Portraits of Grief and Loss

Woman with Dead Child –1903
(Credit: artnowandthen.blogspot.com)

Grief and loss are a universal part of the human experience. Each of us at some time in our lives has or will experience a loss so profound that it shakes us to our core and forever changes how we look at the world. At those times, it often seems that no words, no gesture, no sound, no tangible thing could ever capture the depth of our sorrow. But that is exactly what the work of Käthe Kollwitz, the great German sculptor and illustrator, does. 

Käthe Kollwitz Self-portrait 1947
(Credit: brierhillgallery.com)

Käthe Kollowitz (1867-1945), whose son, Peter, was killed during World War I, used her work to document the horrors of social deprivation, hunger and war. A Socialist and a pacifist, she created art that was both socially relevant and deeply personal — posters showing hungry children begging for food juxtaposed with haunting self-portraits of a woman devastated by grief.

Perhaps Kollwitz’s most moving works, however, are her sculptures, especially her hauntingly beautiful, “Mother with Dead Son.” In it, we see both the soul of the artist and the broken heart of a woman who has lost her child.

Mother with Dead Son
(Credit: gerryco23.wordpress.com)

Arguably one of the most important artists of the early 20th century, Kathe Kollwitz was a woman who grieved deeply, yet used her suffering to create meaning in her world. Her art serves as an inspiration to all of us who have lost loved ones and are seeking a way to illuminate our grief.