Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Les Envies de Madame, lithograph, c. 1839-42, plate 32 from the series Moeurs Conjugales. Reference: Daumier Register 655, second state (of 3). In good condition, sur blanc, 12 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/2.

A fine impression with the blacks particularly strong and fresh.

This is a sur blanc impression, produced especially for collectors in a limited edition; the paper is a cream wove, and there is no newprint verso as found in the journal impressions.

This print was first published in the journal La Caricature, then later it was selected for publication in La Charivari.

Here is a translation, taken from the Daumier Register:

Original Text:
LES ENVIES DE MADAME.
– Oscar je veux manger du melon ! va m’acheter du melon !
– Mais il est une heure du matin, et nous sommes en Janvier !
– N’importe, Oscar, je veux du melon à tout prix, ou je vais te mordre.

Translation:
THE WHIMS OF A WIFE.
– Oscar, I want to eat a melon! Go and buy a melon for me!
– But it is one o’clock in the morning and we are in January!
– Doesn’t matter, I want a melon at any cost, or else I bite you!

$250

Detail

Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Nurse and Child (or Virgin and Child), etching, c.1928, signed in pencil lower right and numbered 25 lower left.   Reference: Associated American Artists 25, from the edition of about 25, probably the second state (of 2).  Printed on a strong wove paper, watermark FRANCE. In good condition apart from moderate light stain, with margins, 6 7/8 x 5, the sheet 10 1/2 x 7 7/8 inches.

A very good impression, with the lines added to the pillow at the left, and cross hatching added to the woman’s dress at the right.

Hayes Miller studied at the Art Students League and the New York School of Art, teaching at the latter for 12 years and the former for 38 years. His students at the League included Isabel Bishop, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. He loved printmaking, and studied and emulated the old masters including Durer and Rembrandt, Callot and Meryon. He exhibited at the famous Armory Show in 1913, and his paintings and prints were shown widely throughout his life; his work is represented at the Whitney, MOMA, Brooklyn and Met in New York, and other museums throughout the US.

Detail

Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Nurse and Child (or Virgin and Child), etching, c.1928, signed in pencil lower right, titled Virgin and Child, signed, priced ($25) and addressed by the artist verso (Hayes Miller, 6 E. 14th Street, New York).  Reference: Associated American Artists 25. A proof impression of presumably the first state (of 2?),  in generally good condition but somewhat soiled in the margins, remains of prior hinging verso, some grease stains in margin and matrix bottom right and verso, creases in matrix (all as befitting a proof impression). On a heavy wove paper, 6 7/8 x 5, the sheet 8 x 6 inches.

A fine strong impression, with plate tone.

This is a first or early state, before lines were added to the pillow at the left and elsewhere.

Hayes Miller studied at the Art Students League and the New York School of Art, teaching at the latter for 12 years and the former for 38 years. His students at the League included Isabel Bishop, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. He loved printmaking, and studied and emulated the old masters including Durer and Rembrandt, Callot and Meryon. He exhibited at the famous Armory Show in 1913, and his paintings and prints were shown widely throughout his life; his work is represented at the Whitney, MOMA, Brooklyn and Met in New York, and other museums throughout the US.

Detail

Edward Landon (1911-1984), In the Beginning, serigraph, 1953, signed in pencil lower, titled lower left, and numbered (7/25) center. Reference: Ryan 102, only state, from the edition of 25. In good condition (no signs of prior matting or framing), with margins (soft folds in margins away from image), 12 x 18, the sheet 15 x 21 1/2 inches.

A very good impression, printed in colors on a cream wove paper.

During his travels from about 1950 Landon devoted himself to the study of pre-Christian Scandinavia art, filling his notebooks with studies of Viking ships, runes, sculpture and design.  The forms in In the Beginning are direct descendants of prehistoric Celtic petroglyphs.

Edward Landon (1911-1984), Time Silhouette, serigraph, 1969, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “Edition 30” lower center, and titled lower left. Reference: Ryan 201, only state, edition of 30. In excellent condition (no sign of prior matting or framing), the full sheet with margins (some trivial soft folds near edges), 18 x 9, the sheet 13 1/4 inches.

A fine rich impression. This is the cover print for the Ryan catalogue raisonne of the Landon prints.

Late in his complicated and often difficult life and career Landon often focused very intently on a few well-chosen forms, leaving aside the complex imagery and references of earlier years.  Among these career-culminating images, Time Silhouette is one of his most successful.

Edward Landon (1911-1984), Disputation, serigraph, 1949, signed in ink lower right and titled in pencil lower left. Reference: Mary Ryan 59, only state, from the edition of 35.  Pictured in Ryan on page 18.  In good condition (soft folds at bottom edge not near image); the full sheet, 21 1/2 x 25 1/2, the sheet 25 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches.

A very good impression, printed in colors on a cream wove paper.

Disputation exemplifies Landon’s involvement with abstraction, and with Surrealism – with its concerns with irrationality, absurdity and unconsciousness.  Here, figures appear to be in conflict but they seem to arise from the same place, so the conflict portrayed may be psychological, internal.

George Biddle (1885-1973), Carnival in Rio No. 4, lithograph, 1947, signed and dated in pencil lower right; titled lower left [also signed and dated in the stone lower left]. Reference: Pennigar 151, only state, from the edition of 20. In good condition, with margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 10 1/2 x 11 1/4, the sheet 11 3/4 x 16 inches, not matted.

Biddle signs and dates the print “Biddle 1944”  in the stone in barely visible scratches just above the pencil title.  This dating would presumably change Pennigar’s dating of the print from 1947 to 1944. Also, it might change the title of the print; perhaps this should be Carnival in Rio No. 1 (currently the title for Pennigar 141, dated to 1944) or Carnival in Rio No. 2.  Still, Biddle dated the print in pencil 1947 – could this be the date he signed it, a couple of years after it was printed?

