(Still Life with Lilies and Roses)

Meta Cohen Hendel

This rare unique color woodengraving, a relief print, is by German born, San Francisco printmaker Meta Hendel. Hendel applied oil based color to the block using brushes that printed with painterly rich color, not unlike an oil painting on canvas. Each impression printed would be uniquely colored, a monoprint.

Despite being unsigned, (Still Life with Lilies and Roses) highlights Hendel’s unique approach to printmaking. This exquisite still life explodes from the picture plane due to impasto layering of rich colors, adding dimensionality and movement to the lilies and roses. It is an achievement in printmaking that is truly unique to Meta Hendel.

German born Meta Cohen Hendel attended the Académie Moderne in Paris studying with Fernand Leger and Amédée Ozenfant. Meta Hendel's work is discussed and shown on pages 474 - 477 of volume II of Emerging from the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California, 1860-1960.

Hendel developed a very unique approach to the color relief medium, which she described as wood engraving in 'How To Make A Color Wood Engraving' by Meta C. Hendel, published in the Magazine Of The San Francisco Women's Club, National League For Woman's Service, July 1946.

Art teachers at Bennington College in Vermont, filmed Hendel at work creating a color woodengraving in her San Francisco studio, though we have not yet found a copy.