Frauenprofil (Profile of a Woman)

Emil Nolde (1867-1956), Frauenprofil (Profile of a Woman), woodcut, 1917, signed in pencil lower right (also titled, numbered 8, and annotated III.10 lower left). Reference: Schiefler/MOsel 136, third state (of 3). In very good condition, 8 1/4 x 5 15/16, the sheet 11 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches.

Provenance: Collection of H. Neuerburg, Koln (with the blindstamp lower left, Lugt 1344a).

A fine fresh impression with considerable gaufrage, printed on a thin wove white/ivory paper with a partial circle watermark.

Rare in this condition, only 12 impressions were made of this state (and three each of prior states) according to Nolde’s working notes; the composition was complete in the first state and only slight correctional changes made thereafter.

In The Print in Germany 1880-1933 Frances Carey and Antony Griffiths note that in this period, with the exception of the few woodcuts printed in large commercial editions, Nolde and his wife printed all his woodcuts, and they were carefully inked “so that the design is carried almost entirely by blind-stamping. The very considerable relief imparted to the paper can be clearly seen in a raking light and on the verso of the sheet. A consequence of such careful inking is that no two impressions of the print will be exactly similar, and in fact Nolde seems to have deliberately varied the inking of his impressions to produce a variety of effects.”