Hexenskizzen - Blatt III (Witches Sketches - plate 3)

Therese Eisenmann

This is the third image from a series of etchings titled "Witches Sketches" by Austrian artist Therese Eisenmann (born 1953). The edition is small, this is number nine from the edition of 10 from a third edition, done in 1977. A coven of witches assemble around a huge animal skull, engaging in some sort of ceremony. Eisenmann's imagery brings to mind many of Goya's haunting intaglios for the 'Caprichos' and 'Disasters of War.'

Austrian printmaker Therese Eisenmann has spent much of her artistic life in solitary pursuits, living in nature in the surmmer or in retreats in the winters. Her imagery is personal and reflect the themes of nature, animals, the female form and solitude which recur throughout her career.

Therese Eisenmann was born the youngest of four siblings in 1953, in the town of Gosau in Salzkammergut, Austria. She attended the University of Design in Linz, receiving her diploma in 1977, before moving to South Tyroll to live and work in the Saben Abbey in Klausen. Her summers there were spent in the Hochebirge, or high mountains, living alone in a tent and working on paintings and drawings; winters, when she was predominantly indoors, were for focusing on printmaking. The themes of nature, animals, and the female form and solitude recur throughout her career. Eisenmann credits her time spent in nature, working and living alone as a woman and artist, and the solitude of the Abbey as her biggest influences.

She received the Talent Promotion Prize of the State of Upper Austria (1978/79), a travel scholarship from the Kulturring der Wirtschaft, Arezzo (1991), the Kiwanis Druckgrafikpreis (2003) and the Landeskulturpreis für bildende Kunst, Oberösterreich (2009). She has exhibited and continues to exhibit throughout Europe. She currently lives and works in Neumarkt, Germany.