A very good impression, printed in black on wove paper.

After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle decided that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art).

After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-20’s).

Carnival in Rio seems to reflect Pascin’s influence, particularly in the modernistic flattening of the perspective, and also in the exacting lithographic lines more characteristic of drypoint (a favorite medium for Pascin) than lithography. Indeed, the black areas of the print have the character of drypoint burr.

This print along with several other Rio subjects was based on sketches Biddle made while in Rio de Janeiro in 1942 executing a mural.

Detail

Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Un Dernier Toast,  lithograph, 1843. Reference: Daumier Register 1040, third state (of 4). With letters [signature in the stone]. From the Album Les Canotiers Parisiens, Plate number 18. With text this print appeared in the journal Le Charivari; it was also issued sur blanc (see below) by Pannier and Aubert. In good condition, slight staining outside of image lower left, 11 1/2 x 8, the sheet 13 7/8 x 10 1/2 inches.

A fine clear impression.

This is a sur blanc impression, printed in a small contemporaneous edition for collectors (probably 100-150 impressions only). This form of the print was and generally is preferred over the newprint impressions for a number of reasons – the paper is better quality, one doesn’t see newsprint through the image because there’s no newsprint verso (that’s why they call it sur blanc), and of course it’s just rarer than the newsprint editions – and for all these reasons the sur blancs do have the drawback of being more costly than the newprint versions (although the price difference is minimal given the other differences).

I unabashedly quote the invaluable Daumier Register for a translation:

Original Text:
UN DERNIER TOAST.
Messieurs, ne retournons pas à bord sans porter un dernier toast en l’honneur de deux des objets qui contribuent le plus à charmer notre existence… buvons aux dames et au veau froid…….

Translation:
A LAST TOAST!
Gentlemen, let’s not go back on board without a final toast in honour of the two things which, most of all, bring charm to our lives… let’s drink to the ladies and cold veal!

$325

Detail

Charles Turzak (1899-1986), Methodist Temple, Chicago, c. 1930, woodcut, signed, titled and numbered (16/50), from the edition of 50. Reference: Turzak 22. In very good condition, with margins on a very thin hand made Japan paper, 8 1/2 x 13 1/4, the sheet 16  x 11 1/4 inches; archival mounting.

A fine bright impression. Printed on a cream/tan paper in a black ink.

Turzak noted in his catalogues that this print was cut on bass wood, and that this was the “view from my studio window – 6th floor.”

Turzak was a painter, printmaker, illustrator and designer. While a high school senior he won a national cartoon contest sponsored by Purina Mills. With the (relative) notoriety and riches he achieved through the contest he was able to get into (and pay for) the Art Institute of Chicago in 1920. After graduating in 1924 Turzak stayed in Chicago as a free-lance and commercial artist.

He gained a measure of serious fame during the Depression, participating in various federal arts programs; his modernist versions of Chicago sights created during those years are particularly valued today.

After the Depression he made more commercial art, then in his later years worked again as a painter and printmaker. His art is represented in the collections of the Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, the Illinois State Historical Library, and other public collections.

Detail

Michael Goldberg (1924-2007), Cover (from Odes)– – 1961, Color Serigraph.

Edition 10. Signed, dated and annotated Special Edition 2/10 in pencil.

Image size 16 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches (425 x 343 mm); sheet size 19 5/8 x 14 15/16 (498 x 379 mm).

A fine, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on off-white wove paper; full margins (5/16 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition.

Created for the Tiber Press four-volume set of poetry by Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler, illustrated with original silkscreen prints by Alfred Leslie, Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldberg, and Grace Hartigan. The four volumes are entitled Permanently, Odes, Salute, and The Poems. Printed by Floriano Vecchi.

Cornelis Bega (1631/32-64), The Young Hostess, c. 1660-64, etching. Reference: Hollstein, Bartsch 33, third state (of 5). With the address of J. Covens and C Mortier bottom left – before the address was removed (in the fourth state) and the artist’s signature was added (in the fifth state). In excellent condition, printed in black/grey ink on an old laid paper, with a 3/16 inch margin outside the plate mark all around, archival matting.

Provenance: Ex collection Graff (with stamp verso, Lugt 1092a), LRV (with stamp verso, Lugt 1761), an unidentified collector’s stamp verso, and Dr. Karl Herveg (his stamp verso, not in Lugt). (Verso illustrated.)

A very good impression, with the guidelines of the address strongly visible.

Dr. Karl Herweg was a noted collector of 17th Century Dutch prints, especially those of Van Ostade and Bega. Dr. Herweg bought most of his old master prints from CG Boerner in Dusseldorf, where he was advised by legendary connoisseur and scholar-dealer Eduard Trautscholdt whose real passion was the etchings of the Haarlem genre painter-etchers: Cornelis Bega, Adriaen van Ostade, and the latter’s pupil Cornelis Dusart.

In this late stage of Bega’s career he typically grouped his figures tightly in a pyramidal cluster. Here the setting is austere, with various elements extending the middle grouping. The light comes from an undisclosed source in the foreground, and from the open window at the right.

The figures in this scene are characteristic of Bega’s portrayals of Dutch tavern life in the late 17th Century: one old patron caresses the barmaid as the other – his left foot seemingly placed between the feet of the girl – chews on a bone.

Verso, showing collector's marks

Lester George Hornby (1882-1956), Market Day on Blvd. Edouard Quinet, Paris, c. 1910, etching, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (8/30) lower left [also signed and titled in the plate lower left. In excellent condition, with small margins (trimmed just outside of the plate mark top and sides, a bit more space below), 6 x 8 7/8, the sheet 6 3/8 x 9 3/8 inches.

Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York (with their label intact)

A fine impression, printed in a dark brown ink on thick laid paper, with a strong layering of plate tone wiped slightly more towards the middle of the composition to highlight the donkeys and the activity underneath the central market tents.

Hornby moved from Massachusetts to Paris in 1906, and made that his home base for several years while he traveled throughout Europe.

The critic Rowland Thomas wrote in 1910 “Hornby is beyond doubt a master etcher with such power of eye and hand as our generation has hardly known before. Not since Whistler posed with the Universe on his needle point has anyone scratched on solid metal lines of such electrifying, such insolently simple conciseness as these- a new old Paris leaps transfigured and revealed for those who will glory in her.”

Hornby often numbered prints in terms of his hoped for sales rather than in terms of the actual number of impressions printed; hence this print, rarely encountered, may in fact have been issued in less than 30 impressions.

Muirhead Bone (1876-1953), On the Stocks, lithograph, 1917, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the stone], in very good condition (remains of hinging verso), printed on a handmade cream wove paper, 13 7/8 x 18, the sheet 15 1/4 x 21.

Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York, with their mat and annotations.

A very good impression.

Bone started his printmaking career in lithography, eventually achieving renown as a leader of the British Etching movement through his work in etching and drypoint.  On the Stocks suggests that lithography, rather than drypoint,  would seem to be just the right medium to capture the rough grit and smoke of shipbuilding, and the mammoth size of the effort – but Bone created most such compositions in drypoint.

In On the Stocks a large merchant ship is being built under a shed to shelter a hive of workmen beneath the weather.  The many little railways seen in the foreground bring the material from the shops to the stocks.  This is one of a group of lithographs of the Western Front (a reproduction of which is included in a book called the Western Front, Doubleday, New York, 1917,  with drawings by Bone, documenting the World War I effort); it was also included (as number 2)  in a set of 6 lithographs entitled Building Ships.

Detail

Arthur B. Davies, Uprising, soft ground etching and aquatint on a green laid paper, 1919, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 78, second state (of 3). In good condition, with margins (slight mat stain away from platemark); on a green laid paper. From a small edition, 6 x 9, the sheet 8.3/4  x 12 inches.

A fine atmospheric impression, carefully printed in black/grey ink on old green laid paper.

The first state of this print was before the aquatint; it was in soft ground etching only (the third state was printed in color by Frank Nankivell in 1924). The few impressions of the second state show the aquatint to fine effect.

At this stage of his career Davies was experimenting with modernism in his printmaking; he had developed substantial expertise in sophisticated printmaking techniques (here effectively using soft ground and aquatint), and was fusing the cubism which interested him in the years after the 1912 Armory Show (he was a primary organizer of the show), with the symbolism that had led him to be regarded as America’s most distinguished artist prior to that. His printmaking continues to be one of the most interesting areas of his work.

This is one of a large number of Davies prints that we maintain in our inventory. Inquiries about these, or other fine prints, are always welcome.

Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Les Fantaisies, etchings, 12 from the set of 14, 1635. Reference: Lieure 1372-5, 1377-84, first states (of 2); the frontispiece second state (of 2). In excellent condition (the Lieure numbers had been written on each, now erased), with small/thread margins, printed on laid paper, each c. 2 9/16 x 3 3/8  inches.

Fine early impressions of these tiny figures, three to a sheet.  These first state impressions are each before the numbers which were added to the lower right.

According to Lieure, in each of these prints Callot depicts the “dames, les seigneurs et les cavaliers du regne de Louis XIII.” They are drawn in a line, with all the grace and character of the figures that Watteau would paint a half-century later.

Jean-Emile Laboueur (1877-1943), La Repasseuse (The Presser), 1937, engraving and drypoint. Signed and numbered in pencil (29/67) [with the monogram bottom left]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 527, third state of three. In good condition, on  tan wove paper, with wide margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 9 1/4 x 7, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, archival mounting.

A fine impression.

Jean-Emile Laboureur traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. In 1886 he met Toulouse Lautrec, who influenced Laboureur’s emerging aesthetic style, as did the work of Odilon Redon, Bonnard, and perhaps most notably Felix Vallotton, who became a close colleague. Laboureur traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own. Cubism remained an important theme for Laboureur, a theme he varied, sometimes using it as a strong design or compositional component, sometimes only as a subtle background element.

In La Repasseuse, Laboureur shares his fascination with the modernist shapes of the shirts and collars dwarfing the girl pressing them in the background. His work is perhaps looser than usual, and, at this mature stage of his career, brimming with confidence.

$900

Grace Hartigan (1922-2008), Untitled (from Salute), 1961, color serigraph, edition not stated, unsigned, numbered 23 in pencil verso.

Image size 17 x 14 1/2 inches (432 x 368 mm); sheet size 17 1/2 to 14 1/2 inches (445 x 368 mm).

A fine, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on the full sheet of off-white wove paper; with top and bottom margins (1/16 to 1/2 inch) and the image extending to left and right sheet edges; in excellent condition.

Created for the Tiber Press four-volume set of poetry by Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler, illustrated with original silkscreen prints by Alfred Leslie, Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldberg, and Grace Hartigan. The four volumes are entitled Permanently, Odes, Salute, and The Poems. Printed by Floriano Vecchi.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Dawn (or, Kneeling Figure), 1918, soft ground etching and aquatint, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 59, second state (of 3). In very good condition, with margins, 11 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 14 x 9 1/2 inches. Printed in black ink on a cream wove paper.

A fine impression of this very strong composition.

