Martin Lewis – Shadow Dance
We can offer a large collection of over 100 Martin Lewis prints and drawings, to be sold “en bloc.” The collection includes all the iconic and best known prints as well as many great rarities, a number of drawings, and a sampling of canceled plates. Inquiries are welcome; by e mail at hschrank@nyc.rr.com, or by phone at 212 662 1234.
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Martin Lewis (1881-1962, Shadows, Garage at Night, drypoint, 1928, signed in pencil lower right[also signed in the plate lower right].Reference: McCarron 69, only state, from the total printing of 49. In excellent condition, the full sheet, 9 7/8 x 11 7/8, the sheet 12 3/4 x 15 inches.
A very fine impression, printed in black ink on a cream wove paper.
A”noir”rural scene, presumably from the Danbury, Connecticut area, with the focus on cars, and shadows.
Gerald Geerlings (1897-1998), Black Magic, etching and aquatint, 1929, signed in pencil lower right, titled and annotated (New York, 1928) lower left margin. Reference: Czestochowski 6, fourth state (of 4), from the edition of 100. In excellent condition, with full margins (slight rippling at outer margin edges), 11 3/4 x 6 1/2, the sheet 17 x 12 1/4 inches.
A fine glowing impression, printed on a greenish laid paper with the watermark TG Head & Co.
According to the web site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art this etching and aquatint portrays the Warwick Hotel (on West 54th Street and 6th Avenue, in New York), completed in 1927. Perhaps not.
Benton Spruance (1904-1967
Riders of the Apocalypse––– 1943, Lithograph.
Fine and Looney 222. Edition 35. Signed, dated, titled and annotated Ed 35 in pencil. Initialed in the stone, lower left.
Image size 12 11/16 x 16 3/8 inches (322 x 416 mm); sheet size 15 5/8 x 19 1/4 inches (397 x 489 mm).
A superb impression, on off-white wove paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 1 5/8 inches); in excellent condition. Printed by Cuno.
Exhibited and Reproduced: The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock, Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008, catalog p. 205.
Collections: British Museum; Free Library of Philadelphia; National Gallery of Art, Washington; Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), The Gate, Chelsea; etching and drypoint, 1889-1890, signed on the tab and inscribed imp [also signed in the plate lowere right]. Reference: Hausberg 33, fourth state (of 4), from the total printing of about 43 impressions. In excellent condition, trimmed by the artist all around on the plate mark except for the tab, 8 1/8 x 6 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, printed on a light cream wove paper with plate tone (wiped to brighten the gate and doorway area) and substantial burr in the drypoint work.
According to Hausberg, “The gate and house behind it still stand today at No. 4 Cheyne Walk. It is located in a row of the oldest and most elegant buildings on Cheyne Walk – the segment that has changed the least since Roussel’s time.
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Four Evangelists, engravings (4), 1541 [initialed, titled and numbered in the plates]. References: Bartsch 55-58, Pauli, Hollstein 57-60; 57 and 58 3rd state, 59 and 60 fifth state (of 5), In excellent condition, each plate trimmed along or just outside of the borderline, 1 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches.
Fine rich impressions.
Sebald Beham was born in Nuremberg in 1500. In 1525 he and his brother Barthold, together with Georg Pencz, were thrown out of Nuremberg following an investigation into their agnosticism, but they returned the next year. Sebald continued to get into trouble: he was expelled again for publishing an essay on the proportions of the horse which was taken from Durer’s unpublished Art of Measurement.
Note: photos of St. Mark and St. Matthew available on request.
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), The Avon on the Road to Bexhill, drypoint, 1919, signed in pencil and dated (15.7.19) lower left [also signed in the plate]. Reference: Hausberg 115, fourth state (of 4), from the total printing of about 22 impressions, about 12 in this state. In excellent condition, printed on a very thin laid Japon with margins, 4 1/2 x 5 7/8, the sheet 6 x 7 3/4 inches.
A very fine impression with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
According to Hausberg “Bexhill lies just west of St. Leonards-on-Sea, where Roussel lived from 1914. The River Avon does not flow near the area, so the Avon of the title may be a satirical reference to the tiny rivulet pictured in the print or a misidentification by the artist.”
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), L’île Lacroix, à Rouen, etching, aquatint, maniere grise, drypoint, burnishing, c. 1887. Signed and numbered (No. 1) in pencil lower left, annotated 1er étāt lower right. Delteil 69, second state (of 2). In very good condition, with full margins (traces of foxing), 4 1/2 x 6 1/4, the sheet 10 3/4 x 13 inches.
A fine impression of this great rarity.
Delteil notes that only a few impressions were made of the first state, and eight impressions of the second.
Although Pissarro himself notes that this is an example of the first state, Delteil shows that in the second state Pissarro burnished the trees and hills at the left, and the water in the lower left corner, as in our example. This would not, of course, be the first known instance in which Pissarro mis-stated the state of the print in his pencil notations.
A related drawing for this composition is at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The plate was cancelled after an edition of posthumous impressions was printed in 1907; they are not, of course, comparable in quality to the rare lifetime impressions, such as the present example.