Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Guitar Player

Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Three Gobbis, etchings, 1616. References: Lieure 416, 420, 426, second states (of 2, and thus probably posthumous, but no less whimsical for that), three from the set of 20. In generally good condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark (420 on the platemark at bottom; 420 with slight staining; each with remains of prior hinging verso), app. 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

Provenance: unidentified collector (tiny oval chop mark at bottom of each; letters not discernible)

Very good impressions of these comical figures.

The three figures (with loose translations) are:

Lieure 416: L’homme au gros dos orne d’une rangee de boutons (man with large back, ornamented with a range of buttons)

Lieure 420: Le jouer de luth (the lute player)

Lieure 426: Le cancal jouant de la guitar (the knock-kneed guitar player)

Note: These prints are not for sale.

The Lute Player

L’homme au gros dos

Asperges et Radii, engraving, state 4

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Asperges et Radis, engraving, 1928, impressions of each of the four states of the engraving, and the preliminary pencil drawing (in reverse, see illustration below). Each of the engravings signed and numbered, the drawing initialled and dated.  Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 384, four states, about 75 impressions printed in all four states, 35 in the edition in the fourth state. 7 x 9 1/2 inches, 165 x 225 mm.

Provenance: Henri Petiet, with his initials (HMP) stamp verso (not in Lugt) states 2 and 4.

The drawing is 6 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches, in pencil, in reverse. The drawing was reproduced in the Godefroy catalogue raisonne of the Laboureur prints, page. 29.

State 1: signed in pencil and numbered 4/7, in good condition, on a green wove paper.

State: 2: signed in pencil, numbered 2/8, with lines added to the bottles, under the radishes at left, above radishes on left, and shading lines aded throughout.  On cream wove paper, with the HMP stamp verso.

State 3: pencil signed, numbered 8/9, added shading behind asparagus at left, added strokes at bottom and under leaf at bottom.

State 4: signed and numbered 12/35, cream wove, with the monogram, some additional flecks of engraving on radishes, and outside shadowning; soft folds.

A fine set, all progress proofs and the drawing, for one of Laboureur’s iconic images.

$8500 set of 5

Asperges et Radi, the drawing for the engraving (in reverse)

Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Erie R.R. Yards, etching, 1929, signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 87, fifth state (of 6). In very good condition, printed on a cream laid paper, with margins, 9 x 12, the sheet 10 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches.

A brilliant black impression of this great rarity.

Two impressions were printed in this state.

On the size of Marsh’s lifetime editions, his famous quote explains the situation: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print.”  Marsh also occasionally numbered his prints with large edition sizes, often suggesting an edition of 50, as in this impression (numbered 8/50).  But it appears from the writing on the number that this was an afterthought, and that the number 8 corresponds to the original numbering. Sasowsky notes that Marsh printed impressions 10 through 17 of the final state, 8 and 9 of the penultimate state (this impression would be the 8), and numbers 1 through 7 in earlier states. Some of these had the number /50 added. Whatever the number printed, this print is quite rare; in fact we know of no other impressions to appear on the print market in the past 25 years.

A Marsh lithograph with the same title (Sasowsky 18) but a completely different composition was published 1928.  The composition of the etching is similar to that of Eries R.R. Locos Watering (S. 155) and to a painting Locomotive Watering in the collection of Mrs. Reginald Marsh; there is also a related drawing in the Fogg Art Museum.

Detail

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ecstasy (alternate title: Leda), 1916, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Price 165, Czestochowski 30, third state (of 3). Edition size unknown but small. In very good condition, the full sheet, printed on a thin ivory wove paper, 2 3/4 x 4, the sheet 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.

A very fine impression of this rare drypoint, printed in black ink with the drypoint burr extraordinarily rich.

One of the earliest of Davies’ modernistic experiments, created at a time when Davies was generally regarded as the preeminent American artist of his generation. After the Armory Show of 1913, Davies experimented with various modernist and cubist perspectives; Ecstacy is one of the earliest and most successful of these explorations.

Marsden Hartley said of Davies: Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation with each other.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ecstasy (alternate title: Leda), 1916, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Price 165, Czestochowski 30, third state (of 3). Edition size unknown but small. In very good condition, the full sheet, printed on a thin ivory wove paper, 2 3/4 x 4, the sheet 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.

