Martin Lewis - Derricks at Night

Martin Lewis (1882-1962), Derricks at Night, drypoint, 1927. McCarron 62, second state (of 2), intended edition 100, 104 printed. Signed in pencil; also signed in the plate, lower right.  In excellent condition (evidence of prior hinging upper corners,

Image size 7 7/8 x 11 7/8 inches, sheet size 11 1/4 x 15 /7/8 inches.

Provenance: Estate of Delores D. DiPaola; also with the Kennedy stock number verso.

A superb, atmospheric impression in warm black ink, with rich burr, on cream laid paper.

Illustrated in Contemporary American Etching, American Art Dealers Association, New York, 1930.

Derricks at Night is one of the few Lewis prints having more than one state; the composition was substantially set in the first state but small adjustments in many areas were made for a second state (e.g., “wooden slat below globe of lamp defined; bracket holding streetlight strengthened”, etc.).

Derricks at night is one of Lewis’s great Precisionist works, seemingly also demonstrating a cubist sensibility.

Martin Lewis - Rainy Day, Queens

Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Rainy Day, Queens, drypoint, 1931, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower right]. Reference: McCarron 94, only state, from the edition of about 70. In very good condition (the slightest toning upper margin edge), the full sheet, 10 5/8 x 11 7/8, the sheet 14 1/4 x 15 1/2 inches.

Provenance:

ex Collection: Delores D. DiPaola

Kennedy Galleries (with their stock data in pencil, recto and verso)

A fine rich impression of this iconic image, printed in black ink on an ivory wove paper.

Lewis described this location as “Skillman Ave. Queens”; it is probably at the intersection of Skillman Avenue and 49th Street.

Martin Lewis was interested in Japanese art early in his career, and in 1920 visited Japan, where he stayed for nearly two years.  Rainy Day, Queens owes much to this influence: the careful placement of compositional elements, for example, and the atmospheric effects of rain, frequently found in Japanese prints and in Lewis’s Japan-based prints (e.g., Fishing Boats in the Rain, M. 41, and Showers on the Bay, M. 46).

A fine glowing impression, printed on a cream laid paper.

Martin Lewis was born in Victoria Australia, and in his late teens moved to Sydney, where he received his only formal art training. In 1900 he came to the US, first to San Francisco, but eventually to New York, where he worked as a commercial artist and etcher (and became friends with Edward Hopper, among other artists). In 1920 he traveled to Japan, where he studied art for two years; the influence of his Japanese experience can perhaps be felt in the quiet dignity, and stately composition, of Little Penthouse.

Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Chance Meeting – – 1941, Drypoint.

McCarron 131. Edition 105. Signed in pencil lower right [initialled in the plate lower left], in good condition.

10 3/8 x 7 3/8 inches; sheet 14 l/2 x 9 3/4  inches

A fine impression, on ivory/cream laid paper, with full/wide margins.

Commissioned by the Society of American Etchers, Brooklyn.

McCarron notes: “This is one of Lewis’s most complex plates, one in which he was able to harmonize many diverse elements.”  The print is replete with commercial and social references – one magazine hanging in the window is called “G-Man”, the other “True Love.”  In the far background left we can see another “chance meeting.”

Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Spring Night, Greenwich Village- – 1930, Drypoint and Sand Ground.

McCarron 85. Edition 92. Signed in pencil. Titled in the artist’s hand, in pencil, in the bottom left sheet corner, recto. Signed in the plate, lower right.

Image size 9 7/8 x 12 3/8 inches (251 x 315 mm); sheet size 13 3/8 x 16 inches (340 x 406 mm).

A superb, richly inked, atmospheric impression, with overall velvety burr, on cream wove paper; full margins (1 3/4 to 1 7/8 inches). Glue remains from the original hinges on the top sheet edge; otherwise in excellent condition.

At the time Lewis made Spring Night, Greenwich Village he lived at 111 Bedford Street (which may be the street depicted in the print), in the Village, and was immersed in the intellectual and artistic life of the neighborhood. His exhibit at Kennedy Galleries in 1929 had been a great success, and he discontinued the commercial art work he had been doing. But of course the Great Depression changed everything; Lewis and his wife gave up their house in the Village and moved to Sandy Hook, Connecticut.  He set up a short-lived printmaking school in the Village in 1934 (with Armin Landeck and the printmaker George Miller), and moved back to the Village in 1936.