Wednesday, October 12th, 2011
Six American Etchings: The New Republic Portfolio 1924
The complete set of six etchings, as issued in 1924, including:
Peggy Bacon (1895-1987), The Promenade Deck, 1920 (Flint 47), 6 x 8 3/8 inches
Ernest Haskell (1876-1925), The Sentinels of North Creek, ca. 1923, 5 x 7 7/8 inches
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Night Shadows, 1921 (Levin 82) 7 x 8 3/8 inches
John Marin (1870-1953), Downtown the El (Zigrosser 134), 6 7/8 x 8 3/4 inches
Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Play, 1919, 4 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches
John Sloan (1871-1951), Bandits Cave, 1920 (Morse 195), 7 x 5 inches
A fine set; each impression in excellent condition with full margins; the cover showing wear.
This set has unusual historical importance: it includes prints exemplifying both traditional approaches to American printmaking, including those by Haskell, Miller, Bacon, and Sloan, as well as examples of important early American Modernist printmaking: Hopper’s Night Shadows and Marin’s Downtown the El.
In 1924 The New Republic offered readers a set of six original signed etchings along with the purchase of a subscription to the magazine. The original offering, in an advertisement in the Saturday Review of Literature (December 6, 1924, p. 350), reads in part:
SIX ETCHINGS
Incomparable as Christmas Gifts
Originals – Not Reproductions: Each Proof Printed by Peter J. Platt, on Handmade Van Gelder Paper Signed by the Artist, and Offered At Incredibly Small Cost with a Subscription to The New Republic The Ablest of America Weeklies. The difficulty with this offer is not to explain, but to refrain…Yet orefrain…Yet overstatement is almost difficult in face of the facts—the foremost of which (alone simply sufficient to testify to the quality of these etchings) is the names of the six artists themselves.” A subscription form was then appended, offering readers a year’s subscription to the New Republic, with the set, for $8 (or two years for $12; the New Republic alone was $5 a year).
The edition size is not known. In a letter to John Sloan dated January 14, 1925, Robert Hallowell, secretary of the New Republic, writes, referring to set,“These went very well up until the end of last year. Since then, however, the orders have dropped off so considerably that I think there is considerable doubt that we will ever dispose of as many as a thousand sets. Up to date the total is between five and six hundred.” (Morse, 1969, p. 221).
Each of the artists represented in the portfolio was important. At the time of the publication of the set, John Sloan was one of the best-known artists in America, a member of the Ashcan School, a painter represented in great museums throughout the country, and a major printmaker as well. Hayes Miller was known not only as an artist but also as a teacher whose students included the artists of New York’s Fourteenth Street School, including Peggy Bacon, an early Modernist who became a leading book illustrator (and was the youngest artist to produce a piece for this set). Ernest Haskell was already prominent in the United States and in Paris, noted as an etcher and student of Whistler. By 1924 Edward Hopper was beginning to earn recognition as one of America’s great young artistic talents; and John Marin had already been widely recognized for his role in creating some of the first American Modernist paintings and prints after the Armory Show in 1913.
This set represents an important landmark in American printmaking.
Note: this set is currently not for sale; inquiries are welcome.
Marin – Downtown the El
Posted in Edward Hopper, Ernest Haskell, John Marin, John Sloan, Kenneth Hayes Miller, Peggy Bacon |
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
John Skippe (1742-1811), St. John holding a Chalice, c. 1780, chiaroscuro woodcut print after Parmigiano. Four color blocks: light green, light brown, medium brown, dark brown. 282 x 154 mm. Signed in the block, with extensive annotations. Nagler, 17. Le Blanc, 17. Kennedy, 191. In very good condition, tipped to a backing sheet at several places, 10 7/8 x 6 inches.
A fine impression, with the colors registering clearly.
Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons;
Exhibited: Beyond Black and White, Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, 1989-90; Indiana Museum of Art.
Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing. His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues. He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, August 15th, 2011
John Marin (1870-1953), Old House, Rue Saint Romain, Rouen, etching, 1909. Signed in pencil lower right, titled in pencil lower left [also signed and dated in the plate lower right, and titled lower left]. Reference: Zigrosser 92, only state, from the edition of about 12 prints. In excellent condition, on a cream wove paper with margins (slight ink scuffing lower right margin away from matrix), 8 1/4 x 6 1/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.
A fine impression of this rarity, printed in black ink with a veil of plate tone toward the edges, and wiped to illuminate the highly differentiated patterns of windows and doors of the house.
Old House, a rare print, was not known to E.M. Benson who created the pioneering catalogue of Marin’s prints for the artist’s exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1936, and thus it did not appear in the Benson catalogue. The reproduction of the print in the Zigrosser catalogue is from the collection of Patricia M. Walker, who is cited in Zigrosser as one of the sources outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (which has the nearly complete set – the Master Set – of the Marin prints) which he borrowed from in order to create the exhibit which accompanied his catalogue raisonne of the prints. Zigrosser did a census of 28 museum and 3 private Marin print collections for his catalogue, and he names the collections holding each print; with respect to Old House he names only the Walker Collection, indicating that Old House was not found outside of that collection in his rather comprehensive census. His estimate of an edition of 12 prints is probably just a good guess, which he uses elsewhere with respect to rarer items, but there does not appear to be any strong evidence of this (for example, as was usual, the print is not numbered); hence the real number could well have been lower or higher than 12.
In this period Marin’s etchings were rather closely related in composition and technique to Whistler’s; Old House, Rue Saint Romain is reminiscent of late period Whistler etchings such as Palaces, Brussels (1887, Kennedy 361), and The Embroidered Curtain (1889, Kennedy 410).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
Six American Etchings: The New Republic Portfolio 1924
The complete set of six etchings, as issued in 1924, containing Marin’s rare Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying), which appeared in only a few sets before being substituted by Marin’s Downtown the El (Zigrosser 134).
The set includes:
Peggy Bacon (1895–1987), The Promenade Deck, 1920 (Flint 47), 6 x 8 3/8 inches
Ernest Haskell (1876–1925), The Sentinels of North Creek, ca. 1923, 5 x 7 7/8 inches
Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Night Shadows, 1921 (Levin 82) 7 x 8 3/8 inches
John Marin (1870–1953), Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying), 1913 (Zigrosser 112) 10 ¾ x 8 ¾ inches
Hayes Miller (1876–1952), Play, 1919, 4 7/8 x 5 7/8 inches
John Sloan (1871–1951), Bandit’s Cave, 1920 (Morse 195), 7 x 5 inches
An exceeding rare and fine set, surely one of the earliest issued (since it contains the rare Marin print). Hopper’s Night Shadows is extraordinarily black and rich; each of the other impressions including Marin’s Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying) is unusually fine.
This set has unusual historical importance: it includes prints exemplifying both traditional approaches to American printmaking, including those by Haskell, Miller, Bacon, and Sloan, as well as examples of important early American Modernist printmaking: Hopper’s Night Shadows and Marin’s Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying).
In 1924 The New Republic offered readers a set of six original signed etchings along with the purchase of a subscription to the magazine. The original offering, in an advertisement in the Saturday Review of Literature (December 6, 1924, p. 350), reads in part:
SIX ETCHINGS
Incomparable as Christmas Gifts
Originals – Not Reproductions: Each Proof Printed by Peter J. Platt, on Handmade Van Gelder Paper – Signed by the Artist, and Offered At Incredibly Small Cost with a Subscription to The New Republic ‘The Ablest of America’s Weeklies’ …“The difficulty with this offer is not to explain, but to refrain…Yet overstatement is almost difficult in face of the facts—the foremost of which (alone simply sufficient to testify to the quality of these etchings) is the names of the six artists themselves.” A subscription form was then appended, offering readers a year’s subscription to the New Republic, with the set, for $8 (or two years for $12; the New Republic alone was $5 a year).
The edition size is not known. In a letter to John Sloan dated January 14, 1925, Robert Hallowell, secretary of the New Republic, writes, referring to set,“These went very well up until the end of last year. Since then, however, the orders have dropped off so considerably that I think there is considerable doubt that we will ever dispose of as many as a thousand sets. Up to date the total is between five and six hundred.” (Morse, 1969, p. 221).
Marin’s Brooklyn Bridge print was planned for inclusion in the set, but after a few were printed, it was replaced by Marin’s Downtown the El. (The original cover specified the Brooklyn Bridge, but in subsequent covers this was crossed out in ink and replaced by the words “Downtown Manhattan.”) Zigrosser, Marin’s cataloguer, suggested that perhaps the plate had broken. This is unlikely since the printer, Peter Platt (1859–1934), was America’s most distinguished artists’ printer of the period, worked alone, and it was unlikely that he would have broken a copperplate. A more likely explanation is that Downtown the El is about the same size as the other prints in the set, whereas the Brooklyn Bridge print is much larger; a plate of the same size would facilitate the printing of a large issue. Each of the plates was purchased by the New Republic, and the paper’s records for 1924–5, and probably also the plates, have been lost or destroyed.
Today, complete sets of the New Republic are rare, and those containing Marin’s Brooklyn Bridge are rarer still – indeed, they are virtually unknown to the market. Zigrosser had not encountered a set, and in his catalogue raisonne of Marin prints he guessed – incorrectly – which Marin print was initially included in it. Years later, in a correction (published in The Print Collector’s Newsletter, 1970, Vol. 1, No. 4), he noted that he had located only one institution which owned a complete set New Republic set (The New York Public Library; today the impression cannot be located), and that set included Downtown the El, not the Brooklyn Bridge. We have been unable to locate any museum or institution with a complete set (with either Marin!).
Each of the artists represented in the portfolio was important. At the time of the publication of the set, John Sloan was one of the best-known artists in America, a member of the Ashcan School, a painter represented in great museums throughout the country, and a major printmaker as well. Hayes Miller was known not only as an artist but also as a teacher whose students included the artists of New York’s Fourteenth Street School, including Peggy Bacon, an early Modernist who became a leading book illustrator (and was the youngest artist to produce a piece for this set). Ernest Haskell was already prominent in the United States and in Paris, noted as an etcher and student of Whistler. By 1924 Edward Hopper was beginning to earn recognition as one of America’s great young artistic talents; and John Marin had already been widely recognized for his role in creating some of the first American Modernist paintings and prints after the Armory Show in 1913.
This set, a great rarity in near-pristine condition and containing the original group of etchings, represents an important landmark in American printmaking.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669), The Sleeping Herdsman, 1643-44, etching and engraving, Bartsch, Hollstein 189, Hind 207, only state. In excellent condition, with small margins all around, 4 1/8 x 2 1/4, the sheet 4 5/16 x 2 1\2 inches.
Provenance:
Kennedy Galleries (with their stock number, a66794, verso)
Albertina, Vienna (with their duplicate stamp verso, Lugt 5g)
A very good/fine impression, crisply printed with the lines on the forehead of the boy distinct and burr discernible on the shading near the right border to the right of the sleeping shepherd.
Nowell-Eusticke noted that this is a “rare little plate” (RR+); the plate is not in existence and posthumous impressions are not known.
This was one of a small number of prints, each rare and probably just for limited distribution to his friends, Rembrandt made of salacious subjects (including The Flute Player, A Man Making Water, A Woman Making Water, The Monk in the Cornfield). Here a young couple engage in sexual play while an old shepherd just to their left covers his eye and (perhaps!) sleeps; a cow looks on.
Rembrandt Sleeping Shepherd - Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Rudolph Ruzicka (1883-1978), The First Church Burial Ground —1916, Color Wood Engraving.
Edition not stated. Signed in pencil. With the artist’s monogram and date in the block, lower right.
Image size 7 9/16 x 5 5/16 inches (192 x 135 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches (302 x 225 mm).
A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream laid paper; full margins (1 1/4 to 2 3/4 inches), in excellent condition.
Ruzicka’s color wood engravings are rarely encountered in today’s marketplace, but are highly valued by collectors, both because of the subtlety of their design and composition, and Ruzicka’s technical mastery of the medium.
Rudolph Ruzicka was an eminent wood engraver, etcher, illustrator, book designer and inventor of typographic fonts. He came to the US from Bohemia, living first in Chicago where he took drawing lessons at Hull House and later becoming an apprentice wood engraver. From 1900 to 1902 he studied at the Chicago art institute, and in 1903 moved to New York where he worked as an engraver and furthered his artistic studies. He went on to achieve fame as a book illustrator, artist and typographer. As a wood engraver he surely was influenced by the 19th Century French master August Lepere, and in turn Ruzicka influenced generations of American artists and illustrators who worked in the difficult and exacting field of wood engraving.
$550
Posted in Rudolph Ruzicka |
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Rudolph Ruzicka (1883-1978)
View of Newark from Harrison —1916, Color Wood Engraving.
Edition not stated. Signed in pencil. With the artist’s monogram and date in the block, lower left.
Image size 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (191 x 140 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 9 inches (302 x 229 mm).
A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream laid paper; full margins (1 1/8 to 2 7/8 inches), in excellent condition.
Ruzicka’s color wood engravings are rarely encountered in today’s marketplace, but are highly valued by collectors, both because of the subtlety of their design and composition, and Ruzicka’s technical mastery of the medium.
Rudolph Ruzicka was an eminent wood engraver, etcher, illustrator, book designer and inventor of typographic fonts. He came to the US from Bohemia, living first in Chicago where he took drawing lessons at Hull House and later becoming an apprentice wood engraver. From 1900 to 1902 he studied at the Chicago art institute, and in 1903 moved to New York where he worked as an engraver and furthered his artistic studies. He went on to achieve fame as a book illustrator, artist and typographer. As a wood engraver he surely was influenced by the 19th Century French master August Lepere, and in turn Ruzicka influenced generations of American artists and illustrators who worked in the difficult and exacting field of wood engraving.
$550
Posted in Rudolph Ruzicka |
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Benton Spruance (1904-1967), Subway Shift; The Second Front , 1943, Lithograph.
Fine and Looney 223. Edition: 30; signed, titled and annotated Ed 30 in pencil. Initialed in the stone, lower right.
Image size 10 3/16 x 16 1/4 inches (368 x 486 mm); sheet size 15 1/4 x 23 1/8 inches (387 x 587 mm).
A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper with a Signature watermark, with full margins, in excellent condition. Printed by Cuno.
Subway Shift has of course been reproduced widely, including recently in The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock, Stephen Coppel, The British Museum, 2008, reproduced p. 205. In this publication Coppel points out that Spruance made Subway Shift as part of a “government-sponsored Artists for Victory initiative inspired by artists all over America to take up the patriotic call,” and that Subway Shift portrayed “civilians who have signed up for the home front as politically engaged citizens” (p. 30).
But my colleague Keith Sheridan points out that a close reading of the print shows its meaning to be quite different from a simple-minded “patriotic call.” Indeed, Spruance was a socially conscious and thoughtful artist who surely had reservations about war as an instrument of policy, and probably also wondered about the unswerving allegiance of average citizens to the cause, . Focusing on the print itself, Sheridan points out that six of the subway riders are wearing pins, which might have expressed patriotic positions, but in fact are pictures of themselves! And instead of reading “politically engaging” newspapers or journals, one is reading a Dick Tracey comic book, another a True Romances magazine. So the members of this Second Front would appear to be engaged far more with themselves and their frivolous pursuits than with serious matters of the War.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, July 1st, 2011
Otto Goetze (1868-1931), “Vor dem Spiegel“ – Portrait of a young woman, sitting in front of a mirror, c. 1900, etching and softground etching, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower left]. In generally good condition, with margins, time staining and browning toward outer edges, printed in black on a cream/ivory Van Gelder laid paper, with their watermark; 8 1/2 x 6 1/4, the sheet 11 1/2 z 9 1/4 inches.
A good impression of this rarely encountered print.
Otto Goetze was a well-known painter and etcher in Berlin at the turn of the 20th Century. He studied at Leipzig and Munich Academies. After 1908 he focused entirely on etchings.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, July 1st, 2011
Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet (1792-1845), Tu Vois Austerlitz au Moment du Tremblement, lithograph, 1827. Published by Gihaut Freres, Paris. Reference: Fonds Francais IV, p. 336, no. 12. Printed by Villain. In generally good condition apart from foxing verso, lightly showing through image. 7 1/4 x 6, the sheet 14 1/4 x 10 1/2.
This print was included in the catalogue and exhibit Prints About Prints (Diane Ewan Wolfe, 1981, exhibit arranged by Martin Gordon and Sigma Art Fund), #8.
The old veteran of the Napoleonic wars, standing before a stand of prints, is selling his war stories; a young soldier interrupts him with Napoleon’s famous words to the troops after the victory at Austerlitz: “Soldiers, I am pleased with you!”
Charlet was a famed 19th Century artist, well-known especially in France for his lithographs on military subjects and appreciated by other artists such as Delacroix and Gericault.
Posted in Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet |
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Würfler – Gambler, etching, 1897, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Söhn 52803-6, published in the art periodical PAN Vol.3, October 1897. In good condition, with margins (browning toward margin edges), 2 3 1/4, the sheet 3 x 4 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered tiny gem, printed on laid paper, with plate tone. This print was later published in Pan, Vol. 3, October 1897.
Allan Wolman, in his indispensable website on Orlik (www.orlikprints.com), writes of the context of Orlik’s career at this early transitional stage:
In 1896 Orlik returned to Munich to work with his fellow pupil and life-long friend Bernhard Pankok on their first essays in the making of colour woodcut prints. They had seen examples of Japanese woodcut prints and were fascinated by them. He began contributing illustrations to the journal Jugend. By 1897 Orlik was such an accomplished print-maker that four of his small etchings were chosen for publication in the prestigious art magazine PAN. Also illustrated in PAN was a reproduction of his first poster ‘Die Weber’, designed for the play of the same name produced by Gerhart Hauptmann. Hauptmann was so impressed by the poster that he invited Orlik to Berlin to visit his studio and this was the first stepping stone to Orlik’s involvement in the theatre.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 27th, 2011
Max Weber (1881-1961), Mother Love (Madonna and Child), woodcut in colors, 1920, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Rubenstein 35, no edition stated. The matrix in good condition, with wide margins (stains in margins, remains of prior hinging visible recto, loss upper left). 4 13/16 x 2 1/8, the sheet 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches.
A very good impression of this great rarity, with vivid colors, printed on a tan/cream Japan paper.
Weber did not make his small color woodcuts in editions, and he changed the colors from one impression to another; thus each print is a variation on a monotype.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 16th, 2011
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Glass-Furnace, Murano, drypoint with plate tone and burnishing, 1879-80, signed with the butterfly on the tab and annotated “imp”, also signed in cursive in pencil verso, also titled by the artist (“Furnace Murano”) and signed with the butterfly on the mat underneath the print, also numbered No. 1 twice on the mat). Also with a dealers inventory number D (possibly Dowdeswell?)1213 in pencil verso. Reference: Kennedy 217, first state (of 4). In excellent condition, trimmed by the artist just outside of the platemark and around the tab. Printed in brown ink on laid paper with a Strasbourg Lily pendant 4 watermark.
A fine, crisp impression of this great rarity, with much burr on the drypoint work, and carefully wiped plate tone.
This impression is before the slanting lines to the right of the door or window below at the left, and also at the right of the second window above, and before the definition of the head of the man opposite to the one seated; also before the lengthening of the lines above his shoulder. This first state impression is stronger than the other known first state impressions (at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Library of Congress, both unsigned), so it may be the first proof printed (thus perhaps accounting for the notation No. 1 on the original mat).
Although Glass-Furnace, Murano was made in Venice at the same time as Whistler made the prints for his published Venice sets, he did not publish Glass-Furnace, Murano; hence it is rare – only about half a dozen impressions are known.
Whistler - butterfly and title on mat
Whistler - signature on verso
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Norbert Goeneutte (1854-1894), Henri Guérard Consultant un Carton des Estampes (Le Dos d’Artiste), etching and drypoint, 1876. [signed N. Goeneutte lower right and Norbert along a diagonal lower left, in the plate] Reference: Duvivier 82, 1/2. Edition size small, but unknown. Printed by Delâtre on laid paper. 6 1/4 x 4 1/4, the sheet 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of the first state (roulette work was added in the second state), printed in brownish/black ink.
The model is Goeneutte’s friend and fellow-Impressionist, Henri Guérard (1846-1897), in his studio at 4, Avenue Frochot. Published by Paris à l’eau-forte, of which Guérard was at this time the art editor, under the title Le dos d’un artiste. Printed by Delâtre on laid paper.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Arnold Houbraken (1660-1719), Portrait of Jacques Molaert (1649-1727), mezzotint, c. 1710, engraved by Nicolas Verkolje (1673-1746). Reference: Charles Le Blanc 5, first or second state (of three). [With the letters A. Houbraken, Inv. lower left, and N. Verkolje fecit lower right in the plate]. In good condition (very slight staining verso), trimmed on the plate mark and then backed along the edges. 10 1/4 x 7 5/8, the sheet 11 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches.
