Watch Käthe Kollwitz's vision take shape in an animated video that traces the evolution of a single artwork. In "Sharpening the Scythe," one of Kollwitz’s most powerful prints, an elderly peasant woman grips the blade of her farming tool, preparing it not for cutting crops, but to take part in a revolt. Watch how Kollwitz arrived at this potent image using her confidence as a draftsman and printmaker. Kollwitz develops and abandons entire compositions as she revises the work, deepening her focus on the woman and intensifying her emotion and strength.

As Kollwitz works, we sense her resistance to tropes (a male figure helping the woman, for example) and her painstaking search for the clearest possible message.