Victory Amid Trophies 1941

Helen King Boyer made this print, Victory Amid Trophies, sometime in the 20th century, using a drypoint technique to scratch lines into a metal plate. It's a tonal drawing of a nude woman surrounded by weapons, armour, and other spoils, rendered in thin, wiry lines. There’s something so tender about how Boyer works the lines here. The woman’s body is described through careful hatching that models her form while acknowledging the physical vulnerability of bare flesh. Look at the way the artist delineates her thighs and abdomen, the network of fine lines that catch the light, the etched, almost hesitant quality of the marks which construct a feeling of solidity through an accretion of lines. The more you look, the more this feels like a private meditation on vulnerability and the spoils of war. The image has a strange, dreamlike quality, reminiscent of Max Klinger, but without his high drama, instead it has a quiet intimate feeling, inviting multiple interpretations rather than insisting on any one.