Käthe Kollwitz

Posted on by art_teacher_mcr

Käthe Kollwitz was a German artist who focused on creating portraits of working class women, as well as making a lot of self-portraits.

Käthe Kollwitz artist research lesson
Self Portrait, 1934

Through her compositions, and her use of materials and tones, Käthe Kollwitz was able to show the struggles and pains that her subjects were living through.

At the time Käthe Kollwitz was working, most famous or well-known artwork was made by men. Because of this, and since Kollwitz depicted females so prominently in her portrait work, she was somewhat of a pioneer for female artists. Kollwitz is known as one of Germany’s most important artists from the early 1900’s. As well as drawings, she used a range of different media such as painting, sculpture and printing (including woodcuts and lithography).

Click here for my full project showing how to draw faces and self portraits.

Käthe Kollwitz artist learning portraits drawing lesson

Look closely at this self portrait by Käthe Kollwitz – what do you think the artist was trying to show with her use of marks and colours? Would you describe this as a happy image? Why or why not?

If you’d like some help writing your annotations in Art or Photography, look no further.

THE ART TEACHER

GCSE Art Annotation Assistant

Build your own analysis step by step. Use the prompts to make links between what you see, how the artist worked, the mood created and your own ideas.

What are you analysing?

Analyse an artwork using the questions below.

Teachers: share this assistant with your class
STEP 01

Content

Look closely at the artwork and describe what is visible before thinking about its meaning.

Describe visible details such as people, objects, setting, colours, shapes and actions. Focus on what you can actually see; save ideas about meaning for later.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Can you be more precise? What details tell you this?

Think about the focal point, scale, unusual details and where your eye travels.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Where does your eye move next? How has the artist guided it?

STEP 02

Form

Explore the visual language: line, shape, colour, tone, texture, pattern, space, form and composition.

Choose the elements you can support with visible evidence.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Can you name a specific area of the artwork as evidence?

Look at the overall palette. Consider whether it is warm, cool, limited, complementary, analogous, contrasting, muted or vibrant, and notice where colours appear.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

How would you describe the overall palette? Which colours work together or contrast? Is the scheme warm, cool, limited, muted or vibrant, and how does it affect the artwork?

Connect two or more choices, such as colour and mood, line and movement, or tone and depth.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Does the colour strengthen the mood, or does another element change the effect?

STEP 03

Process

Think about materials, methods and visible evidence of how the artwork may have been made.

Use visible clues such as marks, layering, edges, surface and finish.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

What visual evidence supports your idea? Could the mark have been made another way?

Choose a process you could test in your own sketchbook, rather than simply copy the finished image.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

What would you change about the technique to make it your own?

STEP 04

Mood

Explain the feeling or atmosphere and link it to visible choices. Avoid treating one colour as having only one meaning.

Choose precise words, such as tense, calm, energetic, uneasy, playful or lonely.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Could another viewer feel differently? Which details support your interpretation?

Look at the whole palette and connect it with tone, composition, subject and marks.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Which parts of the colour scheme help create this mood? Are other features—such as tone, line, texture, shape or composition—also contributing? Could the same palette create a different mood in another artwork?

STEP 05

Your Response

Make clear links between what you noticed and what you plan to do next.

Think about an approach, not copying the artist’s exact image.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

How could you combine this with an idea, material or subject from your own project?

Make your next step specific and practical.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

How will you judge whether the experiment worked? What could you change if it does not?

STEP 01

Content

Look closely at the photograph. Describe what is visible before interpreting its meaning.

Describe the subject, setting, objects, people, gestures and details actually visible in the photograph.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

What small detail might another viewer overlook?

Identify the focal point and consider framing, viewpoint, foreground and background.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

How might a different crop or viewpoint change what you notice?

STEP 02

Composition and Light

Examine framing, camera angle, focus, depth of field, exposure, contrast, light and colour or monochrome.

