The Wallraf

On my way to Hövelhof, I stopped in Cologne to visit my sister-in-law. Following my overwhelming impression of the paintings at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, I wanted to look at "The Wallraf", particularly at works by Käthe Kollwitz.

 

Wallraf is the short form of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne's art collection.

The museum claims one of the most famous German artists of the 20th century was a guest: Königsberg-born Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), revered above all for her impressive graphic oeuvre. 

Self-portrait: The Master at his easel

Young Käthe's idols and patrons were two Maxes, Klinger and Liebermann. These artists influenced her early career.

The empty and the ...

... and the frequented Munich beer garden (1888/89).

The Wallraf showed two little-known oil studies the young Kollwitz created during her studies in Munich. 

Max Liebermann: Joodse Steeg (Jews'Alley) in Amsterdam, 1905

Käthe's oil paintings are displayed directly beside a painting by Liebermann and clearly reflect the influence of the German Impressionists.

Max Klinger: Bathing Women, 1912 (©Wikipedia)

In an adjacent room, a Kollwitz etching from the legendary Weber Zyklus is juxtaposed with works by symbolist Max Klinger (1857-1920), another major role model for Käthe.

"From many wounds, you bleed, o people"
was supposed to become the final leaf of Käthe Kollwitz's cycle "A Weavers' Revolt."

The etching above caught the Red Baron's particular attention. A copy hung on the wall at my father-in-law's apartment that the family called Ecce homo. Here at The Wallraf, I learned its true origin.

Also, at The Wallraf: The Dying Child

In February 1893, Käthe Kollwitz witnessed the premiere of Gerhart Hauptmann's naturalistic drama "The Weavers" at the New Theater Berlin (today's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm). 

The play depicts the Silesian weavers' misery, starvation, and uprising. The spectators' emotional response quickly made "The Weavers" one of the most discussed naturalistic works in Germany. In the same year, Käthe Kollwitz began work on her cycle "A Weavers' Revolt."

Two other paintings at The Wallraf drew my attention:

In 1822, Heinrich Christoph Kolbe painted Johann Wolfgang von Goethe at the age of 73. The Olympian looks with the gaze of an aged wise man, for he had definitely ticked off his Marienbad Elegy.

The Bavarian Franz von Lenbach painted the Prussian Otto Fürst Bismarck in 1888, two years before his resignation as Chancellor of the Second Reich in 1890. By then, Bismarck was 75, but he looked older.

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