Dawn is unusual among Davies’s printed images for the great clarity and strength of the image, undergirded by the blackness of the aquatint background. At this stage of his career Davis was making a transition from explorations into the areas of cubism/modernism, back to a Symbolist idiom that had characterized much of his work prior to World War I and the 1913 Armory Show.  Although not cubist, Dawn could certainly be regarded as essentially modernist.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Baptism (or, Group of Ten Men – One Seated), drypoint on zinc, 1917, signed in pencil , printed in black on very thin laid paper. In very good condition, cockling top and bottom margins (result of printing process), the matrix excellent, 6 3/8 x 4 1/4, the sheet 9 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches. Reference: Czestochowski 52, second state (of 2), total printing unknown but small.

A fine rich impression of this great rarity (most of the other impressions are in museums), with substantial burr from the drypoint work, with platetone overall but carefully wiped to shed more light on the central figures.

An excellent example of Davies’s cubism, which he experimented with after the 1913 Armory Show (which he was instrumental in organizing). Here Davies begins with a characteristic composition – a complex Symbolist figural group – and re-works it in a modernist/cubist spirit.  Baptism, and the few other cubist/modernist prints that Davies did at this time are important expressions of the growing American interest in modernist art; Baptism is one of his most successful achievements in this realm. After several more such works he returned to the “pre-modernist” Symbolist idiom which had earned him the esteem of his artist colleagues, and the reputation as one of the great American artists of his time.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928),  Guiding Spirit, 1918, etching, drypoint and roulette,  signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 55, Second state (of 2), edition of 22, 4 ¾ x 6 7/8, the sheet 8 ¾ x 11 inches.  In good condition apart from some light rust marks or paper imperfections dotting the surface.

A fine impression with substantial burr from the drypoint work, wiped selectively so that the central floating figures are much lighter than the figures below or to the sides.

Printed in black on a cream wove paper.

A superb example of Davies’s Symbolist work as well as a demonstration of his effectiveness in using the medium of printmaking to achieve his aesthetic aims.

Felix Vallotton (1865-1925) woodcut The Piano Player, 1896, signed in blue crayon, numbered 35, from the edition of about 100. Plate IV of Instruments de Musique. Reference: Vallotton and Goerg 174.  In good condition apart from an unobtrusive printing crease at right, occasional pale staining in margin, with full margins, conservation matted, 9 x 7 1/8 inches, the sheet 12 7/8 x 10.

Provenance: Sold at Christie’s New York, May 3, 1999.

A fresh, clearly printed impression of this striking composition, printed on cream wove paper.

Vallotton was the Fin de Siecle master of the modernist woodcut, using just a few lines to create a readable and delightful image. Nowhere is this ability more evident than in The Piano.

The pianist portrayed is Raoul Pugno, a well-known turn of the century musician.

Gerald Brockhurst (1890-1978), A Galway Peasant (also, An Irish Peasant), etching, 1920, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Fletcher 10, from the edition of 55, third state (of 3), printed on laid paper, the full sheet, in very good condition (remains of prior hinging verso), 4 x 4 1/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 9 inches, window mount.

A fine impression, printed in greyish/black ink on ivory laid paper.

Brockhurst was one of the outstanding British artists of the early 20th Century, hugely popular in the ’20’s and early ’30’s. Today he is still renowned for his poignant images of young women and girls (including the famed Adolescence) and several portraits of contemporaries (Rushbury, McBey); to print lovers portraits such as this example show him at his best: a master etcher, and superb draftsman.

Gerald Brockhurst, Elizabeth (Anais, also called the London Coster Girl), etching, 1922, signed in pencil lower right, also initialed and annotated “1st State” lower left margin corner [also signed, in reverse, in the plate lower left].  Reference: Fletcher 32, first state (of 10), 2 proofs in this state, edition of 76.  In very good condition, with inkmarks, slight soiling and fingerprints in the margins as befits an early proof impression. 7 x 5 3/8, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 1/8; the image is 5 3/4 x 4 3/8.

A very fine impression of this first state impression (there were only two proofs in this state), before any wear and thus with Brockhurst’s exquisite detailing intact.

In this state Brockhurst has yet to cut the plate down to the borders which he has etched in in this proof, so the plate mark is well away from the image. The composition is completed at this stage. There are some practice etching marks in the borders; these will of course be lost when the plate is cut down, and at that point Brockhurst also strengthened the borderline.

The subject appears to be Brockhurst’s first wife. A coster is one who sells goods – fruits, vegetables, crafts – on the street.

Irving Wolfson (b.1899), West Street, New York City, etching and drypoint with plate tone, signed, titled and inscribed in pencil  “ed 99.” In very good condition (with only the slightest hint of any light stain) on a cream laid paper with margins, 11 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 15 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches, archival mounting.

A fine atmospheric impression.

Wolfson here looks at downtown, facing east from West Street (which lies close to the Hudson on the lower west side of Manhattan), and of course the most famous landmark from that vantage point at the time (and perhaps still today) is the Woolworth Building, which is the large building in the composition.

Wolfson was working in the tradition of Whistler, and later Pennell, leaving some ink in selected areas on the copper plate when he printed this (instead of wiping the plate clean), thereby creating plate tone (darker or lighter areas where more or less ink is left on the plate) representing areas of darkness and light, shadows and space.

Michael Augustin Power O’Malley (1870-1946), Cat in Doorway, c. 1930, etching and drypoint, on pinkish/tan wove paper with the watermark with the Van Gelder Zonen Holland watermark, with condition issues: slight creasing in the image, creasing, handling folds and soiling in the margins, rippling in the matrix associated with printing, staining verso, browning toward margin edges, the full sheet with full margins, deckle edges. 9 7/8 x 8, the sheet 18 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches, not matted.

A very good impression of this modernist, stark image.

Provenance:

Ex Collection: Albert M. Bender Collection

San Francisco Museum of Art (with its label verso)

Christie’s New York, 2008

Power O’Malley was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1870, studied at the National Academy of Design with Robert Henri and Walter Shirlaw, and between 1913 and 1919 painted covers for Life (magazine). He was active in Los Angeles in 1926-29 and, after a decade in Ireland, again in 1938. He died in New York on 3 July 1946.

Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Les Mannequins Politiques, lithograph, 1834. Reference: Daumier Register 96, first state (of 2), on wove paper (no lettering verso).Published in La Caricature, 11/20/1834. In good condition, slight soiling at outer edges, with wide margins,  9 1/2 x 10 1/2, the sheet 10 5/8 x 13 3/4 inches.

Provenance:  ex Collection: Vouay, S. Mme (Lugt 2373c, with the red stamp lower right recto)

Here is the explanation of this print, and translation,  unabashedly taken verbatim from the invaluable online Daumier Register (with my continuing indebtedness and thanks to Lilian and Dieter Noack):

Two persons, the King and de Rigny (or Dupin?) are holding straw puppets. The caption says: “This game only lasted three days”. The King is holding Marshall Gérard, playing the old political game of shaking straw men at each other. Between July 1834 and March 1835, Louis-Philippe was unable to form a stable government. A provisional government was formed, which lasted only three days.

Original Text:
Les Mannequins Politiques.
Ce jeu n’a duré que trois jours.

Translation:
Political puppets.
The game has lasted only three days.

$700

Adolphe Beaufrere (1876-1960),  Fermes et Marais, Port-Louis, 1908, etching, signed in pencil lower right [also initialed and dated in the plate lower right]. References: Morane 08-03, Laran 36. Printed on a thin wove Japan paper, in brown/olive ink. In very good condition, with margins, 7 7/8 x 11 3/4, the sheet 8 1/2 x 12 1/4  inches.

Provenance: acquired directly from Jean-Noel Beaufrere, the artist’s son.

A fine impression, with a light veil of plate tone, carefully wiped more cleanly in the field and middle sky; the foreground, especially the foreground right, is dark.

Morane notes that the intended edition was 40, there were 3 proofs of a first state and 5 of a second.

Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Moreau encouraged him to study old master prints, especially the prints of Rembrandt and Durer, which were available in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris – this was to be critical in his development. He was also influenced by the stirrings of modernism in Paris at the time, as well as the Japanese woodcut tradition and the French frenzy with Japonisme.

Beaufrere began printmaking near the end of his formal training; he made a number of woodcuts, but soon focused more on etching and engraving, as well as painting (curiously, one of his printmaking teachers at that time was the Canadian etcher Donald Shaw MacLaughlan; Fermes and Marais appears to evidence a MacLaughlan influence). He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905 his new wife convinced him to move out of Paris and back to Brittany, a move having a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants would provide a continuing source of inspiration – as illustrated in Fermes et Marais, Port-Louis.

Adolphe Beaufrere (1876-1960), Lavoir de Kervino, 1908, etching, with the Beaufrere red estate stamp lower left recto [also signed and dated in the plate lower right]. References: Morane 08-02, Laran 35.  Printed in a dark brown ink, on a thin wove Japan paper. In very good condition, unobtrusive water stain lower left, crease lower right corner, with margins, 9 1/2 x 12, the sheet 10 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches.

Provenance: acquired directly from Jean-Noel Beaufrere, the artist’s son.

A fine impression of this very rare print.

This impression is probably a first state working proof, before some foliage was added lower right, shading lines lower left, and clouds in the sky (as illustrated in Morane).  Morane notes that there were only 6 proofs of the state he illustrated (presumably the second state); then the plate was cut down radically to about one-third of its width, leaving only a strange looking vertical print of the trees and  lavoir (where a woman appears to be washing her feet); then cut a bit more for a small edition of 10.

Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Moreau encouraged him to study old master prints, especially the prints of Rembrandt and Durer, which were available in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris – this was to be critical in his development. He was also influenced by the stirrings of modernism in Paris at the time, as well as the Japanese woodcut tradition and the French frenzy with Japonisme.

Beaufrere began printmaking near the end of his formal training; he made a number of woodcuts, but soon focused more on etching and engraving, as well as painting (curiously, one of his printmaking teachers at that time was the Canadian etcher Donald Shaw MacLaughlan). He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905 his new wife convinced him to move out of Paris and back to Brittany, a move having a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants would provide a continuing source of inspiration – as illustrated in Lavoir de Kervino.

Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes (1746-1828), La Tauromaquia,  the complete set of 33 etchings with aquatint, drypoint and engraving, 1814-16. First Edition, with the explanatory text page, impressions printed in sepia ink on laid paper, one with watermark SERRA, nine with watermark MORATO. References: Delteil 224-256, Harris 204-236, 247 x 353mm, the sheets approx. 298 x 411 mm. Published in Madrid by the artist, with wide margins, in very good condition, some plates with unobtrusive printing creases, with black cloth-covered binding with artist’s name in gilt.

Fine impressions of this great rarity.

Provenance:

M. Murillo (19th C.), bookseller, Madrid (not in Lugt, with his label inside back cover)

Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), The Durdans, Epsom, Surrey (not in Lugt, his stamp on the front fly-leaf)

Philip Hofer (1898-1984), Curator, Houghton Library, Harvard University (not in Lugt, with his book plate inside front cover)

Much has been written about Goya’s intent in creating the Tauromaquia set (of course including many articles and books by Philip Hofer, a prior owner of this set).  Goya was nearing 70 as he began the plates, and to a certain degree he recalls his youth in them – growing up he knew or at least had seen many of the great bullfighters, and later claimed to have done some bullfighting himself. He began the set with portraits of contempory bullfighting, and the great moments he personally recalled, but then added historical figures as well, going back to medieval times, and 16th Century figures, so the set became a sort of review – although certainly not an accurate history – of bullfighting through the years.  Goya is unconcerned with the historical validity of the costuming or even the setting, and as he redid certain plates and worked from his original drawings, he simplified the compositions radically, so that only the most essential shapes and characters appear. Many commentators have identified the plates of the Tauromaquia set as forerunners of impressionism, and expressionism, which they surely are; we would also suggest their evolution also evokes the modernist temper of abstraction, for in these plates one can see Goya re-ordering a finite number of shapes in different ways, in each instance revealing a new and fascinating aesthetic form.

