Paysage Anthropophage. Man-Eating Landscape. by Stanley William Hayter, 1901-1988

Stanley William Hayter, 1901-1988
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Paysage Anthropophage. Man-Eating Landscape.

Original engraving with softground etching in black ink. 1937. Signed and dated in pencil. Inscribed with the title and 'E 4/5' - (State-État-four of five, with the completed image but before the engraved signature and date in the plate). Trial proof, possibly unique, before the edition of 30 impressions. Printed by Hayter at Atelier 17, Paris 1937.
Ref: Black-Moorehead Hayter Prints no 106

Extremely fine rich hand-wiped proof impression. On pale cream laid hollande-type paper. Generally excellent condition; very slightest traces of an old mount aperture mark. Full margins, as printed. Sheet: 10 7/8 x 17 1/2ins. Plate: 7 1/4 x 14ins (184x356mm)

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During the 1930?s Hayter was a central figure in André Breton?s Surrealist circle. His importance was not only as an artist but also as the guiding spirit and driving force in the introduction of etching, or rather ?copperplate printmaking? as a central medium for the expression of Surrealist ideas.

Hayter had a unique genius for seeing how ways of working the surface of a plate could be used to create visual effects of line, texture and movement. He understood how free ?non-logical? form, and techniques like automatic writing could be translated into strokes and surfaces on a plate to express the ?dream imagery? which was central to Surrealist creation.

Paysage Anthropage is an outstanding example of the brilliant artistic and technical creativity of Hayter?s prints at the height of the Surrealist movement in 1937. The use of the varied line, the way that the line moves from the description of form to effects of surface, and the variations in texture, linked to the dream forms themselves, shows him at the height of his inspiration.