A trialproof of an etching that were never printed in a regular, commercial edition. Signed with the mongram in the plate, in low right corner inscribed by artist in pencil "1 st" meaning first state. Although Ilsted at the Academy of Art in particular trained oilpainting, he was from his early years very interested in the graphic media and he executed +50 etchings before in 1909 he concentrated on the mezzotints that made him famous. While the editions of mezzotints and some of the etchings were printed by the commercial printer Kleinsorg, the majority of his early etchings were pulled by Ilsted himself - as is the case with this etching. All of his life - also after he settled permanently in the large apartment in Copenhagen where he spent all of his adult life he kept a little handpress and this etching is probably printed on this press
