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Call of Death,
Sheet 8 of the series »Death«, 1937

Käthe Kollwitz, Call of Death, sheet 8 of the series »Death«, 1937, crayon lithograph, 380 x 383 mm, Kn 269 b, Kollwitz Museum Köln, Inv. Nr. 70300/02051.
Käthe Kollwitz, Call of Death, sheet 8 of the series »Death«, 1937, crayon lithograph, 380 x 383 mm, Kn 269 b, Kollwitz Museum Köln, Inv. Nr. 70300/02051.

The final sheet of the series shows a self-portrait of the artist. A reaching out from the top right, gently touches her shoulder. The artist, her faces shaded, turns towards this hand, i.e. Death. 

She raises her left hand to her eyes in a poignant gesture of letting-go.

Her right lower arm, represented as a bright, flat area, rises diagonally to form a link to the hand of Death.

For comparison

The original lithographic stone of »Ruf des Todes« (Call of Death) in the exhibition KOLLWITZ NEU SEHEN, Kollwitz Museum Köln, 11 October 2025 — 15 March 2026, photo © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)
The original lithographic stone of »Ruf des Todes« (Call of Death) in the exhibition KOLLWITZ NEU SEHEN, Kollwitz Museum Köln, 11 October 2025 — 15 March 2026, photo © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)