Code: 10172
Dimensions:
URS GRAF Solothurn c. 1485 - 1528 Basel
A Standard Bearer, Marching to the Right.
White line woodcut; 1527. With black wash additions around the figure. Hollstein 45. Of the greatest rarity. Early impressions cited by Hollstein only at Basel and Vienna; the woodblock is at Basel, along with 3 modern impressions and other modern impressions at Berlin and Frankfurt.
Our sheet represents a fascinating example of a later impression of an extremely rare white line woodcut with wash additions around the figure to bring the sheet to resemble the white line woodcuts of the Standard Bearers of the Swiss Confederation Hollstein 29 - 44. Each of the Standard Bearers are the greatest rarity, and each are white line woodcuts against a black background.
Our sheet already shows a number of wormholes, each filled with black ink. The unwatermarked paper provides no secure date of printing, but the character of the paper suggests a possible time of execution as early as the late 16th century, although a substantially later date cannot be excluded. Even so, or impression must substantially predate the modern impressions cited in Hollstein and another impression at the Fogg Museum apparently printed for Paul Sachs. In this and the other modern impressions the many wormholes are clearly visible and the figure stands against an unprinted white background.
Urs Graf represents one of the most original graphic artists from the German speaking lands in the 16th century. These white line woodcuts show only a part of his multifarious activity; while he was keenly aware of Schongauer and Dürer and copied both, he also produced at least one early etching, and ventured widely in subject-matter from devotional images to witty ornament nielli.
210 x 127 mm 8 ¼ x 5 1/16 inches
