Emilia; or, Estudio para un Retrato

Mauricio Lasansky

Emilia was Mauricio's wife (1917 - 2009). Thein/Lasansky lists it as having been printed in sienna and black inks only, but this impression has the addition of cobalt blue. The raisonné image for "Estudio para un Retrado" lacks the architectural arches on the bottom half; it is unclear if the plate was cut or the photograph was cropped. Another print titled "Emilia" has no image in the catalogue; it is possible that this may be the that print.

This is a rare Surreal portrait of Lasansky’s wife Emilia, whom he had married in 1937. The zinc plate was printed three times, first using a sienna, then inked with black, and finally with a cobalt blue. The Bottocelli-like portrait stands behind a type of altar. She holds a plant while a delicate “landscape” that stretches to infinity contrasts the intricate, dream-like state of the subject.

"Emilia", also titled "Estudio para un Retrato" (Lady with Flower) was done in Argentina, in 1940, three years before Mauricio left for New York to work at Atelier 17. This impression is pencil is numbered "3/3", the catalog raisonné entry lists an edition of 10, with the plate having been destroyed.

Alan Fern commented about these drypoints on page 12 of the University of Iowa's catalog "Lasansky: Printmaker": "The drypoints...are lyrical and imaginative, relying on surrealist juxtapositions of interior and exterior space, objects in different scale, and interpenetrations of one form by another. These early works are consciously poetic; many of Lasansky's friends and intellectual heroes were poets and writers, who used language in the Spanish tradition with a rich employment of metaphors, strange juxtapositions of objects and ideas, and the frequent expression of states of mind in similes - equivalents for feelings being made vivid by references to objects."

There are condition issues with this impression, contact the gallery for details.