A very fine impression of this rare drypoint, printed in black ink with the drypoint burr extraordinarily rich.

One of the earliest of Davies’ modernistic experiments, created at a time when Davies was generally regarded as the preeminent American artist of his generation. After the Armory Show of 1913, Davies experimented with various modernist and cubist perspectives; Ecstacy is one of the earliest and most successful of these explorations.

Marsden Hartley said of Davies: Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation with each other.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ecstasy (alternate title: Leda), 1916, drypoint, with the stamp and initials NMD [Niles Davies, a descendant] lower right. Reference: Price 165, Czestochowski 30, first state (of 3, but cf discussion). Edition size unknown but small. In very good condition, printed on a very thin cream wove paper, the sheet printed in the manner of chine colle, on a backing card, full sheet, printed on a thin ivory wove paper, 3 7/8 x 3 inches, the full sheet 8 x 7 1/4 inches.

This impression is about 1/8 inch wider than the later state impressions described by Czestochowski (as well as our later state impression, described in an adjoining web-site entry).

A very fine impression of the first state, with substantial burr, and painted over by Davies in brown, blue, black as a guide to further states.

One of the earliest of Davies’ modernistic experiments, created at a time when Davies was generally regarded as the preeminent American artist of his generation. After the Armory Show of 1913, Davies experimented with various modernist and cubist perspectives; Ecstacy is one of the earliest and most successful of these explorations.

Marsden Hartley said of Davies: Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation with each other.

Detail

Arthur B. Davies, Up-Rising, soft ground etching and aquatint on a cream laid paper, 1919, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 78, second state (of 3). In good condition, with margins.  From a small edition, 6 x 9, the sheet 8 3/8 x 12 1/4 inches.

A fine atmospheric impression.

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).

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.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Resurrection (aka Flying Figures; Border of the Lake), drypoint, 1916, signed with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 35, third state (of 3), with the aquatint.  The total printing was unknown but small. With margins, printed on a blue/green laid paper, in good condition, 3 x 5, the sheet 5 x 8 inches.

A fine  impression, with the complex aquatint layering contrasting effectively.

Aquatint was added in the second state to many areas of the plate except the figure; in the third state aquatint was added to the figure.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Resurrection (aka Flying Figures; Border of the Lake), drypoint, 1916, signed with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 35, first state (of 3), before aquatint.  The total printing was unknown but small. With margins, printed on a very thin wove paper, in good condition, 3 x 5, the sheet 6 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches.

A fine proof impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint work, printed with a veil of plate tone overall.

Aquatint was added in the second state to many areas of the plate except the figure; in the third state aquatint was added to the figure.

Czestochowski notes that this print was probably number six in the October 1916 exhibit of the New York Society of Etchers.

Rembrandt  Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669), The Cavalry Fight, etching, ca. 1632. Reference: Bartsch 117 [unsigned, undated], second state (of 2), in good condition, 4 3/16 x 3 1/4 inches.

Provenance: ex. Coll Earl of Aylesford, London and Packington (Lugt 58). One of the most distinguished Rembrandt collections.

A fine clear impression of this very rare little plate.  (The plate is not known to have survived Rembrandt.)

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Afternoon Promenade, soft ground etching and preliminary transfer drawing, ca. 1881. Reference: Breeskin 33, second (final) state. Printed on laid paper, watermark ARCHES. Also the transfer drawing for Afternoon Promenade, pencil on thin wove paper. The etching 11 x 8 1/2, the drawing on paper 12 1/2 x 16 inches.

Provenance for the etching: Edgar Degas, Paris (Lugt 657)

Provenance for drawing and etching: Robert Hartshorne, New York (Lugt 2215b), thence by descent

The drawing is mentioned by Breeskin under no. 33.

Drawing - recto

Drawing - verso

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Entreat (aka Nude with Uplifted Arms), mezzotint, 1927, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 217, only state. Edition unspecified, total printing unknown but small. In good condition, printed on a cream wove paper, with margins, 6 x 4, the sheet 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.

A very good impression of this rarity.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Fresia (aka Portrait), drypoint on zinc, 1916-17, signed in pencil lower margin.  Reference: Czestochowski 37, only state, edition unspecified, total printing unknown but small. In good condition apart from a small hole to the left of the signature, slight paper rippling. 3 1/2 x 2 1/4, the sheet 7 x 4 1/8 inches.

