Der Hirte (The Shepherd): from GENIUS: Zeitschrift fur Werdende und Alte Kunst.

Richard Seewald

"Der Hirte", (The Shepherd) was done as a black and white woodcut and colored using "pochoir", stencils which are hand colored with watercolor or gouache. The matrix does not have fabric like a screen-print. The artist did not need to cut multiple blocks to add touches of color to the composition.

In 1919 publisher Hans Mardersteig and Carl Georg Heise approached the publisher Karl Wolff about commissioning works from leading German Expressionists, to be compiled into a portfolio. Wolff, though doubtful of the relevance of the new and controversial art movement, agreed to the proposal, with the caveat that it also include a literary section, and between the years 1919 and 1921, GENIUS, a three-part portfolio of art and literature, was produced for sale by subscription.

Each periodical came with two books, one dedicated to the “developing arts” and the other to “poetry and humanity.” Seewald’s “Die Hirte” was one such contribution, a stylized, Cubist influenced depiction of a shepherd and his small flock of animals resting in a Bavarian forest.