A very good proof impression, before the inscription letters, which are handwritten in this proof in a brown ink in a blank square.
Le Blanc notes that the first state was before letters, the second state had an inscription of 4 lines, and the third state an inscription with 6 lines. In this proof the area for the inscription is left blank, and an inscription of 6 lines is written in; thus this could be an impression of the first state or, possibly the second state (with the inscription covered to stay blank with the lines later written in).
Houbraken was a painter and author, best known today for his massive Schouburgh, a compilation of 500 biographies of seventeenth-century Dutch “Golden Age” painters.
Nicolas Verkoljie was a painter and engraver, a student of his father Jan, also an expert mezzotinter.
detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Sir David Young Cameron (1865-1945), Winchester Cathedral, etching and drypoint, 1925, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower left]. Reference: Rinder 471, fourth state (of 4), from the edition of 65. In good condition (slight scuffing lower right, right margin irregular since paper was apparently taken from a book, a stain bottom margin away from image, remains of prior hinging verso), 16 1/8 x 10 3/4, the sheet 18 1/4 x 11 3/8 inches.
A fine rich impression printed on old laid paper.
Winchester Cathedral is one of the largest in Europe, famous for having been saved from collapse in the early 20th Century, as the burial place of Jane Austen, and as the subject of a popular song in 1966.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Bror Julius Olsson NORDFELDT (American 1878 – 1955)
The Wave, Moonrise; 1906
Donovan 19. Color woodcut on thin cream laid paper.
Signed and dated in pencil, also inscribed with the number 249, upper left. In very good condition.
9 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of this rare woodcut. Nordfeldt’s numbering system appears to be related to the total number of prints he made; impressions of The Wave, Moonrise are quite rare, and indeed we have not encountered them on the market in recent decades.
Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt was born in Sweden, moving at the age of 14 with his family to the United States, settling in Chicago. In 1896 he began studies at the Art Institute of Chicago while working as a typesetter on the Swedish newspaper, “Hemlandet”. At the Art Institute, he studied with Frederick Richardson and John H. Vanderpool. Nordfeldt traveled to Paris in 1900 to study at the Académie Julian and in 1901 he studied woodblock printing in Oxford, England with F. Morley Fletcher. He returned to Sweden to live and work in Jonstorp, a village on the Western coast. After 1903 Nordfeldt lived in Chicago, then in Paris, San Francisco during WWI (where he supervised the camouflaging of merchant ships!), then Santa Fe and a host of other U.S. locations ending up in scenic Lambertville, New Jersey where he died in 1955. The Wave, Moonrise, was created in one of the most fertile periods of Nordfeldt’s career, when under the strong influence of both modernism and Japonisme.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, May 17th, 2011
Bror Julius Olsson NORDFELDT (American 1878 – 1955)
The Long Wave, 1903
Donovan 3. Color woodcut on laid paper.
Signed and dated in pencil.
7 7/16 x 14 11/16 in.; 18.89 x 37.31 cm.
Bror Julius Olsson Nordfeldt was born in Sweden, moving at the age of 14 with his family to the United States, settling in Chicago. In 1896 he began studies at the Art Institute of Chicago while working as a typesetter on the Swedish newspaper, “Hemlandet”. At the Art Institute, he studied with Frederick Richardson and John H. Vanderpool. Nordfeldt traveled to Paris in 1900 to study at the Académie Julian and in 1901 he studied woodblock printing in Oxford, England with F. Morley Fletcher. He returned to Sweden to live and work in Jonstorp, a village on the Western coast. The Long Wave would appear to be from this period. After 1903 Nordfeldt lived in Chicago, then in Paris, San Francisco during WWI (where he supervised the camouflaging of merchant ships!), then Santa Fe and a host of other U.S. locations ending up in scenic Lambertville, New Jersey where he died in 1955.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011
Hermine David - Blacksmith
Hermine David (1886-1970), Marechal Ferrant (The Blacksmith), etching and drypoint, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower left], in very good condition (remains of prior hinging verso). The full sheet, printed on an Arches wove paper, 7 5/8 x 10 1/8, the sheet 9 7/8 x 13 inches.
A fine impression of this great rarity. We have not encountered another impression of this print on the art market.
In this print, in a departure from the sharply delineated drypoint work characterizing many of her prints, David achieves a range of grey shadings through extensive use of drypoint cross hatching. There is much rich black burr from the drypoint work in the print, but what stands out is the varied pattern of light and shadowing throughout the dense composition.
Granddaughter of the famous Neo-Classical painter Jacques Louis David, Hermine David was a relatively well-known printmaker, watercolorist and book illustrator in the 1920’s and ’30’s. She lived in the United States for a while with her husband and fellow artist Jules Pascin.
David - Blacksmith (Detail)
Posted in Hermine David |
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Bresslern-Roth - Geese
Norbertine Bresslern-Roth (1891-1978), [Geese], c. 1928, color linocut, signed in pencil lower right, annotated “handruck” (hand printed) in pencil lower left. In very good condition, with margins, printed in colors on a thin hand made Japan cream laid paper, 8 1/4 x 10 1/8, the sheet 10 1/8 x 11 5/8 inches.
Provenance: Estate of Sylvan Cole
A fine fresh impression of this rarely encountered linocut, printed from successive blocks
Norbertine Bresslern-Roth was an animal and portrait miniature painter as well as a graphic designer. From 1901 to 1910 she studied under Alfred Schrötter at the School of Arts in Graz. She continued her studies from 1911 to 1916 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Ferdinand Schmutzer. The artist then attended Hans Hajek’s school for animal painting.
In 1916 Bresslern-Roth returned to Graz where she worked mainly as an animal painter: along with Carl Fahringer and Heinrich Ludwig Jungnickel she is one of the most important Austrian animal painters. Brangwyn even pronounced her the greatest animal painter of her time.
In 1928 Bresslern-Roth went on a study trip to North Africa, which, in addition to her studies at various zoological gardens, had a great impact on her extremely varied works. Apart from her dramatic animal paintings she also painted decorative, stylised figure compositions such as “Dancing Women” or “Bird Hunter”. Bresslern-Roth became famous for her colourful linocuts and gobelin designs. (Bio taken from artistarchive.com)
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, April 4th, 2011
Boutet - Woman with Bellows
Henri Boutet (1851-1919), [Femme, Woman with Bellows] , c. 1890, drypoint, signed and numbered (N. 9) in pencil lower right and with the artist’s red stamp (Lugt 1295a) [also signed in the plate]. In good condition, with wide/full margins (brown at edges), 7 1/2 x 5, the sheet 12 1/4 x 8 3/4.
A fine impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
Boutet was one of the most talented of the Belle Epoque artists. He made a number of small drypoint portraits of women in tiny editions, or women in various Japonisme related postures. These prints, carefully printed, wiped and signed, are rather rarely encountered today, although reproductions of Boutet’s work are quite common. He became popular as an illustrator for magazines such as the Paris-Croquis and Le Courrier Francais, and later founded publications including La Revue Artistique. He was well known at the turn of the century as “le Petit maître au corset” – the small master of the corset.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
Raffaelli - La Fumee du Bateau
Jean-Francois Raffaelli (1850-1924), La Fumee du Bateau, color etching and drypoint, 1911, signed and numbered in pencil lower right. Reference: Delteil 98. In very good condition, the full sheet, printed on a firm cream wove simile Japon paper, 7 3/4 x 5 1/2, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches.
A fine fresh impression, printed in colors (blue, blue-green, yellow, reddish brown, black), with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
Raffaelli used different plates to create this print, using tiny registration holes to align the prints. In From Pissarro to Picasso: Color Etching in France, Cate and Grivel write that Raffaellis works employ such minimal color that one wonders why he went to the trouble of creating a sequence of plates for each image. They are more akin to simple but elegant etchings or drypoint prints, highlighted in color a la poupee or with watercolor applied by hand or by stencil onto the paper. But he was a kind of purist, who focused on printmaking a bit more than his French colleagues; a print made entirely of successive plates would be more likely to have a consistent look than a colored work with the print supplying the structure and composition. And, as here, the colors derived through the printmaking process tend to be more subtle and integrated in the print than colors derived through other means.
Posted in Jean-Francois Raffaelli |
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
Vico - Trophy with a Breast Plate Leaning Toward the Left
Enea Vico (1523-1567) engraving, Trophy With a Breas Plate Leaning Toward the Left, 1550, Bartsch 444, with the name of the publisher Ant[onio] Lafreri at bottom, first state (of 2) before numbers. Good condition, with small margins all around, archival matting, 10 x 7 inches.
A fine, fresh impression. A single stack of weird beasts, arms, armor, and shields.
On laid paper with a Ladder in a Circle watermark.
Provenance: Furstich Waldburg Wolfegg’sches Kupferstichkabinett (Lugt 2542).
The fine impressions of Vico’s Trophy series, such as this example, are of astonishing clarity and brilliance. This sort of showmanship was until recently discounted as lacking in original draughtsmanship or inventiveness, but recent work (as exemplified in the British Museum exhibit The Print in Italy, 1550-1620), is reawakening enthusiasm for Italian prints of this period.
In the December 2002 issue of The Print Quarterly Rosemary Mulcahy writes that “Enea Vico da Parma was the outstanding printmaker of his generation.” She goes on to quote Vasari, who devoted a substantial entry to Vico in his Lives: “many others have engaged in copper engraving, but have not attained such perfection.”
Vico made a range of prints, including archaeological excursions and designs such as this one, and also statues, gems, vases, and some portraits.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, March 31st, 2011
Enea Vico - Trophies Including a Helmeted Woman
Enea Vico (1523-1567) engraving, Trophies Including a Helmeted Woman, 1550, Bartsch 442, with the name of the publisher Ant[onio] Lafreri at bottom, first state (of 2) before numbers. Very good condition, with small margins all around, archival matting, 10 x 6 7/8 inches.
A fine, fresh impression, the trophies in two parallel piles, the right side featuring ferocious birds, or at least winged creatures, as well as the helmeted woman; the left side has a pile of armor, weird animal and human faces, shields, and a bit of weaponry as well.
Provenance: Furstich Waldburg Wolfegg’sches Kupferstichkabinett (Lugt 2542).
The fine impressions of Vico’s Trophy series, such as this example, are of astonishing clarity and brilliance. This sort of showmanship was until recently discounted as lacking in original draughtsmanship or inventiveness, but recent work (as exemplified in the British Museum exhibit The Print in Italy, 1550-1620), is reawakening enthusiasm for Italian prints of this period.
In the December 2002 issue of The Print Quarterly Rosemary Mulcahy writes that “Enea Vico da Parma was the outstanding printmaker of his generation.” She goes on to quote Vasari, who devoted a substantial entry to Vico in his Lives: “many others have engaged in copper engraving, but have not attained such perfection.”
Vico made a range of prints, including archaeological excursions and designs such as this one, and also statues, gems, vases, and some portraits.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011
Enea Vico - Two Trophies with a Cuirass Lower Left
Enea Vico (1523-1567) engraving, Two Trophies With a Cuirass Lower Left, 1550, Bartsch 449, with the name of the publisher Ant[onio] Lafreri at bottom, first state (of 2) before numbers. Good condition, with small margins all around, archival matting, 9 5/8 x 7 inches.
A fine, fresh impression.
Provenance: Furstich Waldburg Wolfegg’sches Kupferstichkabinett (Lugt 2542).
The fine impressions of Vico’s Trophy series, such as this example, are of astonishing clarity and brilliance. This sort of showmanship was until recently discounted as lacking in original draughtsmanship or inventiveness, but recent work (as exemplified in the British Museum exhibit The Print in Italy, 1550-1620), is reawakening enthusiasm for Italian prints of this period.
In the December 2002 issue of The Print Quarterly Rosemary Mulcahy writes that “Enea Vico da Parma was the outstanding printmaker of his generation.” She goes on to quote Vasari, who allocated Vico a substantial entry in his Lives: “many others have engaged in copper engraving, but have not attained such perfection.”
Vico made a range of prints, including archaeological excursions and designs such as this one, and also statues, gems, vases, and some portraits.
Posted in Enea Vico |
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
James Goetz (1915-1946) , Rhea, etching and engraving, 1946, signed in pencil lower right, from the Primordials Portfolio, in an edition of only 30. In very good condition, printed on Murillo paper (heavy buff wove paper). Printed at Atelier 17. The full sheet, 8 7/8 x 4 7/8, the sheet 12 7/8 x 9 3/8 inches.
A very fine, intricately engraved and printed impression.
S.W.Hayter, the famed printmaker and founder of Atelier 17, said of Goetz: “James Goetz was young. He was an artist who became a soldier; I understand a good one… An officer in the 5th Armored Division, he was wounded in action at Alencon. We who worked beside him in the atelier feel that his absence must have been regretted by his men as deeply as it is by us. He returned after convalescence to his preoccupations of before the war. The engraving medium in which, as these prints show, he found an instrument of great power, served him to state the problem of existence…But for the senseless accident which put an end to his work in June 1946 he might perhaps have found a solution in life.”
Goetz wrote of this subject: “Through the ages Kronos and Rhea produce the gods Hera, Aides, Poseidon and Zeus. Kronos, who creates only to destroy, swallows all his children at birth – but Zeus – for whom Rhea substitutes a stone. Zeus forces his father to disgorge the others and he becomes the sire of all gods and men who follow.”
A close reading of this complex abstraction yields some sense of Goetz’s meaning, and leads to a myriad of other thoughts, feelings and observations as well.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Adriaen van de Velde (1636 – Amsterdam – 1672 – Amsterdam), Two Cows and a Sheep, etching, c. 1657-9. Reference: Hollstein 4. In good condition, on old laid paper, a soft horizontal fold, trimmed on the borderline and window mounted, 4 1/4 x 5 1/8 inches.
A very good impression.
Adriaen van de Velde, the son of Willem van de Velde the 1st, was apparently not interested in pursuing marine paintings which were the specialty of his brother and father, and so was sent to Haarlem to learn landscape painting. And he did indeed specialize in landscapes, particularly pastures and cattle. Although his teacher was Jan Wisjnants, his work reflects the subject matter of Paulus Potter and Karel Dujardin. But his style is his own.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
John Marin (1870-1953), Downtown, The El, etching, 1921, signed in pencil lower left (also signed and dated in the plate). Reference: Zigrosser 134, only state. Published initially by Alfred Stieglitz and then included as part of the Folio of American Etchings by the magazine The New Republic in 1924, in an edition of unknown size but probably above 500. In very good condition, the full sheet, on Van Gelder wove paper, 6 3/4 x 8 3/4, the sheet 11 x 13 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, New York.
A fine bright impression.
Initially the New Republic Set, sometimes known as Six American Etchings, contained Marin’s Brooklyn Bridge No. 6 (Swaying) (Zigrosser 112). But after a small number of sets were completed, Downtown the El was substituted for Zigrosser 112 (and so the number of Downtown The Els in the set would have been a bit fewer than the others in the set). Zigrosser, who apparently had not seen a complete set at the time he created the catalogue raisonne, conjectured that the substitution might have been because the original plate was damaged. But since the printer, Peter Platt, was the most renowned artist’s printer of his time, and worked alone, it is unlikely that he would have damaged the plate; a more likely possibility is that he switched to a print that was more comparable in size to the others in the set (The Brooklyn Bridge print was much larger), and Downtown The El is about the same size as the others (the other prints were Peggy Bacon: The Promenade Deck; Ernest Haskell: The Sentinels of North Creek; Edward Hopper: Night Shadows; Hayes Miller: Play; and John Sloan: Bandit’s Cave).
Downtown The El is one of Marin’s early – and influential – modernist prints, made after his style changed from the British Etchers/Whistlerian idiom. It has also been called Park Row, and Downtown New York. The El is no longer there, but the building in the center, the Woolworth Building, still stands.
Posted in John Marin, Uncategorized |
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Werner Drewes (1899-1983), Farm in the Woods, woodcut, 1933, signed and dated in pencil lower right (also numbered 1-xxx and titled lower left). Reference: Rose 83. In very good condition, on hand made cream colored Japan paper with an upper and lower deckle edge, 9 1/8 x 11 1/2, the sheet 10 3/4 x 13 7/8 inches.
Provenance: Heald Collection
A fine strong impression.
Drewes, who studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau during the ’20’s, with Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Lyonel Feininger, came to the United States in 1930. His early work reflects the Bauhaus emphasis on abstraction, together with an element of German Expressionism; this was a major departure from the conservative and conventional tendencies of ’30’s artists in the US. But he became force in American art – he taught at the Brooklyn Museum and Columbia, was named director of the WPA’s New York graphic division, and was a founding member of Abstract American Artists.
Detail
Posted in Werner Drewes |
Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011
Joseph Hirsch (1910-1981), Lunch Hour, 1942, lithograph, signed in pencil. Published by Associated American Artists, in good condition (some time staining) with full margins, on a cream wove paper, 9 x 11 3/4, the sheet 11 x 13 7/8 inches.
A very good impression, still in its original Associated American Artists mat (which, surprisingly, does not appear to be acid-free).
Hirsch was a traditionalist, a social realist painter and printmaker, who won numerous prizes and awards over the course of a long career. His work did not tend to break new ground, but if he were producing these paintings and prints today one wonders whether this sort of work would be revered as leading edge post-modernism. The AAA label, reproduced below, shows the wide ranging acclaim he had achieved by age 32.
The Associated American Artists Label for Hirsch’s Lunch Hour
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, March 21st, 2011
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669), The Death of the Virgin, etching and drypoint, 1639 [signed and dated in the plate]. References: Bartsch, Hollstein 99, Hind 161, second state (of 3). In very good condition (a couple of small fox marks, unobtrusive printer’s creases lower right), printed on sturdy ivory/tan laid paper with a Strasbourg Lily watermark (see discussion below), trimmed just outside of the platemark top and sides, outside of the borderline bottom, 15 5/8 x 12 1/4 inches.
A fine lifetime impression, with traces of drypoint burr on the figures and clothing of figures at the left; also on the chair bottom right, and in numerous places elsewhere.
In the second state Rembrandt added drypoint work on the chair lower right, in the third state he darkened the foreground bedpost with additional drypoint.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, NY (with their inventory number verso); unidentified collector (initial N, not in Lugt). Also writing verso in pencil (title, catalogue numbers, the annotation “extremely fine.”)
A Strasbourg Lily watermark is common to the first state and second state impressions of Death of the Virgin (cf. Erik Hinterding, Rembrandt as an Etcher, Catalogue of Watermarks, vol. 2, p. 276; also see Ash and Fletcher, Watermarks in Rembrandt Prints, p. 196); the variation closest to our impression is probably Hinterding’s Strasbourg Lily C.b.a. (cf. Hinterding vol. 2, p. 203) which is found in the second state impression at PCS (Private Collection, Switzerland). Other examples of the second state with this watermark or a close variant (cf. Hinterding p. 276) can be found at the Rijkisprentenkabinet, Amsterdam; the British Museum; The Library of Congress; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Hinterding indicates that Rembrandt used paper with this watermark during the period 1633-1641.
In this very large depiction of the death of the Virgin, a story not recounted in the Bible but widely known since the Middle Ages through an account in the Golden Legend, Rembrandt focuses on the movement and expressions of the mourners surrounding the covered bed. A doctor takes Mary’s pulse, while the bald-headed apostle Peter comforts her; a priest stands at the left and a shorter figure (kneeling?) holds a tall pole (much as a kneeling server in Durer’s woodcut of the same subject holds a crucifix and a priest stands to the left). A man sitting in the foreground reads a huge bible. The figures are dressed in vaguely oriental garb, to locate the scene in the ancient Middle East. Above the bed in the clouds an angel appears, surrounded by putti. Rembrandt uses a vast range of techniques in the print, sketching some figures and the clouds lightly, and drawing some figures and structures in great detail and with substantial shading and cross-hatching.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
Enea Vico (1523-1567 engraving, Two Trophies With a Breast Plate and a Ram’s Head, 1550, Bartsch 447, with the name of the publisher Ant[onio] Lafreri at bottom, before numbers. Good condition, with small margins all around (slight discoloration upper right and left due to hinging), archival matting, 9 1/2 x 7 inches.
A fine, fresh impression.
Provenance: Furstich Waldburg Wolfegg’sches Kupferstichkabinett (Lugt 2542).
The fine impressions of Vico’s Trophy series, such as this example, are of astonishing clarity and brilliance. This sort of showmanship was until recently discounted as lacking in original draughtsmanship or inventiveness, but recent work (as exemplified in the British Museum exhibit The Print in Italy, 1550-1620), is reawakening enthusiasm for Italian prints of this period.
In the December 2002 issue of The Print Quarterly Rosemary Mulcahy writes that “Enea Vico da Parma was the outstanding printmaker of his generation.” She goes on to quote Vasari, who allocated Vico a substantial entry in his Lives: “many others have engaged in copper engraving, but have not attained such perfection.”
