Hans Erni; "Le Banquet, Platon"

Hans Erni (1909-  ) is a 104 year old Swiss painter, print maker, designer and sculptor.  He was born in Lucerne, Switzerland, and in the late twenties moved to Paris to study at the Academie Julian.  In the early thirties, while still in Paris, he traveled in the circles of and was heavily influenced by Picasso, Braque and other contemporary artists living in La Ville Lumiere at the time.  Picasso's influence is quite apparent in Erni's work and has justly earned him the moniker of "The Swiss Picasso".  This wonderful pair of framed and signed prints by Erni are from a series of plates done for a 1941 printing of "Le Banquet".  "The Banquet" is a text by Plato of about 380 B.C. which is mainly a long series of speeches on the nature of love.  In this pair of erotic and beautifully and freely drawn etchings, the influence Picasso, as well as Matisse, had on Erni is evident.  The etchings were originally purchased at the Greenwich Gallery (renamed the Isaacs Gallery in 1960) in Toronto in the late fifties.  They both retain their original gallery labels.  Framed, 18" l., 14 1/2" w.  Swiss, 1941  SOLD