Description

Description: We offer a woodcut book illustration by the German artist Hans Burgkmair the Elder. The image is 3 3/4" x 6", printed on handmade laid paper that is 7 1/2" x 7", with text on recto and verso. Die Berufsahl, or the Career Choice, depicts a robed man surrounded by crests containing images of tools and animals. Behind him a weary frau stands with a large book on her head and under her arm. The print lacks any monogram or signature. The scholar Georg Hirth indicated this is quite common for the artist. Item #PR0094.

Hans Burgkmair the Elder (1473–1531) was a German painter and woodcut printmaker. He was an important innovator of the chiaroscuro woodcut, and seems to have been the first to use a tone block, in a print from 1508.

Condition: There is a small 3/4" tear at upper left margin away from the image, top of the leaf has been cut (not affecting woodcut), full margins on the sides and bottom, very good.