Vico made a range of prints, including archaeological excursions and designs such as this one, and also statues, gems, vases, and some portraits.
Posted in Enea Vico |
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
Somm - Printing Shop
Henry Somm (1844-1907), The Printing Shop, etching and drypoint, c. 1880, not signed [signed in plate], in good condition, trimmed on the plate mark, 1 7/8 x 3 1/8 inches.
Provenance: Initials RWX verso, in pencil (not in Lugt)
A fine impression of this tiny but figure-filled image.
In this print shop a woman appears to be spreading acid over a plate in a pan; tiny figures abound including a devilish character looking at prints lower left, a tiny figure presiding over the acid bath, and three other figures in a cloud just above a torrent of prints falling earthward.
Henry Somm, whose original name was Francois-Clement Sommier, was a well-known impressionist illustrator and artist, a friend of Buhot, and of course much influenced by Japonisme.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, February 10th, 2011
Winslow Homer – Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake
Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake, etching, aquatint and burnishing, 1889, signed lower left and numbered lower right (39) in pencil [also signed in the plate lower left “Winslow Homer Sc 1889 Copyright”]. Reference: Goodrich 104. Edition unknown but quite possibly intended 100; highest numbered impression known is 62. Printed on a simile japan paper, in very good condition (slightest toning; small fox mark in image); the full sheet, 17 3/8 x 22 1/5, the sheet 19 7/8 x 28 inches.
A very fine, rich impression of this print, perhaps the most highly sought after of the Homer etchings.
Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake is the only composition which the artist created exclusively as a print, not after one of his paintings; it is also probably his last etching.
Lifetime impressions of Fly Fishing, Saranac Lake are rarely seen on the market or encountered by collectors, but posthumous impressions of this print do appear from time to time, so it may be instructive to discuss the rather vast differences between the lifetime and posthumous impressions.
The printing of Homer’s lifetime impressions was handled by George W.H. Ritchie who at first also attempted, with limited success, to sell the prints; later the print dealer C. Klackner handled the sales. Around 1900 the five plates in Ritchie’s possession were put in storage and no more prints were made from them until about 1940, when Charles S. White, who had bought the business from Ritchie, began to make posthumous prints. The plates were bought by Williams Ivins, Curator of Prints at the Met in 1941, and are still at the Met; Ivins then had White make additional plates under his supervision.
Our impression compares favorably with the Met’s, which has some light tone, but the printing of their signed impression is very similar to ours. The Met impression, acquired in 1924, is printed on the same paper as ours, a relatively light simile japan; the Met also has a posthumous (unsigned) impression printed on a sturdier japan paper, as well as the plate.
The signed prints are printed with rich plate tone in the figure and central areas, and the plate tone has been selectively wiped in other areas, resulting in a strong contrast between the central figures and the surrounding areas. The posthumous impression has much plate tone overall but no differentiation between the central area and the rest of the print. Thus, the central figure is printed rather dryly in the posthumous printing relative to the lifetime impressions. This is consistent with Goodrich’s discussion of the lifetime and posthumous printings (p. 19, Lloyd Goodrich, The Graphic Art of Winslow Homer; he inexplicably prefers the flat later printing, referring to the earlier printing as “romantic”!).
There are many other differences as well. For example, the white area to the right of the fish was apparently burnished by Homer, to eliminate a number of lines and hazy shading; in the lifetime impressions the effect is a clear white as intended, but in the posthumous impression the use of heavy plate tone picked up some of these lines and hazy shading, thus defeating the desired burnished effect.
The top right corner of the posthumous impression shows some blotching and spotting resulting from the corrosion of the plate; this area is evident on the plate itself. The lifetime impressions, made prior to this corrosion, show no such effects.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
James Whistler (1834-1903), The “Adam and Eve” Old Chelsea, etching and drypoint, 1878 [with the butterfly initial in the plate, in the sky left]. References: Glasgow 182, third state (of 3), Kennedy 175, third state (of 3). In very good condition, printed on a thin laid paper with full margins, 7 x 11 15/16 x 8 3/4 x 13 7/8 inches.
A fine impression, with touches of burr from the drypoint work especially on the boats and sails at the left, the crumbling porch of the Adam and Eve, and elsewhere. Many impressions in the edition were not printed with the detailing clear; this impression displays the details vividly (perhaps in some part thanks to the very thin paper used for this impression).
The “Adam and Eve” was etched in 1878, and published by Hogarth and Son, London, 1879.
Provenance: letters VAT and G in pencil verso (not in Lugt)
Whistler here depicts the Chelsea bank of the Thames, at low tide. The Adam and Eve was a tavern (one can read the words “Wine and Spirit Estab” just under the sign of the tavern in the etching), demolished in 1872. According to Katharine Lochnan (The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler) the etching was based on a photograph by James Hedderly. The etching is a close (but reversed) reconstruction of the photo (see figure 215, Lochnan).
Lochnan argues that in the “Adam and Eve” Whistler is not focused so much on the physical structure of the composition as on feelings of light and atmosphere, and on oriental principles of balance and placement; thus this print was important as a prelude to the Venice set rather than a replication of the perspective of the 1859 Thames etchings.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
Childe Hassam (1859-1935), House on the Main Street, Easthampton, 1922, etching, signed in pencil with the cipher lower right and annotated “imp” [also signed Easthampton, April 22, C.H. 1922 in the plate lower left corner]. Reference: Cortissoz/Clayton 213. In very good condition, with full margins (with the characteristic drying holes all around). Printed by the artist in black ink on cream/ivory wove paper, with deckle edges; 6 x 12 1/8, the sheet 8 x 14 1/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed with a light layer of plate tone.
Hassam’s plates of Easthampton constitute a high point of American Impressionist printmaking, and the House on the Main Street is one of his finest; Paula Eliasoph noted that Hassam “deserves to be honored as Easthampton’s greatest poet, whose poems were sung on copper plate – with the rare command of colorful lines of light and shade for his words.”
Detail
Detail
Posted in Childe Hassam |
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944), Juno, lithograph in sanguine, signed in pencil with the cipher lower right and numbered (7/25) lower left. Reference: Guerin 274 III, from the Maitres et Petits Maitres d”Aujourd’hui, published by the Galerie des Peintres Gravures, 1925, edition of 125. Printed on cream laid paper. In very good condition, with full margins, 8 1/2 x 11 1/4, the sheet 12 1/2 x 19 3/8 inches.
With the blindstamp of the Galerie des Peintres Gravures lower right (Lugt 1057b).
Provenance: collection of Dr. and Mrs. Freddy and Regina T. Homburger, purchased directly from the artist. The Homburgers were distinguished collectors of modern art. This print was exhibited in the exhibition of the Homberger collection, a traveling exhibit whose locations included the Fogg Museum at Harvard, the Ringling Museum in Florida, the University of Maine, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (several labels appended to back of mat).
A fine impression of this iconic Maillol figure.
Junon is French for Juno, the Roman version of the Greek God Hera.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Souper des Dockers, engraving, 1919-1920, signed in pencil lower left, titled lower left, and numbered (27/35) lower right. Reference: Laboureur 186, second state (of 2), from the edition of 35. In very good condition, the full sheet with wide margins (remains of prior hinging verso), printed on a cream wove Van Gelder Zonen paper (with the watermark), 4 5/8 x 4 7/8, the sheet 10 7/8 x 8 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Galerie Marcel Lecompte (Paris, with his pencil mark); Colnaghi (London, with their stock number C.68527)
A fine sharp impression printed in black ink.
A superb example of Laboureur’s utilization of engraving within his cubist idiom.
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011
Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Am Ufer (At the Riverbank), etching and drypoint, 1920, signed in pencil lower right, with the blindstamp of Die Schaffenden lower left, Plate 9 from Die Schaffenden III, Jahrgang 1, published by Verlag Gustav Kiepenheuer, Weimar, 1921. Reference: Kruger R 116, from the edition of 125. In good condition, slight handling folds, minor soiling; printed on a cream/tan wove paper, the full sheet, 8 1/4 x 10 1/2, the sheet 12 1/8 x 16 inches.
A fine impression, printed in black ink on cream/tan wove with substantial burr on the drypoint work and with plate tone overall.
Provenance: ex Collection John and Valerie Butterwick, Kewanee, Illinois (not in Lugt).
In the spring of 1914 Pechstein went to the Palau Islands in the South Seas, returning to Germany via Japanese internment, the US and Holland, in 1915. He was drafted to the Somme front but in early 1917 returned to Berlin after a nervous collapse. He then participated in the emergence of art movements after the War, including the utopian call for socialised art in a socialist state; it’s possible that Am Ufer recalls the South Seas experience in the context of this later period.
$5000
Posted in Max Pechstein |
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
Felicien Rops (1833-1898), LA PRESSE, CARTE D’ADRESSE DE L’IMPRIMERIE F. NYS, etching. Exsteen 589, Amiel 139. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges (remains of prior hinging verso), printed on a heavy cream wove paper. 3 3/8 x 4 5/8, the sheet 5 3/4 x 8 7/8 inches.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered etching.
La Presse is unusual in the Rops oeuvre insofar as the subject matter is entirely innocent (although the antics of the various cherubim are subject to various interpretations!). This Carte d’Adresse was used by F. Nys, who was Rops printer at times; it suggests that Nys was a teacher of printmaking as well as a printer.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
Pierre Gatier (1878-1948), La Toilette (also known as Le Rimmel or L’elegante a sa Toilette), 1911, preliminary drawing in pencil, ink and watercolor for the etching and aquatint, signed in color lower right and and inscribed “aquarelle dessin pour L’Eegantes de Monmartre”. The reference for the print is Felix Gatier 81, from the series L’Elegantes de Montmarte, 1911″ (4 plates), as edited by George Petit, and published in a suite of 100. In very good condition (some handling folds toward the outer edges), on a light simile Japan wove paper, the full sheet with wide margins, 8 5/8 x 12 1/2, the sheet 14 x 21 5/8 inches.
The drawing outlines the complete composition of the final etching and aquatint, but focuses the coloration on the central figure; the rest of the composition is delineated in both pencil and ink. The size of the drawing is about the same as the print. The woman in the drawing has a softer expression, less stern than in the print; her stockings are black, her undergarment white with pink trim, and unlike the print, she wears a white headband.
In Le Rimmel (eyeliner) Gatier captures the spirit of the Belle Epoque, and demonstrates his facility with aquatint, and the method of using three color plates which apparently fascinated him – he wrote a treatise on the method, which is re-printed in the recently published catalogue raisonne of his prints.
Le Rimmel is the second plate of a series of four, showing a women of Montmarte waking, dressing (Le Rimmel), shopping, and then going out on the town. This is – in our view – the most interesting depiction in the series.
The drawing and print are sold as a pair.
$3200 the pair
The Print – see separate entry
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
Pierre Gatier (1878-1948), La Toilette (also known as Le Rimmel or L’elegante a sa Toilette), 1911, etching and aquatint, signed and inscribed “Recherche de couleurs”. [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Felix Gatier 81, from the series L’Elegantes de Montmarte, 1911″ (4 plates), as edited by George Petit, and published in a suite of 100. In very good condition, on a heavy cream wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, 8 5/8 x 12 1/2, the sheet 13 7/8 x 19 5/8 inches.
A fine fresh impression of this colorful Fin de Siecle aquatint, printed in three colors.
In Le Rimmel (eyeliner) Gatier captures the spirit of the Belle Epoque, and demonstrates his facility with aquatint, and the method of using three color plates which apparently fascinated him -he wrote a treatise on the method, which is re-printed in the recently published catalogue raisonne of his prints.
Le Rimmel is the second plate of a series of four, showing a women of Montmarte waking, dressing (Le Rimmel), shopping, and then going out on the town. This is – in our view – the most interesting depiction in the series.
This will be sold together with the preparatory drawing (see listing above); $3200 the pair.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Skyline from Pier 10 Brooklyn, 1931, etching, Sasowsky 129, fourth state (of 4). There were 18 impressions of the final state printed by Marsh; 11 postumous (1956); 100 Whitney, 1971. In excellent condition; with the usual fingerprints and stray spots of ink in the margins and paper trimmed a bit unevenly as characterizes the impressions printed personally by Marsh. Signed and annotated # 7 in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower right.
Image size 6 3/8 x 11 7/8 inches (162 x 222 mm); sheet size 8 1/8 x 13 5/8 inches (206 x 346 mm).
A superb, richly inked impression, on cream laid paper, with full margins (5/8 to 1 1/8 inches).
One of only 18 lifetime impressions. In the artist’s original mat; an exhibition label on the mat back: XXII ND BIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL ART EXHIBITION – VENICE 1940. The label rubber-stamped and dated 10 MAG 40 XVIII (10 May 40). According to the label this impression was apparently sold or offered for sale at this exhibition by the Society of American Etchers; the price at the time was $40.
Label on original mat for Venice Biennial sale, 1940
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Skyline from Pier 10, Brooklyn, etching, 1931, signed in pencil [also signed in the plate]. Reference: Sasowsky 129. First state (of 4). In very good condition with margins (a couple of ink marks in margins, a stain upper right margin tip). Archival mounting (acid free board, window mat, not attached hinging). 6 1/2 x 11 7/8, the sheet 7 1/2 x 13 1/16 inches.
A fine impression of this rare first state proof, printed in black on laid paper.
This is one of the two first state proofs, proof A (proof B was extensively touched). The composition is complete in this proof except for the clouds and sky, which were added in the second state, and some small additions to the battleships, buildings and sky added in later states. Aside from the addition of the sky and clouds, the most apparent change in later states was the addition of windows to the tall flat building at the right.
Only one impression was made of the second state, two of the third, and a small number of the fourth state (18 or so).
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Tuesday, December 14th, 2010
William Meyerowitz (1898-1981), Armistice Day, 1918, etching with watercolor.
Edition not stated. Signed in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.
Image size 9 3/4 x 8 inches (248 x 203 mm); sheet size 12 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches (314 x 241 mm).
A unique impression with the artist’s watercolor additions throughout, on off-white wove paper, with full margins (5/8 to 1 3/8 inches), in excellent condition.
Posted in William Meyerowitz |
Monday, November 22nd, 2010
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Rotherhithe, etching and drypoint, 1860 [signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference: Kennedy 66, third state (of 3). Published, in the third state, as part of the Thames Set. In very good condition, with margins, 10 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 15 1/16 x 10 1/4 inches.
A fine impression, printed in black on a cream laid paper.
Rotherhithe is the area opposite Wapping on the banks of the Thames. The site of the image is the Angel, an inn in Bermondsey, very near Rotherhithe. Although Tower Bridge dominates the view up-river from the narrow balcony, in the distance St Paul’s Cathedral is visible beyond the bend of the river.
Rotherhithe is one of Whistler’s most iconic early images; it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862, and then was titled Wapping in its later 1871 publication as part of the Thames Set (a series of 16 etchings). The copper plate is in the Freer Gallery of Art.
Detail
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Wednesday, November 17th, 2010
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), Study From the Nude of a Girl Lying Down, 1890, drypoint with plate tone, signed with the tab and inscribed “imp” [also signed in the plate upper left]. Reference: Hausberg 40, only state, from the total printing of about 20 impressions. In good condition, trimmed as usual by the artist on the plate mark with the tab left for the signature, 2 11/16 x 3 7/16 inches.
A fine impression, with a heavy veil of plate tone.
Hausberg notes that the model was “presumably Hetty Pettigrew”, who was Roussel’s model from the early 1880’s until the second decade of the 1900’s. Hetty Pettigrew was born Harriet Selina Pettigrew in 1867, one of 12 children, the eldest of three daughters who modeled for London artists. Hetty also modeled for Whistler for one oil painting and a number of pastels. Hetty served as a studio assistant for Roussel, and may have been his art student as well; Roussel and Pettigrew had a personal relationship including a child named Iris, the subject of a Roussel portrait study painted in the 1880’s.
Posted in Theodore Roussel |
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
Hassam - French Cruiser
Childe Hassam (1859-1935), French Cruiser, lithotint, 1918, signed in pencil with the cipher lower right. Reference: Griffith 8. In very good condition, printed in black ink on cream wove paper with a flower watermark, the full sheet with deckle edges, 6 x 11, the sheet 11 1/8 x 18 inches.
A fine impression of this rare print.
Hassam was of the course the pre-eminent American Impressionist, and French Cruiser is a superb example of his use of impressionism in printmaking. In his lithotints he applied ink with the same fluidity as with his watercolors. The detailed line-work of the etchings is replaced with masses of black or grey on white, spatial recession is denied, and the images are vertically layered on the picture plane; this is all about the play of shadows and light.
Posted in Childe Hassam |
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), Penelope, A Doorway, Chelsea; etching, 1888-89, signed and inscribed “imp” in pencil in the tab [also signed in the plate upper left]. Reference: Hausberg 23, only state, from the edition of about 30. In very good condition, trimmed by the artist on the platemark all around except for the tab. Printed in black ink on cream laid paper, 4 1/4 x 2 11/16 inches. Plate later cancelled.
A fine impression with a light veil of plate tone.
The title refers to Ulysses’ wife Penelope, who passed the time weaving while waiting for her husband to return.
The composition is remindful of the many Whistler compositions in which figures are placed in doorways, alleyways, or otherwise framed; Roussel was of course a Whistler accolyte, and arguably his most talented follower; he met Whistler at about the time he created this etching.
Detail
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Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010
Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Tel and Tel (T&T), lithograph, 1952, signed and numbered (9/15) in pencil. Flint 235, from the edition of about15-20. in excellent condition, image size 13 x 8 3/8 inches (330 x 213 mm); sheet size 16 1/8 x 12 1/8 inches (410 x 308 mm).
Provenance: Keith Sheridan Fine Prints
A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/2 to 2 inches), in excellent condition.
In this superb composition Lozowick demonstrates his interest in cubism, abstraction, and precisionism simultaneously.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, October 29th, 2010
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Rotherhithe, etching and drypoint, 1860 [signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference: Glasgow 60, first/second state (of 6), Kennedy 66, first state (of 3). Published, in the last state, as part of the Thames Set. In very good condition, trimmed about 1/8″ outside of the platemark, printed in black on a cream laid paper. 10 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Unknown collector, initials in ink verso, not found in Lugt.
A fine impression, before the completion of the hull of the boat lower foreground, and before much drypoint work in various places including the shirt of the man on the right, before the re-working of the lines on the face and shirt of the man at the left, and before strengthening of various areas generally in the bottom part of the composition.
Rare in this early state. The Glasgow first state is said to be without the dots in the sky upper right, but these are faintly visible in the first state example pictured; otherwise their first state is the same as their second state.
Rotherhithe is the area opposite Wapping on the banks of the Thames. The site of the image is the Angel, an inn in Bermondsey, very near Rotherhithe. Although Tower Bridge dominates the view up-river from the narrow balcony, in the distance St Paul’s Cathedral is visible beyond the bend of the river.
Rotherhithe is one of Whistler’s most iconic early images; it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1862, and then was titled Wapping in its later 1871 publication as part of the Thames Set (a series of 16 etchings). The copper plate is in the Freer Gallery of Art.
Detail
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Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677), Young Woman with a Cap with a Feather, etching, 1647, after Holbein. Reference: Pennington 1550, first state (of 2) [annotation in the plate: HHolbein inv, WHollar fec: A.A. Bierling excud: 1647]. In very good condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark all around, on an old laid paper, hinged (with glue?) at the top, partial unidentified watermark, 5 1/4 x 3 5/8 inches.
A fine impression.
Pennington notes that A.B. Chamberlain in his Hans Holbein the Younger, 1913, says that no original for this print is known, and that it appears in J.M. M’Creery’s Collection of 1816.
Pennington notes that in the second state of this print a number 8 is added to the bottom right corner.
This print will be sold with a later impression on wove paper which, curiously, also does not have the 8 in the bottom right corner; it is conceivable that this too is a first state and that the added “8” was posthumous; more likely it was burnished out of this example. The second impression is interesting insofar as it shows the wear not found in the fine lifetime impression.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, October 4th, 2010
James Ensor (1860-1949), The Gamblers (Les Jouers), etching and drypoint, 1895, signed, titled and dated, also signed verso, in pencil [also signed in the plate lower left]. References: Elesh 94, Delteil 92, Taevernier 93, only state. In excellent condition, printed on a simile Japan wove paper, the full sheet, 4 9/16 x 6 1/4, the sheet 9 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, with burr from the drypoint work particularly evident on the hand of the player at the right and visible elsewhere; with some plate tone overall, a bit stronger upper left and right.
