Mädchen und Blumen (Girl and flowers)

Max Pollak

This large early portrait was done by Max Pollak around 1910 using just softground etching. A somewhat solemn young woman sits with large flowers covering her lap. In a a nod to Whistler the artist captures the moment by focusing on the subject's face and using quickly drawn, crayon-like lines and shades of gray for the figure, letting the viewer to fill in the details.

Pollak made a pencil annotation indicating indicating that this is the only impression printed from the plate. Why he did not edition it is unknown, perhaps the plate was lost or damaged. This impression has a red "FPC" stamp in the lower margin, indicating it was from the personal collection of the artist's late widow, Freidl Pollak.

Max Pollak, painter and printmaker, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1886. He was raised in Vienna and, in 1902, he entered the Vienna Academy of Art where he studied under William Unger and Ferdinand Schmutzer. In 1912, Pollak traveled to Italy, France, and Holland to study and paint. During the First World War, he was appointed painter of the Austrian Army.

He immigrated to the United States in 1927, living for a time on the east coast where he produced a series of color aquatints of New York, Cincinnati, and Detroit. His first exhibition was at the 57th Street Art Gallery in New York and he was commissioned by Theodore Dreiser in 1929 to illustrate his book, My City. In 1938, Pollak and his wife, Friedl, moved to San Francisco, California. Pollak was inspired by his new city and its environs and produced beautiful views of San Francisco Bay Area. Later travels included trips to Mexico and Guatemala.