Harris Schrank Fine Prints

STANLEY W. HAYTER (1901-1988)
Facile Proie.

Set of 8 engravings, 1938-39. 250×325 mm; 9 7/8 x 12 3/4 inches (sheets), full margins, loose as issued, with the cover and . Each print signed and numbered 43/100 in pencil, lower margin. Numbered 43 in red pencil, on the justification page. Published by Guy Levis Mano, Paris. With the cover and container as issued, in generally good condition, some prints with slight spotting in margins, the outer cover with wear; the album in excellent condition.

Very good impressions of these scarce, early prints.  This is the initial edition; a restrike edition was subsequently published. Pictures of all the prints are available on request.

According to Hayter, only approximately 50 sets were made and the plates were abandoned in Paris in 1939. Black/Moorhead 116-123.

Hayter exhibited with the Surrealist group in Paris in 1933 and continued to exhibit with them throughout the 1930’s. He left the movement when Paul Eluard was expelled. Eluard’s poem Facile Proie (1939) was written in response to a set of Hayter’s engravings. Other writers with whom Hayter collaborated included Samuel Beckett as well as Georges Hugnet. Here’s the poem: 

Mets-toi hors de I'envol du couteau rouge et bleu 
Tiens-toi bleme et hagard dans I'armure muette 
II gele a del ouvert le feu a sa statue 
Du haut de ta stupeur vois les morts apparaitre 
Etoiles de granit que le vautour enseigne 
A se perdre a passer sans etre divisees 
Un squelette a forger dans I'abime sordide 
Dans le silence epais de la faim rassasiee 

Plante en pature prends bien garde tous tes songes 
Ne compenseront pas la gourmandise amere 
Du la bete au sourire encorne soeur jumelle 
Du bonheur assure par ta force innocente

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834 Lowell, Massachusetts – London 1903), Nocturne: Palaces 1879–80, etching and drypoint printed in dark brown on off-white laid paper; 298 x 201 mm (11 3/4 x 7 7/8 inches), trimmed by the artist just outside the platemark all round; signed in pencil with the butterfly and inscribed imp on the tab; Kennedy 202 before first state (of eight); Glasgow 200 intermediary state between the first and the second (of twelve)

watermark: crowned shield with hunting horn and pendant letters wp

provenance

Frederick Keppel & Co., New York (their stock no. in pencil on the verso a10068)

Mrs. John D. Rockefeller

Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III

Dr. and Mrs. James W. Nelson

Linda Papaharis, New York

Samuel Josefowitz, Pully, Switzerland (acquired in 1988)

A superb impression with carefully modulated tonal wiping; with substantial burr from the drypoint work especially towards the top and bottom of the composition, in impeccable condition.

Before the row of small vertical strokes in the water immediately below the wall of the left palace, to the left of the patch indicating the doorway’s reflection. Those strokes are already visible in Kennedy’s first state but not yet in the second state described in the Glasgow catalogue. However, Glasgow’s second state does show a vertical band of short horizontal lines along the left edge of the shadow cast on the water by the bridge. These horizontal strokes are clearly missing in our impression, making it therefore an intermediary state between Glasgow’s first and second states.

The unique first state in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. is annotated by the artist “1^st state 1^st proof”; while the composition is basically finished, it lacks any of the tonal wiping characteristic for this print and was never trimmed to the platemark. Apart from this unique “proof,” the present sheet can therefore be considered as the earliest known impression pulled from the “finished” plate.  We believe this is the only recorded impression of this new “second” state.

Each impression of Nocturne: Palaces is different from the others, in effect a monotype, expressing different times of night or day, temperatures, effects of light. Margaret MacDonald in her classic Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice amplifies:  “Nocturne: Palaces was a daring plate: difficult to print, relying heavily on the quality of the ephemeral drypoint lines…in the best impressions it is the inking of the plate that coordinates and unifies the widely dispersed lines of shading. The linear pattern of marks is unusual and the inking makes each print unique.”

James Whistler (1834-1903), The Embroidered Curtain 1889, etching and drypoint, printed in brown on laid paper; 240 x 159 mm (9 1/2 x 6 1/4 inches), trimmed on the platemark all round; signed in pencil with the butterfly and inscribed imp on the tab [also signed with the butterfly upper left], Kennedy 410 first state (of seven); Glasgow 451 first state (of ten)

watermark: Pro Patria

provenance

Robert Rice, his mark (not in Lugt) on verso of backing sheet

David Tunick, Inc., New York (his code in pencil on verso of backing sheet DT …)

Gordon Cooke Ltd., London

Samuel Josefowitz, Pully, Switzerland (acquired in 1989)

Literature

Sixty-Five Prints by James McNeill Whistler, sale catalogue, David Tunick, Inc., New York 1975 (Catalogue Number 7), no. 43

A very fine, shimmering impression of this great rarity; only a few other first state impressions are recorded, one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, another at the Art Institute of Chicago.

