How to Study an Artist’s Style (and What It Can Teach You About Meaningful Art)

How do you study an art style?
How do you learn from artists whose work feels deeply emotional and timeless?
How do you analyze art styles in a way that goes beyond technique and into meaning?
And how do you find your own unique style without copying someone else’s work?

In this Style Study Session, we will use the six qualities of style to understand the work of Käthe Kollwitz and more importantly to explore how you can use this same framework to develop a powerful personal artistic voice of your own.

Kollwitz is an artist many people recognize instantly even if they do not know her name. Her work is raw, human, and emotionally direct. It speaks of grief, poverty, motherhood, loss, and resilience, subjects that still resonate deeply today.

If you would like me to study another artist, living or dead, leave their name in the comments so I can feature them in a future Style Study Session.

Hey there! 👋 I’m Carrie.

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Now let us dive in.

What Defines an Artist’s Style?

Style is the unique way an artist shares their voice through their work.

We often recognize an artist’s work at first glance because of their style, but that style is not accidental. It is not something you find one day or add on at the end. It is built slowly through repeated choices.

I have a full video on this that I have linked for you here and below, but let us start with a short primer.

An artist’s style is built from six interconnected qualities:

• Elements and Principles of Art
• Medium and Materials
• Genre
• Theme
• Influence
• Personal Experience

By studying these six qualities, we can begin to understand why an artist’s work looks and feels the way it does and how to consciously shape our own style over time.

Let us explore Käthe Kollwitz through this lens.

1. Elements and Principles of Art

Kollwitz’s work is visually restrained yet emotionally intense. Every formal decision serves communication rather than decoration.

Line

Her line work is heavy, expressive, and purposeful. Lines are often dark, thick, and weighted, emphasizing gravity, tension, and emotional pressure rather than delicacy or ornament. These lines feel carved rather than drawn, as if they carry physical weight.

Value

She relies heavily on strong contrasts between light and dark. Large areas of shadow create mood and emotional density, while highlights are used sparingly to guide the eye and emphasize form. Value becomes a storytelling tool.

Composition

Figures are frequently tightly framed, cropped, or pressed close to one another. This creates a sense of claustrophobia and intimacy, mirroring the lived experiences of hardship, grief, and protection she depicts.

Form and Gesture

Bodies in Kollwitz’s work are solid, grounded, and often monumental even when small in scale. Gestures such as clasped hands, bowed heads, and protective embraces carry deep emotional meaning. The body becomes a vessel for feeling.

Kollwitz uses the elements and principles of art not to beautify, but to communicate.

2. Medium and Materials

Kollwitz worked primarily in:

• Printmaking (etching, lithography, woodcut)
• Drawing (charcoal, pencil)
• Sculpture (later in her career)

Printmaking was essential to her style and values. It allowed her work to be reproduced and shared widely, aligning with her belief that art should be accessible, not reserved for elite audiences or private collections.

Her later woodcuts are especially stark and powerful. Through simplified forms and bold contrasts, she stripped her images down to their emotional core.

Her materials supported her message: clarity, directness, and reach.

3. Genre

Kollwitz’s work exists at the intersection of:

• Social Realism
• Expressionism
• Figurative Art
• Political and Protest Art

While her figures remain representational, emotional truth always takes priority over realism. She distorts, simplifies, and exaggerates when necessary to express suffering, grief, and strength.

Her work is not decorative. Instead, it is confrontational, empathetic, and purposeful.

4. Theme

Themes are the emotional backbone of Kollwitz’s style.

Recurring themes include:

• Grief and mourning
• Motherhood and protection
• Poverty and labor
• War and loss
• Human dignity
• Suffering and compassion

Many of her works center on mothers and children, reflecting universal experiences of care, fear, and responsibility. These images feel deeply personal while remaining profoundly universal.

Kollwitz’s art does not give us answers to these problems: it bears witness.

5. Influence

Kollwitz was influenced by:

• German Realism and Expressionism
• The working-class communities she lived among
• Political movements advocating for social justice
• Artists such as Max Klinger
• Literature and theater addressing social inequality

However, her strongest influences were not purely artistic. They were social, ethical, and human.

She believed art had a responsibility to reflect life honestly and to speak for those whose voices were often unheard.

6. Personal Experience

Käthe Kollwitz’s life is inseparable from her work.

She lived in a working-class district of Berlin, witnessing poverty and hardship firsthand. These experiences shaped both her subject matter and her values.

She also experienced profound personal loss, including the death of her son Peter during World War I. That loss transformed her work permanently.

Themes of mourning, maternal grief, and anti-war sentiment became central, not as abstraction, but as lived truth.

Kollwitz once said that her art was a way of coming to terms with life.

How to Apply This to Your Own Art

Studying Kollwitz’s style offers powerful lessons for your own creative practice:

• Let your values guide your aesthetic choices
• Use materials that align with how you want your work to be experienced
• Allow emotion and meaning to shape your use of line, value, and composition
• Do not shy away from difficult subjects if they matter to you
• Trust that restraint can be more powerful than excess

Style grows when you make repeated, intentional choices in service of what you care about.

Summary

Käthe Kollwitz’s style is unmistakable, not because it is flashy, but because it is honest.

Her work shows us that style is not about trends or polish.
It is about conviction, clarity, and courage.

As your art grows, your style will grow with it, shaped by your experiences, your values, and the choices you return to again and again.

Tell me:
What part of Kollwitz’s work resonates with you most?
And what themes in your own life might be asking for expression?

Thank you so much for watching. As always, please like and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Let me know what you would like to learn about next in the community tab. Your ideas shape the content I create.

Remember, proudly call yourself an artist.
Together, we are Artist Strong.

Sources & References

1. The Art Institute of Chicago – Käthe Kollwitz artist overview
   https://www.artic.edu/artists/1265/kathe-kollwitz
2. MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) – Käthe Kollwitz collection and essays
   https://www.moma.org/artists/3208
3. Tate Museum – Käthe Kollwitz biography and works
   https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kathe-kollwitz-1496
4. The British Museum – Prints and drawings by Käthe Kollwitz
   https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG20082
5. Smarthistory – Käthe Kollwitz analysis and historical context
   https://smarthistory.org/kathe-kollwitz/
6. Käthe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin – Official museum and archival material
   https://www.kollwitz.de/en