Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Sitzander Akt (Nude Sitting), woodcut, 1918, signed in pencil lower right. Kruger H 207. In excellent condition, printed on a heavy tan wove paper with wide margins, 14 1/8 x 9 1/4, the sheet 16 1/4 x 21 1/4 inches.

A superb impression of this masterful woodcut, with strong contrasts.

Pechstein, one of the foremost German Expressionists, joined Der Brücke in 1906, and became the president of the Neue Secession in 1910. He traveled to Palau in the South Seas in 1914, but at the outbreak of WWI was interned in Japan, finding his way back to Germany only to be drafted and sent to the Western Front in 1916. He was released shortly thereafter after a nervous collapse in 1917.

Sitzander Akt, made just after Pechstein’s involvement in the War, reflects Pechstein’s long interest in “primitive” art and peoples, and may even have been made with sculpture tools he had brought back from Palau. The palm frond in the background, and the carved stool on which the nude sits  – and of course the nude herself – indicate a tropical setting. Pechstein responded positively to the end of the war and the advent of the Weimar Republic – perhaps Sizander Akt is an expression, however ultimately futile,  of hope in Germany’s future.

Detail

Max Weber (1881-1961),  Mother Love (Madonna and Child), color woodcut, Rubenstein 35, edition small, 1926. Signed in pencil. Annotated #3 in pencil, in the bottom left sheet corner.

James Ensor (1860-1949), Roman Victory, etching and drypoint, 1889, signed, dated and titled in pencil, countersigned in pencil verso [also signed in the plate]. References: Delteil 78, Croquez 78, Taevernier 78, Elesh 78, second state (of 2). In good condition (remains of prior hinging bottom margin recto, slight mat toning not affecting image), with margins, 6 11/16 x 9 1/16, the sheet 10 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches.

A fine impression, printed in black ink on a cream wove paper, with plate tone.

In the second state Ensor added a crowd of viewers and marchers lower left in drypoint,  populated the fields in the background with a myriad of tiny marchers (including a troop on horseback and four tiny elephants), and finished the stormy sky.

The tiny windmill at the extreme right border indicates that this scene depicts Julius Caesar’s invasion and victory over Gaul in 57 B.C.  Many late 19th Century artists were captivated by ancient Roman or Greek historical events; Ensor was not one of them – he regarded this obsession with disdain – and Roman Victory is one of his very rare explorations in this realm.

$4750

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Detail

James Ensor (1860-1949), Ostend Fisherman, etching and drypoint, 1900, signed in pencil, dated lower right, titled lower left, countersigned and titled verso [also signed in the plate, and with the word Ostend]. References: Elesh 123, Taevernier 118, Delteil 118. First state (of 2). In good condition (slight toning, prior hinging verso, slight rubbing top verso, including a lovely fingerprint lower right margin edge), with full margins, 5 5/8 x 4, the sheet 10 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches.

A fine impression of this great rarity (we do not know of other impressions on the market).  Printed in black on a cream/tan  simile Japon paper.  The impressions pictured in Elesh, Delteil, etc., are of the second state.

This first state print is delicately printed; the composition is complete but in the second state the print is reworked rather heavily to produce a darker image.

Ensor was interested in the fishermen of Ostende from an early age.  This etching is surely based on a charcoal drawing Ensor made in the early 1880’s; another version was also made by his friend Willy Finch (Tournai, Musee des Beaux Arts). This etching shows a fisherman posing in Ensor’s studio, far from the natural environment which would have been the subject for most other artists. The style is of course close to that of many of Rembrandt’s etching portraits which Ensor studied and copied in his early years.

$3500

Francisco Goya (1746-1828) , Todos Caeran (All Will Fall), etching and burnished aquatint, 1799. Reference: Harris 54, Delteil 56.  Plate 19 from the First Edition (of 12); the first edition size was approximately 300.   The matrix in excellent condition, defects outside image (with the binding holes left, reinforced plate mark, repaired tears around edges, fold top corner).The full sheet, 8 1/2 x 5 3/4, the sheet 11 3/4 x 8 inches.

A fine impression, printed in sepia ink on a fine quality, soft but strong laid paper. In this impression the fine grain aquatint contrasts vividly with the highlights on the bird woman standing in the tree, the upper part of the praying woman at the left, and the sky behind the figures at the right, as indicated by Harris as characteristics of the fine impressions of the First Edition; in the subsequent (posthumous) editions the aquatint softens and breaks up, and the fine burnishing effects in the bird upper left disappear.

This plate refers to the bird hunting practice common in Goya’s time, but still employed in recent times, of setting up a wired bird anti-decoy or frightener  in a tree which hunters could get to flap its wings.  Smaller birds would fly below it, and would dive and scatter when the decoy fluttered. These smaller birds would then be caught in netting or twigs set up by the hunters.

In Goya’s print the bird at the top of the tree is a decoy, and is attracted by other birds.  Commentators have noted this bird’s resemblance to the Dutchess of Alba, and the bird just behind it to Goya’s own self portrait (now in the Met in NY).  An early text (the Ayala text) notes “soldiers, commoners, and monks, fly around a lady who is half-hen; they all fall, and the women hold them down by the wings, make them throw up and pull out their guts.” This is what’s happening at the bottom of the composition: two women (identified as prostitutes) work on a captured male bird – the bird is already plucked by one while the other pushes a rod into the bird’s anus; an older woman at the left prays.  This illustrates the common fate of all those deluded by love: all must fall.

Goya’s commentary on this print: “And those who are about to fall will not take warning from the example of those who have fallen! But nothing can be done about it: all will fall.”

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Detail