Motherhood and Being a Woman Artist

Mother with a Child in her Arms, final version, 1916 & Two Children at the Bannister, c 1927

            On a lighter note we move on to discuss her work involving children as a reflection of her own experiences and joys of motherhood. Kollwitz took great pride and love in her relationship with her boys, which can be seen in the light and looseness of her mark making. Before meeting her husband her father wished for her to solely focus on art as there was already a present stigma on a woman’s role in society and he did not want her to give up on something she was showing a great deal of passion towards. “The pressures on women artists to procreate in the domestic realm rather than to “create” in the public sphere were immense and the subject of all four artists’ direct and indirect experiences within the first decade of the new century.”

As the boys grew older and began to do their own thing she spent some time reminiscing of their younger years, noting the following in her diary. “I am gradually approaching the period in my life when work comes first. When both the boys went away for Easter, I hardly did anything but work. Worked, slept ate and went for short walks. But above all I worked. And yet I wonder whether the ‘blessing’ is not missing much from such work…formerly, in my so wretchedly limited working time, I was more productive because I was more sensual… Potency, potency is diminishing…” She considered the possibility of having another child but thought otherwise figuring this would be a good time to continue the production of work that had to be put on hold.

Price, Dorothy. Between Us Sleeps Our Child—art: Creativity, Identity, and the Maternal in the Works of Marianne Von Werefkin and Her Contemporaries. In Marianne Werefkin and the Women Artists in Her Circle, edited by Malycheva Tanja and Wünsche Isabel, 106-22. LEIDEN; BOSTON: Brill, 2017

Both Images are from: https://www.kollwitz.de/en/mothers-and-children-overview