The First Edition of La Tauromaquia was published in very small numbers, both as a set and as single plates; the initial edition is thought to have been much smaller than that of the Caprichos (which was about 300).  Long after Goya’s death the Calcographia produced additional editions, starting with a small one in 1855 (on wove), a Third in 1876 (on laid), up to a Seventh in 1937.  The plates of La Tauromaquia deteriorated substantially after the First Edition, so it is only be viewing the prints of the lifetime First Edition that one can fully appreciate the splendid technical and aesthetic achievement that Goya’s Tauromaquia represents.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Narrow Street in Rouen (Petite Rue Nationale, a Rouen), etching, drypoint, maniere grise, aquatint, 1896, signed in pencil lower right, numbered (No 6) and annotated “ep defi” (definitive proof)  lower left, titled below (and with the added annotation Z). Reference: Delteil 122, third state (of 3). In excellent condition, the full sheet with very wide margins (remains of prior hinging verso, mat staining in margins not affecting image), printed on an ivory laid paper, 6 1/2 x 5 1/8, the sheet 16 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches.

There was one impression of the first state, one of the second state, and 8 or 9 of the third state, according to Delteil. Each of the third state impressions is annotated “ed defi”, numbered and signed, as is this impression; this impression is also titled. In the second and third states Pissarro darkened the plate substantially (see notes below).

Provenance: Henri Petiet, with his blindstamp verso (Lugt Supplement 2021a)

A very fine impression of this great rarity, printed in a black/grey ink with substantial plate tone overall, wiped to convey a sense of light near the streetlight at the back of the street, in the sky, and in the face of the building to the right.

Several years before etching Petite Rue Nationale Pissarro and Degas had worked closely together, developing a variant of the aquatint technique called “maniere grise”, in which they scraped the plate with an emery point; that technique appears to have been used in this print.  Both Pissarro and Degas loved to re-work their plates through a number of states, carefully giving the plates different shadings and nuances.   Printing in this way is time consuming, and for the vast majority of prints Pissarro insisted on doing the printing himself. Although Petite Rue Nationale was created in only three states, and printed only about 10 or 11 impressions in all,  the plate appears to have been worked over in astonishing detail, with a myriad of etching or drypoint lines as well as aquatint and maniere grise.  Then the plate was wiped carefully after each printing. Of course all this meant that the plate could withstand only very limited printings (and no large edition was even contemplated). For all of these reasons,  it is understandable that only a relatively few lifetime impressions of Petite Rue Nationale were ever made, and today lifetime impressions of Pissarro etchings such as this are rarely available.

Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Pause by a Window (or Waiting for the Bus), etching, 1930. Associated American Artists checklist 101. Two impressions, one of the first state, one of the second. The first is stamp/estate signed, the second pencil signed by the artist and numbered 27. In very good condition, both with wide margins, the state 1 proof with drying holes all around, on a white/cream wove paper,9 x 4 7/8, the sheet 13 x 7; state 2 on a cream/ivory wove paper, 9 x 4 7/8, the sheet 13 3/8 x 9 inches.

Fine impressions of each state, the second state printed with a light veil of plate tone.

The composition is essentially the same in each state, with one major exception: in state 2 Miller has burnished an area on the boy’s right hand and added a ball (or an apple?)!

Kenneth Hayes Miller is known both as a teacher and inveterate etcher. Working in the area of 14th Street, he observed the crowds on the sidewalks, and shoppers at Kleins (on-the-Square) and Hearns. A student of great printmakers such as Durer, Callot, Meryon, Rembrandt, he taught a generation of great American printmakers including of course Isabel Bishop and Reginald Marsh.

Detail - State 1

Detail - State 2

George Bellows (1882-1925), Legs of the Sea, lithograph, 1921, signed in pencil lower right, signed by the printer Bolton Brown and annotated “imp” (impressit) lower left [also initialed in the plate]. Reference: Mason 85, only state, edition of 53. In very good condition, with margins (hinging at upper corners showing through slightly), 8 1/2 x 11 1/4, the sheet 9 3/4 x 12 1/8 inches.

Provenance: H.V. Allison and Company, 11 East 57th Street, New York; with their label on mat verso.

A fine fresh impression.

Legs of the Sea depicts Third Beach in Newport, Rhode Island; Bellows and his family summered for two seasons in Rhode Island, where he made a number of sketches which were re-worked into paintings and four lithographs: another bathing lithograph (Bathing Beach, Mason 86), and his two tennis lithographs (Mason 71 and 72).

Two related drawings for Legs of the Sea are in the Wiggin Collection, Boston Public Library.

Detail

George Bellows (1882-1925), Tennis (Tennis Tournament), lithograph, 1921, signed in pencil lower right, also signed and annotated by the printer Bolton Brown, imp lower left, and numbered 37. Reference: Mason 71, only state, from the edition of about 63. In very good condition, repaired tears in margins left and bottom not affecting image, with margins; 18 3/8 x 20 inches.

A superb impression, printed on a thin Japan paper.

A souvenir of the summers Bellows spent with his family at Middletown, Rhode Island. Emma Bellows can be seen wearing the black hat, sitting at the left.  Critics have speculated that the Rhode Island lithographs and paintings provided unusual subject matter for Bellows, who often focused on social or political issues in his work, but a broader view of Bellows indicates that aesthetic considerations were generally of primary concern to him. For example, in this lithograph the spectators and setting are given greater primacy than the tennis match itself.  Still,  Bellows depicts the spectators, including his wife, as an elegant and rather pretentious group, a perspective consistent with his social viewpoint.

