Die Eltern (The parents)

The work is plate 3 from 'Krieg (War)' a portfolio of 7 woodcuts published by Emil Richter in Dresden, 1924. Reflecting her own personal suffering at the loss of her younger son, Peter, in Flanders in 1914, Kollwitz depicts two parents in the depths of grief: "Now finally I have finished a series of woodcuts, which in some measure say what I wanted to say." Kollwitz first began the 'Krieg' series as etchings, but these did not work and she abandoned the project. Later she re-worked the images as transfer lithographs but was still not satisfied with the results (Kaethe Kollwitz, 25 June 1920, published in Kollwitz 1988, pp. 97-8. There is a drawing of this subject with the image in the same direction. The man's head is resting on the woman's shoulder and is not covered by his hand and his left arm is limp, rather than giving support to the woman, as in the woodcut. She wrote: 'Again I am not finished with the war series. Reworking the 'parents' plate. At the moment it seems to me very bad. Much too bright and harsh and distinct. Sorrow is all darkness' (Kaethe Kollwitz, 13 December 1922, published in Kollwitz 1988, p. 105). The other plates in the folio are: Das opfer (The offering), Die Freiwilligen (The volunteers), Die Witwe I (The widow I), Die Witwe II (The widow II), Die Mutter (The mothers), Das Voilk (The people). In 1932 her anti-war sculpture of the same subject was placed in Roggevelde, in Belgium; it is a powerful statement of the effects of war on families.