Description

Emil Nolde began making religious-themed prints after suffering from a severe illness in 1909. This image of a prophet presents a gaunt, ascetic type with an elongated face and high cheekbones. The block was heavily inked and printed by hand. To create the texture on the hollow cheeks, the block was printed without ink, which embossed the paper. The contemporary critic Gustav Schiefler wrote of this image: “Everything: beard, hair, background lines, appear in him to be reflected from an inner fire.”