Jack Beal, Self-Portrait, Brooding
Medium: Intaglio print, drypoint
Initial proofing: 1965, by Jack Beal
Edition pulled: 2004, by Roger Bailey
Ink and paper type: bone black ink on Hahnemuhle warm white
Edition size: 31
Signed: in pencil, lower right
Image Size: 4.12" x 4.14"
Paper Size: 11" x 15"
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Although the title of this print suggests Jack is brooding, he has pointed out that he had been looking intently into a mirror for some period of time. Jack draws himself holding the copper plate in his left hand and a drypoint needle in his right hand. Jack's wife, Sondra Freckelton, has suggested Jack may have drawn a "Picassoesque horse" on a page of the drawing pad in the foreground. Jack pulled trial proofs of this plate in 1965 but it was not editioned until 2004.
A Closer Look ... Self-Portrait, Brooding
Drypoint is one of the intaglio techniques. For this print Jack scratched directly into the copper plate with a sharp needle. Notice that the lines are softer than an etched line, more varied in tone and taper at the end of the line. This is an early experiment and Jack proofed the plate himself. It was not editioned until 2005.
Looking into a mirror reverses the image; pulling a print reverses it again. Jack was 34 years old when he made this self-portrait in 1965.
Jack signing the edition, April 27, 2005, at 74 years of age.
Roger Bailey looks through some of the Jack Beal "bon à tirer" proofs. These "good to print" proofs were designated by Jack as the standard for print quality for each print in an edition and traditionally are a gift from the artist to the printer.
Jack's signature for his drypoint print of "Self-Portrait Brooding."