Woman at the Cradle (Frau an der Wiege)
1897
Medium
etching
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.5306
Art Historical Context
**Woman at the Cradle (Frau an der Wiege)**, created by Käthe Kollwitz 1897, is a poignant etching from the National of Art's Rosenwald. Kollwitz, a pioneering German artist and one of the few women recognized in the male-dominated art world of her time, captured the quiet intensity of everyday life among the working class. This print depicts a mother tenderly watching over her child in a cradle, embodying themes of maternal devotion amid hardship that defined much of her oeuvre. Rendered in etching—a intaglio printmaking technique where acid bites into a metal plate to create rich, expressiv...
About the Artist
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945) was a German artist whose powerful images of poverty, war, and maternal grief established her as the foremost practitioner of socially engaged art in early 20th-century Europe. Working primarily in printmaking—including etching, lithography, and woodcut—as well as drawing and sculpture, Kollwitz created works of raw emotional power that gave voice to the suffering of wor...