First state. The only proof of the first state. Made for an unsuccessful application for the 1924 Prix de Rome. Inscribed in pencil: "Better surely is the humble peasant who serves God'' Thomas à Kempis De imitatione Christi i.2.
Two elderly men in a study / printer's studio; foreground, a desk on which is a goblet, a flower in a narrow vase and three books; middleground, on the left, a thin bearded man, wearing spectacles, a shirt, a tie, a fur hat and a fur lined robe, reading an open book. On the right, an larger bearded man wearing a waistcoat and glancing down at a ?pocket watch held in his right hand; background, bookshelves, the wheel of a printing press and the corner of a picture frame. Etched in a freely drawn, erratic line with cross hatching. Some surface tone. The paper's watermark features a crown and a fleur-de-lys