Consider the crop, rule of thirds, leading lines, symmetry, viewpoint, negative space and the relationship between foreground and background.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

What would change if the camera were moved higher, lower or closer?

Look at the direction and quality of light, highlights, shadows, contrast and the palette. Black-and-white photographs can be analysed through tonal range.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Could the lighting be natural, artificial or mixed? What evidence supports your answer?

Consider focus, depth of field, motion blur, shutter speed and how these direct attention. Do not assume the camera settings are known.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

How would a wider depth of field or a faster shutter speed change the image?

STEP 03

Photographic Process

Investigate how the image might have been captured and produced. Consider digital editing, analogue darkroom techniques and physical alterations made by hand to photographic prints.

Use evidence to discuss lens choice, camera position, exposure, shutter speed, aperture, film grain, digital noise or editing. Only claim a method when it is known.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Could this effect have been created in-camera, through digital editing, in the darkroom or by physically altering a print? What evidence can you see?

Consider digital adjustments and retouching; analogue darkroom methods such as dodging, burning and photograms; and physical editing by hand, such as cutting, tearing, folding, stitching, scratching, collage, drawing, painting or layering onto a printed photograph. Only describe methods as facts when you have evidence.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Compare digital editing, darkroom manipulation and editing a print by hand. How might stitching, collage, scratching or painting onto the photograph change its meaning or mood?

STEP 04

Mood and Meaning

Interpret the photograph, supporting your ideas with visible evidence rather than assumptions.

Use precise language and connect it to light, tone, framing, focus and subject matter.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

Could a different viewer interpret the same image differently? Why?

Consider context, storytelling, documentary or staged approaches, and what is included or excluded by the frame. Distinguish observation from interpretation.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

What might be happening outside the frame? How does that affect your interpretation?

STEP 05

Your Photographic Response

Turn your analysis into a practical experiment for your own photography.

Choose a compositional or technical approach to explore, rather than copying the photograph.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

How could you achieve a similar effect with either a digital camera or analogue film?

Plan your subject, location, framing and light, then decide whether to edit digitally, experiment in the darkroom or alter a physical print by hand. Explain how you will compare results.

Sentence starter:

Challenge question

How could you develop one photograph further through digital editing, darkroom techniques or cutting, stitching, collage or drawing on a print?

STEP 06

Your annotation

Read, edit and connect your ideas. This is a draft, so make sure it reflects what you actually observed and thought.

Spelling support applies common corrections across answer boxes and the final draft, alongside your browser’s English spell checker. Always check suggested changes. Feedback helps you develop your own ideas; it does not grade your work.

Käthe Kollwitz portraiture lessons
Mother with Child in Her Arms, 1910

Above is an example of an etching by Käthe Kollwitz. It shows a mother smiling fondly at her child. The artist still uses harsh lines and marks, but this time they seem to depict movement, almost as though they are swirling around the child. Look at how the artist creates tones through mark-making instead of shading:

Käthe Kollwitz artist portraits lesson

This style of drawing can be called naturalistic – the figures in the portraits do not look unrealistic, neither do they look hyperreal.

Käthe Kollwitz seemed to choose compositions that could strike an emotional response from the viewer – mothers with their children, families in unfortunate situations and women working hard. Her use of harsh dark and light colours add a dramatic impact to her portraits, exaggerating the emotions she was capturing. Kollwitz made artwork after World War I, and after losing her own son in the war, she often tried to explore the experience of mourning and loss.

Teaching Käthe Kollwitz? This free interactive artist research quiz helps art students explore Käthe Kollwitz’s self-portraits and portraiture through knowledge questions, close looking, artwork comparisons and a creative drawing activity. Suitable for art lessons or independent study.

📚 Share this quiz with your classes

Set this artist quiz as a classroom activity, artist research task or homework. Students explore the artist, answer questions and upload their own drawing.

