1908, Käthe Kollwitz, The Prisoners -- Getty Museum (Los Angeles)
From the exhibition label: Restrained by a barrier of thin wooden poles and rope, the horde of prisoners is distanced from the viewer, pressed into the composition’s middle ground. The men are crowded together into a monolithic mass, yet their faces bear individual expressions of anguish and resignation. In its format and scale, The Prisoners, the final print in the cycle, matches the opening plate, The Ploughmen. This formal connection echoes the tragic full-circle turn of the narrative, from the peasants’ oppression to their ultimate suppression.
1908, Käthe Kollwitz, The Prisoners -- Getty Museum (Los Angeles)
From the exhibition label: Restrained by a barrier of thin wooden poles and rope, the horde of prisoners is distanced from the viewer, pressed into the composition’s middle ground. The men are crowded together into a monolithic mass, yet their faces bear individual expressions of anguish and resignation. In its format and scale, The Prisoners, the final print in the cycle, matches the opening plate, The Ploughmen. This formal connection echoes the tragic full-circle turn of the narrative, from the peasants’ oppression to their ultimate suppression.