Self-Portrait with Burin (1st state)

Barry Moser fittingly depicts himself in this self-portrait in his signature medium of wood engraving. The small, tightly cropped, high-contrast work reveals little about the artist’s facial features which are obscured by a full beard and the brim of a cap. Front and center, however, is the primary tool of this artist’s trade: the burin. A burin is a sharp pointed tool with a grip fitted to the palm of the hand, which is used to incise lines onto a block of wood. The first and second states of his print have only subtle differences—primarily the paper and the artist’s monogram in the print.