American

Jacob Landau

U.S. b. 1917
Mark Twain OP 296

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Jacob Landau's work reflects his love of the picture surface, of papers, and of inks. Longtime printmaker and teacher at the Pratt Institute in New York, Landau was especially drawn to writers, both past and present, as subject matter. His portrait of American storyteller and cultural critic Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens, 1835-1910) communicates the force of Clemens's personality as it literally reminds us of the wood surface from which the print comes. Clemens himself clearly understood the printing process. His first job was as a printer's apprentice in the late 1840s.

 

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