An original circa 1925 first state etching by the interesting Belgian/French printmaker, Frans de Geetere (1895-1968). The work is titled "Femme au Collier" or Woman in a Necklace and de Geetere managed to give the simple double portrait a strong sense of unease.

The piece is pencil signed by the artist in the lower margin, it is also titled in the lower right corner, it is also noted "premier etat" or first state, meaning this was not the final version of the print. It is printed in black ink on cream colored wove paper, the plate measures 9 1/2 x 7 3/8 inches and the sheet size is approx. 12 1/2 x 10 inches.  Paper has mild age toning with lighter areas, small dark spot on reverse, a dog eared corner, and some tape residue at corners, otherwise excellent condition and ready for framing.

François de Geetere (1895–1968) was born in Auderghem, a suburb of Brussels, and as a child moved with his parents to Halle, where he studied art with Constant Montald. He spent the war years in Utrecht (whether as a deserter or conscientious objector is unclear), developing a distinctive surrealist style within a active artistic community which included artists such as Félicien Rops and René Magritte and a group of enthusiastic gallery owners and collectors; it was around 1914 that he Flemicised his name to Frans.

Towards the end of the war, in 1918, Frans de Geetere was living on a houseboat at Nieuwersluis south of Amsterdam, and working as a night porter at the William Arntz psychiatric clinic in Utrecht to make ends meet; he also met his partner May den Engelsen during this period. The grim darkness of war and his work with psychiatric patients seemed to underlie his move away from surreal fantasy to dark etchings; it probably also explains the couple’s decision to take their floating home away from wartime Holland and wend their slow way through the Dutch and French countryside to Paris, along with their art materials and a printing press to enable them to work on the way, and several cats. Early in 1920 the Marie-Jeanne arrived in Paris to drop anchor on the banks of the Seine in central Paris, at the Quai de Conti near the Pont Neuf, and this was to remain their home for nearly fifty years.