Women of Secession: Clara Siewert
Death and the Maiden, 1920 (Mädchen und Tod)
Watercolour, ink and charcoal / Aquarell, Tusche und Kohle
43.8 × 31.3 cm
© Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz

Clara Siewert (1862–1945) was a German Symbolist painter, graphic artist, and sculptor whose career unfolded on the margins of the Berlin Secession. She began exhibiting in Berlin salons in 1892 and joined the Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen, a pioneering association of women artists. In 1901 she exhibited with the Berlin Secession, but in 1912 she broke with the group — a rupture that nearly silenced her public career.

After this break, Siewert’s visibility declined sharply. She was represented in only one major exhibition between 1912 and 1936, in Leipzig in 1914. Her friend Käthe Kollwitz, herself a Secession member and juror, attempted to secure the inclusion of Siewert’s works in 1916, but her efforts were unsuccessful. This exclusion contributed to her marginalization within the German art world.

Financial hardship compounded her difficulties. Following the death of her sister Elisabeth in 1930, Siewert fell into poverty, yet she continued to create art with remarkable persistence, often working in solitude.

Mädchen und Tod (c. 1920) is one of her most haunting works. Executed in watercolour, ink, and charcoal, it depicts a dramatic encounter between a young woman and a spectral figure. The composition is raw and emotionally charged: swirling drapery, exposed limbs, and a palette of reds and blacks evoke both vulnerability and confrontation. The drawing’s expressive line and atmospheric washes reflect Siewert’s Symbolist sensibility, where myth and mortality intertwine with personal struggle.

For decades, her fate was misunderstood. It was long believed that she perished in a bombing raid in 1944. However, a letter from her sister Victoria, published in 2012, clarified that she died shortly after the end of the war in 1945 from a heart ailment.

Her work remained largely forgotten until 2008, when a major exhibition in Regensburg reintroduced her to scholarly and public attention. Today, Clara Siewert is recognized as one of the overlooked women of the Secession. Mädchen und Tod stands as a poignant reminder of her vision — fragile yet unyielding, and deeply resonant within the history of German modernism.