William Zorach (1887-1966), Pegasus, 1921, linocut, signed in pencil lower right. In very good condition, on thin cream laid paper with margins, 4 1/2 x 4 7/8, the sheet 8 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.

A fine clear black impression.

Provenance: Heald Collection.

Pegasus is of course the winged horse of Greek mythology; among other stories, the young warrior Bellerophon rode Pegasus when he went off to slay the monster Chimaera, and after this success he rode Pegasus as he successfully destroyed a series of monsters. Pegasus is also the name of a constellation in the Northern Hemisphere.

Efram Burk, in his brilliant article on Zorach’s prints in the Print Quarterly (The Prints of William Zorach, December, 2002) conjectures that the rider in Zorach’s Pegasus might have represented a girl Zorach met while hiking in 1920; Zorach wrote that he had seen her riding, and he wrote her letters over a period of a decade.

Zorach studied modernist art in Paris in the years 1909-11, and was introduced to it as well through Marguerite Thompson, who met Matisse, Picasso, Zadkine, etc. in Paris at that time; Marguerite met Zorach in 1911 and they married in 1912.  Pegasus, one of his more abstract compositions, was created in Provincetown, in 1921.

William Zorach (1887-1966), Sailing (Provincetown), 1916, linocut, signed and titled (as Provincetown). In generally good condition, on tan Japan paper, with margins (staining and thin spots from prior hinging at top margin edge, away from image). 10 11/16 x 8 9/16, the sheet 12 1/5 x 10 1/8 inches, archival mounting (non-attached mylar hinging, acid free window mat).

A fine proof impression of this rarity, hand rubbed by the artist in an oily black ink.

In his landmark article “The Prints of William Zorach” (Print Quarterly, Vol. XIX, December, 2002) Efram Burke accounts for only 6 impressions (all in black and white) of Sailing (Provincetown) in public institutions: Brooklyn Museum, NY Public Library, Boston MFA, Ackland Art Museum (UNC at Chapel Hill), Philadelphia MFA, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Burke notes that the sails of the boat (holding a family which could be Zorach’s) are left mostly transparent, enabling the viewer to see more of the coastline. Provincetown landmarks are visible, including the uniform wharves of the city along the water, and at the center, the tower known as the Pilgrim Monument.

William Zorach was a pioneering American modernist. Born in Lithuania, his parents migrated to Cleveland when he was four. After working as an apprentice commercial lithographer he studied art in Cleveland and New York, then in Paris from 1909 to 1911. He eventually became best known as a modernist American sculptor, but before that he and his wife Marguerite spent a number of summers in New England, including four in Provincetown where they made prints inspired by the New England countryside and coast.