A fine impression, printed on a very thin laid paper.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Torment, soft ground etching with aquatint and roulette, 1919-20, signed with the estate stamp lower right, and signed by the printer Frank A. Nankivell (and inscribed “Printer”) lower left. Reference: Czestochowski 102, fourth state (of 4). In generally good condition apart from light staining toward the top of the image, and light staining at the top margin edge, a crease in the right margin. With margins, 7 13/16 x 11 7/8, the sheet 9 3/8 x 13 5/8 inches.

A fine impression.Printed on thin laid paper with the watermark Vassier.

Czestochowski notes that this print was never published by Davies. Impressions were printed in 1929 by Nankivell, and we presume that this is one of those impressions.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Mirror of Illusion (aka The Mirror; Maya; Mirror No. 2), drypoint, signed with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 31, first state (of 2). In generally good condition, with margins (creasing and folds in margins, browning toward edges), 6 3/8 x 8 3/8, the sheet 8 7/8 x 11 1/4 inches.

A fine proof impression of the first state, printed with a heavy plate tone. In the first state the design is made with drypoint only, and the platemaker’s name is clearly visible on the middle right margin.

The platemaker’s inscription reads: John Sellers and Sons. 151 Arundel Street, Sheffield.  In the second state the name/label was obscured, and the design was expanded, including the addition of soft ground and roulette to the figures and the background.

The composition for Mirror of Illusion was first created for a painting of the same name done much earlier and exhibited in 1909. The composition reflects Davies’s interest in parallelism, or the repetition of figures. Czestochowski quotes Davies on this (p. 24): “I love clarity in a painting and this is why I love Parallelism. In many of my paintings I have chosen four or five figures in order to express this feeling because I know that impressionism is enhanced by the repetition of one and the same object.”

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Tartessians, soft ground etching with aquatint, 1919-20, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 96, second state (of 2), total printing unknown but small. In good condition, slight mat toning, printed on a cream wove paper, with margins, 4 7/8 x 3 1/4, the sheet 10 7/8 x 7 1/2 inches.

A fine impression, with the aquatint tones contrasting effectively.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), By the Sea (aka Idyll), soft ground etching and aquatint, 1919,  signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 72, fourth state (of 5; see discussion below), edition about 21. In very good condition, printed in black on a green laid paper, 8 7/8 x 5 7/8, the sheet 10 1/4 x 8 inches.

A fine impression.

Davies put this complex composition through some extensive state changes, adding aquatint in the second state, grinding it down on the figures in the third state while adding some tint in the third and fourth state. This impression may represent a state later than the fourth since it appears to have aquatint in the sky to the left of the large figure, and slighter aquatint in the sky to the right, which does not clearly appear in C’s illustration of the fourth state. It is in this fourth state that the “branchlike mass of coarse grain” is added about the head of the central figure – this addition balances the composition but does not appear to correspond to any structure found or visible in nature, although it does appear natural enough in aesthetic terms.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Round of Summer (aka Four Figures), soft ground etching, 1919, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 91, first state (of 3), trial proofs only in this state.  With margins, extensive wrinkling, tape on margins verso (showing through at top margin),  soiling (mostly in margins), printed on light wove paper, 7 7/8 x 5 7/8, the sheet 11 x 7 3/8 inches.

A good impression; the rough condition indicates that this is a trial proof.

In later states aquatint was added to cover the figures, foreground, and the tree upper middle; this state is interesting for its playful sketchlike quality.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Afternoon, transfer lithograph, 1920, signed in pencil lower left. Reference: Czestochowski 188, only state, from the edition of 25 (another 300 unsigned proofs cut down to the image were distributed by Weyhe Gallery as gallery souvenirs); one of a set of eight lithographs, in generally good condition, some light fox spots mostly verso, the slightest toning, the full sheet, printed on a stiff cream wove paper, 7 1/2 x 6, the sheet 15 x 10 7/8 inches, archival matting.

A good impression.

Printer: George C. Miller.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Strength in Shadow, soft ground etching with drypoint, roulette and aquatint, 1919, with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 90, only state, total printing unknown but small. In good condition apart from several creases across the middle of the image (a result of the printing process?).  Printed on laid paper, with wide margins,  6 5/8 x 4 5/8, the sheet 12 x 9 5/8 inches.

