“Presentation at the Temple” from “The Four Lithographs”, 1920

For these four expressive portraits, the artist Anton Faistauer (1887–1930) experimented with unusual perspectives and views. He rendered the faces and bodies of the subjects in spontaneous, coarse lines and shadows. As in snapshots, different emotions are reflected in their mimics. On the cover of the portfolio, the artist stated that his four lithographs had been printed by the renowned printing company of Albert Berger (1863–1931). By 1900, Berger’s printing company counted many important artists and artists’ associations, including the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte, among its regular clients. The printing stones were subsequently smoothed to make any further duplication of the lithographs impossible. Faistauer signed the portfolio in his home town of Maishofen in the summer of 1920.

RR, 2023