After apprenticeship to a painter and glazer in Bielefeld, Böckstiegel attended the Bielefeld Arts & Crafts School from 1907. A scholarship took him to the Dresden Academy in 1913, where Conrad Felixmüller was a fellow student, and his future brother-in-law. He was called up for military duty in 1915, and from 1916 served on the Eastern Front. In 1919 Böckstiegel, with Felixmüller and Otto Dix, was one of the founder members of the Dresden Secession. Declared ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis in 1933, much his work was confiscated or burnt. His studio was destroyed in the Allied bombing of Dresden. Saving what he could, Böckstiegel took his family back to Werther, where he established a new studio and became Chairman of the Westphalien Secession. In 1949 the Dresden Academy presented him with an honorary studio. The work is a portrait of Elli Tietz.

The plate initialled. Entitled in pencil and annotated as a drypoint. Printed in dark brown, with rich burr, on cream wove.