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Compare the dense, crossing lines over the shaded eye with the long, loose strokes of hair at the edges.
Käthe Kollwitz etched this small self-portrait in 1910, when she was in her early forties. The printer Otto Felsing printed it in a numbered edition, and this sheet, signed by her in pencil, is number 37 of 50. Her hand presses on her forehead and leaves one eye in deep shadow.
etching and drypoint in black-brown ink on wove paper · plate: 15.5 x 13.6 cm · National Gallery of Art · Expressionism
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Self-Portrait with Hand on Forehead (Selbstbildnis mit der Hand an der Stirn)
- Artist
- Käthe Kollwitz German, 1867 - 1945
- Date
- 1910
- Medium
- etching and drypoint in black-brown ink on wove paper
- Dimensions
- plate: 15.5 x 13.6 cm (6 1/8 x 5 3/8 in.) sheet: 43.3 x 30.2 cm (17 1/16 x 11 7/8 in.)
- Credit line
- Rosenwald Collection
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- National Gallery of Art
Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.