Harris Schrank Fine Prints

George Biddle - Coffee Huskers

George Biddle (1885-1973), Coffee Huskers, 1928, lithograph, signed, titled and numbered [also inscribed ’43/Biddle/1928 in the plate]. Reference: Pennigar 77, Trotter 43. From the edition of 100, on Rives cream wove paper, with the Rives watermark. In excellent condition, probably never framed or matted, the full sheet, 13 1/4 x 9 3/4, the sheet 16 x 11 1/2 inches, archival mounting (mylar non-attached hinging between acid free boards glassine cover). 

A fine black impression. 

Biddle wrote of this lithograph, in 1943: “After scraping the tusche away…I worked back with a pensil (sic) and again with diamond. This all adds to the richness of texture and color.” This work produces a very sophisticated lithographic look, akin in some ways to drypoint work in etching. 

After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle concluded that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art). 

After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-‘20’s). Coffee Huskers, like many of the Mexican and Haitian prints of the late ’20’s, seems to reflect Pascin’s influence, particularly in the modernistic flattening of the perspective.

Laboureur - Jeune Fille au Cocktail

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Jeune Fille au Cocktail, engraving, 1921, signed in pencil lower left, numbered (18/65) lower right and annotated “imp”. Reference: Laboureur 224, second state (of 2), from the edition of 65 (another 8 impressions were printed in the first state). In good condition, the full sheet, some cockling in the paper towards the left.  Printed in black on a cream laid MBM paper (with the watermark), 5 1/2 x 4 3/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches.

Provenance: Marcel Lecompte, with his pencil marking recto.

A fine impression of this delicately printed composition, engraved in a loosely cubist idiom.

Hans Sebald Beham - The Little Buffoon, engraving, 1542, first state (of 2)

Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), The Little Buffoon, engraving, 1642. References: Bartsch 230, Pauli 234, first state (of 2). In very good condition apart two minor thin spots lower right and an unobtrusive vertical crease, mainly visible verso, trimmed to the platemark, 45 x 81 mm.

A fine, rich impression of the first state.

Provenance:

Heinrich Stiebel (Lugt 1367)

W. Meyer (L. 1813)

Albert W. Blum (L. 79b); his sale Sotheby’s, New York, Feb. 27, 1988. lot 1190

The inscription reads: ON DIR HAB ICH GERISEN DAS ICH MICH HAB BESCHISEN (I have written on you that I have beshit myself).

NFS

Beham - Pacientia

Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Pacienta (Patience), engraving, 1540 [signed, dated, titled, and inscribed in the plate]. Reference: Bartsch 138, Pauli 141. In good condition, trimmed on or just inside the platemark, 4 1/8 x 2 13/16 inches.

Printed on laid paper with a partial Crest of Nuremberg, Small watermark (Meder watermark 210, Briquet 917); this watermark is found on a German drawing 1643 and Durer prints circa mid 16th Century.

Provenance: ex Collection Delores D. Di Paola (not in Lugt)

A fine impression of this interesting composition: Patience protects a lamb while a rather unattractive creature next to her seemingly contemplates the possibility that Patience will tire of this exercise, and let the lamb loose. But Patience being who she is, Creature will probably have a long wait.

James Ensor (1860-1949), Lady Godiva, etching and drypoint, 1933, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (9/15) lower left margin. References: Croquez 130, Taevernier 130, Elesh 137, third state (of3). In good condition, on the full sheet with very wide margins (soft folds in margins, a repaired nick at right edge, 5 x 3 1/2, the sheet 12 3/4 x 11 inches.

A fine delicately printed impression, with burr on the drypoint especially on Lady Godiva and her horse’s hair.  Printed on a Holland laid paper.

There are two paintings related to this print, one done before the print (collection of Mrs. Harry C. Sandhouse, New York, Tricot 559, 1927), and another after (Tricot 728, 1937, location unknown).

According to the legend (as related in Wikipedia),Lady Godiva was an 11th century Anglo-Saxon who “took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband’s oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would strip naked and ride through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism. In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind. In the end, Godiva’s husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.

In Ensor’s version, there are a number of Peeping Toms in the town,  some with rather large noses and indeed, the figure peering through the shutters at the lower right might well be an elephant.  The town resembles Ostend; indeed it appears to be the view of Boulevard Van Iseghem from Ensor’s studio.

$4400

James Whistler (1834-1903), Longshoremen, etching and drypoint, 1859 [signed and dated in the plate]. References: Glasgow 52, fourth state (of 4), Kennedy 45. In excellent condition, with margins, 5 15/16 x 8 3/4, the sheet 8 1/16 x 11 1/16 inches.

A very fine impression, an early impression of this state, printed in a dark brownish/black ink on an ivory thin laid Japan paper.  In the later impressions the curling drypoint lines on the left arm of the man at the left tend to fade; in this impression they are clear. Later impressions tend to be cleanly wiped; in this impression a veil of plate tone has been left on the plate overall, with extra tone remaining toward the left of the plate

Longshoremen is a relatively common print, but can be properly appreciated only in very fine impressions such as this example.

$3200

Hafendock (Harbor Dock) – 1919, Woodcut.

Prasse W154, 1919, only state, . No published edition–one of only a few known proofs. Signed in pencil and numbered 1934 (the artist’s work number, not the date) in the bottom center margin. Estate stamped and numbered W 716 in pencil, in the bottom left sheet corner.

Image size 3 3/8 x 3 1/2 inches (86 x 89 mm); sheet size 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (140 x 216 mm).

A fine, black impression, on tan carbon-copy paper, with full margins (3/4 to 2 9/16 inches), in excellent condition. Very scarce.

Prasse notes that “Five proofs on green carbon-copy paper (one unsigned and one on which the artist has penciled “Briefkopf”) and Mino copy and other Japanese laid paper. ”

$7400.