1197 - Horst Janssen, head in profile with falling hair, etching by the Hamburg draughtsman, 1994

Horst Janssen, head in profile with falling hair, etching by the Hamburg draughtsman, 1994 (1929 Hamburg – 1995 ibid.), etching/paper, mounted on a support, numbered 84/100 in pencil lower right, monogrammed and dated 94. Inscribed and dated 2.4.94 in the plate lower left. Head in profile to the left against a pale ground: forehead, nose and mouth are drawn with a thin, searching line, while a dark section of hair falls from the forehead across the cheek; at the right edge a closed dark area. Good condition. Image 29.5 x 21 cm (HxW), mount, behind glass, framed, overall 67 x 56 cm (HxW). The portrait, and above all his own face, forms the core of Horst Janssen's graphic work; he varied the head over decades in etching, drypoint, woodcut and lithography. From the 1950s he worked in close collaboration with Hamburg printers and publishers, and in the 1990s numerous sheets appeared in small editions at the Hamburg Edition St. Gertrude. Characteristic is his open treatment of the plate: scratches, wiping marks and damaged edges are left in place and printed as part of the image.