Notes

In a letter of 23 December 1951, Stern wrote to Freda and Richard Feldman: “My work is much changed – I have been doing etching as something new entirely for me.”¹

Stern produced a limited number of etchings in her career, predominantly in the year 1951, almost all of which are represented here (lots 58 to 69). This was shortly after purchasing a printing press, as noted in her list of expenses in the back of her ledger. The entry is not specifically dated but the context suggests that it was between May and September of 1951.²

Michael Godby notes in his recent exhibition catalogue, “There is a distinct religious quality in Stern’s etchings that echoes her search for spiritual values in other media at this time (see lots 59, 62, 64 and 67), and she seems to have turned to Rembrandt’s etchings as a model for both medium and style. Significantly, Stern owned a Rembrandt etching which was later sold from her estate […] Part of Stern’s search for spirituality at this time was to focus on her figures inner state rather than external description or narrative. […]

Stern’s further exploration of the medium was interrupted by a long trip to Europe from February 1952 and she seems to have made only one more etching. In 1954, she made the plate that has been given the title of Head of a Saint (lot 67 ) that would appear to continue the religious theme of the 1951 etchings but reduces the style to simple linear description – to a point that seems to question her choice to use the medium in the first place. By this time Stern was already exploring the potential of monotypes and she evidently abandoned etching for this very much more pictorial medium.”³

^1. Michael Godby (2021) Irma Stern Nudes, 1916-1965, Cape Town: Primavera Publishing, page 132.
^2. Ibid.
^3. Ibid, pages 133 and 134.

Provenance

The Irma Stern Trust Collection, accession number 121/3.