Pregnant Woman Contemplating Suicide (recto)

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

Utopia and Alienation: German Art and Expressionsim, 1900-1935. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (organizer) (September 5-December 17, 1999). 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.a

More by Käthe Kollwitz in museum collections

Pregnant Woman Contemplating Suicide (recto) Three Studies of a Child (verso)
Käthe Kollwitz
c. 1926 · Drawing
Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of ArtAT-00011269

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.