Harris Schrank Fine Prints

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Large Pool (Wapping, The Pool), etching and drypoint, 1879, signed with the butterfly on the tab, [also signed with the butterfly in the plate, lower left]. References: Kennedy 174, Glasgow 180, Glasgow’s eighth state (of 8), In excellent condition, trimmed by the artist on the plate mark except for the tab, 7 1/2 x 11 inches.

Provenance:

Edward James

Robert Light & Co., Boston, then to Carolyn Crossett Rowland in April, 1988.

Printed in dark brownish/black ink on cream/ivory laid paper with the Arms of Amsterdam watermark.

A very fine impression of this extremely rare print, signed in pencil with the early large shaded butterfly (butterfly of 1879). This print was not published; the Whistler Etchings Project at Glasgow has identified 13 impressions.

The Large Pool shows the Pool of London at Wapping, the scene of several prints of the Thames done some twenty years earlier. In composition it anticipates the etchings Whistler was about to do in Venice.

According to the Glasgow catalogue Whistler apparently had a high regard for this plate, as evidenced by the care he took with selection of papers and printing of various states, and by correspondence regarding the plate; and he may have hoped it would help him avert bankruptcy.  But it did not (and indeed he gave one impression to James Waddell, the accountant involved in the bankruptcy proceedings); in the end no edition of the print was made.

Felicien Rops (1833-1898), Paniconography (Pornography), etching, drypoint, soft-ground etching, c. 1880, signed and titled in pencil lower right, and signed again toward the bottom of the sheet. References: Exteens 764, Revens and Amiel 210. In good condition, the full sheet (some soft handling folds, slight soiling, toning), with full margins, 8 1/2 x 6 1/4, the sheet 18 x 11 5/8 inches.  Printed in black ink on an ivory/tan wove paper with the watermark MBM.

A fine impression of a woman perched atop a centaur, plus a few sketches of faces in the upper left. As usual, Rops utilizes his vast talent as a draftsman in the service of a far-flung pornographic image.

Paniconograhy is rarely seen on the market, perhaps for obvious reasons; the last recorded sale we could find at auction was at Christie’s London in December 1992 (sold for 440L or $685).

Note: this print will be sold unmatted.

Charles Meryon (1821-1868), Tourelle Rue de Tixeranderie, etching, 1852. References: Schneiderman 24, 2-3rd state (of 5); Delteil 29, 2-3rd  state (of 5). In very good condition, printed in browish/black ink on a bluish laid paper. In very good condition, with full margins, 9 5/8 x 5 1/8, the sheet 12 5/8 x 8 inches.

Provenance:

Knoedler (with their stock number K5360 verso0

Kennedy Galleries (with their stock number a 48762 verso)

Émile Galichon (1829-1875), Paris (Lugt 856; cf. also Lugt 1058f, which mentions his posthumous 1875 sale of Meryon.), his sale, Paris (expert Clément), May 10-14, 1875

A fine fresh impression.

In the Schneiderman’s fourth state (and Delteil’s IV and V) the inscription was added below.  This impression corresponds to Schneiderman’s illustration of State 2, but “random scratches in the sky and on the walls of the house” are not apparent, and it also seems the small gaps described as filled in in State 3 are indeed filled in.

This house stood at the corner of the rue de Coq; it was demolished in 1851, so Meryon made preparatory drawings of the house just in time (Meryon was trying to capture Parisian scenes and structures that were vulnerable to the destructive forces of modernization).  The street was mentioned in Notre-Dame de Paris as among the most interesting in the city.

Charles Meryon (1821-1868), Le Styrge (The Vampire), etching, 1853. References: Schneiderman 27, fifth state (of 10); Delteil 23, fourth state (of 8). In very good condition, with full margins, printed on a blue/green laid paper, 6 5/8 x 5, the sheet 11 x 8 5/8 inches.

Provenance:

Knoedler, New York (with their stock number K 2341)

Colnaghi, London (with their stock number c 3114)

C. W. Dowdeswell (stamp verso, Lugt 690)

A fine rich impression, with plate tone. In the next state the inscription at the bottom is removed, the plate shows signs of wear and the printing is typically less rich, with little or no tone.  In this state the print was printed by the artist himself (cf. James D. Burke, Charles Meryon, Prints and Drawings, p. 33-9)

The Stryge is one of the stone gargoyles leaning on a parapet of the upper balcony of a tower of the Notre-Dame in Paris. In a letter to his father Meryon wrote: “This monster which I have represented does exist, and is in no way a figment of imagination. I thought I saw in this figure the personification of Luxuria; it is this thought which inspired me to compose the two verses at the bottom of the print…”  The verse, in translation: “Insatiable vampire,/Eternal Luxuria/ Coveting the Great City/ As its feeding place.”

Charles Meryon (1821-1868), L’Abside de Notre Dame de Paris, etching with engraving and drypoint, 1854. References: Schneiderman 45, fourth state (of 9), Delteil 38, fourth state (of 8). In good condition, with thin area top edge, with full margins, 6 1/2 x 11 5/8, the sheet 10 5/8 x 17 inches.

Provenance:

Knoedler (with their stock number K 3025)

A very good impression, printed in dark brownish/black ink on an ivory laid paper with the HUDELIST watermark (characteristic of impressions of L’Abside in this state), printed personally by the artist.

The eminent art critic Phillipe Burty wrote of L’Abside: “The view of Notre-Dame…is a magisterial sight. The church of Notre Dame seems to have exerted a great attraction on the dreamy spirit of the artist. It has dictated to a poet [Victor Hugo] one of the beautiful books of our generation; it has inspired in Meryon his most beautiful plate.”

