Harris Schrank Fine Prints

Martin Lewis ((1881-1962)

Snow on the “El”- – 1931, Drypoint and Sand Ground

McCarron 95. Edition 49 (including 5 trial proofs). Signed in pencil. Signed in the plate, lower left.

Image size 14 x 9 inches (356 x 229 mm); sheet size 17 11/16 x 12 9/16 inches (449 x 319 mm).

An exceptionally fine, richly inked impression, with velvety burr throughout, on cream laid paper, with full margins (1 3/4 to 2 inches), in excellent condition.

The location depicted is Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue, New York City. By the mid-20th century, a coalition of commercial establishments and building owners along Sixth Avenue campaigned to have the El removed. The El was closed on December 4, 1938 and came down in stages, beginning in Greenwich Village in 1938–39; the 6th Avenue Subway replaced it a couple of years later.

Collections: Addison Gallery of American Art, British Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Colby College Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art (Cornell University).

Theodore Roussel (1847-1927), Chelsea Children, Chelsea Embankment, etching, 1889, signed in pencil on the tab and inscribed “imp” [also signed in the plate]. Reference: Hausberg 32, only state, from the total printing of about 30 impressions. Printed in a reddish brown ink on a thin laid paper. In very good condition, trimmed by the artist on the platemark except for the tab, 7 1/2 x 5 1/16 inches.

A fine impression, printed with a veil of plate tone, wiped a bit less toward the sky making the sky darker than the street scene.

Hausberg notes that this etching “depicts, in reverse, a stretch of Cheyne Walk between Chelsea Old Church and Oakley Street with the Albert Bridge seen in the background.”