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Pregnant Woman Contemplating Suicide (recto) Three Studies of a Child (verso)
About the Artwork
Working in a frank but emotional naturalistic style far different from that of her contemporaries, Käthe Kollwitz depicted a pregnant woman who stands as a universal symbol of human grief. Just a few bold strokes of crayon relay the woman’s despair. After World War I, Kollwitz’s work focused on the sorrows of those left behind: the children, widows, and mothers who underwent loss, physical neglect, and economic hardship. Her focus on grief and despair in this and other works emerged especially after her youngest son, Peter, was killed in the first months of the war.
Inscriptions
signed, lower right, in graphite: Kathe Kollwitz
Provenance
Private Collection, Boston [Robert M. Light, Boston (departmental cataloguing sheet)]; Private Collection, Boston (according to departmental card)
Exhibition history
Year in Review (1963). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 27, 1963-January 5, 1964). Prints and Drawings, 1916-1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 20-July 24, 1966). The Print Club of Cleveland, 1919 - 1969: Fifty Years in Review. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 14-March 31, 1970). Käthe Kollwitz. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (May 13-July 13, 1980). National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). Cross Section: Graphic Art in Germany after the First World War. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 10, 1989-January 7, 1990). Directions in Drawing: 1750-1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 2-August 4, 1991). Graphic Discontent: German Expressionism on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 14-May 27, 2018).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867–1945)
- Date
- c. 1926
- Medium
- black chalk or charcoal? (rubbed in places)
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 64.3 x 49.7 cm (25 5/16 x 19 9/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in honor of Leona E. Prasse
- Accession no.
- 1962.291
More by Käthe Kollwitz in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00011269
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