Martin Erich Phillip (1887-1978), Nude on Couch, 1920, etching, signed in pencil lower right and titled and numbered lower left [also initialed MEPH in the plate]. Second state (of 2). In excellent condition, printed on a heavy cream wove paper, with full margins (5 3/4 x 3 3/4, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

A fine fresh impression, with plate tone.

In the second state the artist darkened the women’s coat and her shadow.

Austrian-born Phillip worked also in the US, where he is well-known for his color woodcuts of birds and flora; this etching obviously represents a different subject matter and printmaking approach.

Recently the eminent London dealer Emanuel Von Baeyer showed a number of Phillip’s etchings which help illuminate this aspect of his  work; Von Baeyer also wrote a short essay on the origins of Phillip’s art, comparing the work with that of Sickert (see http://www.evbaeyer-cabinet.com/current-exhibition/two-contemporaries/).

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Fish Shop, Chelsea, etching and drypoint, 1886, signed with the butterfly on the tab and inscribed imp [also signed with the butterfly in the plate upper left]. References: Kennedy 264, Glasgow 267, first state (of 2). In very good condition (slight staining upper right, trimmed by the artist on the plate mark all around except for the tab. Printed on an ivory laid paper with plate tone, 5 3/8 x 8 1/2 inches.

A limited edition of 50 impressions of Fish Shop, Chelsea was printed in 1886 for the benefit of the Society of British Artists; these were impressions of the first state.  Our impression was thus probably from that edition, although Whistler is known to have reserved about 5 impressions for himself.

A fine impression.

Provenance: Colnaghi, London (with their stock number c10570 verso).

In the relatively rare second state Whistler added drypoint lines to the woman behind the counter of the fish shop.

The etching shows Maunder’s Fish Shop among a row of shops in Chelsea.  The Glasgow catalogue notes: “Mrs Elizabeth Maunder’s fish-shop was at 72 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London. 9 The building was demolished in 1892… Whistler later lived in the house that replaced it, which was built by the architect C. R. Ashbee. The building was destroyed in World War 2. The same row of houses appears in Whistler’s oil painting Street in Old Chelsea painted in the early 1880s, where the fish-shop, with its light plastered walls and steep pitched roof, is just to left of centre.”

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 Lowell, Massachusetts – London 1903), Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 2   1876/77,   drypoint and etching on tissue-thin Chine;

plate: 224 x 152 mm (8 13/16 x 6 inches)

sheet: 364 x 272 mm (14 5/16 x 10 11/16 inches)

inscribed by Whistler in pencil at lower right: very rare_ / printed by the “Maud”_

Kennedy 171, third state (of four); Glasgow 159 third state (of six)

provenance

Howard Mansfield, New York (Lugt 1342)

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

private Collection

Notes:

A rare print before cancellation. Glasgow notes that 22 impressions have been accounted for; however, the great majority of these are from the cancelled plate.

Maud Franklin was of course Whistler’s model and mistress; she was an artist, and, as indicated here, apparently did some printing for Whistler.  It is interesting that several of the pre-cancellation proofs shown in the Glasgow catalog show very irregular wiping patterns, perhaps characteristic of an inexperienced printer (i.e., Maud).  Our impression too has been wiped irregularly, especially towards the right side and around Irving’s legs. But selective wiping is evident; the figure has been wiped rather cleanly highlighting it against a background of plate tone.

The Glasgow catalog notes that this print “is closely related to Whistler’s oil painting, Arrangement in Black, No. 3: Sir Henry Irving as Philip II of Spain [y187], painted in 1876. Another version of the same drypoint is Irving as Philip of Spain, No. 1 [G 158].   Henry Irving (1838-1905) was an actor, the subject of many portraits and paintings. 

Detail – Whistler’s inscription; Mansfield and Whittmore marks showing through

Anders Zorn (1860-1920), Augustus Saint Gaudens II (Saint Gaudens and his Model), etching,  1897, signed in pencil lower right [also titled, initialed, dated in the plate]. References: Asplund 114, only state; Hjert and Hjert 74, Schubert-Soldern 85. In very good condition (upper margin edge as if taken from a notebook), with margins, 5 1/2 x 7 7/8, the sheet 8 x 12 1/2 inches.

A fine impression of this rather rare print, printed in dark brownish/black ink with plate tone on an ivory laid paper with the watermark Pro Patria with initials J  L & Z.

This portrait of  Saint Gaudens (1848-1907) shows the artist with his seductively posed model who is surely Davida Johnson Clark, the beautiful young model by whom he had a child.

Albrecht Durer (1471 – Nuremberg – 1528)

Saint Christopher facing right    1521

engraving; 119 x 74 mm (4 11/16 x  2 15/16 inches)

Bartsch 52; Meder 52 a (of d); Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 94

provenance
Wilhelm August Ackermann, Lübeck and Dresden (Lugt 791);
his sale, Rudolph Weigel, Leipzig, March 29ff., 1853, lot 138, described as
Kostbarster Druck und mit 11 Lin. breitem Rande.; sold for 7 Thaler 15 to
Gabriel von Cronstern III, Nehmten (cf. Stogdon, p. 357);
their sale (“a German Family of Title”, part 2), Christie’s, London, June 18, 1992, lot 56
Robert M. Light & Co., Inc., Santa Barbara
Carolyn and George Rowland, Boston

A superb impression in impeccable condition, with generous margins all round.

The silvery tones of this impression are characteristic of Dürer’s prints of the 1520s. In the engravings as well as the woodcuts (such as The Last Supper, 1523) made during this late part of his career, the artist began to replace the often dramatic black-and-white contrasts of his earlier prints with a wide range of subtle gradations of gray.

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