Ensor was familiar with gambling from his exposure to the world of casinos in his seaside home of Ostend (and indeed had exhibited at the Kursaal d’Ostende in 1882-83). The eminent Ensor scholar Patrick Florizoone has pointed out the ambivalent attitude of the law toward gambling in Belgium toward the latter years of the 19th Century, and also noted that a well-known Ostend politician (Montangie) was made destitute in April 1892 as a result of a gambling scandal. Since Les Jouers is based on a drawing made in 1883, it is plausible that this is what Ensor had in mind when depicting the losing gambler at the center of this composition.
Detail
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Friday, October 1st, 2010
Hans Bol (1534-1593), engraving, 1570, engraved by Pieter van der Heyden. From the set of the Four Seasons. Reference: Hollstein 202 (first state of 2), Lebeer 78. Condition problematic: several thin spots, repaired areas, brown spot in image, other flaws, trimmed around the borderline, 9 x 11 1/4 inches.
Watermark: Gothic P
A very good impression.
When he died Pieter Bruegel the Elder had completed 2 drawings for the set of the Four Seasons; one was executed in 1565, another in 1568, undertaken by Hieronymus Cock. The publisher entrusted completion of the set to Hans Bol.
Bol’s design is closely linked to a Bruegel drawing of 1558 which was also published as an engraving by Cock: Ice Skating before the Gate of Saint George. Bol follows Breugel’s depiction of large-scale human figures as well as showing the ice and snow of the winter season. This design was one of the early prototypes of the later very popular genre of winter scenes done by Dutch artists; indeed Pieter Bruegel the Younger probably used this as a model for his 1616 series of paintings of the same subject matter, now in Bucharest.
Detail
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Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Cascade, etching, 1616. References: Hollstein 264, first state (of 2), Francken and Van der Kellen 303, third state (of four). Plate number 9 from the series Landscapes: Third Part. In generally good condition apart from light stain over left half of image, printed on old laid paper with an elaborate shield watermark, with margins, 4 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches, the sheet 5 1/8 x 8 1/4 inches.
A very good impression.
A cascade flows down the hillside and under a bridge at the left; at the right a covered wagon rolls around a bend in the road. Etchings such as this were made at about the time of Rembrandt’s birth, and later served as models for some of his etchings of the Dutch landscape.
Posted in Jan Van de Velde II |
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Skaters, etching, c. 1616. References: Hollstein 238, second state (of 3), Francken and Van der Kellen322, third state (of four). In good condition, affixed to a card at top by two spots of glue, trimmed on or just inside of the borderline, minor toning, 4 3/4 x 7 7/16 inches.
A very good strong impression.
An exceedingly well-dressed foursome, men in top hats, women in long coats, converse bottom right; another well dressed man attends a woman’s skates bottom center. The magnificent bare trees serve as a lush backdrop.
Detail
Posted in Jan Van de Velde II |
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Frontispiece, from Landscapes, Third Part (1616), Reference: Francken and Van der Kellen 295, Hollstein 256, second state (of 4). In good condition, with full margins (browning toward margin edges), printed on a laid paper with a jug (?) watermark. 4 3/4 x 7 1/2, the sheet 7 1/4 x 10 inches.
A very good impression.
With the address of Claes Visscher, date (1616), and the artist’s name in elaborate seal at the top center. A peaceful scene, made at about the time of Rembrandt’s birth; it has of course been conjectured that this and like scenes served as the inspiration for several of the Rembrandt landscape etchings.
Posted in Jan Van de Velde II |
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Marche aux Legumes, etching, c. 1614. References: Francken and Van der Kellen 283, fourth state (of 4). The frontispiece from Soixante Paysages, the second part of the series. In very good condition, overall toning, with small margins, 7 5/8 x 4 3/16 inches.
Printed on a yellowish laid paper, with a Pro Patria watermark.
Provenance: Succession Grendolf #1444, with the stamp recto (not in Lugt).
Christie’s New York, Old Master and Modern Prints, 11/16/1982
A very good impression.
In a discussion of Van de Velde’s depiction of his Pancake Woman (Clifford Ackley, Printmaking in the Age of Rembrandt, pp. 102-3) Ackley notes that Van de Velde’s engraving Pancake Woman of about 1622 was probably not after a drawing by Pieter Molijn, as argued by Haverkamp-Begemann, for Van de Velde had created a similar woman in his earlier etching Marche aux Legumes (sitting at the table); this composition was both drawn and etched by Van de Velde.
Detail
Posted in Jan Van de Velde II |
Monday, September 20th, 2010
Charles Dufresne (1876-1938), Chasseurs de Lion (The Lion Hunters), etching, aquatint and drypoint, 1921, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (40/40) lower left [also signed in the plate lower center]. Reference: Thomas Dufresne 39. In very good condition, with full margins, on an ivory/tan laid Arches paper, with a (partial) Arches watermark. 11 3/4 x 14 7/8k, the sheet 14 5/8 x 21 3/4 inches.
Published by Editions Sagot, with the blindstamp of Edmund Sagot Lugt 2254) bottom margin.
A fine rich impression, printed in a brownish/black ink, with substantial drypoint burr.
The Lion Hunters is a tour de force of printmaking. Dufresne skillfully utilizes a range of techniques including etching, drypoint, aquatint and perhaps even soft-ground etching.
Dufresne’s stunning composition in The Lion Hunters of course shows the influence of both cubism and Parisian School – after all he was born in France and studied at the Edole des Beaux Arts – but it also shows the influence of the years he spent in Africa, and his origins as part of a seafaring family. In 1910 he won the Prix de l’Afrique du Nord and then spent two years in Algeria, which stirred his interest in exoticism and lyricism.
In The Lion Hunters a bourgeois figure in a suit, lower right, appears to aim his rifle at a lion coming upon a fallen native; another hunter sits on a horse running through the center of the composition, and at the upper right a lioness looks on, ready to pounce.
Posted in Charles Dufresne |
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), Shrove Tuesday (also, Carnival), engraving, c. 1630, after Pieter Molyn (1595-1661). References: Hollstein 150, Francken and Van der Kellen 67, third state (of 3). In generally good condition but pricked as if for transfer (visible verso), slight staining generall not affecting image, with small margins, trimmed outside of the plate mark. 9 x 6 3/4 inches.
Inscription Content: Lettered in lower margin, with production details and two lines of Latin: “Ludere sic … / … venter eget.” and “J. V. Velde scul. / P. de Molyn inve.”.
A fine impression.
After about 1622 Jan van de Velde began to make dark evening or night scenes in engraving, using a tonal system adapted from that of Henrik Goudt. These prints, a few of which were based on works of the painter (and sometime etcher) Pieter Molyn (or Molijn), were forerunners of Rembrandt’s night scenes such as St. Jerome in a Dark Chamber.
Pieter Molyn was a Haarlem painter of landscapes and genre scenes. Born in London of Flemish parents, he joined the Haarlem chapter of the Guild of St. Lukes in 1616, and was a member of the guild and active in Haarlem until his death in 1661. Although others made etchings and engravings based upon his drawings and paintings, he is known to have made only four etchings personally.
Shrove Tuesday was the last day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. The celebratory nature of the day is a counterpoint to the somber nature of the season of Lent, and is associated with a continuing carnival tradition (celebrated as Mardi Gras in various traditions). This scene is lit by a lantern held by a female figure standing outside the house at right, two children are dancing in front of the doorway from behind which another two children and their mother are looking on, and further revellers can be seen in the street at left.
Detail
Posted in Jan Van de Velde II |
Thursday, September 9th, 2010
Two Carnival Fools
Pieter Breughel (1525-1569), Suite of Two Scenes of Carnival Fools, 1642, engraved by Hendrick Hondius (c. 1579-1649). References: Bastelaer 225-226; Lebeer 94-95. Two very fine impressions of these rarely encountered prints, each on old laid paper:
– Two Carnival Fools (Bastelaer 225) [signed at lower left P.B. inv. Hh fecit 1642. Cum priv.], second state (of 2), with margins, in very good condition (with a line above the plate mark at the top, possible tear and expert paper replacement upper left outside the borderline, 5 x 6 1/4, the sheet 5 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches. With the B.6 lower left margin as noted by Lebeer for state 2.
– Three Carnival Fools Playing with Sceptres (Bastelaer 226) [signed at the lower left Pet. Breug. inv. Hhondius fecit; in the center C: privil, dated 1642 at the top, on the wall. Also in state B the number 19 lower left]. In very good condition but trimmed above the lower margin below but outside of the borderline. Possibly first state since before the number 19 as shown in Bastelaer, but possibly after the addition of the A.6 at the (now removed) lower blank margin; otherwise second state (of 2). 4 7/8 x 6 3/8 inches.
Provenance: Sotheby’s London sale of Old Master Prints, December 4, 2003. We know of only one other appearance of a set at auction in the past 20 years (Christie’s London, June 28. 1990).
Lebeer listed this set as “estampes complementaires”, prints after drawings not necessarily intended by Breughel to be engraved; he also questioned whether these prints of carnival fools were by Breughel but did not list them as rejected.
on reserve
Three Carnival Fools Playing with Sceptres
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
After Master of the Die (1525-1560), Three Putti Playing with an Ostrich, an anonymous reverse copy of the Master of the Die engraving after the design of Giovanni da Udine), c. 1534, cf. Bartsch 33. In very good condition, trimmed on or just inside of or outside of the borderline, 8 1/4 x 11 inches.
A very good impression.
This is a reverse copy after one of four prints based on a set of four tapestries designed by Udine and commissioned by the Pope. The four finished tapistries, known as Playing Putti, hung in the Sala di Constantino in the Vatican. Finished in 1521, they represent dreams of a Golden Age under the pontificate of Leo X.
The Playing Putti engravings were made by the Master of the Die, an unidentified member of the studio of the famed Marcantonio Raimondi in Rome. This workshop specialized in making prints in collaboration with Raphael. The engravings were sufficiently important to have been copied, in this case not with any fraudulent intent (after all, the copy is in reverse) but simply because the compositions proved so popular.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
Master of the Die (c.1525-1560), Two Putti Mocking a Monkey, after Raphael (but more probably after Giovanni da Udine), c. 1534, engraving. Reference: Bartsch 34, second state (of 2) [signed with the die lower right, with the letters Rapha.VR.In. lower center, Ant lower right, and the publisher’s name Lafreri Formis lower right]. In very good condition, with a tiny repaired tear lower margin, on old laid paper with an indeterminate figure in a circle watermark, 8 1/2 x 11 1/8, the sheet 9 5/8 x 12 1/4 inches.
Provenance:
ex. Coll: Francis Leventritt
Kennedy Galleries (with their stock number a62622 verso
ex Coll: unidentified collector with initials in ink WSG (not in Lugt)
This is one of four prints after the set of four tapestries commissioned by the Pope. The four finished tapistries, known as Playing Putti, hung in the Sala di Constantino in the Vatican. Finished in 1521, they represent dreams of a Golden Age under the pontificate of Leo X.
The Master of the Die, identifiable by the small die with the initials at the lower right of his engravings, has been identified as one of several members of the studio of the famed Marcantonio Raimondi in Rome. This workshop specialized in making prints in collaboration with Raphael.
Detail
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Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Jonas Suyderhoef (1610-1690), La Rixe (The Brawl), after Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685), engraving, c. 1660. [with the lettering A. Ostaden pinxit at the bottom left; J. Suyderhoef sculpsit bottom center; and Clemendt de Jonghe excudit bottom right]. Reference: Wussin 127, third state (of 5). In adequate condition but laid down on card, upper right tip repaired, a spot of paint upper left, moderate age toning, trimmed outside of plate mark, 17 3/8 x 14 5/8 inches.
A good impression of this large engraving, in the state before the de Jonghe address was taken off and the address of F. de Wit added. In the fifth state the plate passed into the hands of Basan, who removed the de Wit address.
Suyderhoef created this engraving after van Ostade’s painting in the Pinacotheque in Munich.
The brawl is lively: two peasants threaten each other with knives; a dog cowers below the table at the center; an elderly man moves to pick up a weapon at the right.
Detail
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Monday, August 23rd, 2010
David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690), Les Jouers de Boules (The Bowlers), etching, c 1660. Reference: Dutuit 38, first state (of 2). With a number of condition issues: tear through upper left corner and lower right corner restored, foxing, inked in on repaired corners, some rubbed spots, spots of red on man at right. With narrow or thread margins most of the way around, 5 3/4 x 10 inches, 146 x 254 mm.
Provenance: Sotheby’s Park Bernet New York, auction of old master prints November 3 1983, lot 462.
A fair impression, on paper with a 17th C. watermark of a fleur de lys in crowned shield.
Teniers was of course a major 17th Century Dutch painter (not to be confused with his rather less notable father, DT senior). But most of the prints found with his name are made by others after his paintings. Les Jouers is considered to have been made by the artist himself.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, August 20th, 2010
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Yvonne D. de face (Yvonne Duchamp, Full-Face), 1913, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right, and inscribed “ep d’artiste avant ebarbage”. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E 281, a proof impression before steelfacing (first state, of 2, see below), in very good condition, on Arches wove paper,21 1/2 x 16 1/4, the sheet 25 1/8 by 23 3/8 inches.
A very fine rare proof impression of this cubist landmark, with the substantial drypoint burr before the drypoint was burnished and the plate was steelfaced.
This is one of the few proofs of Yvonne D. de Face that Villon created before burnishing the drypoint, adding his signature in the plate itself, and steelfacing it. Another such impression is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. There is also an impression (at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris) in which the bottom third of the print has yet to be completed.
After burnishing of the drypoint, addition of the signature and steelfacing an edition of 28 impressions was printed. The prints from the edition, though of course still spectacular, lack the richness and depth of the proof impressions.
Innis Howe Shoemaker (Jacques Villon and his Cubist Prints) points out that of Villon’s three monumental drypoint portraits of his sister Yvonne from 1913 the present work is the one in which he used the most radical application of pyramidal construction, which was ultimately derived from his reading of Leonardo da Vinci’s Trattoro della pittura. Here the figure and ground merge into each other; the separations are created by sets of parallel lines going in different directions, so the segments appear as volumetric planes. Shoemaker notes: “In this respect Yvonne de Face surpasses the other two portraits of Yvonne, for Villon has employed a purely graphic technique not only to achieve a clearer integration of figure and space but also to express the idea of Cubist simultaneity: ‘the concurrent and coexisting plurality of points of view organized into a plastic whole'”
Yvonne was the sister of Jacques Villon and the other two Duchamp brothers Marcel Duchamp and the sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon (Jacques and Raymond changed their names).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Merry-Go-Round, etching and engraving, 1938, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed Forty Proofs lower left, [also signed in the plate lower left and inscribed SC]. Reference: Sasowsky 179, fourth state (of 4). In good condition, with margins (a paper loss upper right corner well outside of the platemark, stains from prior hinging, notations in pencil lower margin edge). 10 x 8, the sheet 11 1/2 x 9 1/8 inches.
A very good impression, printed in black on a wove paper with a partial FRANCE watermark.
Sasowsky notes that Marsh printed 15 impressions of this state (and only one or two of the prior states), and considered only 10 of the 15 valuable. His notation “Forty Proofs” is therefore surely an expression of a hoped-for edition size, as opposed to an actual edition size. We have found this quite often the case with Marsh prints – he indicates an edition size but the actual number of impressions printed is considerably smaller.
There is an eerie, almost ominous note in this, as in several of Marsh’s merry-go-round prints. The man in dark glasses just to the right behind the girl hardly seems the type to be riding merry-go-rounds for recreation, and the woman at the left doesn’t either. The girl rides side-saddle, the better to avoid these characters just behind her. Even the girl’s horse has an expression of wariness in its eye.
There is a painting with a similar composition, but differing in many details, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Mass.
Detail
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Adolphe-Marie Beaufrère (1876-1960)
A Douelan, etching, 1923, signed in pencil and numbered (21/50) [also initials and date in the plate]. Reference: Morane 23-07, BN Laran 175. Second state (of 2). In very good condition, printer’s crease bottom margin not near image. With the Sagot Editions, Paris stamp (Lugt 2254). 6 1/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 8 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, with tone, on a blue/green cream laid paper.
The figures on the boat towards the right were added in the second state. The road pictured is along the river on the way to the port of Douelan.
Posted in Adolph Beaufrere |
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Kitchen, etching, 1858, a proof from the Twelve Etchings, signed in pencil by the artist lower right. Reference: Kennedy 24, second state (of 3). Glasgow 16, second state (of 3). (Glasgow notes that since they have not located any impressions of Kennedy’s described, but not seen, first state, that state might not exist.) From a 1858 printing; there was a later edition of 50 impressions printed in a third state, signed with the butterfly (the pencil butterfly dates from 1879/81). Printed in dark brown ink, chine appliqué on wove. In generally good condition, with very wide margins, the matrix excellent; the backing sheet with some rubbing lower margin, faded foxing on backing sheet, folded along the far sides toward the edges, and with extensive annotation (see below). 9 x 6 1/4, the sheet 17 x 12 3/16 inches.
An extremely fine early impression, probably a proof before the early printings of the Twelve Etchings in 1858.
The following annotation is found on the sheet, lower margin: “This proof is pronounced by M. Thibaudeau to be ‘perhaps the finest that the plate has yielded.’ (Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (1840-1892) was a well-known art critic and connoisseur and, late in his career, an art dealer; he was, with Messrs Dowdeswell, publisher of Whistler’s Second Venice Set in 1886.)
Other annotations:
Lower left: “W. 19.” (The Way catalogue number)
Lower center in ink: The number “15” inside a circle
Lower center: “1st etat” (which it may be, see note above)
Lower right: “62.00”
Lower center/right, above inscription: “167.”
Verso LL of the printed image written in pencil: “WHxr” (not located in Lugt, perhaps a dealer’s notation)
The wove backing sheet is larger than ordinarily found for the early, 1858, impressions of The Kitchen, but the dimensions do correspond to those of the impression at the Hunterian Art Gallery (Glasgow).
The Kitchen was drawn during Whistler’s etching tour of the Rhineland between 14 August and 7 October 1858.
It was published in Douze eaux-fortes d’après Nature (the ‘French Set’) in 1858, and by the Fine Art Society in 1885 in an edition of 50.
$13,500
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Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Upright Venice, 1880, etching, signed with the butterfly on the tab, and inscribed “imp” [also signed with the butterfly in the plate]. Kennedy 205, second state (of 4); one of the Second Venice Set. In flawless condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark by the artist, with the tab for the butterfly, 10 x 7 inches.
A very fine impression, printed in brown ink on lightweight laid paper, printed by the artist and wiped with plate tone overall, and a very subtle layering of additional tone on the wharf in the foreground.
After 42 impressions were printed the plate was cancelled and turned over to the Dowdeswells on January 17 1887; the plate is now in the Art Institute of Chicago.
The first state of Upright Venice included only the top part of the composition; the bottom part was added about 6 months later in the second state. The third and fourth state changes were minor, just additions to the shadows of the gondola at the bottom. Although the composition works splendidly from an aesthetic perspective, it actually depicts two very different views of Venice: at the top the view of the city at a distance with sky above and water below, and at the bottom a closer view of waterfront activity.
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Friday, July 23rd, 2010
Goya – Bien Tirada Esta
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Bien Tirada Esta (It is nicely stretched), etching, burnished aquatint and burin, 1799. Reference: Harris 52, Delteil 54; plate 17 from Los Caprichos, The First Edition (of 12). In very good condition, with margins; 8 1/2 x 6 1/8, the sheet 12 1/2 x 7 3/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in sepia on soft but strong laid paper, as specified by Harris for the First Edition impressions. Printed in two shades of aquatint, which vary only slightly (in the later impressions the aquatint shades contrast more as the paler aquatint wears faster). The burin work at the bottom of the old lady’s skirt is visible but not overly pronounced (as is the case in the later impressions). The aquatint contrasts brilliantly with the highlights of the figures, as it should.
After the impressions of the First Edition (about 300) the Caprichos was printed posthumously in 11 additional editions, none of which are comparable in quality to the lifetime impressions.
Goya’s commentary on this print: “Oh! The bawdy old woman is no fool! She knows quite well what is wanted, and that the stockings must fit tightly.” Pierre Gassier’s French translation of this commentary (taken from the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid translation of Goya’s commentary) played on the French word “bas” meaning stocking or low), i.e., “A prostitute pulls on her stocking (bas) to make her legs more attractive, but there’s really no place lower (plus bas) that she can fall.” Whatever the wording, the general meaning is fairly clear, as is the visual contrast between the two women.
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Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Danseuse Couchée (Dancer Reclining), lithograph, 1926-7, signed in pencil and numbered (17/130) lower right. Reference: Duthuit-Matisse, Matisse L’Oeuvre Grave 487. In generally good condition (evidence of prior hinge and other stains verso, unobtrusive dot or two recto), the full sheet with deckle edges, 10 7/8 x 18, the sheet 13 x 19 3/4 inches. Printed on a pale cream wove Arches paper. From Dix Danseuses, issued by Galerie d’Art Contemporain, Paris, 1927, from the edition of 130, total printing 166.
