Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)
Autograph letter and four autograph postcards signed (‘Käthe Kollwitz’, ‘K. Kollwitz’) to ‘Herr [Konrad] Lemmer’, n.p. [Berlin], 10 August 1925 – 3 March 1929
In German. 9 pages, various sizes (140 x 87mm postcard to 181 x 146mm bifolium). Provenance: J.A. Stargardt, 30 November & 1 December 1988, lot 621.

Kollwitz discusses her work with the publisher Konrad Lemmer (Rembrandt-Verlag), mentioning the photographer Helmar Lerski. In the letter, Kollwitz recommends a ‘young man – Kurt Vogel – who seems to me to be an unusual talent and to have a remarkable will … I hope you will be able to give him business.’ In a postcard of 31 December 1927, Kollwitz instructs Lemmer to telephone her regarding a lithograph which he refers to as ‘Abschied’, but which Kollwitz has no knowledge of, since she can recall only sketches under that title. In the postcard of 3 March 1929, she describes advising the photographer Helmar Lerski on finding models. She says how ‘few women come to my door now, and of the old ones, whom I used to work with, I no longer know their addresses. Some of them are no longer even alive. I advised Mr Lerski to go to an employment agency in one of the districts, he will find plenty of faces there. I wouldn’t bother with the Academy’s marketplace for models if I were in his position, the faces there are all so typical.’

The photographer and filmographer Helmar Lerski (1871-1956) was at the time working on his project ‘Köpfe des Alltags’ (1931), comprising portraits of labourers and the unemployed in Weimar Germany. He had evidently asked Kollwitz for advice on where to find suitable subjects for his lens.