern [possibly, illegible] 1923 [possibly] Wagner 156
Recto: Signed in graphite, below image, lower right: Käthe Kollwitz
Verso: Inscribed in graphite, lower left: Kollwitz Eltern [possibly, illegible] 1923 [possibly] Wagner 156
Recto: Signed in graphite, below image, lower right: Käthe Kollwitz
Catalogue raisonnéKlipstein 176; Knesebeck 194
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.
Käthe Kollwitz
1921–1922
Woodcut on wove paper, version c/d, state V/V, edition 89/100
2023.453
Samuel Palmer
1879
Etching and drypoint with scraping on wove paper, trial proof, state V/VII
2017.253
Käthe Kollwitz
1903, published 1921
Hard- and soft-ground etching, drypoint, and emery with engraving on heavy cream wove paper, state IX/X, from an edition of unknown number
2023.454
Edouard Manet
c. 1867–1868, possibly printed 1868
Lithograph with scraping, printed chine collé on heavy wove paper, state I/III, trial proof, before lettering
91.1567
Käthe Kollwitz
1905
Lithograph on tan wove paper
2000.85
Käthe Kollwitz
c. 1910–1913
Soft ground and hard ground etching on wove paper
39.114
Norman Zammitt
1967
Lithograph in colors on Japanese nacre kozo paper, trial proof E/R
2023.451
Jasper Johns
1991
Etching and aquatint in colors with scraping and burnishing on Japanese paper, variant trial proof
94.726