Bellows created two major paintings related to this lithograph: Tennis Tournament (at Newport), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Tennis at Newport in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. In addition there is at least one drawing nearly identical to Mason 71,  Tennis at Newport, at the Arkansas Arts Center; he also created a smaller, less ambitious lithograph on the same subject (The Tournament, Mason 72).

Detail

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), The Old Mulford House, etching, 1926. Signed by the artist with his monogram in pencil, together with the annotation “imp.” Titled The Old Mumford House in the artist’s hand, bottom left sheet edge. [Also signed and dated in the plate lower right] Reference: Wofsy 264. Edition not known but very rare.

On cream wove paper with full margins. In very good condition, with the artist’s tack holes (used for drying) at the sheet edges, repaired tear and reinforced crease bottom left corner away from image. 8 3/8 x 10 7/8 inches (213 x 276 mm); the sheet 12 1/2 x 16 1/4 inches (318 x 413 mm).

A fine impression of this rarely encountered American Impressionist print – an atmospheric impression of an Easthampton landmark, with the play of shadows across the house working effectively as seen in the best impressions of Hassam’s work.

The “imp” after Hassams monogram stands for the Latin imprimivit, a notation indicating that this was printed personally by the artist.

Hassam is of course one of America’s pre-eminent Impressionist artists, celebrated on a large stage most recently with a show devoted to his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Queensboro Bridge , 1930, Lithograph.Flint 61. Edition 50. Signed, titled and dated in pencil.

Image size 13 1/2” x 7 5/8” (342 x 193 mm); sheet size 15 7/8” x 10 3/4” (403 x 272 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on Rives BFK cream wove paper, with full margins ( 7/8 to 1 5/8 inches), in excellent condition.

Lozowick attended Kiev Art School from the age of 12 to 14, at which point he emigrated to the US. In New York he studied for three years at the National Academy of Design, then attended Ohio State, worked as a lithographer, and traveled extensively in Europe and Russia between 1919 and 1924. With this exposure to cubism and Russian modernism, combined with his talent as a draughtsman, he was able to help adapt cubism/modernism to America, creating an exciting new idiom called Precisionism.

By 1930, when Queensboro Bridge was made, Lozowick had already spent several years making superb Precisionist lithographs, proving that this printmaking method was ideal for the movement. But the public was not convinced, and he reverted in the later ’30s to more conventional, easily accessible compositions. Of course with hindsight it’s clear (and has been for about the last 30 years!) that this Precisionist work was the  high point of Lozowick’s career, and of American art of the period.

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Marché aux Fleurs ou la Rencontre, 1914, Engraving. Sylvain Laboureur 127, second state (of 2). Edition of 35. Signed, titled, and numbered 2/35 ép in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size: 11 1/8 x 13 9/16 inches (283 x 344 mm); sheet size 12 7/8 x 16 3/8 inches (327 x 416 mm).

A superb impression, with rich burr and delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper; full margins (6/8 to 1 3/8 inches); slight light toning within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition.

One of Laboureur’s most successful and earliest essays in his adaptation of cubism.

Laboureur printed the first part of the edition, numbers 1 through 20, in 1914; then after the War, in 1920, completed the printing of the edition.

$4500

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1887-1943),  Le Jockey d’Epsom (Deuxieme Planche), 1913, engraving. Reference:Sylvain Laboureur 125, only state. Edition of only 30. Signed, titled, and numbered 17/30 in pencil. Initialed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size: 8 1/4 x 8 13/16 inches (210 x 224 mm); sheet size 9 1/2 x 10 inches (241 x 254 mm).

A fine impression, with rich burr throughout and delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper; full margins (5/8 to 3/4 inch), in excellent condition.

In the “L’Express de l”Ouest” of February 18, 1914, the critic Bernesto wrote: “Cette eau-forte est une des seules manifestations en cette exposition [the XXIII exposition des Amis des Arts] de la mentalite et de l’interpretation du mouvement artistique moderne.”

Laboureur created a painting of the same subject, now at Nantes, and also a drawing on a fan of the same subject (which is less cubistic than the etching); he also created a sketchy “draft” of this etching which he apparently discarded after printing only 3 examples, and then created this print (in reverse of the first plate).

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1887-1943),  Le Jockey d’Epsom (Deuxieme Planche), 1913, engraving. Reference:Sylvain Laboureur 125, only state. Edition of only 30. Signed, titled, and numbered 17/30 in pencil. Initialed and dated in the plate, lower left.

Image size: 8 1/4 x 8 13/16 inches (210 x 224 mm); sheet size 9 1/2 x 10 inches (241 x 254 mm).

A fine impression, with rich burr throughout and delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper; full margins (5/8 to 3/4 inch), in excellent condition.

In the “L’Express de l”Ouest” of February 18, 1914, the critic Bernesto wrote: “Cette eau-forte est une des seules manifestations en cette exposition [the XXIII exposition des Amis des Arts] de la mentalite et de l’interpretation du mouvement artistique moderne.”

Laboureur created a painting of the same subject, now at Nantes, and also a drawing on a fan of the same subject (which is less cubistic than the etching); he also created a sketchy “draft” of this etching which he apparently discarded after printing only 3 examples, and then created this print (in reverse of the first plate).

John Sloan (1871-1951), Night Windows (also referred to by Sloan as Roof and Windows, and Man on Roof), etching, 1910, signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil [also signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference:Morse 152, state 5 (of 5). Edition 100 (110 printed). In very good condition (minor toning in the margins well away from image), 5 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches (130 x 171 mm); sheet size 9 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches (232 x 318 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/4 to 2 7/8 inches).

