Etreinte (Embrace)

Stanley William Hayter

Extremely rare, "Etreinte" was done right after his masterpiece "Combat", done in late 1936, and his series of works commissioned by Ambroise Vollard, done to illustrate "Numancia" by Cervantes. Hayter includes all of the experimental intaglio techniques he had used in "Combat" and compresses them into a small, intense format.

Hayter uses engraving, a scorper and soft-ground etching to create this image, which combines automatic line and un-inked gaffrauge to produce the 3-dimensional image with fabric texture and wood graining impressed into the soft ground as background “color”. This is from the published edition of 25.

Atelier 17 also experimented with "plaster prints" in the early 1930s and the plate for "Etreinte" was used to create one of these prints. The resultant print is illustrated and the process is explained in Gabor Peterdi's book "Printmaking", pages 163 through 168.