Milton Avery (1893-1965),  My Wife Sally, drypoint, 1934, signed, dated and numbered in pencil [also signed in the plate on Sally's writing pad], from the edition of 100. Reference: Lunn 5 (only state). In excellent condition, on a cream wove paper, the full sheet, 5 5/8 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 x 14 3/4 inches, archival window matting.

A fine fresh impression, printed in a dark brown ink.

Provenance: Associated American Artists, with their certificate appended to the mat verso.

This is a relatively early print by Avery, done in a period when he was creating drypoints and before the work on wood. At this stage he was working in a mannerist/modernist mode, depicting Sally with an exaggeratedly long arm, with a modernist flattening of the composition.

Sally Avery (1902=2003) was, of course, a distinguished artist in her own right.

A fine fresh impression, printed in black ink,with substantial burr from the drypoint work.

This is a relatively early print by Avery, done in a period when he was creating drypoints and before the work on wood. Here he’s working in a Mannerist mode, with the bodily exaggerations reminiscent of artists in the late 16th-early 17th Century such as Callot or Bassange - but of course he’s thoroughly modernist as well.

A fine impression, printed in a brownish/black ink, with a veil of plate tone.

Milton Avery made his first drypoint just after his daughter March was born, in 1932. Although primarily a painter, he turned to printmaking frequently throughout his career, making a number of drypoints in the ’30’s and ’40’s, then turning to woodcuts and linocuts in later years.

Little Girl is a thoroughly modernist composition, but appears to have roots in late Renaissance Mannerist portraiture.

Although Avery paintings have regularly achieved high auction and dealer prices, public recognition of Avery as a master modern American printmaker has only recently been forthcoming.

Milton Avery (1893-1965),  Fish, color woodcut, 1952, signed, dated and numbered (24/100) in pencil lower margin. Reference: Lunn 41, from the edition of 100 in dark green (there were also about 10 impressions in blue). In very good condition, with wide margins, 2 1/2 x 9, the sheet 7 x 15 3/8 inches. Printed in a greenish black ink on a very light wove paper.

A fine clear impression.

Avery made his woodcuts by rubbing the paper against the inked wood, using an implement such as a spoon. In this impression of Fish the grain of the wood is evident; it serves to give some texture to the water surrounding the fish.

Avery began making woodcuts in 1952, the year of Fish.