Taking the Fence

Baroness Kathe Olshausen-Schonberger

Artist, illustrator, author Kathe Olshausen-Schonberger was already noted for her animal caricatures by age 20, creating a series of anthropomorphised books and illustrations for children and as sly social comments. Beyond these she also created works that displayed her knowledge of the animal musculature, as displayed in this drypoint "Taking the Fence".

In order to capture the drama of this action the artist uses drypoint, which involves engraving directly onto the copper plate and allowing the "burr", the displaced copper, to create a kind of "furrow" and print as a dark, fuzzy line.

A horse and rider are captured in mid-air while jumping a fence. Both figures are defined by deep black shadows with the light shining off the surfaces. The fuzzy lines of the drypoint soften the surfaces, creating the feeling of the both the horse's coat and a movement to the mane. The rider's jacket lifts from the wind.