Viewing page 21 of 56

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Slide  Women Chatting 
 Kollwitz [[right margin]] BMA [[/right margin]] 

On the other side there was an intensification of social consciousness; & the work in that ranged from masterpieces to crudely pictured misrepresentations. 

At the turn of the century there was a spread of wealth such as had not been known before & underneath it was the growing sense of power of the masses, the bitterness, the ambitions, the socialism & anarchy. The various uprisings about 1905 occurred where the crust was thinest. 

At this time in Germany a women artist, Kaethe Kollwitz was stating the case of the peasant. She was born in 1867, studied in Munich & in 1891 married a Dr. Kollwitz of Berlin. She often made drawings of the poor in her husband's clinic. Though this lithograph of Women Chatting dates around 1917 it is typical of her perception & strength. 

A self-portrait made the year of her marriage is described as showing a very serious young women. Surely she must have been as in the next few years she made a series of forceful etchings called the Weavers' Rebellion. This was followed in the early 1900's by a series based on the Peasant's War of 1524 & prophetic of he trouble she saw coming to Germany again.