Stonebreaking Woman

From 1895–1921, Karl Janssen was a professor of sculpture at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His Stonebreaking Woman examines the woman’s double role as mother and worker. In comparison to Gustave Courbet, who with his 1849 painting The Stonebreakers highlighted the hardships of the working classes, Janssen moreover gave the socially critical motif an emotional element. With a good degree of compassion, he describes with realistic details the social malaise of workers in the early 20th century. The sculpture probably received such high appreciation thanks to this coherent representation, and as early as in 1902 the City of Düsseldorf acquired it for its art collections. A second sculpture is owned by Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin. The Düsseldorf cityscape still features works by Janssen today, such as the equestrian statue of Emperor Wilhelm I of 1896 and Father Rhine with his Daughters of 1897. (Katja Storalow)