Harris Schrank Fine Prints

James Whistler (1834-1903), The Two Ships, etching and drypoint, 1875,  signed with the butterfly in pencil. Reference: Glasgow 143, fifth state (of 5), Kennedy 148, third state (of 3). In good condition (pale light staining, minor repairs at upper and lower edges); the full sheet, on a 17th C. laid paper with the watermark initials WK. 8 x 5 1/16, the sheet 12 3/8 x 7 3/4 inches.

Provenance: B.B. MacGeorge (Lugt 394). Lugt notes: “Les estampes de Whistler, que MacGeorge possédait aussi en très belles épreuves, furent acquises en 1902 par H. Wunderlich & Co. (Kennedy & Co) de New-York.” Bertrand Buchanan MacGeorge was a Glasgow merchant and noted print collector.

A fine rich impression of this great rarity, with much burr in the drypoint work. This appears to be a very early proof of the fifth state, much richer than the fifth state impression at the National Gallery (Washington). In the fifth state additional shading lines are added to the small boat at the left, the two larger boats, and another warehouse is added behind the one at the far right (in addition to a few other smaller changes.)

A few proofs were made of the early states; then the Dowdeswell firm is said to have published an edition of 30 impressions in 1880, while Whistler was in Venice working on the Venice etchings.  The rarity of impressions suggests that the entire edition was not printed.

$25,000

The Two Ships - detail

James Whistler (1834-1903), The Garden, etching and drypoint, 1879-80, signed with the butterfly on the tab and inscribed imp; also inscribed ox verso, on early 18th Century laid paper with the watermark Arms of Amsterdam. References: Kennedy 210, sixth state (of 8).  Glasgow 194, probably 8th state (of 15), before the figure of the woman at the right in the doorway turns toward her right (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011)

From the Second Venice Set, edition of 30 plus 12 individual proofs of selected prints, including The Garden. In very good condition, trimmed by the artist on the platemark except for the butterfly tab. 12 x 9 7/8 inches.

Provenance: Kennedy Gallery, New York, with their stock number verso (A6410)

A superb impression in dark brown/sepia ink, carefully wiped to darken the canal in the foreground and to highlight the doorway.

This magical composition depicts a doorway and canal in Venice, but the precise location of this doorway remains unknown.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler  (1834-1903), DRURY LANE, etching, 1880-81, signed with the butterfly and inscribed imp in pencil [also with the butterfly upper right in the plate], on 18th Century laid paper, a proof impression apart from The Second Venice Set. References: Glasgow 243, only state; Kennedy 237, only state. In very good condition, with very wide margins, 6 3/8 x 3 7/8, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches.

A fine early impression, printed in brownish/black ink.

Drury Lane, London, was known then as now as a centre of theatres and entertainment. Although titled the Second Venice Set four London scenes were included in the set.

The edition size for the set, and for Drury Lane, was 30 (a number of other prints in the set were also designated for an additional printing of 12).\

Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Box at the Metropolitan, etching and engraving, 1934, signed in pencil lower right, and numbered 22 (erased, lower left).  Reference: Sasowsky 143, fifth state (of 5). In very good condition (a few minor stains verso, slight skinning where prior hinging verso), with margins, 10 x 8, the sheet 11 ¾ x 8 7/8 inches.

A fine impression, printed on a heavy cream wove paper.

In 1936 Marsh made another Opera Box engraving (S. 162, known as Opera Box), a smaller print but with the same format, and also showing six people. The inhabitants of the box have changed, however, except for the woman center bottom and man center top (one can understand his favoring these two as models).  Both Opera Boxes were made at the height of the Great Depression; one suspects, judging from the expressions of the participants that Marsh was making a bit of a statement about the wealthy types who would be able to dress up formally and attend the opera during the period.

Six American Etchings: The New Republic Portfolio 1924

The complete set of six etchings, as issued in 1924, including:

Peggy Bacon (1895-1987), The Promenade Deck, 1920 (Flint 47), 6 x 8 3/8 inches

Ernest Haskell (1876-1925), The Sentinels of North Creek, ca. 1923, 5 x 7 7/8 inches

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Night Shadows, 1921 (Levin 82) 7 x 8 3/8 inches

John Marin (1870-1953), Downtown the El (Zigrosser 134), 6 7/8 x 8 3/4 inches

Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Play, 1919, 4 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches

John Sloan (1871-1951), Bandits Cave, 1920 (Morse 195), 7 x 5 inches

A fine set; each impression in excellent condition with full margins; the cover showing wear.

This set has unusual historical importance: it includes prints exemplifying both traditional approaches to American printmaking, including those by Haskell, Miller, Bacon, and Sloan, as well as examples of important early American Modernist printmaking: Hopper’s Night Shadows and Marin’s Downtown the El.

In 1924 The New Republic offered readers a set of six original signed etchings along with the purchase of a subscription to the magazine. The original offering, in an advertisement in the Saturday Review of Literature (December 6, 1924, p. 350), reads in part:

SIX ETCHINGS

Incomparable as Christmas Gifts

Originals – Not Reproductions: Each Proof Printed by Peter J. Platt, on Handmade Van Gelder Paper Signed by the Artist, and Offered At Incredibly Small Cost with a Subscription to The New Republic The Ablest of America Weeklies. The difficulty with this offer is not to explain, but to refrain…Yet orefrain…Yet overstatement is almost difficult in face of the facts—the foremost of which (alone simply sufficient to testify to the quality of these etchings) is the names of the six artists themselves.” A subscription form was then appended, offering readers a year’s subscription to the New Republic, with the set, for $8 (or two years for $12; the New Republic alone was $5 a year).

The edition size is not known. In a letter to John Sloan dated January 14, 1925, Robert Hallowell, secretary of the New Republic, writes, referring to set,“These went very well up until the end of last year. Since then, however, the orders have dropped off so considerably that I think there is considerable doubt that we will ever dispose of as many as a thousand sets. Up to date the total is between five and six hundred.” (Morse, 1969, p. 221).

Each of the artists represented in the portfolio was important. At the time of the publication of the set, John Sloan was one of the best-known artists in America, a member of the Ashcan School, a painter represented in great museums throughout the country, and a major printmaker as well. Hayes Miller was known not only as an artist but also as a teacher whose students included the artists of New York’s Fourteenth Street School, including Peggy Bacon, an early Modernist who became a leading book illustrator (and was the youngest artist to produce a piece for this set). Ernest Haskell was already prominent in the United States and in Paris, noted as an etcher and student of Whistler. By 1924 Edward Hopper was beginning to earn recognition as one of America’s great young artistic talents; and John Marin had already been widely recognized for his role in creating some of the first American Modernist paintings and prints after the Armory Show in 1913.

This set represents an important landmark in American printmaking.

Note: this set is currently not for sale; inquiries are welcome.

Marin – Downtown the El

 

 

Posted in Edward Hopper, Ernest Haskell, John Marin, John Sloan, Kenneth Hayes Miller, Peggy Bacon |