(Rosebush)

 

Helene Mass

  1871 - 1955 (biography)

c. 1925  

color woodcut 

8 5/8 x 9 13/16" image 

pencil, lower right margin 

not stated; presumed small 

 

 

thin, ivory laid paper 

proof 

artist 

23421 

SOLD

German artist Helene Mass' style is often compared to Carl Thiessen and, on occasion, Frank Morley Fletcher. In actuality, the artist who formally trained in oil painting at the Academy of Arts in Berlin discovered the woodcut medium seemingly outside of an academic venue, establishing a quiet niche in the Arts and Crafts world on her own. In this richly hued color woodcut from about 1925, her appreciation of untamed nature juxtaposed against subdued domesticity is delightfully captured in small format. Her signature green and blue shadows and trees provide a cool respite from a bright, summery sun. Roses rendered in lavender and salmon grow akimbo across a lush lawn, over which hovers two white cabbage butterflies. Throug the center of the work runs a formal, staid picket fence. A bucolic scene that provides a sense of both peace and playfulness.