Considered one of Germany’s most important early 20th-century artists, Käthe Kollwitz captured the hardships suffered by the working class in drawings, paintings, and prints. Themes of war and poverty dominate Kollwitz’s oeuvre, with images of women grieving dead children a particularly important and recurring theme—an experience that Kollwitz suffered herself when her son died in WWI, influencing her decision to become a Socialist. Kollwitz’s unflinching exploration of human suffering amounted to a searing indictment of social conditions in Germany. In 1936, the Nazis declared Kollwitz’s art “degenerate” and her artworks were removed from museums.
