Experimental Plate 1B (Three Self-portraits)

Inscribed 'To be bitten for ten minutes in one part of nitric to five of water', this experimental etching of three different angles of the same head - one smoking a pipe - is almost certainly a triple self-portrait by the artist, whose long elegant face and nose with characteristic moustache was also captured by several of his artist contemporaries including sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and painter Emmanuel Levy. Brodzky was a gifted graphic artist, working particularly in linocuts, of which he was an early pioneer. The work is also playfully inscribed 'Gerald is a bad boy and will be smacked' - although Gerald has not been identified. The work is signed (mid right) 'Brodkzy' and possibly dated below 'Nov 1912', with the number nine reversed.