Phantoms

Norbertine von Bresslern-Roth

1934

Color woodcut on Japan paper

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Four dark panthers move across a stylized landscape under a pale moon. The composition is dominated by the sinuous forms of the animals and the flowing lines of the terrain. A participant in the Vienna Secession exhibitions, Norbertine von Bresslern-Roth was a skilled animal painter and accomplished printmaker. Her innovative woodcuts and linocuts were both influential and deceivingly simple—translating the appearance and behaviors of animals into forceful graphics full of energy and movement. In Phantoms, Bresslern-Roth represents three black panthers hunting silently in the moonlight. The figures’ dark silhouettes, which stand out against the cool green grass, capture the panthers’ stealthy power and chilling elegance, and their giant formless shadows evoke the phantoms that haunt children’s dreams. G