A very good impression

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Greek Robe, soft-ground etching and aquatint, 1918-19, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 62, fourth state (of 4), total printing unknown but small.  An impression on cream/yellow wove paper, with light staining, some soft creases, soiling in margins, with margins cut irregularly and with thin areas verso, 11 7/8 x 7 15/16, the sheet 14 3/4 x 10 inches.

A good impression of this rarely encountered print, with the aquatint shading and differentiation apparently stronger than that pictured in Czestochowski for this state.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Contemplation (alternate title: Ishlamih Group), drypoint on zinc, 1917, with the estate stamp lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 53, only state, total printing unknown but small. In good condition, with margins, 2 7/8 x 6 1/8, the sheet 7 x 9 inches. Printed on a very light laid paper, with extensive cataloguing notes in pencil verso bottom.

A fine impression, printed with much drypoint burr, and an overall veil of plate tone.

We also have a working proof of Contemplation (illustrated below) printed on a light laid paper, with inky fingerprints in the margins (going into the image lower right), an ink spot just above the upper platemark,  with irregular margins, 2 7/8 x 6 1/8, the sheet 4 ¼ x 6 5/8 inches. Printed on a very light laid paper, with extensive cataloguing notes in pencil verso bottom.

This lightly printed working proof impression, although with all the details of the better printed impressions, lacks their richness and most of the drypoint burr; it thus may have been printed after, rather than before the richer impressions of the same state.

Working proof impression

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Pompeian Veil, soft ground etching with aquatint, with pencil additions, 1918-1919, with the stamp signature. Reference: Czestochowski 63, fifth state (or a state between the 4^th and 5^th) of 5. In generally good condition, soiling and soft folding in margins, 5 3/8 x 3 ¼, the sheet 9 7/8 x 7 ¼ inches.  Printed on a cream/yellow wove paper.

A good impression, with pencil additions to the nose, hair and hand of the figure; these additions were then made in the plate for Czestochowski’s fifth state. Only trial impressions were made of the fifth state.

Pompeian Veil went through extensive changes through its five states; the plate was substantially reduced in size in the third state, and then again in the fifth.

Detail, showing pencil work on profile and hand

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Venus (alternative title: Spindrift), mezzotint, 1927, with the estate stamp lower right, signed in pencil by Frank A.  Nankivell lower left and inscribed “Printer”.  Reference: Czestochowski 218, first state (of 2), edition unspecified, total printing unknown.  In good condition apart from light fox marks in margins, with margins, printed on laid paper with a bunch of grapes (?) watermark,  9 15/16 x 5 15/16, the sheet 13 ½ x 8 ¾ inches.

A very good impression of this rarely encountered print; no impressions signed by Davies are known.

Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Retrospection, drypoint on zinc, 1916-17, with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 40, first state (of 2).  Total printing unknown but small.  In good condition, with margins (a soft fold upper left margin away from image, paper very thin along the left platemark where the plate was unburnished). 4 7/8 x 3 3/8, the sheet 8 ½ x 6 ¼ inches.

A fine, delicately printed impression, printed on thin cream wove paper with plate tone, the central area of the figures wiped selectively so that this area is brighter and whiter, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.

This is one among the small number of cubist oriented prints Davies created after the Armory Show. Here Davies portrays a group of nudes – a long term subject – in modernist terms reminiscent of Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (the famous painting shown at the Armory Show).

–

Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) Waldkirche, 2, 1920, Woodcut.

Prasse 220. Edition proofs only; 2nd state (of 3). Signed in pencil, lower left. Numbered 2028 (the artist’s inventory number) in the artist’s hand, in the bottom center margin.

Image size 5 11/16 x 4 1/2 inches (144 x 114 mm); sheet size 9 3/4 x 6 5/8 inches (248 x 168 mm).

A fine, black impression, on tissue-thin cream laid Japan, with full margins (7/8 to 2 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. A rare 2nd state proof; Prasse cites only one known proof in this state, on oatmeal-tan carbon-copy paper.

No. 10 of portfolio, Zwölf Holzschnitte von Lyonel Feininger, 1921.

Collections: Cambridge BRM; Darmstadt BA, Hlm; Hamburg; Kaiserslautern; Krefeld; Philadelphia PMA; Sarbrücken.

