97 - Gertrude Degenhardt, “Der Schmuddelkinder Kumpanei”, box set containing 10 signed, large etchings from 1970

Gertrude Degenhardt, “Der Schmuddelkinder Kumpanei”, box set containing 10 signed, large etchings from 1970 Gertrude Degenhardt, born Gertrude Schwell in New York City in 1940 - 2025 Greifswald, German lithographer and draughtswoman, here: “Der Schmuddelkinder Kumpanei”, ten etchings in a box set accompanying the chanson “Spiel nicht mit den Schmuddelkindern” by her brother-in-law and singer-songwriter Franz Josef Degenhardt, each 50 x 65 cm, each signed and numbered 33/100, in a grey, ‘unassuming’ original cardboard case About the artist: Gertrude Degenhardt grew up in West Berlin after the Second World War. From 1956, she lived in Mainz, where she completed her schooling and studied commercial art at the State School of Applied Arts until 1959. From 1966, she worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist. Her drawings and etchings bear her individual, unmistakable artistic style. Using an etching needle, but also a brush and pencil, she depicted her fellow human beings in an alienated and whimsical yet still easily recognisable manner. Her women and men are drawn from real life - eccentric, serious, cheerful, sober and drunk, erotic and ascetic, individual and original. Endearing and whimsical figures from the singer-songwriter scene associated with her brother-in-law Franz Josef Degenhardt, as seen in this work, or from Ireland - often rough-and-ready vagabonds, drinkers and gamblers - can be seen in her etchings and colour etchings from earlier years.