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German to English translations [PRO] Art/Literary - Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting / illustration caption for art book
German term or phrase:Feder und Pinsel in Tusche
This is from a description of Klimt's 1898 Nuda Veritas. Most English descriptions I've read say "pen and ink". Is "pen and brush in ink" an accepted term? Thank you!
Nuda Veritas, 1898. Schwarze Kreide, Bleistift, Feder und Pinsel in Tusche. Wien Museum.
Explanation: Don't think you need the 'in'. The three words plus 'and' tell the reader what they need to know and they can probably see that demonstrated in the picture.
Oh, no, please, this is a misunderstanding! My remark was not meant personally or ironic at all! An art historian myself, I appreciate and respect your contributions very much as of extremely high quality. I am awfully sorry if I come across as that arrogant.
I am not vague as an art historian or as a translator, and I don't appreciate your expressed sentiment remotely. I don't at all see the need to be so personal. I translate auction catalogues and this is the terminology that the (very prestigious) auction house happens to ask me to adopt in such circumstances. And since this is such a beast here that our Asker is translating, it seems rather apposite. Graphite is considered quite a misnomer in certain circles, but that is another argument altogether.
Hi Helen, well, I think you are correct in this context. I am speaking here less from an art historian's than from a conservator's perspective. Art historians are often deplorably vague when it comes to the material aspects of a work of art. (I know what the query was...:) ). Of course I can't change a whole subject's terminology in one fell sweep, but sometimes its tempting to just mention that interdisciplinary improvement of terms is possible with today's research at hand...Sorry for the detour, everyone, & kind regards to you, Helen.
It is fine to leave it as 'pencil' - Bleistift, though this is not the term being queried, which is 'Feder' und Pinsel in Tusche. This is for a caption so brevity is expected. If it were 'coloured pencil', for instance, it would say so in the GER: Farbstift.
It might be worth adding "graphite" to "pen", as the source caption is precise about this. The caption "pen" is often kept deliberately vague, because identification of a pen type may be difficult for older (e.g. Renaissance) drawings. In this case it can be assumed that "Bleistift" means "graphite pencil", commonly known under this name and frequently used by artists at the time.
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Answers
25 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
brush, pen and ink
Explanation: I would prefer brush, pen and ink unless it is important for you to point out that the artist possibly used different inks .. one also finds brush and ink , pen and ink as termini. Your proposed brush and pen in ink does sound unusual and quirky . You will mostly find brush, pen and ink concerning art works of Klimt , Modigliani et al.
thefastshow Local time: 03:58 Works in field Native speaker of: German
Explanation: Don't think you need the 'in'. The three words plus 'and' tell the reader what they need to know and they can probably see that demonstrated in the picture.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
