Comparative Study

Francisco Goya and Kathe Kollwitz

Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes, was a Spanish painter and print maker. He was born on 30th of March 1746, and died 16th of April 1828. Goya is considered one of the most important Spanish artist of his time, in part because he used his long career to chronicle his era. Goya was born in Fuendetodos Aragon, to a lower-middle-class family. He began painting at age 14 and moved to Madrid to study under Anton Raphael Mengs. He married Josefa Bayeu in 1773 and they lost many children to miscarriage but did have a son grow to adulthood. Goya is known for his skills of portraiture and in 1786 he became court painter to the Spanish Crown. In 1793 Goya suffered a severe undiagnosed illness which left him deaf and his work became progressively darker and pessimistic. In 1795 Goya became the Director of the Royal Academy. 1799 saw Goya appointed Prime Court Painter which is the highest ranking Spanish Court painter.

The year 1807 brought Napoleon into the Peninsular War against Spain and although Goya didn’t speak his thoughts in public, they were inferred through his artwork. At the age of 62 Goya began his production of “Disasters of War” series of prints . He also painted “The Third of May” (along with others). Goya made so many paintings and prints during this time it was said he acted like a photographic chronometer. It is said also that the imagery in his work show his concern for insanity, mental asylums, witches, and fantastical creatures, depict Goya’s concern with religious and political corruption.

The later part of Goya’s life was spent in near isolation. He painted some very disturbing images on the walls of his house. The “Black Paintings” consisted of 14 murals. In 1824, Francisco Goya retired to Bordeaux, France where he completed his “La Tauromaquia” (and more ). Goya suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed on his right side, he had failing eyesight and poor access to painting materials. He died in 1828 at 82 , and when his body was returned to Madrid, famously, his skull was missing.

The “Disasters of War” series where Goya’s way of visually depicting the French occupation of Spain. This plate coincides with Goya’s painting, “The Third of May” which I find to be very similar.

I like the pitting of the background in this plate. The total tonal scale is very visually pleasing.

The background again is very interesting but I also enjoy the light/dark contrast in this plate.

This plate has many tonal values. The fantastical beasts give a excellent depiction of the mental state of men.

I picked this plate simply for the imagery. To me, it speaks volumes. Goya was quite deaf at this time. Was he trying to hear the cries of the people of Spain over the voices in his head?

Francisco Goya and Kathe Kollwitz are both artist that used their art as a sort of voice for the common people. They both chose to depict the atrocities of war, and the abuse of the hierarchy on the common people. Goya chose to use images more from imagination and Kollwitz was more focused on reality and wars affect on women. They both used many different mediums, but I am focusing on their prints.

Kathe Kollwitz was born, 8th July 1867 in Konigsberg, Prussia. She was a German Expressionist whom I admire very much. Both her father, and her grandfather, a pastor, had very big influences on her. Kathe began drawing lessons when she was twelve. At age sixteen, Kathe enrolled into a school for women in Berlin. While there, she met Max Klinger, whose etching techniques and social concerns were an inspiration to her. At seventeen, Kathe, while studying in Munich met Karl Kollwitz who was studying to be a doctor. They married in 1891 and lived in a large apartment Berlin until it was destroyed in WWll. She had two sons, Hans 1892 and Peter 1896. Peter was killed in WW1 in 1914 which began a stage of prolonged depression in Kathe’s life.

The mid-1930 Kollwitz completed her last major cycle of lithographs, known as the” Death Cycle.” In 1933 the “Nazi Party” forced her to resign her place on the faculty of the Akademie der Kunste and her work was removed from museums. She was banned from exhibiting but one of her works, a sculpture, “Mother with her Dead Son” was used by the Nazis for propaganda. Today this piece is in ” The New Gaurdhouse”. The New Guardhouse is located at Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district, is the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany for the Victims of War and Dictatorship.

In 1943 Kathe was evacuated from Berlin. Kollwitz died sixteen days before the end of WWll.

The subjects of Kollwitz’s art were mainly figurative and revolved around middle-class life. She found the working class had grit and she found it beautiful. She produced a cycle of six works on the weavers theme, three lithographs and three etchings with aquatint and sandpaper. The works were a naturalistic expression of the workers’ misery, hope, courage, and eventual doom.

The Weaver Series was considered by Kollwitz to be her most popular work during her lifetime and she was to win a medal from the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1898. Unfortunately the Kaiser Wilhelm ll refused to issue a metal to a women.

I am drawn to the light top and dark bottom focus of this piece. The single women with the child on her back equals the strife of all the men she walks with. I say that because it is how I feel when I view this image.

The Peasant’s War Series was the second major cycle of works for Kollwitz. She worked on the series for six years. “Outbreak” was awarded the Villa Romana prize which provided a year’s stay in 1907 in a studio in Florence.

This print has been one of my favorite images for many years. Now that I know what a lithograph is I appreciate it even more. The amount of expression that can be portrayed with very few lines is most impressive.

Kathe Kollwitz used herself and her seven year old son Peter to poss for this etching. The pain of holding a child while looking in a mirror the draw this must have been excruciating and it shows.

Self portraits were important to Kollwitz and she is known to have made fifty of them. I believe she did them to record her passage of time on this earth.

• Kathe Kollwitz and Francis Goya both used the full spectrum of light/dark in their images
• the line work is easily followed in these compositions.
• the mother and child depicted in Kathe’s ” Woman With Dead Child” seem to convey the same sense of foreground and background as portrayed in Goya’s “Against The Common Good” .
• both images depict a sense of the hardship endured by the common people through their respective wars
• both artists used print making as a way of commentary for social and political issues of their time.

By comparing and contrasting Francis Goya and Kathe Kolltwiz, I realize that I am interested in their works because of the drawing line quality in their prints. The subject matter and representation of images to convey their views is visually pleasing to me as well.

Resources:

Hughes, Robert (2003). Goya.

Fick, Bill & Grobowski, Beth (2009) Printmaking A Complete Guide To Materials & Processes

Wikipedia, Kathe Kollwitz

Wikipedia, Francisco Goya