Bretonisches Mädchen (Second version with deep horizon and ship)

Carl Moser

Saskia Wagner writes in the Taschen book Art for All - The Colour Woodcut in Vienna around 1900, on page 122, "The Painter, the Woodcutter and the Printer" regarding this image: "...(it was) Maximilian Kurzweil who taught Carl Moser the Japanese techniques of wood cutting and printing...through the subject of the 'Little Breton Girl' we can follow the stages of the composite printing of a colour woodcut: in the first stage the outlines of the contour plate privide the graphical structure of the woodcut printing. The hatching of the second printing stage models the figure and lends it plasticity - shading which is dispensed with in the Japanese colour woodcut.

"In the following stages of composite printing, color plates with planar surfaces complete the fine colour values which the artist achieves with tremendous care. Moser's elaborate color woodcuts show the pleasure he took in varying the colour constellations and the way he combined them during his working methods. He repeatedly changed the printing block, adding or removing plates and experimenting with colour effects. Thus he combined, for example, the lost profile of the "Little Breton Girl" with fishing boats or, in another case, with a view of the fishing village of Tréboul..."

Moser did around 20 different versions of this composition between 1902 and 1930. The image was a young Breton woman, seen from the back, featuring her headscarf with lace and her distinctive dress, above the shoulders. The sizes and backgrounds change, this has a ship in the distance. Moser also did a number of woodcuts of the young woman doing various chores, wearing a similar costume.