Lamentation

In this sculpture, a woman with lowered eyes covers her mouth in an expression of intense but silenced grief. Her features resemble those of the artist, Käthe Kollwitz. The first female member and titled professor at the Prussian Academy of Arts, Kollwitz was known for her empathetic depictions of tragedy and hardship. This work is her response to the death of a close friend, sculptor Ernst Barlach (1879–1938), who had suffered persecution by the Nazi (National Socialist) regime. Kollwitz also faced censorship and oppression by Nazi authorities and was forced to resign her teaching position at the Academy in 1933.