A very good impression of this iconic Matisse image.
This is one of the several images of ballet dancers that Matisse drew with the lithographic crayon in the mid 1920’s. He seemed to enjoy lithography because of the texture and richness of the medium, which would complement the sculptural qualities of the drawings he was creating at that period. In Danseuse Couchée he makes particular use of the medium in the focus on the dancer’s ballet dress – the contrasting design patterns on the bodice and skirt take on a particularly atmospheric quality in lithography.
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Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
George Bellows (1882-1925), Sunday 1897 (Sunday, Going to Church), lithograph, 1921, signed in pencil lower right [also initials in the plate]. Mason 73, only state, edition 54. In very good condition, printed on chine (with the slight creasing at margin edges, tiny nicks characteristic of this very thin paper). The full sheet with wide margins, 12 1/8 x 14 7/8, the sheet 14 x 17 7/8 inches.
A fine impression.
This is a view of Bellows as a teenager center, his father to his left saluting passersby, his mother at the right, and some others all crowded into the family buggy on the way to church; the time is 1897 and the place is Bellows’ native Columbus, Ohio. This is Bellows’ only lithographic portrait of his father, who died in 1913, one of only a few portrayals of his midwestern roots; another is Sixteen East Gay Street, a neighborhood scene, and he also created a humorous composition of fraternity life in Initiation in the Frat, both 1921 lithographs.
Detail: Bellows in the center, his father at the left.
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Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Que Sacrificio! (What a Sacrifice!), etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint, 1799. Reference: Harris 49, Plate 14 from the First Edition of Los Caprichos (of 12); edition of about 300. In very good condition (slight thinning spots inherent in paper verso, hints of light foxing esp. verso). The full sheet with full margins, 7 7/8 x 6, the sheet 12 5/8 x 8 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, printed in sepia on a hand made, soft but strong laid paper.
In this impression one can distinguish the aquatint, which was applied in only one pale tone, from white of the paper in the old man’s head and shoulders, and the head of the girl. In the later impressions (including of course the posthumous impressions of the succeeding eleven editions) these contrasts are lost.
Goya’s commentary: “That’s how things are! The fiance is not very attractive, but he is rich, and at the cost of the freedom of an unhappy girl, the security of a hungry family is acquired. It is the way of the world.”
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Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), La Pompe Notre Dame, etching and drypoint, 1852. References: Schneiderman 26, seventh state (of 10); Wright 15, sixth (of 9). In very good condition, with margins, 6 3/4 x 10, the sheet 7 5/8 x 10 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, printed in a dark brown ink on greenish laid verdatre paper; this state is prior to the edition printed for L’Artiste.
Provenance: Ministère de l’Intérieur, Paris, with its blindstamp lower right (cf. Lugt 1816d). Jules Niel (cf. Lugt 1944), librarian at the Ministry of the Interior was one of the first collectors of Meryon prints, and was instrumental in having the Ministry purchase sets of the Eaux-fortes sur Paris. These sets were printed on a greenish laid paper, and consisted of fine early impressions of the Paris prints.
Also: Colnaghi (with their stock number recto).
The Notre Dame pumphouse was built around 1670 and was slated for elimination by the mid-1850’s; Baron Haussmann’s plans called for finding alternative sources of water beyond the Seine. But it was not demolished until 1858, giving Meryon time to draw and etch it. The view is from water level, and tends to exaggerate the towers of Notre Dame a bit (Meryon favored their inclusion in many of his prints, and in this case they really could be seen from the vantage point of his drawing).
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1665), The Peasant Settling His Debt, etching, c 1646. Godefroy 42, Hollstein 42, Godefroy’s eighth state (of 12). In very good condition, with small/thread margins all around. 4 5/32 x 3 15/32; the sheet 4 1/4 x 3 17/32 inches.
Provenance: Rev. J Burleigh James, Knowbury Park, England (Lugt 1425), sale: London, April 23-30, 1877 [Sotheby’s]; Paul Davidsohn, Grunewald-Berlin (Lugt 654), sale: Leipzig, November 22-26, 1920 [C.G. Boerner]; Paul M. Robinow, Hamburg (Lugt 2237b), sale: Bern, November 7, 1946 [Gutekunst and Klipstein]; Dr. William Pelletier (not yet in Lugt), bought at Craddock & Barnard, London. November 6, 1969.
A fine impression. Pelletier described this impression (in the catalogue Adriaen Van Ostade, Etchings of Peasant Life in Holland’s Golden Age), in this way: “A flawless impression in black ink on ivory, laid paper, printed with tone and inky plate edges. In this state, there are new strokes in the shadow below the chimney,and the line above the woman’s belt is strengthened and forked. Godefroy described this state as ‘tres rare’. ” (Indeed, this is the earliest state of this print that Pelletier, who had a very comprehensive Van Ostade collection, owned. ) After state 8 the plate is re-worked and gives heavy, dull impressions; the posthumous Picart edition was taken from state 10.
The Peasant Settling His Debt is famed as a small gem, an etching which successfully addresses the difficult problem of portraying daylight suffused through a window.
Detail
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Prarie de Bazincourt, drypoint and aquatint, 1888, signed, titled, and inscribed “4e etat def no. 6”. Reference: Delteil 79, fourth state (of 4). In very good condition (with the drying holes and associated nicks all around at margin edges, slight mat toning), the full sheet, 3 1/4 x 4 5/8, the sheet 7 x 8 3/4 inches.
A fine impression, delicately printed in a sepia/brown ink on cream laid paper.
Lifetime impressions of Prarie de Bazincourt are rare; only one proof of the first state is known (in which there were only 2 cows, and before aquatint); only one of the second state (with aquatint and 2 cows added); 2 or 3 of the third state (with the aquatint reduced); and 8 to 10 impressions of the fourth state, with a few lines added next to the willow tree at the right, and other lines on the ground toward the left. (There was an edition of 18, stamped and numbered, printed posthumously; these of course are mere ghosts of the lifetime impressions.)
In 1884 Pissarro moved his family to Eragny, a small village about 80 Km northwest of Paris. From the back of his house he had a fine view across a meadow to the neighboring village of Bazincourt – this is that view. He may have worked on this etching plate outdoors, from a point in the field outside of the house; a painting (Vue of Bazincourt) in the Brooklyn Museum done the next year, in 1889, shows the same view but with a larger field.
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Felix Buhot (1847-1898), Westminster Palace, etching, drypoint, roulette, 1884, signed in pencil and extensively annotated. Bourcard/Goodfriend 155, Bourcard’s third state (of 5); Goodfriend’s fourth state (of 7). In very good condition (minor thinning in spots verso), printed on a heavy cream/greenish wove paper with margins; 11 1/2 x 15 1/4, the sheet 13 1/2 x 17 1/4 inches.
Provenance: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Flower
A fine impression, printed in a brownish/black ink with plate tone.
The extensive pencil annotation by Buhot includes: upper left margin, the words “Le Palais de Westminster;” upper center Buhot has drawn in pencil his owl, similar to his red stamp (Lugt 977); upper right several indistinguishable words ending with the word “Londres”; bottom left “Tire a 25 epreuves”; bottom center “ep. no. 10 – FB”, bottom center just below the last note: another drawing of a small owl; bottom right “epreuve d’artiste” and then signed in full.
This state is before Buhot reduced the plate slightly, extensively re-worked the plate by adding shadowing and blackening figures, and added the words “Westminster Palace London” to the print.
Westminster Palace is of course one of Buhot’s most complex and successful compositions.
Detail
Detail
Detail
Posted in Felix Buhot |
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Felix Buhot (1847-1898), Westminster Bridge, etching and drypoint, signed in pencil and inscribed as first state by the artist (1re etat), first state (of 6)(Bourcard/Goodfriend 156). On Japan paper. In very good condition, some very pale foxmarks, pale mat staining, with small margins, 11 5/8 x 15 3/4 inches, the sheet 12 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches.
A very fine impression of this very rare early state (still without any indication of the locomotive in the bottom left remarque, near the tunnel). In this early impression, created before the plate started to show wear, the etching and drypoint lines are quite vivid and delicate.
Provenance: Sold to present owner at Christie’s New York Sale 11/20/89.
Westminster Bridge is one of Buhot’s great masterpieces, created about 12 years after he began printmaking. No one (save, perhaps Degas) used such a range of complex printing techniques as Buhot.
In this first state impression of Westminster Bridge one can see both the finished design, and the beginnings of sketches – particularly in the remarques outside of the central borderline – which were to become further defined in the later states. For example, the outlines of the wooden staircase leading to the Thames are evident at the right. At the top, buildings of Parliament along the Thames are clear, as is the coupole of St. Paul’s; a ship is sketched in at the left. In the main body of the work the carriages are drawn in a rich drypoint with substantial burr, as are the buildings and Big Ben; several people walking near the foreground are only sketched in lightly at this stage.
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Felix Buhot (1847-1898), Westminster Bridge (or Westminster Clock Tower), c. 1882, etching, drypoint, roulette, burnishing; with the Buhot red monogram stamp (Lugt 977) bottom margin. Reference: Bourcard/Goodfriend 156, Bourcard’s 5th or 6th state (of 6); Goodfriend’s 6th or 7th state (of 8). In very good condition, slight signs of light toning or prior hinging, the full sheet with full margins; 11 1/8 x 15 5/8, the sheet 14 1/4 x 19 1/4 inches.
Provenance:
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Flower
Collection of Alfred Barrion (with his stamp lower right corner recto, Lugt 76). G. Alfred Barrion (1842-1903) was a noted collector, of whose collection Bourcard wrote: “Ici toutes les épreuves sont de qualité absolument exceptionnelle, chose rare à rencontrer en province.”
A fine impression, printed in brownish/black ink on a greenish laid paper with a Fleur-de-Lys watermark.
This is of course one of Buhot’s great tour de force works, an extremely complex rendering of the entrance to the Westminster Bridge, with the view of the Westminster Clocktower in the distance. Surrounding the central composition are a walkway over the Thames at the right; a view of the Thames, St. Paul and various ships at night in full moon at the top; a dome and a man in silhouette carrying a torch, sketched in lightly at the left; and people walking toward a train station, an owl carrying a lantern, at the bottom margin. But the central composition, with a myriad of people and carriages (with their backs toward the viewer) remains the strong focus of the composition, one of Buhot’s most successful. In this impression the plate has been wiped only lightly, leaving a layering of plate tone.
Detail
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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Veterans, 1935, Crayon Lithograph with Tushe. McCarron 113. Edition 8. Signed in pencil. Initialed in the stone, lower right. Inscribed For Elizabeth, in the bottom left margin.
Image size 9 13/16 x 13 7/16 inches (249 x 341 mm); sheet size 13 3/4 x 17 1/2 inches (349 x 445 mm).
A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with wide margins (1 7/8 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition.
Veterans is rare; McCarron was aware of only 8 impressions printed, including a trial proof, which were delivered to Kennedy Galleries in 1935. In 1959 Lewis noted, in a letter to his daughter in law Patricia Lewis in response to a woman’s asking for an impression: “If by chance I should find another print among those I have I will let you know. But I have no record of one and I do know that I had not printed more than one or two, at most many years ago and more than likely only one.” Veterans was Lewis’s first known lithograph.
This impression is inscribed to Elizabeth; most probably this is Elizabeth Ray Lewis, a well known (at the time) Washington D.C. artist.
Collections: CU, DIA, NYPL.
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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), Dreimastiges Schiff mit Stern (Three-Masted Ship with Star), woodcut, c. 1928, Prasse W263, no edition made, only state. Signed in pencil and numbered 2806 (the artist’s inventory number) in the artist’s hand, beneath the signature. Signed with the artist’s emblem in pencil, bottom left sheet corner [also estate stamped and numbered W 823 in pencil, in the lower right sheet corner[.
Image size 2 3/8 x 2 1/2 inches (60 x 64 mm); sheet size 5 3/8 x 6 1/2 inches (143 x 165 mm).
A fine, black impression of this very rare woodcut, on oatmeal-tan carbon-copy paper, with full margins (1 to 2 inches). The paper lightly sun-bleached within the original mat opening; otherwise in excellent condition.
This is one of only four known proofs.
Collection: Pasadena
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Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956), Angler und Schiffe (Anglers and Ships), woodcut, 1916, Prasse W135, second state (of 2), edition 30 (1941), one of only several proofs before the published edition. Signed and dated in pencil. Signed with the artist’s emblem in pencil, bottom left sheet corner.
Image size 3 1/4 x 4 1/2 inches (83 x 114 mm); sheet size 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (140 x 216 mm).
A fine, black rare proof impression, on oatmeal-tan carbon-copy paper, with full margins (3/4 to 2 1/4 inches). The paper lightly sun-bleached within the original mat opening; a small loss in the top right sheet corner well away from the image (see illustration); otherwise in excellent condition.
Only one proof is known of a first state impression, on carbon-copy paper; the composition was not changed for the second state but the block was cleaned of “excess wood” (which had created a messy dotted effect) according to Prasse.
Estate stamped and numbered W 701 in pencil, in the lower right sheet corner. Published edition: No.8 of the porfolio, Ten Woodcuts by Lyonel Feininger, 1941. Used as a letterhead.
Collections: Cincinnati CiPL; Cleveland CMA (II, 1941 edition); New York MOMA (II, 1941 edition); Philadelphia PAFA (II, 1941 edition).
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Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Frozen Custard, etching, 1939, signed in pencil lower right margin [also signed and dated in the plate lower right]. Reference: Sasowsky 183, second state (of 2). From the total printing of 18 in this state (there were 2 first state proofs). In excellent condition, with margins (some rippling in bottom margin, printed by the artist and trimmed by him slightly irregularly (as was his custom), printed on cream laid paper, 7 1/8 x 9 7/8, the sheet 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches.
A fine fresh and crisp impression.
A painting with the same design but quite different details is in the Benton Collection.
The composition of Frozen Custard is curious. With the exception of a woman buying a custard from the man in glasses toward the left, the crowd within and surrounding the custard stand all appear to be looking toward the viewer, perhaps the artist or a photographer, or some spectacle on the Coney Island boardwalk. A child in front points to something, further suggesting that the crowd is looking at something other than the artist or a photographer. The composition is similar to Rembrandt’s Ecce Homo, except for the absence of a central figure, but this is made up for by the two woman in the booth holding frozen custards aloft, as if they were objects of worship.
Detail
Detail
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Tuesday, June 1st, 2010
The second state, before the polka dots in the dress
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Porte de L’Estaminet, etching and roulette, 1925, the preliminary drawing, the etching in the second state (of 3), and the etching in the third state (of 3). Sylvain Laboureur 294; total impressions printed 85. The third state impression is inscribed “imp” lower left and numbered (54/65), also signed lower left, and titled lower in the margin. The second state impression is signed and numbered 7/7. The drawing is initialed in pencil lower right. Each impression and the drawing in good condition. Plate size for the prints: 5 7/8 x 3 3/4 inches, each with wide margins. The drawing is 6 x 3 3/4 inches (the sheet 6 5/8 x 4 5/8 inches). The second and third state impressions are on a cream wove paper, the drawing is on a yellow tracing paper.
Provenance for the second state impression and drawing: Henri Petiet Collection (initials stamp verso; this stamp not in Lugt; cf Lugt 2021a).
In La Porte de L’Estaminet Laboureur introduces a very fine roulette tint for shading around the head of the girl, around the windows, and in the tiles and spaces just behind the girl.
The drawing is a shade higher than the print; the artist draws the last letters of the word “Estaminet” nearly completely in the drawing, but cuts the tops of the letters in the print. He also shaves some of the right hand area shown in the drawing from the print.
La Porte de L’Estaminet is surely one of Laboureur’s most successful and charming small compositions.
The third state, with the polka dots in the dress.
The drawing (without the polka dots!)
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, May 26th, 2010
Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Spring Night, Greenwich Village– – 1930, Drypoint and Sand Ground.
McCarron 85. Edition 92. Signed in pencil. Titled in the artist’s hand, in pencil, in the bottom left sheet corner, recto. Signed in the plate, lower right.
Image size 9 7/8 x 12 3/8 inches (251 x 315 mm); sheet size 13 3/8 x 16 inches (340 x 406 mm).
A superb, richly inked, atmospheric impression, with overall velvety burr, on cream wove paper; full margins (1 3/4 to 1 7/8 inches). Glue remains from the original hinges on the top sheet edge; otherwise in excellent condition.
At the time Lewis made Spring Night, Greenwich Village he lived at 111 Bedford Street (which may be the street depicted in the print), in the Village, and was immersed in the intellectual and artistic life of the neighborhood. His exhibit at Kennedy Galleries in 1929 had been a great success, and he discontinued the commercial art work he had been doing. But of course the Great Depression changed everything; Lewis and his wife gave up their house in the Village and moved to Sandy Hook, Connecticut. He set up a short-lived printmaking school in the Village in 1934 (with Armin Landeck and the printmaker George Miller), and moved back to the Village in 1936.
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Thursday, May 20th, 2010
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Fille au Litre (Grande Planche), engraving, 1921, signed in pencil lower left and inscribed “ep d’art”. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 217, third state (of 3), the trial proof (or one of the five impressions “hors-tirage”, the edition was 65. In excellent condition, remains of prior hinging verso, printed on a cream wove paper with full margins, 8 3/8 x 7 1/8, the sheet 12 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches.
A fine impression.
Perhaps Laboureur’s most famous engraved portrait, made in his incomparable cubist manner, and a stunning example of his use of engraving within his mature cubism phase. He was apparently inspired by a photograph by Eugene Atget (Md. de vin rue Boyer 262, 1908).
$3500
Detail
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
First state with extensive drawing in pencil
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Tea-Room Du Front Anglais, etching and engraving, 1919-1923. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 189. Five sheets: the drawing for the print, an impression of the first state (of 2), an impression of the first state extensively drawn over in pencil in preparation for the second state, an impression of the final state, and an impression of the canceled plate.
The drawing: in pen and pencil, signed, titled and dated, with margins, 8 3/8 x 7 15/16 inches, the sheet 11 1/4 x 10 inches, on a thin tan wove tracing paper, in generally good condition, with tack holes in margins, with the Henri Petiet stamp verso (cf. Lugt 2021a). The drawing is sketched in pencil, then completed in pen.
The first state: signed in pencil and numbered; an impression with oily printing which gives many lines a stained or rusted look, on thin wove with margins, 8 7/8 x 8 3/8, the sheet 12 1/2 x 93/4 inches, ex Collection Petiet (with his stamp verso)
The first state as worked over in pencil in fantastic detail. Laboureur here draws in the extensive shadowing and linear development in preparation for the next state, giving the viewer an unusual insight into the workings of Laboureur’s printmaking genius. On Van Gelder Zonen cream wove, in good condition, with margins, 9 x 8 1/2, the sheet 12 x 11 1/4 inches.
The second and final state – a fine impression in very good condition, on cream wove paper, with full margins (8 7/8 x 8 1/4, the sheet 13 1/4 x 10 1/4; signed left and numbered lower right in pencil (3/20), from the small final edition of 20.
An impression of the canceled plate, in good condition, ex Collection Petiet (with his stamp verso)
Detail of state 1 with pencil additions
The drawing for Tea Room Du Front Anglais
Detail from the drawing of Tea-Room Du Front Anglais
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Monday, May 17th, 2010
Seymour Haden (1818-1910), Shere Mill Pond II (Large Plate), etching and drypoint, 1860, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower right]. Schneiderman 37, sixth state (of 9). In good condition (skillfully repaired hole in the sky upper left) with margins, on a cream/ivory laid paper, 7 x 13 1/2, the sheet 8 1/8 x 13 3/4 inches.
A very good impression, with rich burr in the reeds toward the right.
Provenance: Frederick Keppel and Co., New York, NY.
Illustrated: Guichard, British Etchers, 1850-1940; Keppel, The Golden Age of Engraving; Print Collector’s Quarterly 1 (1911): 1; Guichard, British Etchers, 1850-1940.
Keppel appended to his label the following quotation of not-so-faint praise from P.G. Hamerton, Etching and Etchers, p. 305: “With the single exception of one plate by Claude [Lorrain], this is the finest etching of a landscape subject that has ever been executed in the world.” Praise a bit too lavish to be sure, but Shere Mill Pond II was one of the early highlights of the British Etching Revival.
Detail
Posted in Seymour Haden |
Friday, May 14th, 2010
John Sloan (1871-1951), Arch Conspirators, etching, 1917. Morse 183, second state (of 2). Edition 100 (and in this rare instance, that’s how many impressions of the edition were printed). Signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil. [Signed and dated in the plate, lower left]. In excellent condition. Image size 4 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches (108 x 149 mm); sheet size 8 1/8 x 10 7/8 inches (206 x 276 mm).
