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Killed in Action (Gefallen)

Publisher Emil Richter, Dresden German
1920
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Killed in Action (Gefallen)
  • Artist: Käthe Kollwitz (German, Kaliningrad (Königsberg) 1867–1945 Moritzburg)
  • Publisher: Emil Richter, Dresden
  • Date: 1920
  • Medium: Lithograph
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 25 1/4 x 21 in. (64.1 x 53.4 cm)
    Image: 16 9/16 × 13 3/8 in. (42 × 34 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
  • Object Number: 28.68.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
Self-Portrait, turned slightly to the left, Käthe Kollwitz German, Pen and different shades of gray-black ink
Self-Portrait, turned slightly to the left
Käthe Kollwitz
ca. 1893
Armor, Steel, leather, German, possibly Lower Saxony
Armor
German, possibly Lower Saxony
ca. 1540–50 and later
Snake Man, Alison Saar American, Color woodcut and lithograph
Snake Man
Alison Saar
Publisher Vinalhaven Press
1994
Widow II, from "Kreig" (War), Käthe Kollwitz German, Woodcut
Widow II, from "Kreig" (War)
Käthe Kollwitz
1922–23
Armor, Steel, leather, German, possibly Lower Saxony
Armor
German, possibly Lower Saxony
ca. 1540–50 and later

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