Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), Piramide di Caio Costio Vicino alla Porta S. Paolo (Pyramid of Gaius Cestius near Porta S. Paolo), etching, 1745,  signature lower left. Amidei, 1745. Focillon 110, Wilton-Ely 54. From the First Edition of Varie Veduti di Roma Anticha e Moderna. In very good condition, with wide margins, marginal soiling and slight fraying left edge well outside of image, ink number upper right outside of plate mark.

A fine fresh impression; monumental in scope although in a small-scale format (5 x 7 inches). With margins (sheet is 8 7/8 x 13 inches).

The first edition is before the numbers (Tom II. pag 19) upper left and the number upper right (72) as pictured in Wilton-Ely (his illustration is from the Venuti edition of this plate, published in 1763).

The small views of Rome of the Varie Vedute, made at the outset of Piranesi’s career, were not re-issued in later editions of his collected works, since the plates were sold directly to publishers by Piranesi. They were used to illustrate guidebooks to Rome until the mid-1760’s.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), Veduta dell Interno del Pantheon (Interior View of the Pantheon), etching, 1756. First Edition, from the series Le Antichita Romane, Bouchard e Gravier 1756. References: Focillon 172, Wilton-Ely 307.  In excellent condition, 5 1/2 x 10 1/2, the sheet 10 1/2 x 15 5/8 inches.

A fine impression, printed on a cream laid paper (with the watermark double circle with fleur de lys and initials CB, Robison’s watermarki 33, as found in presentation volumes of the Vedute).

Piranesi developed the plates of the Antichita Romane (Roman Antiquities) after eight years of careful study and excavation. His aim, as with all his archaeological publications, was both to record the vanishing past, and to inspire designers to emulate these past achievements.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778),  etching, Veduta Interna Del Pronao del Pantheon, 1756, First Edition, from the series Le Antichita Romane, Bouchard e Gravier 1756. Reference: Focillon 171, Wilton-Ely 306.  In very good condition, with full margins, 5 1/4 x 8, the sheet 8 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches.

A fine delicately printed impression printed on medium cream laid paper.

An interior view of the porch of the Pantheon.

Piranesi developed the plates of the Antichita Romane (Roman Antiquities) after eight years of careful study and excavation. His aim, as with all his archaeological publications, was both to record the vanishing past, and to inspire designers to emulate these past achievements.

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Balcon sur la Mer, engraving, 1923, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (49/57) [also initialed in the plate lower right]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 274, third state (of 3), from the total printing in all states of about 75. In very good condition, the full sheet, 77 7/8 x 8 1/4, the sheet 18 7/8 x 12 inches.

Provenance: Henri M. Petiet (cf. Lugt 2021a, with his stamp verso)

A fine impression of this iconic Laboureur print, printed in black on a greenish laid paper, with unidentified initials watermark.

This composition is said to depict the wife of the artist, at the balcony of their house at Croisic. But although Laboureur here depicts his wife looking out the window of their house, he has also adopted a motif made famous earlier by Picasso (e.g., Nature Morte Devant une Fenetre, 1919), and earlier by Matisse in countless compositions of wrought-iron balconies looking out through a window on the sea, with and without women standing in front of them. Laboureur’s composition was used, in reproduction, on postcards advertising exhibits in Boston and Paris, and the print has been shown in dozens of exhibitions in France, London, and the U.S.

Martin Lewis – Tree, Manhattan

Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Tree, Manhattan, drypoint, 1930, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower left]. Reference: McCarron 87, only state; 91 recorded impressions including 10 trial proofs; intended edition 100. In excellent condition, with full margins, 12 5/8 x 9 3/4, the sheet 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches.

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

Tree, Manhattan is a tour de force print demonstrating Lewis’s mastery of drypoint. Hues range from the rich black of the figures in the lower left to the near-white of the fire and the windows in the buildings in the background. The sky is a variegated pattern of intricate cross-hatchings, so it is always alive; a searchlight cuts through the sky toward the left. The great tree is bare, its branches filling the sky; somehow clotheslines have been attached to high reaches of its trunk, thereby tying the tree to its Manhattan empty lot setting.

Margin Lewis, Tree, Manhattan -detail

Feininger, Wagon Crossing a Bridge

Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), Wagon Crossing a Bridge (Wagen auf einer Brucke), woodcut, c. 1941, signed in pencil lower left, with the artist’s work number lower center (1867). Reference: Prasser W 82, only state.  In very good condition, with margins, 3 1/2 x 4 3/4, the sheet 4 7/8 x 6 7/8 inches.

A fine fresh proof impression of this intricate cubist composition, printed in black ink on a thin Japan wove paper.