A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 5/8 to 2 5/8 inches); Printed by Ernest Roth.
“A mid-winter party on the roof of Washington Square Arch. Among those present: Marcel Duchamp, Charles Ellis (actor), John Sloan, and Gertrude Drick (poet), instigator of the affair. A document was drawn up to establish the secession of Greenwich Village from the United States…. The door of the Arch stairway has since been kept locked.” Another article about the incident, “Arch Conspirators” by Margaret Christie (New York Tribune, Dec. 30, 1923), tells essentially the same story. It quotes Sloan at length in the author’s words and reproduces the 1st state of this etching. –Morse, p. 209
$3000
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Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Pieter Breughel the Elder (1525-1569), Temperance, engraving, c. 1560, engraved by Philips Galle, one of the Seven Virtues. References: Hollstein 138, Bastelaer 138, LeBeer 133, New Hollstein 315, first state (of 2), before the correction in the text changing the last i of the word “tenacitati” to an “e”. [Inscribed Bruegel lower right, and with the word “Temperantia on the hem of the woman’s dress, in the plate] In very good condition, a tiny rust mark upper left, trimmed at the plate mark and outside of the borderline all around, 8 3/4 x 11 3/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in an olive/black ink on old laid paper.
Breughel’s pen and ink drawing for Temperance is in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.
The translation of the Latin text: “We must look to it that, in the devotion to sensual pleasures, we do not become wasteful and luxuriant, but also that we do not, because of miserly greed, live in filth an ignorance.”
In contrast to the extreme behaviors found in some of Breughel’s compositions, everyone’s activities here are quite measured, and in fact many of them are literally measuring things: men measure the height of a pillar as well as the size of the earth and the distance between stars. In the lower right rather adult looking students study the alphabet, and an orchestra and chorus play diligently at the left. Temperantia herself seems to be holding various measuring devices while balancing a clock on her head.
Detail
Detail
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Auguste Brouet (1872-1941), L’Antiquaire (The Antiquarian), etching and drypoint, c. 1905, signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left. Reference: Geffroy/Boutitie 69, first state (of 2); G/B 68, second state (of 3). In very good condition, with margins (a deckle edge on the bottom), 3 7/16 x 5 5/16, the sheet 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, printed on a cream laid paper.
In the initial state our antiquarian is shown inside a shop, with various antiques hanging outside the shop. In this state the plate is reduced a bit – a print container is added just outside of the entryway, and the antiques hanging at the left are burnished out. The antiquarian has changed his profession; he now focuses on prints. In the third state the plate is reduced again, and in the blank space the name and address of a publisher, Frederick Gregoire, is added.
The catalogue raisonne for Brouet listed the first state separately, as G/B 68; G/B 69, which is shown as having two states, is actually the second and third states of G/B 68.
Brouet was a highly regarded etcher at beginning of the 19th Century and thereafter; he studied with Gustave Moreau and Auguste Delatre in his early years, and later worked with Degas and Whistler. But of course it’s clear that Rembrandt etchings were central to his aesthetic approach.
Detail
Posted in Auguste Brouet |
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
Auguste Brouet (1872-1941), L’Antiquaire (The Antiquarian), etching and drypoint, c. 1905, signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left. Reference: Geffroy/Boutitie 69, first state (of 2); G/B 68, second state (of 3). In very good condition, with margins (a deckle edge on the bottom), 3 7/16 x 5 5/16, the sheet 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, printed on a cream laid paper.
In the initial state our antiquarian is shown inside a shop, with various antiques hanging outside the shop. In this state the plate is reduced a bit – a print container is added just outside of the entryway, and the antiques hanging at the left are burnished out. The antiquarian has changed his profession; he now focuses on prints. In the third state the plate is reduced again, and in the blank space the name and address of a publisher, Frederick Gregoire, is added.
The catalogue raisonne for Brouet listed the first state separately, as G/B 68; G/B 69, which is shown as having two states, is actually the second and third states of G/B 68.
Brouet was a highly regarded etcher at beginning of the 19th Century and thereafter; he studied with Gustave Moreau and Auguste Delatre in his early years, and later worked with Degas and Whistler. But of course it’s clear that Rembrandt etchings were central to his aesthetic approach.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, May 10th, 2010
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Effet de Pluie (Rain Effect), 1879, etching and aquatint, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed 3e etat – no 3, and titled lower left margins. Reference: Delteil 24, sixth state (of 6). In very good condition, printed on an old cream laid paper (partial initials watermark), the full sheet, 6 3/8 x 8 3/8, the sheet 9 1/2 x 12 5/8 inches.
A very fine impression, printed with a light veil of plate tone in a brownish/black ink.
Effet de Pluie in the first state evidences only shadowy, murky shapes in aquatint only; as Pissarro worked on the plate he added lines in drypoint, converting these inchoate shapes into a haystack, trees, two peasants, and a field, thus establishing the interaction between areas of light and dark. He added the oblique lines indicating rain in the fifth state, and in the sixth state added the white rain lines against the dark aquatint of the peasants.
Effet de Pluie represents a high point of impressionist printmaking, a culmination of Pissarro’s collaboration with Degas in creating various new effects through inventive techniques.
Only 8-10 proofs are known of the sixth state, and about the same number in total of the prior states.
Detail
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Monday, May 10th, 2010
Felix Buhot (1847-1898), L’Hiver a Paris ou La Neige a Paris, 1879, etching, aquatint, drypoint, roulette. [signed and dated in the plate Felix Buhot Paris 1879]. Reference: Bourcard/Goodfriend 5th state (of 9). In excellent condition, on a cream laid Van Gelder Zonen paper (with the watermark), the full sheet, 9 3/8 x 13 5/8, the sheet 14 7/8 x 19 1/4 inches.
A fine impression; a published state before additional work was done primarily involving the dogs in the foreground.
Bourcard’s description of the states for this print are clarified by Goodfriend, who describes 9 states (Bourcard had only 5). Goodfriend notes that in the fourth state the aquatint in the lower skating scene and elsewhere is solid, but in the fifth state it is streaked; it is streaked in this impression. In addition the shading lines in the buildings at the top are extended beyond the borderline in this state.
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Posted in Felix Buhot |
Monday, May 10th, 2010
Felix Buhot (1847-1898), L’Hiver a Paris ou La Neige a Paris, 1879, etching, aquatint, drypoint, roulette. [signed and dated in the plate Felix Buhot Paris 1879]. Reference: Bourcard/Goodfriend 5th state (of 9). In excellent condition, on a cream laid Van Gelder Zonen paper (with the watermark), the full sheet, 9 3/8 x 13 5/8, the sheet 14 7/8 x 19 1/4 inches.
A fine impression; a published state before additional work was done primarily involving the dogs in the foreground.
Bourcard’s description of the states for this print are clarified by Goodfriend, who describes 9 states (Bourcard had only 5). Goodfriend notes that in the fourth state the aquatint in the lower skating scene and elsewhere is solid, but in the fifth state it is streaked; it is streaked in this impression. In addition the shading lines in the buildings at the top are extended beyond the borderline in this state.
Detail
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Posted in Felix Buhot |
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
James Whistler (1834-1903), Nocturne: Palaces, etching and drypoint with plate tone, 1879-80, signed with the butterfly on the tab and inscribed “imp.” Reference: Glasgow 200, Kennedy 202, seventh state (of 9). From the Twenty-Six Etchings or the Second Venice Set. In very good condition, on laid paper (trimmed by the artist to the platemark except for the tab), 11 3/4 x 7 7/8 inches.
A very fine atmospheric impression, printed in brown ink, carefully wiped to darken the water in the canal in the foreground and the sky toward the top.
In this state a row of fine lines above the roof at the left and along the border of the house and canal at the left have been burnished, thus enhancing the contrast between the roof and sky, and house and canal; the butterfly has yet to be added to the plate.
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. The lamp lighting the composition from within (a device borrowed from Rembrandt and also used in his Street at Saverne of 1858) is in this impression barely visible; in other impressions it is very bright. This impression is in some ways comparable to an impression (also of the seventh state) at the Art Gallery of Ontario used as both the front and back cover illustrations for Katherine A. Lochnan’s book The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler, although of course there are still substantial differences in the wiping of the plate tone. Indeed, differences in states for this print are slight, while differences in the wiping of the plate from one impression to another are vast.
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.”
POR
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Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
James McBey (1883-1959), Night in Ely Cathedral, etching and drypoint, 1915, signed in pen lower right and numbered lower left margins (XXXIII). Reference: Hardie 161, eighth state (of 8), from the edition of 76. In very good condition, with margins (cut irregularly at left edge), on a laid paper, 11 5/8 x 8, the sheet 13 1/4 x 9 7/8 inches.
A fine impression.
The composition of Night in Ely Cathedral appears to have been substantially completed in the first state, but McBey made successive alterations with burnishing, drypoint work, sharpening and clarifying certain elements such as the figure of the sacristan at the left, and the light from the gas jet.
Hardie describes the composition thus: The west porch of Ely Cathedral from the nave. The upper part and the whole of the west window are in deep shadow. A gas jet burns at the bottom of the pillars to the left. A sacristan, wearing a scull cap, is in the front.
Malcolm Salaman wrote that after completing the etching Isle of Ely ” McBey yielded to an entirely new and mystic inspiration, and compassed one of his most beautiful and spiritual efforts, Night in Ely Cathedral. The solemn mystery of the ancient fane by night, with the ages haunting its shadows, seems to have appealed the the depths of McBey’s nature, so that he brought his magic gifts of expression with reverend emotion to the interpretation, just as the religious builders devoted their work on the sacred edifice long, long ago. This masterly plate, with its wonder of peace, was McBey’s last before he was sent to France on war service at the beginning of 1916. “
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Monday, May 3rd, 2010
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Les Vingt Ans Fier (The Wild Twenty Years), etching and drypoint, 1931, signed in pencil lower right and annotated “e p d’artiste 10/0 (also signed in the plate). Ginestet and Pouillon 337, third state (of 3), a proof impression outside of the edition of 50. In very good condition, slight discoloration at bottom and top margin edges, printed with full margins on a cream BFK Rives wove paper, with deckle edges, 5 7/8 x 8 3/8, the sheet 9 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches.
A fine impression.
Les Vingt Ans Fier is based on lines from a poem by Francis Vielé-Griffin (published in a volume called La Partenza, 1899), in which the author takes leave of his youth, muses on his past, moves through a period of despair and hints of future joys.
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Friday, April 30th, 2010
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Fillette Assise Dans un Tub, etching and drypoint, 1908, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “essai” lower left margin. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E 231, before the edition of 35. In excellent condition, printed in black on a heavy cream wove paper, 9 1/2 x 8, the sheet 12 3/4 x 9 7/8 inches.
A fine impression, before Villon’s name and date in the plate lower right (and thus a first state of 2). In the final state Villon darkened the etching and drypoint work in addition to adding his name and date. This impression is a more delicately rendered version of the subject, printed with a veil of plate tone.
This is from the Minne series, a group of prints made by Villon in 1907-8, portraying the young daughter of a friend in various poses. Minne’s real name was Renee, and she achieved a sort of fame four years later when Villon made his landmark cubist prints of her. In this modernist/expressionist portrait Villon explores the enigmatic character of a young girl, a subject which held much fascination for him at this early stage in his career. Villon made two other etchings of Minne in a tub, in 1907 – these were somewhat sketchier and tentative; it is also interesting that we can see that Minne has grown a bit since those earlier efforts.
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Tuesday, April 6th, 2010
Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677), Adam Elsheimer, etching after a painting of Elsheimer by Jan Meyssens, 1649, with text and signatures as described below. Reference: Pennington 1397, third state (of 6). In generally good condition, on laid paper with wide margins (browning toward margin edges, repaired tear upper right margin). 6 1/4 x 4 1/2, the sheet 10 3/8 x 6 1/2 inches.
Provenance: Collection of Mrs. George A. Martin, then to Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio; de-acquistioned 2010.
A fine impression.
Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610) was an influential German painter, famed for some of his very small-scale studies, and for a number of major paintings such as his Tobias and the Angel, Stoning of St. Stephen (which influenced Rembrandt’s painting of the same subject), The Mocking of Ceres, and others. The engraver Hendrick Goudt’s prints after Elsheimer’s paintings brought fame to both Goudt and Elsheimer. After his death Elsheimer became very popular in England, and was a favorite of the Duke of Arundel, Hollar’s patron.
Jan Meyssens (1612-1670) was born in Belgium and spent most of his career in Holland, making paintings, prints, and publishing prints as well. He is known for a portrait of Hollar which Hollar etched himself, as well as portraits of others – portraits of painters such as that of Elsheimer appears to have been one of his specialties.
The first and second states of this print were published in 1649; the third state in 1661. In the second state corrections were made to the text below; in the third state the publisher’s address was changed and the notation W. Hollar fecit added (not by Hollar). This is a lifetime state; the fifth and sixth were posthumous.
Detail
Posted in Wenzel Hollar |
Monday, March 29th, 2010
Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Sitzander Akt (Nude Sitting), woodcut, 1918, signed in pencil lower right. Kruger H 207. In excellent condition, printed on a heavy tan wove paper with wide margins, 14 1/8 x 9 1/4, the sheet 16 1/4 x 21 1/4 inches.
A superb impression of this masterful woodcut, with strong contrasts.
Pechstein, one of the foremost German Expressionists, joined Der Brücke in 1906, and became the president of the Neue Secession in 1910. He traveled to Palau in the South Seas in 1914, but at the outbreak of WWI was interned in Japan, finding his way back to Germany only to be drafted and sent to the Western Front in 1916. He was released shortly thereafter after a nervous collapse in 1917.
Sitzander Akt, made just after Pechstein’s involvement in the War, reflects Pechstein’s long interest in “primitive” art and peoples, and may even have been made with sculpture tools he had brought back from Palau. The palm frond in the background, and the carved stool on which the nude sits – and of course the nude herself – indicate a tropical setting. Pechstein responded positively to the end of the war and the advent of the Weimar Republic – perhaps Sizander Akt is an expression, however ultimately futile, of hope in Germany’s future.
Detail
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Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Max Weber (1881-1961), Mother Love (Madonna and Child), color woodcut, Rubenstein 35, edition small, 1926. Signed in pencil. Annotated #3 in pencil, in the bottom left sheet corner.
Image size 4 7/8 x 2 1/8 inches (124 x 54 mm); sheet size 9 3/8 x 6 3/4 inches (238 x 171 mm)
A fine impression with good color, on tissue thin cream laid Japan, with full margins (2 to 2 1/2 inches). A repaired tear in the lower right sheet edge well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Attached to the original Downtown Gallery backing board with their date stamp verso FEB 6 1929.
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Friday, March 12th, 2010
James Ensor (1860-1949), Roman Victory, etching and drypoint, 1889, signed, dated and titled in pencil, countersigned in pencil verso [also signed in the plate]. References: Delteil 78, Croquez 78, Taevernier 78, Elesh 78, second state (of 2). In good condition (remains of prior hinging bottom margin recto, slight mat toning not affecting image), with margins, 6 11/16 x 9 1/16, the sheet 10 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches.
A fine impression, printed in black ink on a cream wove paper, with plate tone.
In the second state Ensor added a crowd of viewers and marchers lower left in drypoint, populated the fields in the background with a myriad of tiny marchers (including a troop on horseback and four tiny elephants), and finished the stormy sky.
The tiny windmill at the extreme right border indicates that this scene depicts Julius Caesar’s invasion and victory over Gaul in 57 B.C. Many late 19th Century artists were captivated by ancient Roman or Greek historical events; Ensor was not one of them – he regarded this obsession with disdain – and Roman Victory is one of his very rare explorations in this realm.
$4750
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Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
James Ensor (1860-1949), Ostend Fisherman, etching and drypoint, 1900, signed in pencil, dated lower right, titled lower left, countersigned and titled verso [also signed in the plate, and with the word Ostend]. References: Elesh 123, Taevernier 118, Delteil 118. First state (of 2). In good condition (slight toning, prior hinging verso, slight rubbing top verso, including a lovely fingerprint lower right margin edge), with full margins, 5 5/8 x 4, the sheet 10 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of this great rarity (we do not know of other impressions on the market). Printed in black on a cream/tan simile Japon paper. The impressions pictured in Elesh, Delteil, etc., are of the second state.
This first state print is delicately printed; the composition is complete but in the second state the print is reworked rather heavily to produce a darker image.
Ensor was interested in the fishermen of Ostende from an early age. This etching is surely based on a charcoal drawing Ensor made in the early 1880’s; another version was also made by his friend Willy Finch (Tournai, Musee des Beaux Arts). This etching shows a fisherman posing in Ensor’s studio, far from the natural environment which would have been the subject for most other artists. The style is of course close to that of many of Rembrandt’s etching portraits which Ensor studied and copied in his early years.
$3500
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
Francisco Goya (1746-1828) , Todos Caeran (All Will Fall), etching and burnished aquatint, 1799. Reference: Harris 54, Delteil 56. Plate 19 from the First Edition (of 12); the first edition size was approximately 300. The matrix in excellent condition, defects outside image (with the binding holes left, reinforced plate mark, repaired tears around edges, fold top corner).The full sheet, 8 1/2 x 5 3/4, the sheet 11 3/4 x 8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in sepia ink on a fine quality, soft but strong laid paper. In this impression the fine grain aquatint contrasts vividly with the highlights on the bird woman standing in the tree, the upper part of the praying woman at the left, and the sky behind the figures at the right, as indicated by Harris as characteristics of the fine impressions of the First Edition; in the subsequent (posthumous) editions the aquatint softens and breaks up, and the fine burnishing effects in the bird upper left disappear.
This plate refers to the bird hunting practice common in Goya’s time, but still employed in recent times, of setting up a wired bird anti-decoy or frightener in a tree which hunters could get to flap its wings. Smaller birds would fly below it, and would dive and scatter when the decoy fluttered. These smaller birds would then be caught in netting or twigs set up by the hunters.
In Goya’s print the bird at the top of the tree is a decoy, and is attracted by other birds. Commentators have noted this bird’s resemblance to the Dutchess of Alba, and the bird just behind it to Goya’s own self portrait (now in the Met in NY). An early text (the Ayala text) notes “soldiers, commoners, and monks, fly around a lady who is half-hen; they all fall, and the women hold them down by the wings, make them throw up and pull out their guts.” This is what’s happening at the bottom of the composition: two women (identified as prostitutes) work on a captured male bird – the bird is already plucked by one while the other pushes a rod into the bird’s anus; an older woman at the left prays. This illustrates the common fate of all those deluded by love: all must fall.
Goya’s commentary on this print: “And those who are about to fall will not take warning from the example of those who have fallen! But nothing can be done about it: all will fall.”
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Friday, February 26th, 2010
L'Arrivee du Poisson (Arrival of the Fishes), L. 706
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Quatre Images Bretonnes, album of 4 woodcuts, 1912-14, signed on the justification page and numbered 18. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 681, 695, 698, 706; second states (of 2), from the edition of 130 on Arches paper (there were an additional 10 issued on Japan, and L. 681, 695, and 698 were also issued in editions of 35-40 prior to the album). Including: the Title Page; justification page, index page, and the four woodcuts. In generally good condition, a nick on the cover edge, browning toward paper edges. The full sheets, printed in black on a wove Arches paper, the full sheets 22 1/4 x 19 1/2 inches.
Very good impressions of these early cubist works.
The album includes these woodcuts: Les Matelots (L. 681), 1912, 13 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches; Le Calvaire Breton (L. 695), 1913, 14 1/2 x 11 5/8 inches; La Rentree au Port (L. 698), 1913, 9 3/4 x 14 inches; L’Arrivee du Poisson (L. 706), 1914, 11 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches.
These works were done in the years 1912-1914, and so were separated chronologically in the Loyer catalogue of Laboureur’s graphic work; they were regrouped as a set for the Sylvain Laboureur catalogue.
The album is of substantial interest insofar as it documents a turning point in the influence of cubism on Laboureur’s work: in the earlier works (L. 681, 695) one sees the modernist imagery which Laboureur had begun to employ by this time, and in the only slightly later works (L. 698 of 1913 and L. 706 of 1914) one can see the blossoming of Laboureur’s personalized cubism. Indeed, La Rentree au Port, shown at the Salon d’Automne in 1913, was widely commented on by contemporary critics as influenced by cubism, while retaining the personal idiosyncracies that Laboureur was known for; the last woodcut (L. 706) is also a quite successful interpretation of cubism, again very different in means and manner from the first two cuts.
$850 the set of 4
Le Calvaire Breton (L. 693)
La Rentree au Port (L. 698)
Les Matelots Ivres (The Drunken Sailors) (L. 681)
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Monday, February 15th, 2010
John Sloan (American 1871 – 1954), Fashions of the Past, etching and aquatint, 1926, signed and titled by the artist in pencil (Morse 224 IV/IV), also signed by the printer. From the edition of 100 (of which75 were printed, according to Morse). Annotated: Peter Platt imp (Platt was an early, and one of Sloan’s favorite, printer). In very good condition, with wide margins, with the tack holes at outer margins for drying, as usual for impressions printed by Peter Platt; on wove paper, conservation matted. 7 7/8 x 9 3/4 inches, the sheet 12 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches.
