Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Jacques Lipschitz (1891-1973), Lutteurs (Fighters), etching, aquatint, burin, c. 1940, signed in pencil lower right and numbered 8/33 lower left, from the presumed edition of 33. In very good condition, with margins (slight soiling in margins) printed on a cream wove paper. 13 3/4 x 9 15/16, the sheet 18 1/2 x 13 inches.

A fine, strongly printed impression, in black ink on medium weight ivory/cream laid paper.

An impression of this print in the collection of the University of Virginia Museum of Art, from the T. Catesby Jones Collection, is titled: The Road to Exile.

Lipschitz has worked this plate in sculptural terms: the etched lines are bitten deeply, the engraved lines are cut vigorously, and the aquatint is drawn in effective contrasts against a deep black background, so that the printmaking itself heightens the drama of the composition.

Lipschitz, born in Druskeniki, Polish Lithuania, began his art studies at Vilna but went to Paris in 1909 to study at the famed Academy Julian, and then at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He focused on sculpture; was influenced by Archipenko, African sculpture, and of course Cubism; became a close friend of Juan Gris and an admirer of Rodin. While in Paris he explored printmaking at Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17. (Hayter, a British painter-printmaker, had established a workshop in Paris in 1927 where he taught classes in etching and engraving to artists interesting in printmaking, and provided facilities for established artists such as Picasso, Ernst, Calder, Chagall, Giacometti, as well as Lipschitz. In 1940 he moved the workshop to New York.) In 1941, after Hitler’s army occupied France Lipschitz escaped to the United States, where after a short time he resumed his connection with Hayter, completing his very few intaglio prints (probably only about 7 in all) which were rich and inventive studies and variations in Cubist volume, mostly related to the theme of the Minotaur, a subject he also explored in his sculpture.

John Sloan (1871-1951), Sunbathers on the Roof, etching, 1941, signed and titled in pencil, from the edition of 175 published by the American College of Print Collectors, in good condition (old hinging top edge verso, a scratch verso not showing through). Reference: Morse 307. 6 x 7, the sheet 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches.

A fine clear impression, printed on an ivory laid paper, with full margins with deckle edges.

Sloan wrote of this print: “In the spring as the rays grow warmer, the tenement roofs in New York begin to come to life. More washes are hung out – gay colored underthings flap in the breezes, and on Saturdays and Sundays girls and men in bathing togs stretch themselves on newspapers, blankets or sheets in the sun, turning over at intervals like hotcakes.”

Howard Cook (1901-1980), Financial District, lithograph, 1931, signed and dated in pencil lower right and numbered 75 lower left. Reference: Duffy 155, from the stated edition of 75. In very good condition, with full margins, 13 3/8 x 10 3/8, the sheet 18 3/8 x 13 7/8 inches.

A fine impression, printed on cream wove paper.

Cook’s lithographs were made in collaboration with famed printer George Miller. Nearly half of Cook’s entire print output was done in the period from 1928-1931, including most of his iconic images of New York.

Edouard Manet

1832 – Paris – 1883

Les Courses a Longchamps– The Races at Longchamps 1864

lithograph on chine appliqué;

chine: 404 x 517 mm (15 7/8 x 20 5/16 inches)

Moreau-Nélaton 85; Guérin 72; Wilson-Bareau (1977) 66; Wilson-Bareau (1978) 76; Fisher 56; Harris 41 second state (of three)

provenance

Robert M. Light & Co., Inc., Boston

Carolyn and George Rowland, Boston (acquired in 1972)

Paul Sachs in his Modern Prints and Drawings asks: “Why is this scribble, done in fever heat, important enough to reproduce? Because an impression of a shifting scene has rarely, if ever, been better rendered in black and white; because the excitement of the race track is made so vivid that we want to shout and bet on the winner; because the significance of movement is stressed; and finally because there is present in the skillful rendering of the agitated scene a quality that is of importance in a work of art: complete consistency of treatment.

Ellison Hoover (1888-1955), Midnight Manhattan, lithograph, c. 1930, signed in pencil lower right. From the edition of 50. In very good condition, with full margins, 10 7/8 x 8 5/8, the sheet 13 x 11 inches.

A fine impression of Hoover’s most iconic image, printed on a cream wove paper.

An atmospheric, and possibly slightly romanticized vision of mid-town Manhattan, with the Chrysler Building clearly recognizable toward the left, and the Empire State Building at the right.

Armin Landeck (1905-1984), Manhattan Vista, drypoint, 1934, signed and dated in pencil lower right and inscribed “Ed 100”  lower right. Reference: Kraeft 47, only state, stated edition of 100. In very good condition, with full margins, 10 1/8 x 8 7/8, the sheet 13 7/8 x 12 1/4 inches.

A fine impression, printed on a cream wove paper.

Landeck wrote of this print: “Detail [lower left] from my lithograph, View of New York [K. 37, 1932).

Martin Lewis (1881-1962) Night in New York, drypoint, 1932, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate in a rectangle lower right]. Reference: McCarron 102, from the edition of 125 (another 10 impressions were reserved for the artist). In very good condition, with full margins, 8 3/8 x 8 7/8, the sheet 13 1/8 x 11 5/8 inches.

A presentation print of the Chicago Society of Etchers, with their blindstamp lower left.  The edition was printed by Charles S. White.

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

New York was a central subject matter for Lewis; in Night in New York he depicts a typical New York young women – perhaps not distractingly attractive, but that was never a concern of Lewis’s – and by focusing on a single figure captures both the excitement, and the loneliness, of the city.