Putting on the Coat
Isabel Bishop (1902-1988), Putting on the Coat, etching, 1943, signed in pencil lower right and titled (Putting on Coat (front)) lower left margins. Reference: Teller 31. In excellent condition, printed on cream wove paper, with margins, 5 7/8 x 3 7/8, the sheet 7 5/8 x 4 5/8 inches, archival mounting with window mount.
A fine atmospheric proof impression, before the edition printed decades later and before the corners of the plate were burnished (and thus with a platemark set in strong relief), printed with a light veil of plate tone.
Provenance: Associated American Artists, with a copy of their signed certificate of authenticity attached to the mat.
This is one of a small number of proofs that Bishop personally printed in 1943. In 1981 an edition of 25 was printed; these were printed professionally and numbered I-XXV. Proof examples are highly coveted today; printed by Bishop herself, they tend to have an atmospheric character that the later impressions lack.
Bishop was of course a member of the Union Square group of New York artists, an informal circle of friends including Reginald Marsh, Armin Landeck, Raphael Soyer, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Virtually all her prints were figure studies. In the early years her printmaking was focused on etching; later she added aquatint to her repertoire.