Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Cascade,  etching, 1616. References:  Hollstein 264,  first state (of 2),  Francken and Van der Kellen 303, third state (of four).  Plate number 9 from the series Landscapes: Third Part. In generally good condition apart from light stain over left half of image, printed on old laid paper with an elaborate shield watermark, with margins, 4 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches, the sheet 5 1/8 x 8 1/4 inches.

A very good impression.

A cascade flows down the hillside and under a bridge at the left; at the right a covered wagon rolls around a bend in the road.  Etchings such as this were made at about the time of Rembrandt’s birth, and later served as models for some of his etchings of the Dutch landscape.

Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Skaters, etching, c. 1616. References:  Hollstein 238, second state (of 3),  Francken and Van der Kellen322, third state (of four). In good condition, affixed to a card at top by two spots of glue, trimmed on or just inside of the borderline, minor toning, 4 3/4 x 7 7/16 inches.

A very good strong impression.

An exceedingly well-dressed foursome, men in top hats, women in long coats, converse bottom right; another well dressed man attends a woman’s skates bottom center. The magnificent bare trees serve as a lush backdrop.

Detail

Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Frontispiece, from Landscapes, Third Part (1616),  Reference:  Francken and Van der Kellen 295, Hollstein 256, second state (of 4). In good condition, with full margins (browning toward margin edges), printed on a laid paper with a jug (?) watermark.  4 3/4 x 7 1/2, the sheet 7 1/4 x 10 inches.

A very good impression.

With the address of Claes Visscher, date (1616), and the artist’s name in elaborate seal at the top center.  A peaceful scene, made at about the time of Rembrandt’s birth; it has of course been conjectured that this and like scenes served as the inspiration for several of the Rembrandt landscape etchings.

Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Marche aux Legumes, etching, c. 1614.  References:  Francken and Van der Kellen 283, fourth state (of 4). The frontispiece from Soixante Paysages, the second part of the series.  In very good condition, overall toning, with small margins, 7 5/8 x 4 3/16 inches.

Printed on a yellowish laid paper, with a Pro Patria watermark.

Provenance: Succession Grendolf #1444, with the stamp recto (not in Lugt).

Christie’s New York, Old Master and Modern Prints, 11/16/1982

A very good impression.

In a discussion of Van de Velde’s depiction of his Pancake Woman (Clifford Ackley, Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt, pp. 102-3) Ackley notes that Van de Velde’s engraving Pancake Woman of about 1622 was probably not after a drawing by Pieter Molijn, as argued by Haverkamp-Begemann, for Van de Velde had created a similar woman in his earlier etching Marche aux Legumes (sitting at the table); this composition was both drawn and etched by Van de Velde.

Detail

Charles Dufresne (1876-1938), Chasseurs de Lion (The Lion Hunters), etching, aquatint and drypoint, 1921, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (40/40) lower left [also signed in the plate lower center]. Reference: Thomas Dufresne 39. In very good condition, with full margins, on an ivory/tan laid Arches paper, with a (partial) Arches watermark. 11 3/4 x 14 7/8k, the sheet 14 5/8 x 21 3/4 inches.

Published by Editions Sagot, with the blindstamp of Edmund Sagot Lugt 2254) bottom margin.

A fine rich impression, printed in a brownish/black ink, with substantial drypoint burr.

The Lion Hunters is a tour de force of printmaking. Dufresne skillfully utilizes a range of techniques including etching, drypoint, aquatint and perhaps even soft-ground etching.

Dufresne’s stunning composition in The Lion Hunters of course shows the influence of both cubism and Parisian School – after all he was born in France and studied at the Edole des Beaux Arts – but it also shows the influence of the years he spent in Africa, and his origins as part of a seafaring family. In 1910 he won the Prix de l’Afrique du Nord and then spent two years in Algeria, which stirred his interest in exoticism and lyricism.

In The Lion Hunters a bourgeois figure in a suit, lower right, appears to aim his rifle at a lion coming upon a fallen native; another hunter sits on a horse running through the center of the composition, and at the upper right a lioness looks on, ready to pounce.

Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Shrove Tuesday (also, Carnival), engraving, c. 1630, after Pieter Molyn (1595-1661). References: Hollstein 150, Francken and Van der Kellen 67, third state (of 3). In generally good condition but pricked as if for transfer (visible verso), slight staining generall not affecting image, with small margins, trimmed outside of the plate mark. 9 x 6 3/4 inches.

Inscription Content: Lettered in lower margin, with production details and two lines of Latin: “Ludere sic … / … venter eget.” and “J. V. Velde scul. / P. de Molyn inve.”.

A fine impression.

