Harris Schrank Fine Prints

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Rotherhithe, etching and drypoint, 1860 [signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference: Glasgow 60, first/second state (of 6),  Kennedy 66, first state (of 3). Published, in the last state, as part of the Thames Set. In very good condition, trimmed about 1/8″ outside of the platemark, printed in black on a cream laid paper. 10 3/4 x  7 3/4 inches.

Provenance: Unknown collector,  initials in ink verso, not found in Lugt.

A fine impression, before the completion of the hull of the boat lower foreground, and before much drypoint work in various places including the shirt of the man on the right, before the re-working of the lines on the face and shirt of the man at the left, and before strengthening of various areas generally  in the bottom part of the composition.

Rare in this early state.  The Glasgow first state is said to be without the dots in the sky upper right, but these are faintly visible in the first state example pictured; otherwise their first state is the same as their second state.

Rotherhithe is the area opposite Wapping on the banks of the Thames. The site of the image is the Angel, an inn in Bermondsey, very near Rotherhithe. Although Tower Bridge dominates the view up-river from the narrow balcony, in the distance St Paul’s Cathedral is visible beyond the bend of the river.

Rotherhithe is one of Whistler’s most iconic early images; it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862, and then was titled Wapping in its later 1871 publication as part of the Thames Set (a series of 16 etchings). The copper plate is in the Freer Gallery of Art.

Detail

Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677), Young Woman with a Cap with a Feather, etching, 1647, after Holbein. Reference: Pennington 1550, first state (of 2) [annotation in the plate: HHolbein inv, WHollar fec: A.A. Bierling excud: 1647]. In very good condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark all around, on an old laid paper, hinged (with glue?) at the top, partial unidentified watermark, 5 1/4 x 3 5/8 inches.

A fine impression.

Pennington notes that A.B. Chamberlain in his Hans Holbein the Younger, 1913, says that no original for this print is known, and that it appears in J.M. M’Creery’s Collection of 1816.

Pennington notes that in the second state of this print a number 8 is added to the bottom right corner.

This print will be sold with a later impression on wove paper which, curiously, also does not have the 8 in the bottom right corner; it is conceivable that this too is a first state and that the added “8” was posthumous; more likely it was burnished out of this example. The second impression is interesting insofar as it shows the wear not found in the fine lifetime impression.

James Ensor (1860-1949), The Gamblers (Les Jouers), etching and drypoint, 1895, signed, titled and dated, also signed verso, in pencil [also signed in the plate lower left]. References: Elesh 94, Delteil 92, Taevernier 93, only state. In excellent condition, printed on a simile Japan wove paper,  the full sheet, 4 9/16 x 6 1/4, the sheet 9 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches.

A fine impression, with burr from the drypoint work particularly evident on the hand of the player at the right and visible elsewhere; with some plate tone overall, a bit stronger upper left and right.

Ensor was familiar with gambling from his exposure to the world of casinos in his seaside home of Ostend (and indeed had exhibited at the Kursaal d’Ostende in 1882-83).  The eminent Ensor scholar Patrick Florizoone has pointed out the ambivalent attitude of the law toward gambling in Belgium toward the latter years of the 19th Century, and also noted that a well-known Ostend politician (Montangie) was made destitute in April 1892 as a result of a gambling scandal. Since Les Jouers is based on a drawing made in 1883, it is plausible that this is what Ensor had in mind when depicting the losing gambler at the center of this composition.

Detail

Hans Bol (1534-1593), engraving, 1570, engraved by Pieter van der Heyden. From the set of the Four Seasons. Reference: Hollstein 202 (first state of 2), Lebeer 78. Condition problematic:  several thin spots, repaired areas, brown spot in image, other flaws, trimmed around the borderline, 9 x 11 1/4 inches.

Watermark: Gothic P

A very good impression.

When he died Pieter Bruegel the Elder had completed 2 drawings for the set of the Four Seasons; one was executed in 1565, another in 1568, undertaken by Hieronymus Cock.  The publisher entrusted completion of the set to Hans Bol.

Bol’s design is closely linked to a Bruegel drawing of 1558 which was also published as an engraving by Cock: Ice Skating before the Gate of Saint George. Bol follows Breugel’s depiction of large-scale human figures as well as showing the ice and snow of the winter season. This design was one of the early prototypes of the later very popular genre of winter scenes done by Dutch artists; indeed Pieter Bruegel the Younger probably used this as a model for his 1616 series of paintings of the same subject matter, now in Bucharest.

Detail