Description
This wood engraving, titled “François Villon,” depicts a trio of medieval French street performers — a grinning jester, a lute-strumming minstrel, and a masked courtesan — moving through a cobblestone lane with a gallows and hanged figure looming behind them and the towers of a cathedral rising in the distance. The dense black-and-white composition uses angular, expressive figures rendered with heavy cross-hatching and stark contrast, evoking the dark wit and gallows humor of the poet Villon’s own life and verse, in a style consistent with Fritz Eichenberg’s known illustration work.
The word “EICHENBERG” is engraved directly into the block at lower right, and the sheet is additionally hand-signed in pencil below the image, reading “François Villon” (the title) and “Fritz Eichenberg” (a name reading as the artist’s signature). Signature/marking present as shown; attribution not verified. Inquire for details. The print is presented under glass in a black wood frame with a layered black-and-white double mat.
The print itself is clean with strong, dark ink and no visible foxing or tears. The mat shows a couple of small scattered light spots near the upper right corner, consistent with age, and the frame has minor edge wear typical of a well-kept vintage piece.
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