Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Laboureur - La Merchande de Liqueurs

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Marchande de Liqueurs, engraving, 1916-1920, signed in pencil lower left and numbered (7/45), annotated “imp” lower right, and titled lower left margin. Reference: Laboureur 165, second state (of 2). In very good condition (remains of prior hinging right edge verso), the full sheet with wide margins, printed in black ink on cream laid paper. 5 1/4 x 4 1/4, the sheet 10 3/4 x 8 5/8 inches.

Provenance: Marcel Lecompte, Paris

A fine fresh impression, printed with a subtle veil of plate tone.

An exquisite example of Laboureur’s use of the burin in furtherance of his cubist style. The elongated body of the woman – and the bottles – may reflect Laboureur’s interest in Mannerist prints, which he studied years earlier in the print rooms of Europe.

Laboureur printed 8 impressions of the first state in 1916, numbering them 1-8. He later added the initial L lower left, and a few lines on the woman’s shoulder, creating a second state, and printed 28 numbered impressions (numbers 29-45 of the intended edition of 45 were never printed), completing the printing of this print after WWI, in 1920. The total impressions printed of La Marchande de Liqueurs in both states is thus 36.

Laboureur - 25e Rue, New York

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), 25e Rue, New York, etching and drypoint, 1907, signed in pencil lower left, also titled “Coin de rue Sixth Avenue, New York” and numbered “no. 6” at the bottom margin [also signed, titled and dated in the plate lower right]. Reference: Laboureur 69, second state (of 2). One of about 23 proofs taken during Laboureur’s lifetime in this state; there were another four first state impressions (before the drypoint work was added to the sky). In very good condition, the full sheet, 7 1/2 x 6, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

Provenance: Marcel Le Compte, Paris, with his pencil marking.

A fine impression, printed in brown ink on a cream wove paper with the CH Wittman watermark.

This print is based on a photograph taken by the artist during a visit to New York; it portrays the corner of Sixth Avenue and 25th Street in Manhattan. At the left a train is coming in on the now-defunct Sixth Avenue El, which was closed in 1938 and razed in 1939.

Martin Lewis – Rainy Day, Queens

Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Rainy Day, Queens, drypoint, 1931, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower right]. Reference: McCarron 94, only state, from the edition of about 70. In very good condition (the slightest toning upper margin edge), the full sheet, 10 5/8 x 11 7/8, the sheet 14 1/4 x 15 1/2 inches.

Provenance:

ex Collection: Delores D. DiPaola

Kennedy Galleries (with their stock data in pencil, recto and verso)

A fine rich impression of this iconic image, printed in black ink on an ivory wove paper.

Lewis described this location as “Skillman Ave. Queens”; it is probably at the intersection of Skillman Avenue and 49th Street.

Martin Lewis was interested in Japanese art early in his career, and in 1920 visited Japan, where he stayed for nearly two years.  Rainy Day, Queens owes much to this influence: the careful placement of compositional elements, for example, and the atmospheric effects of rain, frequently found in Japanese prints and in Lewis’s Japan-based prints (e.g., Fishing Boats in the Rain, M. 41, and Showers on the Bay, M. 46).