Käthe Kollwitz
Germany, 1867-1945 Die Pflüger [The Ploughmen], 1906
Plate #1, in series Bauernkrieg [Peasants' War]
Etching, engraving, softground and commercial tonal grids
Spencer Museum of Art, 1976.0085
With A Weavers Rebellion (also exhibited here), The Peasants’ War was one of Kollwitz’s most important print series dealing with oppression. Die Pflüger, which shows peasants who have harnessed themselves to their plow, was intended as the first print in the series. The title of the series, Bauernkrieg, makes an intentional reference to the historical uprising of the peasantry in Germany in 1525. Chinese artist Li Yitai included Kollwitz’s print of "Black Anna" from The Peasants’ War series in his Portrait of Lu Xun exhibited here, giving testimony to Kollwitz’s importance to radical printmakers around the globe.
See also Kollwitz' Beim Dengeln (Whetting the Scythe)