After about 1622 Jan van de Velde began to make dark evening or night scenes in engraving, using a tonal system adapted from that of Henrik Goudt. These prints, a few of which were based on works of the painter (and sometime etcher) Pieter Molyn (or Molijn), were forerunners of Rembrandt’s night scenes such as St. Jerome in a Dark Chamber.

Pieter Molyn was a Haarlem painter of landscapes and genre scenes. Born in London of Flemish parents, he joined the Haarlem chapter of the Guild of St. Lukes in 1616, and was a member of the guild and active in Haarlem until his death in 1661. Although others made etchings and engravings based upon his drawings and paintings, he is known to have made only four etchings personally.

Shrove Tuesday was the last day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. The celebratory nature of the day is a counterpoint to the somber nature of the season of Lent, and is associated with a continuing carnival tradition (celebrated as Mardi Gras in various traditions). This scene is lit by a lantern held by a female figure standing outside the house at right, two children are dancing in front of the doorway from behind which another two children and their mother are looking on, and further revellers can be seen in the street at left.

Detail

Two Carnival Fools

Pieter Breughel (1525-1569), Suite of Two Scenes of Carnival Fools, 1642, engraved by Hendrick Hondius (c. 1579-1649). References: Bastelaer 225-226; Lebeer 94-95.  Two very fine impressions of these rarely encountered prints,  each on old laid paper:

– Two Carnival Fools (Bastelaer 225) [signed at lower left P.B. inv. Hh fecit 1642.  Cum priv.], second state (of 2), with margins, in very good condition (with a line above the plate mark at the top, possible tear and expert paper replacement upper left outside the borderline, 5 x 6 1/4, the sheet 5 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches.  With the B.6 lower left margin as noted by Lebeer for state 2.

– Three Carnival Fools Playing with Sceptres (Bastelaer 226) [signed at the lower left Pet. Breug. inv. Hhondius fecit; in the center C: privil, dated 1642 at the top, on the wall. Also in state B the number 19 lower left].  In very good condition but trimmed above the lower margin below but outside of the borderline. Possibly first state since before the number 19 as shown in Bastelaer, but possibly after the addition of the A.6 at the (now removed) lower blank margin; otherwise second state (of 2).  4 7/8 x 6 3/8 inches.

Provenance: Sotheby’s London sale of Old Master Prints, December 4, 2003. We know of only one other appearance of a set at auction in the past 20 years  (Christie’s London, June 28. 1990).

Lebeer listed this set as “estampes complementaires”, prints after drawings not necessarily intended by Breughel to be engraved; he also questioned whether these prints of carnival fools were by Breughel but did not list them as rejected.

on reserve

Three Carnival Fools Playing with Sceptres

After Master of the Die (1525-1560), Three Putti Playing with an Ostrich, an anonymous reverse copy of the Master of the Die engraving after the design of Giovanni da Udine), c. 1534, cf.  Bartsch 33.  In very good condition, trimmed on or just inside of or outside of the borderline, 8 1/4 x 11 inches.

A very good impression.

This is a reverse copy after one of four prints based on a  set of four tapestries designed by Udine and commissioned by the Pope. The four finished tapistries, known as Playing Putti, hung in the Sala di Constantino in the Vatican.  Finished in 1521, they represent dreams of a Golden Age under the pontificate of Leo X.

The Playing Putti engravings were made by the Master of the Die,  an unidentified member of the studio of the famed Marcantonio Raimondi in Rome. This workshop specialized in making prints in collaboration with Raphael.  The engravings were sufficiently important to have been copied, in this case not with any fraudulent intent (after all, the copy is in reverse) but simply because the compositions proved so popular.

Detail

Master of the Die (c.1525-1560), Two Putti Mocking a Monkey, after Raphael (but more probably after Giovanni da Udine), c. 1534, engraving. Reference: Bartsch 34, second state (of 2) [signed with the die lower right, with the letters Rapha.VR.In. lower center, Ant lower right, and the publisher’s name Lafreri Formis lower right]. In very good condition, with a tiny repaired tear lower margin, on old laid paper with an indeterminate figure in a circle watermark, 8 1/2 x 11 1/8, the sheet 9 5/8 x 12 1/4 inches.

Provenance:

ex. Coll: Francis Leventritt

Kennedy Galleries (with their stock number a62622 verso

ex Coll:  unidentified collector with initials in ink WSG (not in Lugt)

This is one of four prints after the set of four tapestries commissioned by the Pope. The four finished tapistries, known as Playing Putti, hung in the Sala di Constantino in the Vatican.  Finished in 1521, they represent dreams of a Golden Age under the pontificate of Leo X.

The Master of the Die, identifiable by the small die with the initials at the lower right of his engravings, has been identified as one of several members of the studio of the famed Marcantonio Raimondi in Rome. This workshop specialized in making prints in collaboration with Raphael.

Detail