Käthe Kollwitz
Outbreak
Sheet 5 from the cycle Peasants’ War
1902/03
Etching, line etching, drypoint, aquatint, and vernis mou
Käthe Kollwitz Museum Berlin
In her series Peasants’ War, Käthe Kollwitz took up for the first time the motif of the (human) crowd, which had emerged with the industrial age and was a theme in contemporary theater. According to a psychological theory by Gustave Le Bon (1841–1931), a group of individuals can merge into a crowd in which the individual disappears. This mass acts like a living being, led by individuals who emerge from it as leaders.
The print “Outbreak” reveals revolutionary energies. The mass of farmers charging forward in a wedge formation forms an inextricable mixture of limbs, heads, and weapons. Only a few individuals can be distinguished.