Proof before state 1, or state 1, before letters

Carlo Maratti (1625-1713), Virgin with Sleeping Child, etchings, c. 1650′s.  Reference: Bartsch 6, a proof impression of the first or prior proof state, before letters, and an impression of the third state [with the inscription Carolus Maratus invent et at left, and fecit Romae bottom right below the oval in the plate] Both prints in very good condition; the third state impression with a repair upper left (outside of the borderline), both printed on old laid paper with small margins, 6 15/16 x 5 1/8 inches.  Both prints matted, with non-attached hinging at corners (accounting for the shiny appearance in the corners, in the illustrations).

Both fine clear impressions; the first state impression before letters is a shade more delicately and lightly printed than the impression with letters. The earlier impression has evidence of collector’s marks, now unidentifiable, both recto and verso.

Carlo Maratti was a precocious child, sent by his parents to Rome to study art when he was only 11. There he became the student of Andrea Sacchi, who was at the time the chief Italian-born representative of Roman High Baroque classicism. Maratti worked with Sacchi for 24 years, becoming a part of the Roman art establishment. He was eagerly sought after by popes and princes for portraits, altarpieces, and decoration of Rome’s most important churches, including Saint Peter’s.

Maratti made only 14 etchings, most probably before 1660, while he was still working in the studio of Andrea Sacchi. In Virgin with Sleeping Child Maratti shows his mastery of the etching technique, with several levels of shading, as well as the ability to create a wonderful composition within a relatively small space.

State 3, after letters

Carlo Maratti (1625-1713), Virgin, Joseph and Child in Oval, etching, c. 1650′s [with the inscription Carolus Maratus in et fecit at left, Romae con lictentia de Sup at right in the plate below the oval]. Reference: Bartsch 4. In fine condition, remains of prior hinging verso, with a small (3/16″) margin all around, 6 3/4 x 5 1/16, the sheet7 1/8 x  5 7/16 inches.

A fine clear impression, on old laid paper.

Carlo Maratti was a precocious child, sent by his parents to Rome to study art when he was only 11. There he became the student of Andrea Sacchi, who was at the time the chief Italian-born representative of Roman High Baroque classicism. Maratti worked with Sacchi for 24 years, becoming a part of the Roman art establishment. He was eagerly sought after by popes and princes for portraits, altarpieces, and decoration of Rome’s most important churches, including Saint Peter’s.

Maratti made only 14 etchings, most probably before 1660, while he was still working in the studio of Andrea Sacchi. In Virgin, Joseph and Child Maratti shows his mastery of the etching technique, with several levels of shading, as well as the ability to create a wonderful composition within a relatively small space.

David Teniers (1610-1690), The Alchemist, c. 1670, engraved by Jean-François Basan (1723-1797) about a century later [annotated D. Teniers Pinx. lower left; F Basan Sculp. lower right in the plate]. In very good condition, creases at corners upper and lower left, with small margins all around, 12 1/2 x 8 7/8, the sheet 13 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches.

A very good impression, printed on a laid paper with an 18th C.  Dupuy watermark.

The books on the floor, the crucible for melting and refining metals, the glassware and other implements, and the scull are recurrent themes in portraits of alchemists in the 1600′s;  in addition various animals and birds are flying in the air above our alchemist, and other figures surround him.  Teniers made many paintings of alchemists, and apparently often portrayed himself as the alchemist at work.

Jean-François Basan (1723-1797) was a renowned engraver and print publisher.

Detail

David Teniers (1610-1690), The Old Alchemist, c. 1670, engraved by Jean-François Basan (1723-1797) about a century later, with the initials of Tenier lower left and the initials of Basan lower right. In good condition, trimmed outside of the platemark all around, printed on old laid paper and affixed to another old laid sheet at the tips of the left corners, 12 7/8 x 9 3/8 inches.

A good impression.

The book, the crucible for melting and refining metals, the glassware and other implements, and the scull are recurrent themes in portraits of alchemists in the 1600′s; Teniers made many paintings of alchemists, and apparently often portrayed himself as the alchemist at work.

Jean-François Basan (1723-1797) was a renowned engraver and print publisher.

Jonas Suyderhoef (1610-1690), La Rixe (The Brawl), after Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685), engraving, c. 1660. [with the lettering A. Ostaden pinxit at the bottom left; J. Suyderhoef sculpsit bottom center; and Clemendt de Jonghe excudit bottom right]. Reference: Wussin 127, third state (of 5). In adequate condition but laid down on card, upper right tip repaired, a spot of paint upper left, moderate age toning, trimmed outside of plate mark,  17 3/8 x 14 5/8 inches.

A good impression of this large engraving, in the state before the de Jonghe address was taken off and the address of F. de Wit added. In the fifth state the plate passed into the hands of Basan, who removed the de Wit address.

Suyderhoef created this engraving after van Ostade’s painting in the Pinacotheque in Munich.

The brawl is lively: two peasants threaten each other with knives; a dog cowers below the table at the center; an elderly man moves to pick up a weapon at the right.