$5500

Cornelius Schut (1597-1655), Madonna and Child, etching, c. 1650, [signed lower left in the plate]. Reference:  Hollstein 35. In very good condition, trimmed just outside of the borderline (but possibly on or inside the platemark) all around, on laid paper, 5 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches.

Provenance: ex Collection Thomas Graff (Lugt 1092a, with his stamp verso)

A very good impression.

Schut, born in Antwerp, is closely associated with his teacher Rubens. Discussing the Rubens school Arthur Hind wrote (in his History of Engraving and Etching) that “works of a similar type [to Rubens], combining breadth of style with a light and open manner of etching, are best represented in Rubens’s pupil Cornelius Schut.”

Air

Crispin de Passe (1565-1637), The Four Elements, the set of four engravings after drawings by Maarten de Vos (1532-1603),  c. 1600. References: Francken 1130-1133; Hollstein 524-7. Three impressions with an Eagle watermark, one with a Cross of Lorraine. In generally good condition (Aqua with margins, with slight discoloration, traces of a vertical fold; Terra trimmed just inside the platemark, a small repaired slit lower right; Aer with thread margins; Ignis with narrow margins, a central stain, small printer’s crease, tip of lower left corner made up. Approximately 8 x 8 1/4 inches.

Provenance: Claude-Augustin Mariette, 1687 (Lugt 1786, inscribed on Aqua)

Sold at Christie’s New York, 5/8/83, to current owner.

Very good impressions of these delightful images.

Maarten de Vos was a leading Antwerp painter and draftsman who adopted a mannerist idiom after traveling to Italy; Crispin de Passe was a talented engraver whose career was greatly assisted by his marriage to Magdalena de Bock, a niece (by marriage) of the prolific painter and designer Martin de Vos—the great majority of de Passe’s early prints follow designs by de Vos.   For a most readable work on the de Passe family print lovers are encouraged to read Ilja Veldman’s Crispijn de Passe and his Progeny.

Fire

Water

Earth

Detail, from Fire

Ira Moskowitz (1912-1985), Dusk-Zimapan, 1940,  lithograph, signed in pencil lower right, titled lower left, from the (presumed) edition of about 25. Reference:  Czestochowski 70. In good condition, with margins,  on a cream wove paper, 8 3/8 x 11 6\7/16, the sheet 9 3/4 x 12 1/2 inches.

A fine impression.

Ira Moskowitz was born in Poland in 1912, a descendant of a long rabbinical line. The family moved to Prague in 1914, and then in 1927 to New York City, where Ira studied with Jerome Myers and Henry Wickey at the Art Student’s League.  In 1939, Moskowitz made his first trip to Mexico, and stayed for six months – he probably created Dusk-Zimapan at this time. In 1943 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and moved to New Mexico, where he remained for seven years drawing the Indians and becoming an active member of the Taos-Sante Fe artists group which included John Sloan, a Moskowitz admirer.

Detail

José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949), La Loca, etching and aquatint, 1944, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (77/100) lower left. Reference: Hopkins 38, from the edition of 100. In excellent condition, with margins, 10 1/2 x 6 3/4, the sheet 11 5/8 x 9 inches.

A fine impression, printed in black on a cream laid paper.

Provenance:  collection of Dr. and Mrs. Freddy and Regina T. Homburger, purchased directly from the artist. The Homburgers were distinguished collectors of modern art.

This impression exhibited: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Ringling Museum, Maine State Museum.

Orozco is of course well known today as one of the great Mexican muralists (along with Diego Rivera andDavid Alfaro Siqueiros, and others). He was also a superb engraver and etcher, as demonstrated in this wonderful portrait.

Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Monsieur – Here’s Your Handkerchief, lithograph, 1842. Daumier Register 670, third state (of 3), sur blanc, plate 47 from the series Moeurs Conjugales, published in the album of that title and then in the journal Le Charivari. In good condition, a tear bottom edge margin, with margins, 12 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 inches.

A very good impression, on sur blanc wove paper (from the small collector’s edition, without the letterpress verso as the print was issued in the large Le Charivari edition).

Here’s the translation from the indispensable Daumier Register (note: the soldier is going off to war and the maid runs after him offering him his handkerchief and some advice):

Original Text:
Monsieur …. Monsieur, v’ là vot’ mouchoir…. madame y a mis de l’eau de Cologne et elle vous recommande bien une fois au corps de garde de demander une chauffrette!

