Zelfportret en profil before 1930

This is a self portrait made with charcoal by Kathe Kollwitz, we don’t know exactly when. The strokes are searching, smudgy, and there's a vulnerability to the way the face seems to emerge from the paper. Kollwitz wasn’t trying to capture a likeness so much as convey a feeling, an emotional state. Look closely at the hatching around the eye, how it creates depth and shadow, and how that gives the eye a sad, tired quality. The charcoal is dry and powdery, which gives the drawing a slightly rough, unfinished feel. It reminds me a little of Paula Modersohn-Becker, another German artist working around the same time, also interested in the inner life of women. Like Modersohn-Becker, Kollwitz wasn’t afraid to show the less flattering aspects of her subjects, to capture their humanity in all its complexity. In both artists' work, there’s a sense of art as something open-ended, a process of exploration rather than a quest for perfection.