A fine fresh impression of this evocative image.
The Fashions of the Past are evident both in the store window, and on the passing crowd. Sloan’s comment on this print: “A well-arranged shop window and the contrasting costumes of the passers-by, whose dress of the time will in turn become costumes of the past.” On one proof Sloan wrote the name of the store: Lord and Taylor.
Posted in John Sloan |
Monday, February 15th, 2010
John Sloan (1871-1954), The Green Hour (or Angna Enters in “The Green Hour”), etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “100 proofs” lower left [with the signature and date lower right, title lower left in the plate]. Reference: Morse 245, second state (of 2), of 90 printed. In very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 5 x 4, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches. Printed on a cream wove paper by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying holes around the edges.
A superb impression.
Peter Platt was one of Sloan’s favorite printers. He printed 25 impressions of The Green Hour.
Angna Enters (1897-1989) was a mime, dancer, artist, dramatist, composer and theatrical designer, and a Sloan colleague and possibly former student, since she studied at the Art Students League in New York after 1919 (Sloan taught there from about 1914 to 1924). He wrote: “I have made several etchings produced under the inspiration of the creative genius of Angna Enters. This one has given me great satisfaction.”
Detail
Posted in John Sloan |
Monday, February 15th, 2010
John Sloan (1871-1954), The Green Hour (or Angna Enters in “The Green Hour”), etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “100 proofs” lower left [with the signature and date lower right, title lower left in the plate]. Reference: Morse 245, second state (of 2), of 90 printed. In very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 5 x 4, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches. Printed on a cream wove paper by Peter Platt, with his characteristic drying holes around the edges.
A superb impression.
Peter Platt was one of Sloan’s favorite printers. He printed 25 impressions of The Green Hour.
Angna Enters (1897-1989) was a mime, dancer, artist, dramatist, composer and theatrical designer, and a Sloan colleague and possibly former student, since she studied at the Art Students League in New York after 1919 (Sloan taught there from about 1914 to 1924). He wrote: “I have made several etchings produced under the inspiration of the creative genius of Angna Enters. This one has given me great satisfaction.”
$1400
Detail
Posted in John Sloan |
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Le Gramophone: the woodcut
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Gramophone, 1918-21, woodcut – both the woodblock and a print from the block. The print is signed in pencil lower left, and numbered lower right (24/45) [also initialed in the block lower right]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 712, only state, total printing of 45 impressions. Both in excellent condition; the print on a cream wove paper, a nick at left edge, some handling folds in margins; the full sheet with deckle edges, both the print and block are 9 3/4 x 8 1/2, the sheet 17 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches. The block is about 3/4 inch thick.
Provenance: the block: Henri Petiet (with his stamp verso, Lugt supplement 2021a)
A fine impression of both the print and block. The latter is black, as inked, with a white/chalk surface where the block was cut.
Though Laboureur worked on this block starting in 1918, according to his notes, he finished it in 1921, and took impressions in 1922. But the notion of using the gramophone (a prequel to the record player, which came before all sorts of current devices for playing music) as the basis for compositions came as early as 1916, when he created an engraving (L. 156) with a similar composition as a frontispiece for X-M Boulestin’s Aspects Sentimentale du Front Anglais (and of course this is WWI, soldiers playing records, drinking). In this volume Boulestin wrote: “Ah! Le precieux instant d’ardeur sentimentale! Jamais, jamais nous n’avions tant aime la vie! Mais quand se tait le magique gramophone, on tousse, on se secoue et on se verse un autre whisky-and-soda. L’emotion s’est enfuie”
Le Gramophone: the wood block
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Monday, February 8th, 2010
Léopold Survage (Moscow 1879 – 1968 Paris, Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite – 1946, wood engraving, signed and dated lower right [also initialed LS in the block, lower right], numbered lower left, on cream wove paper with a ram’s head watermark, with wide margins, 7 1/2 x 6, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches. In excellent condition.With the blindstamp LE LIVRE ET SES AMIS lower right sheet. From the presumed edition of 100.
A fine clear impression.
This remarkable work, influenced by cubism and futurism, is ablaze with imagery which is, perhaps, exemplifying the title of the piece – Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite (Our Field of Action is Limited) – which is actually carved into the block at the left.
Survage was influenced by many figures in the European Modernist movement, from Cezanne to Picasso; starting in Russia, and then moving to Paris (where he studied with Matisse, later roomed with Modigliani). He moved on to become a famed muralist, painter, set designer, and film maker.
Detail
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Monday, February 8th, 2010
Léopold Survage (Moscow 1879 – 1968 Paris, Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite – 1946, wood engraving, signed and dated lower right [also initialed LS in the block, lower right], numbered lower left, on cream wove paper with a ram’s head watermark, with wide margins, 7 1/2 x 6, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches. In excellent condition.With the blindstamp LE LIVRE ET SES AMIS lower right sheet. From the presumed edition of 100.
A fine clear impression.
This remarkable work, influenced by cubism and futurism, is ablaze with imagery which is, perhaps, exemplifying the title of the piece – Notre Champ D’Action Est Limite (Our Field of Action is Limited) – which is actually carved into the block at the left.
Survage was influenced by many figures in the European Modernist movement, from Cezanne to Picasso; starting in Russia, and then moving to Paris (where he studied with Matisse, later roomed with Modigliani). He moved on to become a famed muralist, painter, set designer, and film maker.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Limehouse, etching, 1859. References: Glasgow 48, fifth state (of 6), Kennedy 40, third state (of 3), signed with the butterfly in pencil in the lower margin. [Also signed and dated in the plate.]With margins, 5 x 7 7/8 inches, the sheet 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches. Published as no. 12 in A Series of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames and Other Subjects, otherwise known as the Thames Set. In good condition apart from a soft diagonal fold in the sky.
A very fine impression, in black ink on a thin Japan paper.
Provenance: Dr. John W. Randall (cf. Lugt 2130), without his mark, annotated on the mat.
Limehouse, the entrance to the West Indies Docks, lies opposite the Surrey Commercial Docks in Rotherhithe, along the lower Thames.
It’s unusual to find the signed butterfly (or any pencil signature) on the early London etchings, but it is known that Whistler signed a few some years after they were done, after the time he started using the butterfly signature. This butterfly dates from 1889-90 (cf. description of this impression, Glasgow catalogue).
Posted in James Whistler |
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Rue de Géricault à Rouen, lithograph, 1896, signed in blue pencil lower right margin, titled center, and inscribed “Ep defi No 11” left [also signed in the plate in reverse]. Reference: Delteil 173, only state, from the group of about 21 impressions, a few of which were not signed. There were no posthumous impressions, and the cancelled plate is in the Bibliotheque Nationale. In good condition apart from spots of staining or foxing in margins, with margins, 7 1/4 x 5 1/2, the sheet 12 7/8 x 9 3/4 inches.
A fine impression, printed on green-Ingres paper affixed to a white wove.
Pissarro also made an etching of this section of Rue de Géricault (Delteil 120); the view is generally similar to the lithograph but is perhaps more realistic, less atmospheric than the lithographic version.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), La Petite Passion (The Small Passion), etchings, 1694, the complete set of 12. References: Lieure 537-548, Meaume 19-33. First states (of two and three), L. 542 second state (of 3). In generally good condition, on old laid paper, with narrow margins or trimmed on the platemark, slight thin spots, occasional soiling, prior hinging verso, L. 547 tiny loss lower right edge. 3 1/4 x 2 3/8 inches.
A very fine crisp early set, all before numbers, all first states except L542 (the first state of which is exceedingly rare).
Provenance: Sotheby’s New York, Sale of Old Master Prints, 11/14/81
Lieure quotes Mariette saying that “these twelve small prints are among the most beautiful things that Callot drew after returning from Italy.” Bouchot, who referred to this series as remarkable, wrote that “one could hardly believe that in the space of seven centimeters high and five wide the artist had been able to develop his conception so completely, while missing nothing.”
These compositions are unframed by borders; Callot frames the action by architectural or natural devices, giving the central figures strength through a heightened line, and giving the composition depth by depicting figures and buildings in a lighter context behind the action. Astonishingly, each of these compositions would “work” superbly in a much larger format.
The Flagellation
The Presentation to the People
The Crown of Thorns
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, January 25th, 2010
Georg Pencz (1500-50) engraving, c. 1540, Abraham and Sarah (Sarah Presenting Hagar to Abraham). Reference: Bartsch 1, Landau 1, only state. [titled Sarah/Abraham and initialed in the plate with the interweaving PG]. In good condition, slight time discoloration (graphite verso), with thread margins, 50 x 85 mm, 2 x 2 3/8 inches.
Provenance: unidentified collector’s stamp verso
A very good impression with strong details.
Pencz was one of the German Little Masters, the Northern Renaissance engravers known for their small scale engravings.
In this engraving, the first of five Pencz made of the story of Abraham, we see his wife Sarah, unable at that point to have children, introducing Abraham to her maid Hagar, an Egyptian, who Sarah suggested might bear Abraham a child (Genesis 16). This is obviously a moving moment – Abraham and Sarah look at each other, while Sarah has her arms on the shoulders of both of them.
Posted in Georg Pencz |
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Hans Burgkmair (1459-1519), The Old White King on the Journey to His Bride, painted woodcut, 1514-16. Reference: Bartsch 80-(224) 6, from the History of Emperor Maximilian I. In excellent condition, on old laid paper, 8 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches.
A brilliantly colored impression, with the colors vibrant and fresh.
The History of the Weisskunig (White King) is an autobiography in the style of an illustrated novel without words. Although it is the story of Emperor Maximilian I all the characters have symbolic names. The White King is the name Maximilian chose for himself, as it both stands for whiteness (purity) and is associated with the word for wisdom (Weisheit).
Hans Burgkmair, the eminent Augsburg painter and printmaker who was in effect Maximilian’s official court artist, was instrumental in the development of the chiaroscuro print, and Landau and Parshall argue that he was in fact the inventor of the tone block (cf. The Renaissance Print, David Landau & Peter Parshall, Yale, 1996). Of course the present print was printed (most likely by his key collaborator Jost de Negher) in black and white, and then painted; despite the development of colored printmaking, very early woodcuts such as those of Burgkmair’s would frequently be painted contemporaneously as well as later (and David Landau has confirmed that the coloring of this print is contemporary).
Relatively few painted old master prints have survived and are seen today either in museum exhibits or in collections, and it perhaps their rarity which has made them a bit of an enigma to those in the art world. The superb exhibit of painted prints and its accompanying volume (Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color, Susan Dackerman, Baltimore, 2003) has served to undergird the centrality and value – both historical and aesthetic – of the old master painted print.
This is one of a bound group of old master prints, including other woodcuts by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein and others. Many of these prints have the mark of the eminent collector Karl Edward von Liphart (Lugt 1651) verso. We are currently doing research on the collection so it is not on the market as yet.
Posted in Hans Burgkmair |
Friday, January 15th, 2010
Hans Burgkmair (1459-1519), Council of the Swiss and Swabian War, painted woodcut, 1514-16. Reference: Bartsch 80-(224) 162, from the History of Emperor Maximilian I. In excellent condition, on old laid paper, 8 3/4 x 7 5/8 inches.
A fine impression, with the colors vibrant and fresh.
The History of the Weisskunig (White King) is an autobiography in the style of an illustrated novel without words. Although it is the story of Emperor Maximilian I all the characters have symbolic names. The White King is the name Maximilian chose for himself, as it both stands for whiteness (purity) and is associated with the word for wisdom (Weisheit).
Hans Burgkmair, the eminent Augsburg painter and printmaker who was in effect Maximilian’s official court artist, was instrumental in the development of the chiaroscuro print, and Landau and Parshall argue that he was in fact the inventor of the tone block (cf. The Renaissance Print, David Landau & Peter Parshall, Yale, 1996). Of course the present print was printed (most likely by his key collaborator Jost de Negher) in black and white, and then painted; despite the development of colored printmaking, very early woodcuts such as those of Burgkmair’s would frequently be painted contemporaneously as well as later (and David Landau has confirmed that the coloring of this print is contemporary).
Relatively few painted old master prints have survived and are seen today either in museum exhibits or in collections, and it perhaps their rarity which has made them a bit of an enigma to those in the art world. The superb exhibit of painted prints and its accompanying volume (Painted Prints: The Revelation of Color, Susan Dackerman, Baltimore, 2003) has served to undergird the centrality and value – both historical and aesthetic – of the old master painted print.
This is one of a bound group of old master prints, including other woodcuts by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein and others. Many of these prints have the mark of the eminent collector Karl Edward von Liphart (Lugt 1651) verso. We are currently doing research on the collection so it is not on the market as yet.
Posted in Hans Burgkmair |
Friday, January 8th, 2010
Hendrik Bary (1640-1707), Old Woman Emptying Pot Throught the Window, etching and engraving, after the Frans van Mieris (1635-1681)painting “Goore Besje” (Sleazy Bess), c. 1670. Reference: Hollstein 10, fourth state (of 5); Wurzbach 6, third state (of 4), after the addition of the inscription J. Tangenas exc. In very good condition, on old laid paper with a Foolscap watermark, small margins, 10 1/8 x 7 1/2 inches.
A very good impression.
Simon Schama’s discussion of Dutch paintings such as this one in his Embarrassment of Riches is on point; he notes: “To judge from their art there were no wrinkles quite like Dutch wrinkles.” Of this print specifically he notes: “Frans van Mieris’s “Sleazy Bess” is despicable because, her honor lost, she throws her own filth on “respectable heads.” But her vileness is so visibly written in her “wrinkled hide” that the legend below the print orders her “away from our sight.”
Detail
Posted in Hendrick Bary |
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Jean- Louis Forain (1852-1931), Similitudes, etching and drypoint, not signed [signed in the plate upper right], 1880, from the total edition of 545, on wove paper, in generally good condition (slight toning), the frontispiece for J.K. Huysman’s Croquis Parisiens, published by Henri Vaton, 5 5/8 x 3 3/4, the sheet 11 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches.
A fine impression.
Forain was an impressionist painter and printmaker; influenced by Daumier as well as Degas, he depicted law courts as well as lovely ladies.
Posted in Jean Louis Forain |
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Clifford Isaac Addams (1876-1942), Soho Alley, etching and drypoint, 1912, signed in pencil lower right and annotated “imp A” lower left [initialed A in the plate lower right and dated 1912 lower left]. In excellent condition, printed on cream wove paper with the partial watermark GM, with margins, 4 7/8 x 13, the sheet 9 x 16 3/8 inches.
A fine impression.
Addams was born in Woodbury New Jersey, near Philadelphia, and attended Drexel Institute there, won a Philadelphia Academy Cresson Traveling Scholarship, and entered Whistler’s Academy in Paris in 1899. There Whistler introduced Addams to his wife-to-be, Inez Bate; they were married in 1900, and lived in London – where he created Soho Alley – from 1905 until 1914.
In the early 1900’s London’s Soho district housed working class Italian immigrants; this series of shops is similar to many of the Whistler shop-front prints such as T.A. Nash’s Fruit Shop. The horizontal format is comparable to many Whistler prints (such as Long Venice) and pastels as well. The density of the etching work may be compared to the inking of Whistler’s Amsterdam prints.
Soho Alley was exhibited and discussed in the famous exhibit (at the Boston MFA and the Philadelphia MA) and catalogue The Stamp of Whistler.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), L’Ivrogne, lithograph, 1834 [with initials in the plate]. Reference: Daumier Register 189, second state (of 2), with letters verso but before/without text. As published in Charivari. In generally good condition, trimmed rather closely and irregularly, edges browned, 10 7/8 x 8 3/4, the sheet 12 x 9 1/8 inches.
A good impression of this exceedingly rare print.
This is a Daumier print without an explanatory title, thus perhaps justifying my unabashedly quoting the various theories about the print as related by the Daumier Register: ” The title of this print might be: “The drunkard” or “Consequences of a quarrel”. There are different interpretations of this theme by various authors: Champfleury and Delteil are identifying the subject as a quarrel at the Barrière du Maine (today Place Bienvenue). Jean Laran simply finds the print “strange”, while Passeron finds some hidden political significance in it. He assumes that the missing, explanatory text had been suppressed by the censor. Provost suggests that this print shows the victim of an encounter with the police.
There exist only 3 known copies of the “sur blanc” edition. Only few prints originating from the Charivari with the text “au verso” can be found.”
- Detail
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), L’Ivrogne, lithograph, 1834 [with initials in the plate]. Reference: Daumier Register 189, second state (of 2), with letters verso but before/without text. As published in Charivari. In generally good condition, trimmed rather closely and irregularly, edges browned, 10 7/8 x 8 3/4, the sheet 12 x 9 1/8 inches.
A good impression of this exceedingly rare print.
This is a Daumier print without an explanatory title, thus perhaps justifying my unabashedly quoting the various theories about the print as related by the Daumier Register: ” The title of this print might be: “The drunkard” or “Consequences of a quarrel”. There are different interpretations of this theme by various authors: Champfleury and Delteil are identifying the subject as a quarrel at the Barrière du Maine (today Place Bienvenue). Jean Laran simply finds the print “strange”, while Passeron finds some hidden political significance in it. He assumes that the missing, explanatory text had been suppressed by the censor. Provost suggests that this print shows the victim of an encounter with the police.
There exist only 3 known copies of the “sur blanc” edition. Only few prints originating from the Charivari with the text “au verso” can be found.”
$700
- Detail
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
Guitar Player
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Three Gobbis, etchings, 1616. References: Lieure 416, 420, 426, second states (of 2, and thus probably posthumous, but no less whimsical for that), three from the set of 20. In generally good condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark (420 on the platemark at bottom; 420 with slight staining; each with remains of prior hinging verso), app. 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.
Provenance: unidentified collector (tiny oval chop mark at bottom of each; letters not discernible)
Very good impressions of these comical figures.
The three figures (with loose translations) are:
Lieure 416: L’homme au gros dos orne d’une rangee de boutons (man with large back, ornamented with a range of buttons)
Lieure 420: Le jouer de luth (the lute player)
Lieure 426: Le cancal jouant de la guitar (the knock-kneed guitar player)
Note: These prints are not for sale.
The Lute Player
L’homme au gros dos
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Asperges et Radii, engraving, state 4
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Asperges et Radis, engraving, 1928, impressions of each of the four states of the engraving, and the preliminary pencil drawing (in reverse, see illustration below). Each of the engravings signed and numbered, the drawing initialled and dated. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 384, four states, about 75 impressions printed in all four states, 35 in the edition in the fourth state. 7 x 9 1/2 inches, 165 x 225 mm.
Provenance: Henri Petiet, with his initials (HMP) stamp verso (not in Lugt) states 2 and 4.
The drawing is 6 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches, in pencil, in reverse. The drawing was reproduced in the Godefroy catalogue raisonne of the Laboureur prints, page. 29.
State 1: signed in pencil and numbered 4/7, in good condition, on a green wove paper.
State: 2: signed in pencil, numbered 2/8, with lines added to the bottles, under the radishes at left, above radishes on left, and shading lines aded throughout. On cream wove paper, with the HMP stamp verso.
State 3: pencil signed, numbered 8/9, added shading behind asparagus at left, added strokes at bottom and under leaf at bottom.
State 4: signed and numbered 12/35, cream wove, with the monogram, some additional flecks of engraving on radishes, and outside shadowning; soft folds.
A fine set, all progress proofs and the drawing, for one of Laboureur’s iconic images.
$8500 set of 5
Asperges et Radi, the drawing for the engraving (in reverse)
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Erie R.R. Yards, etching, 1929, signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 87, fifth state (of 6). In very good condition, printed on a cream laid paper, with margins, 9 x 12, the sheet 10 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches.
A brilliant black impression of this great rarity.
Two impressions were printed in this state.
On the size of Marsh’s lifetime editions, his famous quote explains the situation: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print.” Marsh also occasionally numbered his prints with large edition sizes, often suggesting an edition of 50, as in this impression (numbered 8/50). But it appears from the writing on the number that this was an afterthought, and that the number 8 corresponds to the original numbering. Sasowsky notes that Marsh printed impressions 10 through 17 of the final state, 8 and 9 of the penultimate state (this impression would be the 8), and numbers 1 through 7 in earlier states. Some of these had the number /50 added. Whatever the number printed, this print is quite rare; in fact we know of no other impressions to appear on the print market in the past 25 years.
