Sculptor, printmaker, and playwright, by the time Barlach conceived of this Pietà, he was a well established artist. Beginning in 1907, he joined the stable of artists supported by the influential Paul Cassirer, who gave him his first major exhibition at his gallery in 1917. After serving the three-month minimum as an infantryman during World War I, Barlach became a staunch pacifist, which put him at odds with the political climate, especially during the years leading up to the rise of the Third Reich.

This is a late cast of a sculpture that Barlach first modeled in 1925. It displays the simplification of form, with a concentration on the expressive face and hands, for which Barlach was known.  Although Barlach received several important state commissions for such religious subjects in the 1930s, in 1937 his art was confiscated and included in the Degenerate Art exhibition staged by the Nazis. He died a year later.