Translation:
Monsieur, Monsieur, here’s your handkerchief. Madame has put some Eau de Cologne on it and she said you should ask at the Guard whether you might get a foot warmer.

Detail

Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Monsieur – Here’s Your Handkerchief, lithograph, 1842. Daumier Register 670, third state (of 3), sur blanc, plate 47 from the series Moeurs Conjugales, published in the album of that title and then in the journal Le Charivari. In good condition, a tear bottom edge margin, with margins, 12 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 inches.

A very good impression, on sur blanc wove paper (from the small collector’s edition, without the letterpress verso as the print was issued in the large Le Charivari edition).

Here’s the translation from the indispensable Daumier Register (note: the soldier is going off to war and the maid runs after him offering him his handkerchief and some advice):

Original Text:
Monsieur …. Monsieur, v’ là vot’ mouchoir…. madame y a mis de l’eau de Cologne et elle vous recommande bien une fois au corps de garde de demander une chauffrette!

Translation:
Monsieur, Monsieur, here’s your handkerchief. Madame has put some Eau de Cologne on it and she said you should ask at the Guard whether you might get a foot warmer.

$250

Detail

Samuel William Reynolds (1773-1835), The Falconer, after James Northcote (1746-1831), mezzotint with stipple, roulette and drypoint, 1797. References: Whitman 414, second state of 3; Le Blanc 99. A proof before the inscription space was cleared of the open mezzotint ground (cleared in state 2a). In generally good condition apart from light foxing, toning verso and in the margins, on old laid paper, with margins, 19 ¾ x 13 15/16, the sheet 14 5/8 x 20 5/8 inches.

A fine rich impression of this important mezzotint, in an early proof impression.

The sitter in this portrait was the artist’s brother Samuel Northcote, Junior. The mezzotint is probably based on the painting in the collection of Lord Kinnaird, which was painted in 1796.

State 1 is before the inscription at the bottom margin; state 2 has the lettering but is before the margin is cleaned. The lettering reads: “James Northcote RA pinxt  Sam W. Reynolds sculpt. The Falconer London Published March 1 1797 by IR Smith King St. Covent Garden”. In very small letters above the title “Mr Sam’ Northcote of Plymouth”.

The combined skills of the painter Northcote and the brilliant mezzotinter Samuel Reynolds created some of the finest mezzotints of the period; The Falconer is one of the most important of these prints.

Detail, showing inscription space before ground is cleared

Detail

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Sortie de Theatre a Londres, etching and drypoint, 1911, signed in pencil lower left [also signed and dated in the plate upper right]. Reference: Laboureur 104, third state (of 3).  Published for La Societe des amis de l’eau-forte, with the blindstamp with the inscription: Circle Librairie Estampes. From an edition in the third state of 109; there were also 5 impressions of the first state and five of the second state. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges bottom and sides, 6 3/4 x 14; a remarque lower left 2 x 3 1/2, the sheet 12 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches.

Provenance:  unknown collector’s mark verso (GOE in oval)

A fine rich impression, printed in dark brown ink on cream laid paper with the Arches watermark.

The small remarque lower left is actually another print printed on a separate plate; it shows a man running after a London horse-drawn trolley.

Although Sortie is dated 1911 Laboureur apparently drew the model for this etching much earlier, in 1909 or late 1908. In the autumn of 1908 he took up residence in London, occupying a space in Chelsea. One can discern a modernist approach entering his work here, and also perhaps some of the English penchant for satire and exaggeration, as exemplified in the work of Hogarth and Rowlandson – certainly the characters, especially the women leaving this theatre are, in Laboureur’s rendering, larger than life.

John Skippe (1742-1811), A Group of Monks and a Woman (after Rubens ?),  chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783.  [with the inscription upper right: PP Rubens inv Joan:Skippe scul]. References: Le Blanc III 529, 13. On laid paper with a watermark Sitting Woman with Shield and Pitchfork (cf. Churchill 231, 234). In good condition, trimmed on or into the borderline, not laid down, some nicks on edges; 15 x 9 1/4 inches.

A fine impression, printed in four blocks (light and medium greyish green, light and dark brown).

Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons;  also with the collector’s mark RE in a circle verso (not located in Lugt).

Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 56 in the catalogue of the exhibition.

