247 - Ossip Zadkine (1888–1967)

Ossip Zadkine (1888–1967) Couple Embracing. Circa 1914. Woodcut. 74 x 210 [436 x 390 mm]. Very fine print on buff-colored vellum, annotated in pencil “first proof of 10” and signed. Short diagonal tear in the center at the bottom. Remnants of mounting tabs on the reverse. Full margins. Very rare. AABM stamp (Lugt 3075). Between 1914 and 1919, Ossip Zadkine’s work as an author, engraver, and illustrator was deeply influenced by Cubist aesthetics and primitive art, archaism, and the trauma of World War I—a period during which he established himself as a poet and illustrator closely connected to the Parisian literary circles revolving around Apollinaire. In particular, he contributed to the short-lived avant-garde magazine *SIC* (*Sons Idées Couleurs, Formes*), published from January 1916 to December 1919 under the direction of the poet Pierre Albert-Birot. He created six woodcut illustrations for the collection by Russian poet Vera Inber, *Le Vin triste*, published in Russian in Paris in 1914.