Gerda and The Roses

The companion piece to "Gerda and the Rose," this 1971 etching expands the same domestic subject by replacing a single bloom with a fuller arrangement of roses, restructuring the composition around the relationship between the sitter and a more substantial floral element. The plural title suggests either a small bouquet held by Gerda or a still-life arrangement placed near her, and the shift from singular to plural typically reads in Hansen's etchings as a deliberate variation made on the same plate concept rather than an unrelated image. Hansen worked frequently in such close pairs and sequences, returning to a subject across days or weeks to test alternative compositions. Technically, an expanded floral motif gives more occasion for closely worked tonal hatching and drypoint accents in petals and leaves, balanced against the comparatively open passage of the figure. The print sits within his early 1970s domestic and portrait work, before his 1974 turn toward the Vashon forest as a sustained subject.