Portrait of Franz Hauer

1914

Drypoint, plate 13 × 11 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

A small printed head of Franz Hauer, a tavern owner who, in Jane Kallir's account, was the painter's most important collector from 1912 to 1914, buying nine of his oils.

Look at the looping, curled beard and the long parallel lines of the brow.
The head is built from line alone, darker wherever the lines crowd together.
The jittery line is left raw and open, giving the down-turned face a restless, searching look.
The Met holds several other 1914 drypoints by him, including a self-portrait and a portrait of Arthur Roessler.
This impression comes from a 1922 portfolio of his prints, part of the Met's Scofield Thayer bequest of 1982.

Drypoint: A print made by scratching lines into a metal plate with a sharp point, without acid.

Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art · CC0 (Met Open Access)