Pregnant Woman Contemplating Suicide (recto) (c. 1926): Art, History and Details

Pregnant Woman Contemplating Suicide (recto) (c. 1926) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867–1945).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Working in a frank but emotional naturalistic style far different from that of her contemporaries, Käthe Kollwitz depicted a pregnant woman who stands as a universal symbol of human grief. Just a few bold strokes of crayon relay the woman’s despair. After World War I, Kollwitz’s work focused on the sorrows of those left behind: the children, widows, and mothers who underwent loss, physical neglect, and economic hardship. Her focus on grief and despair in this and other works emerged especially after her youngest son, Peter, was killed in the first months of the war.

Object facts

• Title: Pregnant Woman Contemplating Suicide (recto)
• Date: c. 1926
• Creator attribution: Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867–1945)
• Culture: Germany, 20th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black chalk or charcoal? (rubbed in places)
• Dimensions: Sheet: 64.3 x 49.7 cm (25 5/16 x 19 9/16 in.)
• Collection: DR - German
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1962.291.a

Collection credit

Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland in honor of Leona E. Prasse

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.