This stylish early 20th-century etching by Swedish artist Axel Wallert (1890-1962) depicts a young lady wearing an extraordinary hat.

She’s attending a busy function and dressed to impress in the fashion-a-la-mode. It’s tricky to decipher exactly how the hat is constructed but it’s probably feathered. It’s reminiscent of Edwardian bird hats, which were often extravagant and stacked high with taxidermy.

Axel Wallert was an accomplished etcher and it’s possible that the subject is Sigrid Roos who he married just four years earlier. Sigrid was also an artist.

Signed in the lower right in pencil and also in the plate.

Learn more about Axel Wallert in our directory.

Medium: Etching on paper
Overall size: 9½” x 11½” / 25cm x 29cm
Year of creation: 1914
Condition: Artwork presents well.
Artist’s auction highlight: £31,365 achieved for an oil painting in 1999.
Our reference: BRV982