Skippe’s attribution to a drawing by Rubens in his own collection should be amended; the drawing is apparently based on the Rubens painting The Marriage of St. Catherine, with Many Saints, and focuses on a group of figures in the right lower corner of the painting.

Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing.  His prints were a success technically and aesthetically, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues.  He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.  The small number of prints distributed by Skippe, and his avoidance of any commercial publication, have resulted in a paucity of Skippe prints appearing on the market; and today they are rarely seen or even known except by specialists or connoisseurs.

John Skippe (1742-1811), A Naked Man Carried on the Shoulders of Two Others, after Guercino (?),  chiaroscuro woodcut, 1781. [upper left: L.C./JS/1781].  In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline,  affixed to a laid folio sheet, on laid paper, 10 x 5 3/4 inches.

A fine impression, printed in four  blocks (olive green, light green, brown, dark brown).

Naked Man bears a dedication on a separate sheet below the print to James Edwards. Edwards was a bookseller and bibliographer whose family firm sold many valuable libraries, including the library of the famed chiaroscuro printmaker Antonio Maria  Zanetti (1680-1757).

Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons.

Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 51 in the catalogue of the exhibition.

Naked Man is attributed by Skippe to a drawing by Guercino in his collection, but he also includes the initials (upper left) L.C., which presumably is a reference to Ludovico Carracci, who Skippe may have thought originated the composition. The meaning of the composition itself is not clear; it is certainly a complex aesthetic study, reminiscent of Michaelangelo’s nudes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing.  His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues.  He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.

John Skippe (1742-1811), St. Sebastian and St. Roch before the Virgin and Child (after Titian), chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783. [inscribed Titianus lower center, initials in box lower right in the plate]. In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline, not affixed to a folio sheet, on laid paper,  6 x 4 1/4 inches.

A fine impression, printed in three blocks (tan, greenish grey, dark brown).

Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons, also with the collector’s mark RE in a circle verso (not located in Lugt).

Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 53 in the catalogue of the exhibition.

Skippe was often inaccurate when attributing the drawings in his collection to great artists; in this case the attribution to Titian has been re-assigned by Popham to the famed Dominico Campagnola, a sixteenth century Venetian painter influenced by Titian. The drawing was in reverse of Skippe’s print.

This is one of the few Skippe chiaroscuro prints to employ a key block.

Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing.  His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues.  He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.

John Skippe (1742-1811), The Three Angels Before the Kneeling Abraham (after Titian), chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783. References: Nagler XVI 476,2; Le Blanc III 529, 2. [inscribed lower right “Titian in. JS. scl.”]. In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline, mounted to old watermarked laid album paper. 7 7 1/6 x 7 7/16 inches.

A fine impression, printed in four blocks (light brown, brown, grayish green, dark brown).

Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons

Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 54 in the catalogue of the exhibition.

Skippe was rather liberal in attributing the drawings in his collection to great artists; in this case the attribution to Titian has been re-assigned by Popham to “seventeenth century Italian school.” The drawing was in reverse of Skippe’s print.

Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing.  His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues.  He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.

Franz Weirotter (1730-1771), Suite of 12 Views of Italy, etchings, 1759 [most signed in the plate by Weirotter]. Reference: Nagel 5.  10 printed in pairs on one sheet; one on a smaller sheet (still with margins), and the larger frontispiece on a single sheet. In generally good condition, browning toward the outer edge of the sheets, some other defects affecting outer edges but not the images.  Each of the paired compositions  about 6 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches on sheets 16 3/4 x 10 3/8; the frontispiece 7 1/4 x 10 5/8 on a sheet 16 3/4 x 10 3/8 inches. All on laid paper, most with a Bunch of Grapes watermark.

Very good/fine impressions; the impression of Viterbo possibly a proof before the signature (and printed with some ink/soiling); the rest with the Weirotter signature clearly printed.

Although these views were made in Rome or its outskirts, Tivoli, Viterbo, etc., they are not generally of well-known monuments or vistas but rather portraits of the Italian countryside, often depicting relatively modest structures with nearby ruins, and generally with people busily engaged in fishing, talking, preparing food, or otherwise engaged.

