Woodcut printed in brown on handmade buff paper, circa 1930-35. 356x305 mm; 14x12 inches, 1/8- to 1/4- inch margins. Artist's proof. A very good impression of this extremely scarce print.
Provenance: the estate of Holcha Krake; by descent to her grandniece, Johanna Voll.
We have located only one other impression - a signed impression, handcolored with watercolor, in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a gift from the Harmon Foundation.
This woodcut is a striking, expressionist portrait of the artist's wife. Johnson married Danish artist Holcha Krake in 1930, whom he had first met in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1928-29. The couple settled in Ketterminde, Denmark, and spent the 1930s living and traveling in Denmark, Tunisia and Norway.
