This portrait was made on transfer paperfor an intended lithograph, but three earlier and related lithographs on transfer paperhad gone wrong during the transfer process.Paula did not want to risk losing this one, soit remained as a drawing, one that she really liked. I preferred it to item 15. As with item 15,the title is suggestive of a portrait rather than a character for a story sequence. But it might have once been intended for a narrative series, which I infer from the fact that three went wrong. But there is no way of finding out, since the lithographer himself, who presumably knew the theme of the series, has died. Nor do I know how or why the earlier ones went wrong. Paul Coldwell, sculptor and Paula’s former etcher and a great authority on all forms of print making, tells me things going wrong are a common occurrence if you use transfer paper rather than draw directly onto the plate or stone.

The viewer can make out a mask in the background. This may have been the first occurrence in her art of the masks Paula either made with Lila or purchased. It was bought from a mask-maker who also ran a tavern in a small town about half an hour from Zurich/Winterthur. Paula later ordered two or three online or over the phone from London. The trip was made during one of our best annual holidays. We stayed at the Stork Inn in Zurich, a hotel made famous by Paul Celan’s eponymous poem for Nelly Sachs.