Étude de Nu Debout. Le Maquillage. Study of a Standing Nude. Make-up by Hans Erni, b.1909

Hans Erni, b.1909
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Étude de Nu Debout. Le Maquillage. Study of a Standing Nude. Make-up

Original lithograph in colours. c.1965. Signed in pencil. Numbered from the edition of 150. Printed at the studio of Maison Kratz, Zurich, c.1965.
Colours: tones of grey with black and white brushwork highlights.

Excellent impression. On pale cream wove BFK Rives paper. Excellent condition. Full margins. Sheet: 25 3/4 x 19 3/4ins. Image: 22 3/4 x 11 3/4ins (578x300mm).

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Hans Erni was born in Lucerne in Switzerland, and whilst his art has always had strong links with that of his contemporaries in France, he has retained a strongly individual style. He joined the Abstraction-Création circle in Paris in the 1930's but he was always essentially a figurative artist, and moreover one for whom depiction of the human figure was paramount.

Printmaking was a central concentration of his work. He was an extremely sensitive and creative lithographer with a particularly fine understanding of how to use washes to create tone. The theme of Étude de Nu Debout, here, is typical, as is the manner in which through tones of grey, black and white he has created a beautiful and evocative quality of light and modelling.

Erni's early prints rely heavily on scraped line to create form. In the early 1960's he began to use a much more painterly free treatment. This is beautifully demonstrated in this figure study.