The Lonely Heart - etching and ink drawing

Etching on laid paper.
Presumed edition of 50.
Initialed and dated in the plate, and signed in pencil.

We add the preparatory drawing:

Ink on wove sketchbook paper.

Sheet size: 5 ⅞ x 8 ⅝ inches.

The sheet folded twice vertically, likely to fit in a breast pocket. Ink residue on the verso; small pinholes. Overall nevertheless in very fine condition.

Provenance: Estate of William Greenbaum, Gloucester, Massachusetts, a true gentleman-dealer who ran "William Greenbaum Fine Prints" for many years.

NOTE: Both the drawing and the print are finely drafted, showing the artist's mastery of pen and etching needle. While the drawing lends an evocative sense of loneliness, the man simply floating against a blank background, Williams made it more concrete in the etching, showing him in the presence of a lonely drunk, and two friends drinking at the bar, while the sitter contemplates a nude woman in bust. In the drawing the man, who may well be an impersonation of the artist, perhaps on leave at the end of World War II, seems to hold a drawing instrument. In the etching the white shaft seems to suggest a cigarette rather than a stylus.