Killed in Action (Gefallen)

Käthe Kollwitz|Emil Richter, Dresden

1920 · Lithograph · Drawings and Prints

Kollwitz’s younger son Peter volunteered for combat when the war began and died in October 1914 while fighting in Belgium. Killed in Action expresses the intense pain of those who lost loved ones in the war. The mother’s whole body reveals her devastation, while her children’s faces display a range of emotions—shock, horror, fear—as they rush to her side, She is too consumed with pain to acknowledge them. Kollwitz used lithography, a technique in which she noted "only the essentials count." This work has a raw, unfinished quality—lines appear quickly drawn and the son’s lower body is absent—and identifying details are eliminated, making Killed in Action a universal and timeless image of grief.

Artist

Käthe Kollwitz|Emil Richter, Dresden

Date

1920

Medium

Lithograph

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928