Harris Schrank Fine Prints

L'Arrivee du Poisson (Arrival of the Fishes), L. 706

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Quatre Images Bretonnes, album of 4 woodcuts, 1912-14, signed on the justification page and numbered 18. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 681, 695, 698, 706; second states (of 2), from the edition of 130 on Arches paper (there were an additional 10 issued on Japan, and L. 681, 695, and 698 were also issued in editions of 35-40 prior to the album).  Including: the Title Page; justification page, index page, and the four woodcuts. In generally good condition, a nick on the cover edge, browning toward paper edges. The full sheets, printed in black on a wove Arches paper, the full sheets 22 1/4 x 19 1/2 inches.

Very good impressions of these early cubist works.

The album includes these woodcuts: Les Matelots (L. 681), 1912, 13 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches; Le Calvaire Breton (L. 695), 1913, 14 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches; La Rentree au Port (L. 698), 1913, 9 3/4 x 14 inches; L’Arrivee du Poisson (L. 706), 1914, 11 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches.

These works were done in the years 1912-1914, and so were separated chronologically in the Loyer catalogue of Laboureur’s graphic work; they were regrouped as a set for the Sylvain Laboureur catalogue.

The album is of substantial interest insofar as it documents a turning point in the influence of cubism on Laboureur’s work: in the earlier works (L. 681, 695)  one sees the modernist imagery which Laboureur had begun to employ by this time, and in the only slightly later works (L. 698 of 1913 and L. 706 of 1914) one can see the blossoming of Laboureur’s personalized cubism. Indeed, La Rentree au Port, shown at the Salon d’Automne in 1913, was widely commented on by contemporary critics as influenced by cubism, while retaining the personal idiosyncracies that Laboureur was known for; the last woodcut (L. 706) is also a quite successful interpretation of cubism, again very different in means and manner from the first two cuts.

$850 the set of 4

Le Calvaire Breton (L. 693)

La Rentree au Port (L. 698)

Les Matelots Ivres (The Drunken Sailors) (L. 681)

John Sloan (American 1871 – 1954), Fashions of the Past, etching and aquatint, 1926, signed and titled by the artist in pencil (Morse 224 IV/IV), also signed by the printer. From the edition of 100 (of which75 were printed, according to Morse). Annotated: Peter Platt imp (Platt was an early, and one of Sloan’s favorite, printer). In very good condition, with wide margins, with the tack holes at outer margins for drying, as usual for impressions printed by Peter Platt; on wove paper, conservation matted. 7 7/8 x 9 3/4 inches, the sheet 12 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.

A fine fresh impression of this evocative image.

The Fashions of the Past are evident both in the store window, and on the passing crowd. Sloan’s comment on this print: “A well-arranged shop window and the contrasting costumes of the passers-by, whose dress of the time will in turn become costumes of the past.” On one proof Sloan wrote the name of the store: Lord and Taylor.

John Sloan (1871-1954), The Green Hour (or Angna Enters in “The Green Hour”), etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “100 proofs” lower left [with the signature and date lower right, title lower left in the plate]. Reference: Morse 245, second state (of 2), of 90 printed. In very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 5 x 4, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches. Printed on a cream wove paper by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying holes around the edges.

A superb impression.

Peter Platt was one of Sloan’s favorite printers. He printed 25 impressions of The Green Hour.

Angna Enters (1897-1989) was a mime, dancer, artist, dramatist, composer and theatrical designer, and a Sloan colleague and possibly former student, since she studied at the Art Students League in New York after 1919 (Sloan taught there from about 1914 to 1924). He wrote: “I have made several etchings  produced under the inspiration of the creative genius of Angna Enters. This one has given me great satisfaction.”

Detail

John Sloan (1871-1954), The Green Hour (or Angna Enters in “The Green Hour”), etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “100 proofs” lower left [with the signature and date lower right, title lower left in the plate]. Reference: Morse 245, second state (of 2), of 90 printed. In very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 5 x 4, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches. Printed on a cream wove paper by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying holes around the edges.

A superb impression.

Peter Platt was one of Sloan’s favorite printers. He printed 25 impressions of The Green Hour.

Angna Enters (1897-1989) was a mime, dancer, artist, dramatist, composer and theatrical designer, and a Sloan colleague and possibly former student, since she studied at the Art Students League in New York after 1919 (Sloan taught there from about 1914 to 1924). He wrote: “I have made several etchings  produced under the inspiration of the creative genius of Angna Enters. This one has given me great satisfaction.”

$1400

Detail

Le Gramophone: the woodcut

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Gramophone, 1918-21, woodcut – both the woodblock and a print from the block. The print is signed in pencil lower left, and numbered lower right (24/45) [also initialed in the block lower right].  Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 712, only state, total printing of 45 impressions. Both in excellent condition; the print on a cream wove paper, a nick at left edge, some handling folds in margins; the full sheet with deckle edges, both the print and block are 9 3/4 x 8 1/2, the sheet 17 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches. The block is about 3/4 inch thick.

Provenance: the block: Henri Petiet (with his stamp verso, Lugt supplement 2021a)

A fine impression of both the print and block. The latter is black, as inked, with a white/chalk surface where the block was cut.

Though Laboureur worked on this block starting in 1918, according to his notes, he finished it in 1921, and took impressions in 1922. But the notion of using the gramophone (a prequel to the record player, which came before all sorts of current devices for playing music) as the basis for compositions came as early as 1916, when he created an engraving (L. 156) with a similar composition as a frontispiece for X-M Boulestin’s Aspects Sentimentale du Front Anglais (and of course this is WWI, soldiers playing records, drinking). In this volume Boulestin wrote: “Ah! Le precieux instant d’ardeur sentimentale! Jamais, jamais nous n’avions tant aime la vie! Mais quand se tait le magique gramophone, on tousse, on se secoue et on se verse un autre whisky-and-soda. L’emotion s’est enfuie”

Le Gramophone: the wood block

Léopold Survage (Moscow 1879 – 1968 Paris, Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite – 1946, wood engraving, signed and dated lower right [also initialed LS in the block, lower right], numbered lower left, on cream wove paper with a ram’s head watermark, with wide margins, 7 1/2 x 6, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches. In excellent condition.With the blindstamp LE LIVRE ET SES AMIS lower right sheet. From the presumed edition of 100.

A fine clear impression.

This remarkable work, influenced by cubism and futurism, is ablaze with imagery which is, perhaps, exemplifying the title of the piece – Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite (Our Field of Action is Limited) – which is actually carved into the block at the left.

Survage was influenced by many figures in the European Modernist movement, from Cezanne to Picasso; starting in Russia, and then moving to Paris (where he studied with Matisse, later roomed with Modigliani). He moved on to become a famed muralist, painter, set designer, and film maker.

Detail

Léopold Survage (Moscow 1879 – 1968 Paris, Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite – 1946, wood engraving, signed and dated lower right [also initialed LS in the block, lower right], numbered lower left, on cream wove paper with a ram’s head watermark, with wide margins, 7 1/2 x 6, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches. In excellent condition.With the blindstamp LE LIVRE ET SES AMIS lower right sheet. From the presumed edition of 100.

A fine clear impression.

This remarkable work, influenced by cubism and futurism, is ablaze with imagery which is, perhaps, exemplifying the title of the piece – Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite (Our Field of Action is Limited) – which is actually carved into the block at the left.

Survage was influenced by many figures in the European Modernist movement, from Cezanne to Picasso; starting in Russia, and then moving to Paris (where he studied with Matisse, later roomed with Modigliani). He moved on to become a famed muralist, painter, set designer, and film maker.

Detail