Detail

Jonas Suyderhoef 1613-1686),  The Three Women (les Parques Hollandaises), c. 1650, engraving and etching, after Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685). Reference: Wussin 120, fourth state (of 6), with the inscription “Nicolaus Visscher excu”lower right, and with the letters on the wall in the background “A. Van Ostaden pinxit; J. Suyderhoef sculpsit”. In excellent condition, on old laid paper with a margin, 11 3/4 x 8 5/8, the sheet 12 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches.

A very good, strong impression.

Wussin notes that in this state the horizontal lines have been added to the areas outside of the oval, but the address has yet to be changed to that of P. Schenk (who bought the plate from the Visscher firm, around 1700).

The painting may represent the three Destinies or Fates, the myth of the three sisters or old women who, a few days after a child is born, spin or weave its fate. The distaff (or spinning tool) at the bottom front, and the reel and spindle represent this; the three women appear to be having a drink after a hard day’s work.

Detail

David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690), Les Jouers de Boules (The Bowlers), etching, c 1660. Reference: Dutuit 38, first state (of 2).  With a number of condition issues:  tear through upper left corner and lower right corner restored, foxing, inked in on repaired corners, some rubbed spots, spots of red on man at right. With narrow or thread margins most of the way around, 5 3/4 x 10 inches, 146 x 254 mm.

Provenance:  Sotheby’s Park Bernet New York, auction of old master prints November 3 1983, lot 462.

A fair impression, on paper with a 17th C. watermark of a fleur de lys in crowned shield.

Teniers was of course a major 17th Century Dutch painter (not to be confused with his rather less notable father, DT senior). But most of the prints found with his name are made by others after his paintings. Les Jouers is considered to have been made by the artist himself.

Detail

Detail

Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Yvonne D. de face (Yvonne Duchamp, Full-Face), 1913, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right, and inscribed “ep d’artiste avant ebarbage”. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E 281, a proof impression before steelfacing (first state, of 2, see below), in very good condition, on Arches wove paper,21 1/2 x 16 1/4, the sheet 25 1/8 by 23 3/8 inches.

A very fine rare proof impression of this cubist landmark, with the substantial drypoint burr before the drypoint was burnished and the plate was steelfaced.

This is one of the few proofs of Yvonne D. de Face that Villon created before burnishing the drypoint, adding his signature in the plate itself, and steelfacing it.  Another such impression is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  There is also an impression (at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris) in which the bottom third of the print has yet to be completed.

After burnishing of the drypoint, addition of the signature and steelfacing an edition of 28 impressions was printed.  The prints from the edition, though of course still spectacular, lack the richness and depth of the proof impressions.

Innis Howe Shoemaker (Jacques Villon and his Cubist Prints) points out that of Villon’s three monumental drypoint portraits of his sister Yvonne from 1913 the present work is the one in which he used the most radical application of pyramidal construction, which was ultimately derived from his reading of Leonardo da Vinci’s Trattoro della pittura.  Here the figure and ground merge into each other; the separations are created by sets of parallel lines going in different directions, so the segments appear as volumetric planes.  Shoemaker notes:  “In this respect Yvonne de Face surpasses the other two portraits of Yvonne, for Villon has employed a purely graphic technique not only to achieve a clearer integration of figure and space but also to express the idea of Cubist simultaneity: ‘the concurrent and coexisting plurality of points of view organized into a plastic whole’”

Yvonne was the sister of Jacques Villon and the other two Duchamp brothers Marcel Duchamp and the sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon (Jacques and Raymond changed their names).

Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Merry-Go-Round, etching and engraving, 1938, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed Forty Proofs lower left,  [also signed in the plate lower left and inscribed SC]. Reference: Sasowsky 179, fourth state (of 4). In good condition, with margins (a paper loss upper right corner well outside of the platemark, stains from prior hinging, notations in pencil lower margin edge). 10 x 8, the sheet 11 1/2 x 9 1/8 inches.

A very good impression, printed in black on a wove paper with a partial FRANCE watermark.

Sasowsky notes that Marsh printed 15 impressions of this state (and only one or two of the prior states), and considered only 10 of the 15 valuable.  His notation “Forty Proofs” is therefore surely an expression of a hoped-for edition size, as opposed to an actual edition size. We have found this quite often the case with Marsh prints – he indicates an edition size but the actual number of impressions printed is considerably smaller.

There is an eerie, almost ominous note in this, as in several of Marsh’s merry-go-round prints. The man in dark glasses just to the right behind the girl hardly seems the type to be riding merry-go-rounds for recreation, and the woman at the left doesn’t either. The girl rides side-saddle, the better to avoid these characters just behind her. Even the girl’s horse has an expression of wariness in its eye.

There is a painting with a similar composition, but differing in many details, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Mass.

Detail

Adolphe-Marie Beaufrère (1876-1960)

A Douelan, etching, 1923, signed in pencil and numbered (21/50) [also initials and date in the plate]. Reference: Morane 23-07, BN Laran 175. Second state (of 2). In very good condition, printer’s crease bottom margin not near image. With the Sagot Editions, Paris stamp (Lugt 2254). 6 1/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 8 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches.

A fine impression, with tone, on a blue/green cream laid paper.

The figures on the boat towards the right were added in the second state. The road pictured is along the river on the way to the port of Douelan.