On View
Not on viewObject number1968/9.20
The Widow
Artist
Käthe Kollwitz
(German, 1867-1945)
Date1915
Mediumcrayon on paper
Dimensionsimage: 18 3/4 × 16 1/2 in. (47.6 × 41.9 cm)
frame: 27 1/8 × 24 3/4 × 1 3/8 in. (68.9 × 62.9 × 3.5 cm)
frame: 27 1/8 × 24 3/4 × 1 3/8 in. (68.9 × 62.9 × 3.5 cm)
Credit LineDirector's Fund
Exhibition History"German Expressionist Art in Western Michigan Collections," KIA traveling exhibition (Mar. 1 - July 1, 1979).
Unknown Exhibition, Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City (Jan. 7 - March 6, 1994).
"'70 Years, 70 Works from the KIA Permanent Collection," KIA (Nov. 19, 1994 - Feb. 10, 1995).
"German Expressionists from the KIA Permanent Collection," Saginaw Art Museum (Oct. 10 - Nove. 1, 1996).
"Masterworks from the KIA Permanent Collection," Dennos Museum Center (Mar.1997 - Feb. 1998); Midland Center for the Arts (Apr. - July 1998).
"Highlights from the Permanent Collection: Prints and Drawings," KIA (Sept. 15 - Nov. 25, 2001).
"Masterworks on Paper," KIA Long Gallery (Sept. 2005 - Jan. 2006).
"Germany in Transition: Prints and Drawings 1890-1923," KIA Long Gallery (Apr. 20 - July 15, 2006).
"Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection," KIA Long Gallery (Nov. 18, 2006 - Feb. 4, 2007).
"Curator's Choice: European Works on Paper," KIA Long Gallery (May 9 - Aug. 27, 2008).
"Lasting Legacy: A Collection for Kalamazoo," Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan (Sep. 6, 2014 - Jan. 4, 2015).
Label TextThroughout her career, drawing remained Käthe Kollwitz’s essential means of expression. In her early sketches of working class women and their families, her observations are sensitively rendered to convey the emotional connection between artist and subject. By the time Kollwitz created The Widow, she had abandoned using actual models. Instead she created figures that embodied, rather than depicted, the deepest human responses to loss and suffering.
In The Widow, Kollwitz used the side of the crayon to describe the figure with a few soft, diffused strokes. This is particularly evident in the figure’s face. Dazed, sunken eyes and the partially opened mouth convey a wordless grief. The drawing’s simplicity and sensitivity communicates feelings of incomprehension, vulnerability, and helplessness.