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Bridge, Amsterdam, etching, 1889, printed in brown ink on thin laid paper, signed with the butterfly on the tab and annotated “imp”, also signed with the butterfly on the verso and numbered 11. References: Kennedy 409, Glasgow 447, fifth state (of 5). In very good condition (slight nicks at edges), trimmed by the artist on the plate mark apart from the tab, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.

Provenance:

Vivian and Meyer P. Potamkin, Philadelphia;

sale, Sotheby’s, New York, May 11, 1989, lot 302 (the catalogue entry mentions a note on the mat which identifies this impression as formerly owned by Walter Steuben Carter and illustrated in the Kennedy catalogue; comparison with Kennedy’s plate for his third state and this impression, however, shows that the illustrated print is not identical with the present sheet)

Samuel Josefowitz, Pully, Switzerland

A very fine, shimmering impression of this great rarity.

This impression is included in the Glasgow inventory, ID number K4090301; only about 11 lifetime impressions in all states are known (three were also printed posthumously by Nathaniel Sparks).  

Although the structure of the composition was established in the first state, Whistler’s re-working of the plate through all five states, with the addition of myriad lines, shading, cross-hatching in both etching and drypoint, results in a radically altered look: the final state is a darker, more dramatic, indeed even stormier rendering of what in the first state appeared to be a relatively placid scene. Interestingly, Whistler left much of the area in the upper right corner of the composition unfinished, so that the bridge remains unattached – of course he would argue that this furthers the aesthetic intent, and of course he’s right.

Dusart – The Village Festival

Cornelis Dusart (1660-17040), The Village Festival, etching, 1685 [signed in the plate lower left “Corn. duSart fe/1685]. References: Bartsch 16, Hollstein 16, second state (of 3). In very good condition, 10 x 13 1/8 inches.

Ex. Collection Charles Ryscamp

A fine impression of this lively, complex composition.

In this monumental portrayal Dusart creates a deep perspective, with very dark figures in the foreground, most of the action in the middle distance, and in the farthest distance a church steeple, distinct only in early impressions such as ours. The inn’s banner identifies it as the “Gulde Schenk Kan” (Golden Tankard).

Dusart was a favored pupil of Adriaen van Ostade, and apparently inherited much of the contents of Ostade’s studio, for the inventory of his estate contained many drawings by Adriaen and his brother Isaak. As is evident by The Village Festival, Dusart was influenced by the Ostades, as well as other Dutch masters such as Jan Steen.

detail

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Instantes, 1911, a portfolio of six woodcuts, including the original paper wrapper, each print is signed and numbered (14/40) in pencil, printed in various colors. Reference: Laboureur 655 (1-6), only  state. Printed on soft wove paper. In very good condition, each print matted as issued, the largest about 7 1/4 x 5 1/2, the sheets 11 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches.

This set is one of only five in color pulled by hand. The first 10 sets were pulled by hand in black and white, the next five pulled by hand in color, the rest printed by press (5 in black, 20 in color).

Fine impressions of this rare set, with colors fresh.

Colors are yellow, violet, blue-grey, red, green, blue-green.

The portfolio cover is entitled “Instantanes: Suite de six nus dessines and graves sur bois par J.E. Laboureur.”

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Trois Contes Cruels, set of 9 color woodcuts, 1926, each signed in pencil, with the original portfolio wrapper. Reference: Laboureur 748, from the deluxe edition of 10,  printed in gold and silver, apart from the text (book) edition of 160 numbered copies; there was also an edition of 9 portfolios issued in black and white; printed on a soft cream wove paper.  In very good condition, with margins, the largest image is about 4 1/2 x 4, the sheets each 9 3/8 x 6 1/4 inches.

Fine impressions of this rare set.

According to Laboureur’s notebook entry, he had envisioned this project starting in 1912, and even decided upon the color variations to be used at that time.  Early drawings attest to this plan. Eventually – after 15 years – Laboureur completed the project in a modernist/cubist-influenced idiom quite different from his initial realist sketches.