Prasser notes a few proofs, on various papers, some unsigned. This print was included as No. 5 of the portfolio Ten Woodcuts by Lyonel Feininger, 1941, edition of 30; as with many of his small woodcuts, Feininger also used this as a letterhead.  The edition was printed on thin laid paper; it is clear that this is a proof, on a paper typically used by Feininger for proofs.

Provenance: ex Collection: Dr. Ferrand Whaley Hudig (1883-1937, Netherlands), distinguished professor of art history and museum curator,  Amsterdam.  I am grateful to Jean-Francois Deslarzes, grandson of Dr. Hudig, for this attribution.

Feininger, Wagon Crossing a Bridge, the full sheet

Whistler – La Vieille aux Loques

James Whistler (1834-1903), La Vieille aux Loques, etching and drypoint, 1858. [signed in the plate with the reverse s], 8 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches.  Kennedy 21 first state (of three); Glasgow 27 second state (of 4).  In very good condition. Watermark: foolscap

Provenance:

Jules Gerbeau, Paris (Lugt 1166);

his sale, Strölin, Paris, May 25–27, 1908 (Lugt mentions a “belle série” of Whistler prints in this sale)

Kennedy Galleries, New York (their stock no. in pencil on verso a45616)

Howard Mansfield, New York (Lugt 1342)

Harris G. Whittemore, Naugatuck, Connecticut (Lugt 1384a)

A fine, rich impression of this early proof, before various shading and hatching lines and the name and address of the printer Delatre are added (in the Kennedy second state, Glasgow third state) for publication in the French Set.

La Vieille aux Loques is exceedingly rare in this state, i.e., prior to publication.  The Glasgow census indicates no early proofs among major Whistler collections (e.g., Chicago, Baltimore, British Museum, Bibliotheque Nationale, Colby, Boston MFA, Fogg, Freer, Hunterian, Cleveland, MMA ), with the exception of the NYPL Avery Collection (second state, cited by Kennedy), and the Library of Congress (first state, not known to Kennedy). The print is not rare in the third or fourth states.

La Vieille aux Loques was published in the later third state in Douze eaux-fortes d’après Nature (Twelve Etchings from Nature, the ‘French Set’) in 1858.

The composition, probably etched in Paris, is of course related to his other doorway or interior etchings such as The Rag Pickers, La Marchande de Moutarde, and The Kitchen, and, as Lochnan has pointed out, relates to a tradition in Dutch art of compositions framed by doorways, and later paintings by Francois Bonvin (1817-1887), Charles Jacque (1813-1894), and Jean Baptiste Millet (1831-1906).

La Vieille aux Loques – verso

Whistler Rag Pickers, third state (of 5)

James A.M. Whistler (1834-1903), The Rag Gatherers (Rag Pickers, Quartier Mouffetard, Paris); etching, 1858.  6 3 1/2 inches, in very good condition.

Kennedy 23 third state (of five) – this impression mentioned; Glasgow third state (of 5) – this impression mentioned.

signed in pencil at lower left corner of the sheet Whistler [also signed, with the reverse s, in the plate]

Printed in dark brownish/black on a cream laid paper; watermark: letters LVG pendant to a coat of arms (probably with Strasbourg lily)

Provenance:

Kennedy Galleries, New York (their stock no. in pencil on verso a37141)

Howard Mansfield, New York (Lugt 1342)

Harris G. Whittemore, Naugatuck, Connecticut (Lugt 1384a)

Together with an impression of Kennedy’s fifth (and final) state (see illustration below); Watermark: Three balls with peak of a foolscap (?)

In the first four states of Rag Pickers only shading and detailed changes are made to the  print; in the fifth state a radical change is introduced: two figures are added, a girl sitting up in bed and a boy standing near her. Lochnan suggested that Rag Pickers, Quartier Mouffetard, Paris was etched on Whistler’s return from the Rhineland in 1858, that is, after 7 October, and that the figures were added when Ralph Thomas Sr. (1803-1862), was encouraging Whistler to print his etchings in preparation for his first show of etchings in London (cf Glasgow). Most impressions known are of the final state; impressions of the third or earlier states are relatively rare. The final state was probably printed in 1861, although many impressions of the final state may be later.

This was etched in Paris, in the Mouffetard district of the Latin Quarter. The composition is of course related to his other doorway or interior etchings such as La Vielle aux Loques, La Marchande de Moutarde, and The Kitchen, and, as Lochnan has pointed out, relates to a tradition in Dutch art of compositions framed by doorways, and later paintings by Francois Bonvin (1817-1887), Charles Jacque (1813-1894), and Jean Baptiste Millet (1831-1906).

Whistler, Rag Pickers, 5th state

Whistler – Rag Pickers, third state, verso