Harris Schrank Fine Prints

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Rotherhithe, etching and drypoint, 1860 [signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference: Kennedy 66, third state (of 3). Published, in the third state, as part of the Thames Set. In very good condition, with margins, 10 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 15 1/16 x 10 1/4 inches.

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

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

Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), Study From the Nude of a Girl Lying Down, 1890,  drypoint with plate tone, signed with the tab and inscribed “imp” [also signed in the plate upper left]. Reference: Hausberg 40, only state, from the total printing of about 20  impressions. In good condition, trimmed as usual by the artist on the plate mark with the tab left for the signature, 2 11/16 x 3 7/16 inches.

A fine impression, with a heavy veil of plate tone.

Hausberg notes that the model was “presumably Hetty Pettigrew”, who was Roussel’s model from the early 1880’s until the second decade of the 1900’s. Hetty Pettigrew was born Harriet Selina Pettigrew in 1867, one of 12 children, the eldest of three daughters who modeled for London artists. Hetty also modeled for Whistler for one oil painting and a number of pastels. Hetty served as a studio assistant for Roussel, and may have been his art student as well; Roussel and Pettigrew had a personal relationship including a child named Iris, the subject of a Roussel portrait study painted in the 1880’s.

Hassam - French Cruiser

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), French Cruiser, lithotint, 1918, signed in pencil with the cipher lower right. Reference: Griffith 8. In very good condition, printed in black ink on cream wove paper with a flower watermark, the full sheet with deckle edges, 6 x 11, the sheet 11 1/8 x 18 inches.

A fine impression of this rare print.

Hassam was of the course the pre-eminent American Impressionist, and French Cruiser is a superb example of his use of impressionism in printmaking.  In his lithotints he applied ink with the same fluidity as with his watercolors. The detailed line-work of the etchings is replaced with masses of black or grey on white, spatial recession is denied, and the images are vertically layered on the picture plane; this is all about the play of shadows and light.

Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), Penelope, A Doorway, Chelsea; etching, 1888-89, signed and inscribed “imp” in pencil in the tab [also signed in the plate upper left]. Reference: Hausberg 23, only state, from the edition of about 30. In very good condition, trimmed by the artist on the platemark all around except for the tab. Printed in black ink on cream laid paper, 4 1/4 x 2 11/16 inches. Plate later cancelled.

A fine impression with a light veil of plate tone.

The title refers to Ulysses’ wife Penelope, who passed the time weaving while waiting for her husband to return.

The composition is remindful of the many Whistler compositions in which figures are placed in doorways, alleyways, or otherwise framed; Roussel was of course a Whistler accolyte, and arguably his most talented follower; he met Whistler at about the time he created this etching.

Detail

Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Tel and Tel (T&T), lithograph, 1952, signed and numbered (9/15) in pencil. Flint 235, from the edition of about15-20. in excellent condition, image size 13 x 8 3/8 inches (330 x 213 mm); sheet size 16 1/8 x 12 1/8 inches (410 x 308 mm).

Provenance: Keith Sheridan Fine Prints

A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 inches), in excellent condition.

In this superb composition Lozowick demonstrates his interest in cubism, abstraction, and precisionism simultaneously.