Weirotter was one of the most distinguished of the German 18th Century landscape etchers. Although many of these printmakers specialized in reproducing the work of others, Weirotter tended to create original compositions for his prints. The 12 plates in this set are  original Wierotter compositions, although they are remindful of the work of 17th Century Dutch artists such as Jan van Goyen, Pieter Molyn, or Jacob van Ruisdael. Hind noted of Weirotter that he was “most successful when he keeps to plates of the small dimensions, to which his delicate and clearly etched line is fitted.”

We illustrate 3 of the views; of course illustrations of all of them are available on request.

Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Discussion, 1969, Lithograph.

Fath 82. Edition 250. Signed in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower left.

Image size 9 7/8 x 12 inches (251 x 305 mm); sheet size 12 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches (327 x 454 mm).

A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 3 1/8 inches); hinge glue stains on the top sheet edge, recto, well away from the image; otherwise in excellent condition.

Published by Associated American Artists.

“In the summer of 1937 Life magazine hired me to report, with drawings, on the famous ’sit down’ strikes occurring in the Detroit area at the time. Some newspaper reporters had written of these strikes as if they were the beginnings of revolution. I found neither Talk about or desire for revolution only an itch for more money. The drawing from which this litho was made represents a discussion between a union recruiter and a negro worker. The Union boss sits in the background looking on.” -THB

Ira Moskowitz (1912-1985), [Mountain Scene], 1943, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right, numbered lower left (27/50) [also signed and dated 1943 in the plate lower right], from the (presumed) edition of 50, not in Czestochowski. In pristine condition, on a cream wove paper with deckle edges, 10 1/8 x 14, the sheet 13 3/4 x 18 inches.

A fine impression of the hilly countryside, with donkeys and goats grazing on the hillside, farm cabins in the distance; probably Taos.  A rarely encountered print, apparently not known to Czestochowski (and not in his catalogue raisonné).

Ira Moskowitz was born in Poland in 1912, a descendant of a long rabbinical line. The family moved to Prague in 1914, and then in 1927 to New York City, where Ira studied with Jerome Myers and Henry Wickey at the Art Student’s League.  In 1939, Moskowitz made his first trip to Mexico, and stayed for six months. In 1943 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and moved to New Mexico, where he remained for seven years drawing the Indians and becoming an active member of the Taos-Sante Fe artists group which included John Sloan, a Moskowitz admirer.

Alphonse Legros (1837-1921), The Wall of the Presbytery (Le Mur du Presbytere), c. 1890, etching and drypoint, signed in pencil lower right. In good condition, printed on a cream laid paper (probably a journal or bookkeeping paper), very slight toning, remains of prior hinging verso. 5 3/8 x 7 1/4, the sheet 7 3/4 x 9.

A fine impression with substantial burr from the drypoint work.

This etching is closely aligned with a number of Rembrandt’s smaller landscapes; in particular the tower and dense wooded areas in front of it and at the left attest to Legros’s love of the work of the master.

Detail

Cecil Bell (1906-1970), At the Round House, soft-ground etching and aquatint, c. 1935, signed in pencil lower right and titled lower left (also numbered 45), printed on a cream wove paper, the full sheet, in excellent condition, 5 3/4 x 7 5/8, the sheet 8 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches.

A fine impression of this evocative image.

Cecil Bell, born in Seattle in 1906, started his artistic career as a cartoonist. He moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Student’s League in 1930, where he had John Sloan as a teacher.  “I want principally to get down life as I see it and if it turns out to be Art, so much the better,” he told an interviewer in 1939, in the spirit of his Ash Can School mentor. Bell’s Depression-era vignettes were informed by a creative sensibility that acknowledged New York City as its life-giving force.

A roundhouse is a building used for servicing trains; it features a turntable. In this depiction we can observe a worker at the right, possibly re-refueling the engine; another works near the center foreground.

Pierre Gatier (1878-1944), Petite Rue Royale (Prise de l’angle de la rue Saint-Honore), 1922, etching.  Reference: Felix Gatier 193, sixth state (of 6). From the edition of 60 published with the catalogue raisonne of Gatier’s prints in 2004 by Felix Gatier [numbered 21/60 and with the Pierre Gatier blindstamp.   In pristine condition, the full sheet, 4 3/8 x 6 3/4, the sheet 9 3/4 x 8 1/2.

A fine impression, printed on a firm cream wove paper with full margins, deckle edges.

The lifetime first edition of Petite Rue Royale was printed in an edition of 30 after 19 proofs were pulled in proof states.

Detail