Käthe Kollwitz spent the final months of the Second World War until her death on 22 April 1945 in Moritzburg, near Dresden. She had accepted an invitation from Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony (1896–1971), a passionate art collector and admirer of her work.
As a token of her gratitude, she gave him this early drawing and wrote a dedication on it.
The drawing had been created more than half a century earlier, when Kollwitz was still in training. In his autobiography, the prince referred to the drawing as »Kaiser’s Birthday«, probably in reference to the monarch’s birthday celebrations, for which the two men are dressing up.
