Woodcut on laid paper, 38 x 25.3 cm (block), 52 x 34.8 cm (sheet). Rare trial or state proof of the first state without berry vignette lower right and before alteration of the right robe contour with markings in opaque white for the intended corrections (which were apparently omitted at the left margin of the robe, as impressions of the final state show). Before removal of numerous inner lines of the printing block still printed here. With a faint impression of an earlier design for the berry vignette on the verso. Reference: University of Applied Arts Collection Vienna no. 2269 (final state)
Bertold Löffler (1874-1960) was what we would call a (graphic) designer today. Incidentally, "Bertold" is the correct spelling and not "Berthold" as stated in Amorosart. Typical for Vienna during the Secession period and for his career, he studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts (now the University of Applied Arts), an institution that anticipated many of the ideas of the later Bauhaus Weimar. From 1907, Löffler also taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule himself, including the various printing processes. Löffler also provided numerous designs for the famous Wiener Werkstätte. Interestingly, surviving original woodcuts in Löffler's oeuvre are rare. Many of his designs, which were executed as hand drawings in various techniques (and are now largely in the collection of the University of Applied Arts in Vienna) were, for example, in the case of book illustrations or bookplates, partly reproduced using machine methods in line with the industrial standards of the time.