The tack holes near the margin edges of this impression indicate that it was printed by Peter Platt, one of Sloan’s favorite printers; Platt impressions are coveted by Sloan collectors since they are invariably masterfully printed – fine, rich, and black.

Years later Sloan wrote of Night Windows: “While his faithful wife is doing the wash downstairs my neighbor casts a roving eye across the areaway. A commonplace or even vulgar incident may produce a work of art.”

Exhibited in the Armory Show, New York, February 1913.

TRAVIÈS, (Traviès de Villers, Charles-Joseph) (Wülflingen, Switzerland, February 21, 1804 – Paris, August 13, 1859), Drole Politicians, c. 1845 hand painted lithograph. Published by Aubert [with signature lower left image, letters and addresses in margin below, in the plate]. In very good condition, small paper loss left margin, printed on a tan wove paper with wide margins, 10 x 7 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches, archival window matting.

A fine impression of this amusing portrait, skillfully hand colored; a print sur blanc (on wove paper, no lettering verso).

This balding establishment figure, himself surely a member of the Chamber of Deputies, expresses amusement at the appearance of a fellow member who has a somewhat similar appearance.

Traviès came from the atelier of François Joseph Hein at the Beaux-Arts, debuted as a genre painter at the Salon of 1823, then dedicated himself to industrial drawing, cloth and wallpaper. He made himself a name with his creation of the figure of the hunchback Mayeux. Collaborator at “La Caricature” and “Le Charivari”. He also did illustrations for novels by Balzac (1842-1855). (Note: I am indebted to the invaluable Daumier Register and associated website for background on Traviès, which I’ve taken the liberty of quoting verbatim.)

Leo Meissner (1895-1977), Sea Gulls, wood engraving, 1936, not signed [signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Published by American Artists Group. In very good condition, on an ivory wove paper, the full sheet with full margins, 8 x 10, the sheet 13 x 18, still in the original AAG mat with the printed statement by the artist verso.

A fine impression of this dramatic image.

Although Meissner worked in several media he was a leading master of the difficult technique of wood engraving (using engraving tools to create an image on the polished hard end of the timber). Sea Gulls likely represents the birds hovering over the craggy Maine coast where he generally summered.

The American Artists Group was formed in 1934, during the Great Depression, with the express purpose of providing unsigned inexpensive prints which were to be widely distributed. AAG published prints by Ganso, Spruance, Meissner, Ruzicka, Chaffetz and Lankes, among many other noted artists. Although the prices of these prints was minimal, sales were still sluggish in that difficult economy; most printings were in editions of under 200 and many under 100. Today, these prints are highly valued by discerning print collectors.

Boris Margo (1902-1995), [Abstract Composition], 1969, etching, aquatint and embossing [cellocut method] signed and dated in pencil lower right margin; initialed AP lower left. In pristine condition, on BFK RIVES cream wove paper, with their watermark, the full sheet, 8 7/8 x 12 7/8, the sheet 13 x 19 3/4 inches. Archival mounting (mylar unattached hinging between acid free boards, glassine cover).

A fine atmospheric impression.

Here Margo creates a powerful image, using a rather more direct composition than in many of his works, and working with only black and white, and a range of intermediate greys.

This impression was made shortly after completion of the important catalogue raisonne of Margo’s print work (Gelb and Schmeckebier, Boris Margo Graphic Work, 1932-1968).  However we believe this work was done using the cellocut method, a printmaking technique which Margo invented. Margo had been making prints of cut plywood, but one day found a piece of celluloid on the ground, and began using it as a printing matrix. It is subject to solvents, and so there were various ways in which the celluloid could be worked upon: by dripping a solvent onto it, by brushing or drawing on it with the solvent.

Best known as a painter of surrealist imagery, Boris Margo was born in Wolotschisk, Ukraine, in Russia. In 1919 he enrolled at the Polytechnik of Art at Odessa, and in 1924 received a grant to study at the Futemas (Workshop for the Art of the Future) in Moscow. A second grant enabled him to study the work of the old masters in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad and to attend Pavel Filonov’s Analytical School of Art in 1927. In 1928 Margo received a certificate from the Polytechnik and immigrated to Montreal, where he worked as a muralist for a year. Moving to New York City in 1930, he studied at the Roerich Museum and two years later began teaching there.

Margo appeared in a show called “The Ideographic Process” at the famed Betty Parsons Gallery in 1947, along with Hans Hoffman, Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, and a year later had his own one man show with Betty Parsons. Later important shows were held at the Brooklyn Museum, the Tweed Gallery at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York in 1993.

Nicholas LeSueur (French 1691 – 1764), Emperor Henry IV at the Feet of Pope Gregory VII,  chiaroscuro woodcut, circa 1730, from two blocks (olive brown, tan), and etching,  from a drawing by Frederick Zucarri,  in the Cabinet Crozat [with the names of the artist, title, cabinet in the block]

On heavy laid paper with a Shield watermark, with very wide margins, on a mottled laid paper, in very good condition, 17 1/2 x 8 1/2, the sheet 20 3/4 by 14 inches.

A fine, fresh impression of this striking composition.

From the Cabinet Crozat series – a folio of works, by LeSueur and others, of chiaroscuro woodcuts after famous drawings and paintings in France (sponsored by Pierre Crozat). Shortly after his initial involvement in this project (about 1725), he became the chief wood engraver for the series, and was one of the champions of the chiaroscuro woodcut technique during the 18th Century.

The outline of the drawing was initially done in etching, and then the color tones were successively added using the woodcut blocks. This accounts for the strong detailing ordinarily not possible using a pure chiaroscuro woodcut technique.

This impression was exhibited in the show Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indiana University Art Museum, 1989-90, catalogue number 39.

Detail