  • See who has completed the task: Check students' names, class groups, answers and scores.
  • See what they've created: Download the artwork they've uploaded.
  • Find results when you need them: Filter by artist and class, then download the selected work. Choose weekly, daily or no email reminders.

Each artist quiz has its own sharing link. Reuse that same artist link with as many classes as you like. Pupils enter their class name to keep results organised. Verify your email once to share; no teacher account or separate class links needed.

📊 View my quiz results — access all your classes through a secure email link, with no password.

Käthe Kollwitz

Art Detective Quiz

Explore the artwork, follow the clues and make something of your own.

Your research sessionThe minimum 15-minute study period starts when you reach the quiz or press Start.
Take your time! Look carefully at the artist's work, think about your answers and develop your own drawing. Spend at least 15 minutes on this challenge, but there's no rush — you can take as long as you need.
01

Artist detective: knowledge check

Find correct answers and clues by looking carefully at the artist's work and reading the information on this page. Some questions have several correct answers.

1. Which themes are explored in this artist’s work?

Think about the ideas behind the artworks, not just the materials.

Select all that apply. Include evidence in your written answers below.
2. What materials does this artist use to create their work?

Examine the artwork closely and read the article. Select every material supported by what you find.

Select all that apply. Include evidence in your written answers below.
3. Which techniques or artistic approaches can you identify?

Look for evidence of the artist’s process and how the work is made.

Select all that apply. Include evidence in your written answers below.
4. Which subjects appear in or are described as part of the artist’s work?

Consider the images as well as the artist profile.

Select all that apply. Include evidence in your written answers below.
5. Which formal elements are specifically discussed or emphasised?

Look for line, tone, colour, pattern, space, shape, form and texture in the artist’s work.

Select all that apply. Include evidence in your written answers below.
6. Which subject best completes this sentence about Käthe Kollwitz?

Look for what the artist depicts in their work.

Complete the idea from the artist's article

Her use of harsh dark and light colours add a dramatic impact to her ________, exaggerating the emotions she was capturing.
Select one answer. Look for a word or phrase with the closest meaning.
7. Which technique best completes this sentence about Käthe Kollwitz?

Look for how the artist makes their work.

Complete the idea from the artist's article

Look at how the artist creates tones through mark-making instead of ________:
Select one answer. Look for a word or phrase with the closest meaning.

Take the time you need to finish every mission. You can submit after at least 15 minutes, but it is fine to take longer. Bronze starts at 60%, Silver at 75% and Gold at 90% in the automatically marked rounds.

I have shared a list of portrait artists to research – enjoy!

DOWNLOAD this page below, for free, as an Artist Research handout to use in your lesson. It includes all of the facts and images, and has questions for students to answer.

Free Kathe Kollwitz Artist Research handout to use in your lesson.Download
Käthe Kollwitz drawing people art lesson
Killed in Action ‘Gefallen’ Grieving Family, 1920-1929
Käthe Kollwitz art lesson resources
Woman with Dead Child, 1903
Käthe Kollwitz artist lesson resources
Bread from War, 1924

Kollwitz wanted to show the harsh realities of war through her portraiture and other artwork; her works have a very detailed quality which mostly depict grief, sorry and pain.

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What do you think of Käthe Kollwitz’s artwork? How would you describe the mood, atmosphere and emotions you can see in the images? Let me know in the comments!

3 thoughts on “Käthe Kollwitz”

  1. She’s not afraid to look at the dark side of life, is she. I wonder why she drew a finger holding the left eyebrow up in her self portrait. She drew the wrinkles. The eyes are dark even in the whites of the eyes. It’s hard to ignore the sadness in life but if you can face it you’re the stronger artist for it.

    Reply

  2. Really good range of information & artist , I especially love Kathe Kollwitz. If I ever return to art teaching I’ll happily revisit, thank you for your generosity.

    Reply

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Published by art_teacher_mcr

Making and teaching art. Based in Manchester.