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Lot Essay
Tod (Death) was Kollwitz's final print series, and it is the culmination of her preoccupation on the subject of death. This powerful image of a mother and child embraced by Death is very sculptural in its composition, yet Kollwitz's masterful handling of the lithographic technique allows the figures to almost melt away at their moment of death.
Kollwitz had intended to create this portfolio for some time and wrote in her diary in 1927, a decade before the project's completion in 1938, "Zum Thema Tod muß ich noch Blätter machen. Muß muß muß!"[I must make the prints on the theme of Death. Must must must!]
‘Thank you for your kind enquiry. You cannot help me in any way, I’m feeling old and finished and hope that my life won’t last much longer. ‘
(A postcard from Käthe Kollwitz to Heinrich Becker dated 7 June 1943)
Kollwitz had intended to create this portfolio for some time and wrote in her diary in 1927, a decade before the project's completion in 1938, "Zum Thema Tod muß ich noch Blätter machen. Muß muß muß!"[I must make the prints on the theme of Death. Must must must!]
‘Thank you for your kind enquiry. You cannot help me in any way, I’m feeling old and finished and hope that my life won’t last much longer. ‘
(A postcard from Käthe Kollwitz to Heinrich Becker dated 7 June 1943)