Tod Lindenmuth (1885-1956), Morning at the Weir, color woodcut, c. 1930, signed in pencil lower right and titled lower left. In good condition, paper showing through where printed lightly in cream; the full sheet, 14 3/8 x 11, the sheet 18 1/4 x 16 inches.

A fine atmospheric impression.

In the Archives of American Art Lindenmuth’s daughter recalls that she saw this print once, and estimated that it was made in the ’30′s. In all likelihood it was made earlier, when Lindenmuth was active as one of the Provincetown printmakers (a group which included Blanche Lazzell, Agnes Weinrich, and William and Marguerite Zorach, all early American modernists. The print may not have been editioned, and is rarely encountered on the market; we know of only one other impression to appear in the last 20 years.

A weir is a small dam used to raise the level of a river or stream.

Detail

Tod Lindenmuth (1885-1956), Low Tide, color woodcut, c. 1915, signed and titled in pencil lower margin. In very good condition, with wide margins (some flattened creases in margins, small area of thinning upper left margin edge, a few prior hinges attached to margin edges, only the slightest hint of light tone); on a Japan wove paper, 14 7/8 x 14, the sheet 21 x 17 3/4 inches, archival mounting with window mat.

A fine impression of this rare Provincetown woodcut, made from three blocks in light, medium and dark blue.

Although Lindemuth himself titled this Low Tide, there appears to be some confusion about this title. In her classic volume American Prints and Printmakers Una Johnson refers to another Lindemuth color woodcut (pictured on page 15) as Low Tide. (We believe this may in fact be The Runway, as titled in another impression by Lindenmuth.)

We do not know the edition sizes of the Lindenmuth prints, but believe they are small; they are rarely encountered on the market today.

In the extensive archives on Lindenmuth in the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institute), his daughter, in an interview, points out the Provincetown piers and fishing runways Lindenmuth depicted in his color woodcuts. These prints were important to Lindenmuth, who regarded the color print as a “small painting.”

These woodcuts were important as well to the group of American artists (including the Zorachs, Max Weber, BJO Nordfeldt) who were influenced by European Modernism and Japonisme (quite evident in Low Tide), and who made woodcuts along with Lindenmuth in Provincetown in the 1915-1925 period; these were in many respects the beginnings of American Modernism.

Tod Lindemuth (1885-1956), The Runway (Provincetown), color woodcut, 1917, signed in pencil lower right, titled and numbered (67/100)  lower left. On medium weight Japan paper, in very good condition, with margins (slight evidence of yellowing here and there, the slightest marginal light staining), the full sheet with deckle edges, 14 3/8 x 11 1/8, the sheet 18 x 15 1/2 inches, archival mounting with window mat.

A fine, carefully printed impression of this important American early modernist woodcut.

Although the print is annotated with a number, we believe this is probably not evidence of the size of the edition (and this misnumbering of prints was not unusual at that time); in fact this print appears to be exceedingly rare. When Lindemuth’s daughter was interviewed for the artist’s file for the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institute) she noted that this print was “one of the few color wood blocks I’m aware of, it’s of the fish hauling runways in Provincetown in 1917.”

A variant of this print (from the collection of the New York Public Library), without the background structure (the runway, in fact) is pictured in Una Johnson’s American Prints and Printmakers (page 14). There it’s called “Low Tide.” (We have another Lindemuth print which he titled “Low Tide” which bears no resemblance to either of these.)

Lindemuth, a painter, was one of a number of American artists (including the Zorachs, Max Weber, BJO Nordfeldt) who were influenced by European Modernim and  Japonisme, and who made woodcuts (often in Provincetown) in the 1915-1925 period; these were in many respects the beginnings of American Modernism.