Franz Blei, 1928
Oil pigment print
22.2 x 17.6 cm (8-3/4x 6-5/16 in.)
84.XP.453.3

From the Latin verb protraho meaning "to reproduce" or "to copy" derive the French noun portrait and its exact English cognates-words associated with the concept of imitating or copying. This leads to perennial dilemmas for artists: how far can they depart from reality? How far they can go in idealizing the model by exaggerating some aspects of a person's habit or appearance? How far can they go in repairing human defects? Every portrait can be analyzed in terms of these problems and the ways they are solved. Erfurth-the foremost German portraitist between the world wars-selected a pose in which his model, who was a scholar of erotic poetry, suggests his eccentric worldliness. His chin rests on an extended thumb and he squeezes an unlighted cigarette. Erfuth made this print in a paint- erly oil process with a grainy texture that caused wrinkles to vanish and the bald- ing forehead to seem less so. If the ultimate goal of portraiture is to communicate something of the sitter's personality through pose and gesture, then the artist has achieved that goal here.