Schlachtfeld (Battlefield), from the series Bauernkrieg (Peasants' War)
Käthe Kollwitz, German, 1867 - 1945
1907; published after 1921
Etching on wove paper
Impression: 15 1/4 × 20 1/4 in. (38.7 × 51.4 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Museum Purchase
PR.969.54
Publisher
A. von der Becke, Berlin, Germany
Geography
Place Made: Germany, Europe
Period
20th century
Object Name
Research Area
On view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, on plate, lower right: 1921/Originalradierung von Kaethe Kollwitz; embossed, lower right: A.V.D. BECKE/MUENCHEN 22
Label
Nearly obscured in the darkness, a woman searches a battlefield, bending to turn over the corpses of fallen soldiers. The face of one young man appears in the beam of her torchlight, disfigured and swollen with decomposition. Her skeletal hand almost caresses him. A highly skilled printmaker, Käthe Kollwitz uses a variety of techniques to build up the tones of this night scene. This print belongs to the artist’s series of the Peasants’ War, another example of which is on view nearby. The image of a woman looking at the dead—perhaps in search of a loved one—however, transcends the historical narrative. In the aftermath of any war, survivors are left to sift through the ravages battle left behind.
From the 2023 exhibition Recording War: Images of Violence 1500 – 1900, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming
Course History
ANTH 50, COCO 2, HIV/AIDS Through a Biosocial Lens: 30 Years of a Modern Plague, Sienna Craig, Timothy Lahey, Spring 2013
GERM 10, Germany and the East, Yuliya Komska, Winter 2013
SART 27, Printmaking I: Intaglio, Louise Hamlin, Spring 2012
SART 27, SART 28, Printmaking I: Intaglio, Printmaking II, Louise Hamlin, Winter 2013
SART 27, SART 28, SART 74, Printmaking I, II, III, Louise Hamlin, Spring 2013
SART 27, SART 28, Printmaking I: Intaglio, Printmaking II, Louise Hamlin, Winter 2012
SART 27, SART 28, Printmaking I-Intaglio, Printmaking II, Louise Hamlin, Winter 2014
SART 27, SART 28, SART 74, Printmaking I, Printmaking II, Printmaking III, Louise Hamlin, Spring 2014
SART 27, 28, 74, Printmaking I-Intaglio, II, III, Ariel Frieberg, Spring 2015
COCO 2.3, ANTH 50.6, HIV/AIDS Through a Bio-social Lens: Thirty Years of a Modern Plague, Sienna Craig, Timothy Lahey, Spring 2015
GEOG 17, Geopolitics and Third World Development, Patricia Lopez, Spring 2015
GEOG 17, Geopolitics and Third World Development, Patricia Lopez, Spring 2015
German Club, Winter 2019
GERM 10.06, A Visual History of Germany, Heidi Denzel, Winter 2022
GERM 7.07, Babylon Berlin, Veronika Fuechtner, Spring 2022
GERM 3.01, Introdoctory German (cont.), Heidi Denzel, Fall 2022
Spanish 31.01, Introduction to Hispanic Literature II, Sebastian Diaz, Winter 2023
Exhibition History
Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 4-December 11, 2005.
Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 17, 2000-January 14, 2001.
Recording War: Images of Violence, 1500-1900, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 23-December 9, 2023.
Publication History
Barbara Thompson, Fred Wilson, So Much Trouble in the World - Believe It or Not!, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2005.
Provenance
Ferdinand Roten Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland; sold to present collection, 1969.
Catalogue Raisonne
A. Klipstein, Kaethe Kollwitz: Verzeichnis des Graphischen Werkes, Bern, 1955, no. 96.
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