Harris Schrank Fine Prints

We are pleased to offer an extraordinary group of George Bellows lithographs, from a private collection, representing all major areas of Bellows’s printed oeuvre, including iconic boxing images, examples of prints from the War Series, New York scenes, vignettes of American life, and portraits of the artist and his family and friends. A listing of these lithographs is shown below (some may not be available as this offering continues). These are being sold individually. Inquiries are welcome, via phone or e mail.

The Life Class, First Stone
Mother and Children (“June Again”)
Artists Judging Works of Art
Business Men’s Class (Business Men’s Class, Y.M.C.A.) Preliminaries (Preliminaries to the Big Bout)
The Life Class, Second Stone (The Model, Life Class)

Shower-bath

Dance in a Madhouse
Tennis (Tennis Tournament)
The Tournament (Tennis at Newport)
Sunday 1897 (Sunday, Going to Church)
In the Subway
The Hold Up, first state
Counted Out, Second Stone
Introductions
Introducing Georges Carpentier
The Black Hat (Emma in a Black Hat)
Married Couple
Billy Sunday
Between Rounds, Small, Second Stone
Business Men’s Bath
The Dead-Line (The Strikers)
Punchinello in the House of Death
The Irish Fair
The Return to Life
The Garden of Growth
The Crowd, second state
Farewell to Utopia
The Drunk, first stone
The Drunk, second stone
The Actress (Lady of 1860, The Actress)
Wedding
Dempsey and Firpo
Dempsey Through the Ropes
Anne in a Black Hat
Jean in a Black Hat, first state
Portrait of Mrs. Herb Roth

Drawing: Nude Study, Boy on a Raft

Howard Cook (1901-1980), Chrysler Building (Chrysler Building in Construction) – –1930, Wood Engraving.

Duffy 122. Edition 75, only 50 printed. 1931, signed in pencil.

Image size 10 1/16 x 6 11/16 inches (256 x 170 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 9 inches (302 x 229 mm).

A superb, black impression, on thin cream wove Japan paper, in excellent condition.

By the early 1930s, Cook’s prints of New York, especially its skyscrapers and bridges, were widely known and often reproduced in such magazines as Harpers and The Atlantic Monthly. The first solo exhibition of his prints was held in 1929 at the Weyhe Gallery in New York.

While Cook’s lithographs of New York were made in collaboration with the printer George Miller, he insisted on printing his woodcuts and etchings himself. Cook lived in New Mexico for much of his life, and only took up residence in New York for varying periods between 1930 and 1938; nonetheless, he remains most renowned for the prints he produced of what he described as “the endearing serrated skyline of the most exciting modern city in the world”.

Here Cook shows the Chrysler Building before the addition of its famous art deco “crown.” For a brief period after it was finished and before the completion of the Empire State Building in 1931, it was the tallest building in the world. Cook’s perspective of the illuminated building, seen from below, enhances a sense of its looming monumentality; this is further reinforced by the dark geometric forms of the smaller surrounding buildings.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Midsummer, etching, 1919, signed lower right and inscribed “imp” [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Clayton/Cortissoz 150. In very good condition, with the usual drying holes and associated nicks at edges, printed on a cream wove paper with margins, 9 x 7, the sheet 9 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches.

A fine fresh and vivid impression of this great rarity.

Midsummer is printed on a sheet with a cancelled impression of The Greek Dance (C/C 91) verso; this was made a few years earlier (1916). Hassam is known to have saved preferred papers, and he may have felt, quite rightly, that Midsummer would have printed especially well on this paper (alternatively, he may have been running short on paper!).

Midsummer is rare; it is known to have been exhibited at the Los Angeles Museum in 1925, but only a few impressions are known to have appeared on the market.

Midsummer was made at Gloucester, Cape Ann.

Camille Pissarro (1831-1903), Rue Saint-Romain, à Rouen, 2nd Plate, 1896, signed, titled and inscribed No. 1 in pencil. Reference: Delteil 177, first state (of 2). In very good condition, with full margins, 7 1/2 x 5 1/2, the sheet 13 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches.

Provenance: unknown collector, with stamp (ES within a square) verso (Lugt 3498).

A fine fresh impression of this great rarity, printed on a cream wove paper.

This is one of only two proofs Pissarro made of the first state, each of which was numbered (1 and 2) titled and signed. In the second state Pissarro had about a dozen proofs pulled, of which five were signed and numbered.  Later a small posthumous edition of 6 was made, which was stamped and numbered.

In the second state of this print Pissarro removed much of the sky, lightened the street, took out the cart on the street and the woman toward the right, and made other small changes. But it is possible he was not satisfied with this second state (which looks unfinished, as opposed to our first state, which is a fine coherent composition), for he made another (third) plate of the same subject shortly thereafter in a small edition (10), and even made a fourth plate just after that one (printed in only 2 lifetime impressions).

Peggy Bacon (1895-1987), The Swiss Restaurant, 1918, etching and drypoint, signed, titled and annotated “For Sandy” in pencil.  Reference: Janet Flint 17, only state, no edition known. In very good condition, with margins, 5 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 8 3/8 x 9 3/4 inches.

A fine rich impression with substantial burr from the drypoint work.

The Swiss Restaurant was a favorite eating place for students of the Art Students League, near Carnegie Hall. The inscription “For Sandy” refers to Bacon’s son, Alexander Brook.

Peggy Bacon was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut. She studied at the Art Students League with John Sloan, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and George Bellows. Bacon is known to many audiences, for she created paintings and prints, wrote poetry and novels, and illustrated over 60 children’s books. Print lovers know her best for her splendid drypoint compositions, including early modernist works, and her satirical portrayals of both rural and New York life.

Howard Cook (1901-1980), Soaring New York, aquatint, soft0ground etching, roulette, 1931-2; signed, dated and annotated “imp” in pencil lower right, titled lower margin. Reference: Duffy 165, fifth state (of 5), from the edition of 75. In very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 8 15/16 x 11 3/4, the sheet 11 x 15 1/8 inches.

A fine atmospheric impression, printed on a cream wove paper.

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. Soaring New York is one of the most successful prints within this group.