A Marsh lithograph with the same title (Sasowsky 18) but a completely different composition was published 1928. The composition of the etching is similar to that of Eries R.R. Locos Watering (S. 155) and to a painting Locomotive Watering in the collection of Mrs. Reginald Marsh; there is also a related drawing in the Fogg Art Museum.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ecstasy (alternate title: Leda), 1916, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Price 165, Czestochowski 30, third state (of 3). Edition size unknown but small. In very good condition, the full sheet, printed on a thin ivory wove paper, 2 3/4 x 4, the sheet 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A very fine impression of this rare drypoint, printed in black ink with the drypoint burr extraordinarily rich.
One of the earliest of Davies’ modernistic experiments, created at a time when Davies was generally regarded as the preeminent American artist of his generation. After the Armory Show of 1913, Davies experimented with various modernist and cubist perspectives; Ecstacy is one of the earliest and most successful of these explorations.
Marsden Hartley said of Davies: Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation with each other.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ecstasy (alternate title: Leda), 1916, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Price 165, Czestochowski 30, third state (of 3). Edition size unknown but small. In very good condition, the full sheet, printed on a thin ivory wove paper, 2 3/4 x 4, the sheet 9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A very fine impression of this rare drypoint, printed in black ink with the drypoint burr extraordinarily rich.
One of the earliest of Davies’ modernistic experiments, created at a time when Davies was generally regarded as the preeminent American artist of his generation. After the Armory Show of 1913, Davies experimented with various modernist and cubist perspectives; Ecstacy is one of the earliest and most successful of these explorations.
Marsden Hartley said of Davies: Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation with each other.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Ecstasy (alternate title: Leda), 1916, drypoint, with the stamp and initials NMD [Niles Davies, a descendant] lower right. Reference: Price 165, Czestochowski 30, first state (of 3, but cf discussion). Edition size unknown but small. In very good condition, printed on a very thin cream wove paper, the sheet printed in the manner of chine colle, on a backing card, full sheet, printed on a thin ivory wove paper, 3 7/8 x 3 inches, the full sheet 8 x 7 1/4 inches.
This impression is about 1/8 inch wider than the later state impressions described by Czestochowski (as well as our later state impression, described in an adjoining web-site entry).
A very fine impression of the first state, with substantial burr, and painted over by Davies in brown, blue, black as a guide to further states.
One of the earliest of Davies’ modernistic experiments, created at a time when Davies was generally regarded as the preeminent American artist of his generation. After the Armory Show of 1913, Davies experimented with various modernist and cubist perspectives; Ecstacy is one of the earliest and most successful of these explorations.
Marsden Hartley said of Davies: Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation with each other.
Detail
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies, Up-Rising, soft ground etching and aquatint on a cream laid paper, 1919, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 78, second state (of 3). In good condition, with margins. From a small edition, 6 x 9, the sheet 8 3/8 x 12 1/4 inches.
A fine atmospheric impression.
The first state of this print was before the aquatint; it was in soft ground etching only (the third state was printed in color by Frank Nankivell in 1924).
At this stage of his career Davies was experimenting with modernism in his printmaking; he had developed substantial expertise in sophisticated printmaking techniques (here effectively using soft ground and aquatint), and was fusing the cubism which interested him in the years after the 1912 Armory Show (he was a primary organizer of the show), with the symbolism that had led him to be regarded as America’s most distinguished artist prior to that. His printmaking continues to be one of the most interesting areas of his work.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Resurrection (aka Flying Figures; Border of the Lake), drypoint, 1916, signed with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 35, third state (of 3), with the aquatint. The total printing was unknown but small. With margins, printed on a blue/green laid paper, in good condition, 3 x 5, the sheet 5 x 8 inches.
A fine impression, with the complex aquatint layering contrasting effectively.
Aquatint was added in the second state to many areas of the plate except the figure; in the third state aquatint was added to the figure.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Resurrection (aka Flying Figures; Border of the Lake), drypoint, 1916, signed with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 35, first state (of 3), before aquatint. The total printing was unknown but small. With margins, printed on a very thin wove paper, in good condition, 3 x 5, the sheet 6 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches.
A fine proof impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint work, printed with a veil of plate tone overall.
Aquatint was added in the second state to many areas of the plate except the figure; in the third state aquatint was added to the figure.
Czestochowski notes that this print was probably number six in the October 1916 exhibit of the New York Society of Etchers.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669), The Cavalry Fight, etching, ca. 1632. Reference: Bartsch 117 [unsigned, undated], second state (of 2), in good condition, 4 3/16 x 3 1/4 inches.
Provenance: ex. Coll Earl of Aylesford, London and Packington (Lugt 58). One of the most distinguished Rembrandt collections.
A fine clear impression of this very rare little plate. (The plate is not known to have survived Rembrandt.)
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Afternoon Promenade, soft ground etching and preliminary transfer drawing, ca. 1881. Reference: Breeskin 33, second (final) state. Printed on laid paper, watermark ARCHES. Also the transfer drawing for Afternoon Promenade, pencil on thin wove paper. The etching 11 x 8 1/2, the drawing on paper 12 1/2 x 16 inches.
Provenance for the etching: Edgar Degas, Paris (Lugt 657)
Provenance for drawing and etching: Robert Hartshorne, New York (Lugt 2215b), thence by descent
The drawing is mentioned by Breeskin under no. 33.
Drawing - recto
Drawing - verso
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Entreat (aka Nude with Uplifted Arms), mezzotint, 1927, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 217, only state. Edition unspecified, total printing unknown but small. In good condition, printed on a cream wove paper, with margins, 6 x 4, the sheet 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches.
A very good impression of this rarity.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Fresia (aka Portrait), drypoint on zinc, 1916-17, signed in pencil lower margin. Reference: Czestochowski 37, only state, edition unspecified, total printing unknown but small. In good condition apart from a small hole to the left of the signature, slight paper rippling. 3 1/2 x 2 1/4, the sheet 7 x 4 1/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed on a very thin laid paper.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Torment, soft ground etching with aquatint and roulette, 1919-20, signed with the estate stamp lower right, and signed by the printer Frank A. Nankivell (and inscribed “Printer”) lower left. Reference: Czestochowski 102, fourth state (of 4). In generally good condition apart from light staining toward the top of the image, and light staining at the top margin edge, a crease in the right margin. With margins, 7 13/16 x 11 7/8, the sheet 9 3/8 x 13 5/8 inches.
A fine impression.Printed on thin laid paper with the watermark Vassier.
Czestochowski notes that this print was never published by Davies. Impressions were printed in 1929 by Nankivell, and we presume that this is one of those impressions.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Mirror of Illusion (aka The Mirror; Maya; Mirror No. 2), drypoint, signed with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 31, first state (of 2). In generally good condition, with margins (creasing and folds in margins, browning toward edges), 6 3/8 x 8 3/8, the sheet 8 7/8 x 11 1/4 inches.
A fine proof impression of the first state, printed with a heavy plate tone. In the first state the design is made with drypoint only, and the platemaker’s name is clearly visible on the middle right margin.
The platemaker’s inscription reads: John Sellers and Sons. 151 Arundel Street, Sheffield. In the second state the name/label was obscured, and the design was expanded, including the addition of soft ground and roulette to the figures and the background.
The composition for Mirror of Illusion was first created for a painting of the same name done much earlier and exhibited in 1909. The composition reflects Davies’s interest in parallelism, or the repetition of figures. Czestochowski quotes Davies on this (p. 24): “I love clarity in a painting and this is why I love Parallelism. In many of my paintings I have chosen four or five figures in order to express this feeling because I know that impressionism is enhanced by the repetition of one and the same object.”
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Monday, December 21st, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Tartessians, soft ground etching with aquatint, 1919-20, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 96, second state (of 2), total printing unknown but small. In good condition, slight mat toning, printed on a cream wove paper, with margins, 4 7/8 x 3 1/4, the sheet 10 7/8 x 7 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, with the aquatint tones contrasting effectively.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), By the Sea (aka Idyll), soft ground etching and aquatint, 1919, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 72, fourth state (of 5; see discussion below), edition about 21. In very good condition, printed in black on a green laid paper, 8 7/8 x 5 7/8, the sheet 10 1/4 x 8 inches.
A fine impression.
Davies put this complex composition through some extensive state changes, adding aquatint in the second state, grinding it down on the figures in the third state while adding some tint in the third and fourth state. This impression may represent a state later than the fourth since it appears to have aquatint in the sky to the left of the large figure, and slighter aquatint in the sky to the right, which does not clearly appear in C’s illustration of the fourth state. It is in this fourth state that the “branchlike mass of coarse grain” is added about the head of the central figure – this addition balances the composition but does not appear to correspond to any structure found or visible in nature, although it does appear natural enough in aesthetic terms.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Round of Summer (aka Four Figures), soft ground etching, 1919, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 91, first state (of 3), trial proofs only in this state. With margins, extensive wrinkling, tape on margins verso (showing through at top margin), soiling (mostly in margins), printed on light wove paper, 7 7/8 x 5 7/8, the sheet 11 x 7 3/8 inches.
A good impression; the rough condition indicates that this is a trial proof.
In later states aquatint was added to cover the figures, foreground, and the tree upper middle; this state is interesting for its playful sketchlike quality.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Afternoon, transfer lithograph, 1920, signed in pencil lower left. Reference: Czestochowski 188, only state, from the edition of 25 (another 300 unsigned proofs cut down to the image were distributed by Weyhe Gallery as gallery souvenirs); one of a set of eight lithographs, in generally good condition, some light fox spots mostly verso, the slightest toning, the full sheet, printed on a stiff cream wove paper, 7 1/2 x 6, the sheet 15 x 10 7/8 inches, archival matting.
A good impression.
Printer: George C. Miller.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Strength in Shadow, soft ground etching with drypoint, roulette and aquatint, 1919, with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 90, only state, total printing unknown but small. In good condition apart from several creases across the middle of the image (a result of the printing process?). Printed on laid paper, with wide margins, 6 5/8 x 4 5/8, the sheet 12 x 9 5/8 inches.
A very good impression
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Greek Robe, soft-ground etching and aquatint, 1918-19, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 62, fourth state (of 4), total printing unknown but small. An impression on cream/yellow wove paper, with light staining, some soft creases, soiling in margins, with margins cut irregularly and with thin areas verso, 11 7/8 x 7 15/16, the sheet 14 3/4 x 10 inches.
A good impression of this rarely encountered print, with the aquatint shading and differentiation apparently stronger than that pictured in Czestochowski for this state.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Contemplation (alternate title: Ishlamih Group), drypoint on zinc, 1917, with the estate stamp lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 53, only state, total printing unknown but small. In good condition, with margins, 2 7/8 x 6 1/8, the sheet 7 x 9 inches. Printed on a very light laid paper, with extensive cataloguing notes in pencil verso bottom.
A fine impression, printed with much drypoint burr, and an overall veil of plate tone.
We also have a working proof of Contemplation (illustrated below) printed on a light laid paper, with inky fingerprints in the margins (going into the image lower right), an ink spot just above the upper platemark, with irregular margins, 2 7/8 x 6 1/8, the sheet 4 ¼ x 6 5/8 inches. Printed on a very light laid paper, with extensive cataloguing notes in pencil verso bottom.
This lightly printed working proof impression, although with all the details of the better printed impressions, lacks their richness and most of the drypoint burr; it thus may have been printed after, rather than before the richer impressions of the same state.
Working proof impression
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Pompeian Veil, soft ground etching with aquatint, with pencil additions, 1918-1919, with the stamp signature. Reference: Czestochowski 63, fifth state (or a state between the 4th and 5th) of 5. In generally good condition, soiling and soft folding in margins, 5 3/8 x 3 ¼, the sheet 9 7/8 x 7 ¼ inches. Printed on a cream/yellow wove paper.
A good impression, with pencil additions to the nose, hair and hand of the figure; these additions were then made in the plate for Czestochowski’s fifth state. Only trial impressions were made of the fifth state.
Pompeian Veil went through extensive changes through its five states; the plate was substantially reduced in size in the third state, and then again in the fifth.
Detail, showing pencil work on profile and hand
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Venus (alternative title: Spindrift), mezzotint, 1927, with the estate stamp lower right, signed in pencil by Frank A. Nankivell lower left and inscribed “Printer”. Reference: Czestochowski 218, first state (of 2), edition unspecified, total printing unknown. In good condition apart from light fox marks in margins, with margins, printed on laid paper with a bunch of grapes (?) watermark, 9 15/16 x 5 15/16, the sheet 13 ½ x 8 ¾ inches.
A very good impression of this rarely encountered print; no impressions signed by Davies are known.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Friday, December 18th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Retrospection, drypoint on zinc, 1916-17, with the estate stamp lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 40, first state (of 2). Total printing unknown but small. In good condition, with margins (a soft fold upper left margin away from image, paper very thin along the left platemark where the plate was unburnished). 4 7/8 x 3 3/8, the sheet 8 ½ x 6 ¼ inches.
A fine, delicately printed impression, printed on thin cream wove paper with plate tone, the central area of the figures wiped selectively so that this area is brighter and whiter, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
This is one among the small number of cubist oriented prints Davies created after the Armory Show. Here Davies portrays a group of nudes – a long term subject – in modernist terms reminiscent of Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase (the famous painting shown at the Armory Show).
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
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Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) Waldkirche, 2, 1920, Woodcut.
Prasse 220. Edition proofs only; 2nd state (of 3). Signed in pencil, lower left. Numbered 2028 (the artist’s inventory number) in the artist’s hand, in the bottom center margin.
Image size 5 11/16 x 4 1/2 inches (144 x 114 mm); sheet size 9 3/4 x 6 5/8 inches (248 x 168 mm).
A fine, black impression, on tissue-thin cream laid Japan, with full margins (7/8 to 2 1/2 inches), in excellent condition. A rare 2nd state proof; Prasse cites only one known proof in this state, on oatmeal-tan carbon-copy paper.
No. 10 of portfolio, Zwölf Holzschnitte von Lyonel Feininger, 1921.
Collections: Cambridge BRM; Darmstadt BA, Hlm; Hamburg; Kaiserslautern; Krefeld; Philadelphia PMA; Sarbrücken.
$5500
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Thursday, December 17th, 2009
Cornelius Schut (1597-1655), Madonna and Child, etching, c. 1650, [signed lower left in the plate]. Reference: Hollstein 35. In very good condition, trimmed just outside of the borderline (but possibly on or inside the platemark) all around, on laid paper, 5 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches.
Provenance: ex Collection Thomas Graff (Lugt 1092a, with his stamp verso)
A very good impression.
Schut, born in Antwerp, is closely associated with his teacher Rubens. Discussing the Rubens school Arthur Hind wrote (in his History of Engraving and Etching) that “works of a similar type [to Rubens], combining breadth of style with a light and open manner of etching, are best represented in Rubens’s pupil Cornelius Schut.”
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Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Air
Crispin de Passe (1565-1637), The Four Elements, the set of four engravings after drawings by Maarten de Vos (1532-1603), c. 1600. References: Francken 1130-1133; Hollstein 524-7. Three impressions with an Eagle watermark, one with a Cross of Lorraine. In generally good condition (Aqua with margins, with slight discoloration, traces of a vertical fold; Terra trimmed just inside the platemark, a small repaired slit lower right; Aer with thread margins; Ignis with narrow margins, a central stain, small printer’s crease, tip of lower left corner made up. Approximately 8 x 8 1/4 inches.
Provenance: Claude-Augustin Mariette, 1687 (Lugt 1786, inscribed on Aqua)
Sold at Christie’s New York, 5/8/83, to current owner.
Very good impressions of these delightful images.
Maarten de Vos was a leading Antwerp painter and draftsman who adopted a mannerist idiom after traveling to Italy; Crispin de Passe was a talented engraver whose career was greatly assisted by his marriage to Magdalena de Bock, a niece (by marriage) of the prolific painter and designer Martin de Vos—the great majority of de Passe’s early prints follow designs by de Vos. For a most readable work on the de Passe family print lovers are encouraged to read Ilja Veldman’s Crispijn de Passe and his Progeny.
Fire
Water
Earth
Detail, from Fire
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
Ira Moskowitz (1912-1985), Dusk-Zimapan, 1940, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right, titled lower left, from the (presumed) edition of about 25. Reference: Czestochowski 70. In good condition, with margins, on a cream wove paper, 8 3/8 x 11 6\7/16, the sheet 9 3/4 x 12 1/2 inches.
A fine impression.
Ira Moskowitz was born in Poland in 1912, a descendant of a long rabbinical line. The family moved to Prague in 1914, and then in 1927 to New York City, where Ira studied with Jerome Myers and Henry Wickey at the Art Student’s League. In 1939, Moskowitz made his first trip to Mexico, and stayed for six months – he probably created Dusk-Zimapan at this time. In 1943 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and moved to New Mexico, where he remained for seven years drawing the Indians and becoming an active member of the Taos-Sante Fe artists group which included John Sloan, a Moskowitz admirer.
Detail
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Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
José Clemente Orozco (November 23, 1883 – September 7, 1949), La Loca, etching and aquatint, 1944, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (77/100) lower left. Reference: Hopkins 38, from the edition of 100. In excellent condition, with margins, 10 1/2 x 6 3/4, the sheet 11 5/8 x 9 inches.
A fine impression, printed in black on a cream laid paper.
Provenance: collection of Dr. and Mrs. Freddy and Regina T. Homburger, purchased directly from the artist. The Homburgers were distinguished collectors of modern art.
This impression exhibited: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Ringling Museum, Maine State Museum.
Orozco is of course well known today as one of the great Mexican muralists (along with Diego Rivera andDavid Alfaro Siqueiros, and others). He was also a superb engraver and etcher, as demonstrated in this wonderful portrait.
- Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Monsieur – Here’s Your Handkerchief, lithograph, 1842. Daumier Register 670, third state (of 3), sur blanc, plate 47 from the series Moeurs Conjugales, published in the album of that title and then in the journal Le Charivari. In good condition, a tear bottom edge margin, with margins, 12 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 inches.
A very good impression, on sur blanc wove paper (from the small collector’s edition, without the letterpress verso as the print was issued in the large Le Charivari edition).
Here’s the translation from the indispensable Daumier Register (note: the soldier is going off to war and the maid runs after him offering him his handkerchief and some advice):
Original Text:
Monsieur …. Monsieur, v’ là vot’ mouchoir…. madame y a mis de l’eau de Cologne et elle vous recommande bien une fois au corps de garde de demander une chauffrette!
Translation:
Monsieur, Monsieur, here’s your handkerchief. Madame has put some Eau de Cologne on it and she said you should ask at the Guard whether you might get a foot warmer.
Detail
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Monsieur – Here’s Your Handkerchief, lithograph, 1842. Daumier Register 670, third state (of 3), sur blanc, plate 47 from the series Moeurs Conjugales, published in the album of that title and then in the journal Le Charivari. In good condition, a tear bottom edge margin, with margins, 12 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 inches.
A very good impression, on sur blanc wove paper (from the small collector’s edition, without the letterpress verso as the print was issued in the large Le Charivari edition).
Here’s the translation from the indispensable Daumier Register (note: the soldier is going off to war and the maid runs after him offering him his handkerchief and some advice):
Original Text:
Monsieur …. Monsieur, v’ là vot’ mouchoir…. madame y a mis de l’eau de Cologne et elle vous recommande bien une fois au corps de garde de demander une chauffrette!
Translation:
Monsieur, Monsieur, here’s your handkerchief. Madame has put some Eau de Cologne on it and she said you should ask at the Guard whether you might get a foot warmer.
$250
Detail
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Samuel William Reynolds (1773-1835), The Falconer, after James Northcote (1746-1831), mezzotint with stipple, roulette and drypoint, 1797. References: Whitman 414, second state of 3; Le Blanc 99. A proof before the inscription space was cleared of the open mezzotint ground (cleared in state 2a). In generally good condition apart from light foxing, toning verso and in the margins, on old laid paper, with margins, 19 ¾ x 13 15/16, the sheet 14 5/8 x 20 5/8 inches.
A fine rich impression of this important mezzotint, in an early proof impression.
The sitter in this portrait was the artist’s brother Samuel Northcote, Junior. The mezzotint is probably based on the painting in the collection of Lord Kinnaird, which was painted in 1796.
State 1 is before the inscription at the bottom margin; state 2 has the lettering but is before the margin is cleaned. The lettering reads: “James Northcote RA pinxt Sam W. Reynolds sculpt. The Falconer London Published March 1 1797 by IR Smith King St. Covent Garden”. In very small letters above the title “Mr Sam’ Northcote of Plymouth”.
The combined skills of the painter Northcote and the brilliant mezzotinter Samuel Reynolds created some of the finest mezzotints of the period; The Falconer is one of the most important of these prints.
Detail, showing inscription space before ground is cleared
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Sortie de Theatre a Londres, etching and drypoint, 1911, signed in pencil lower left [also signed and dated in the plate upper right]. Reference: Laboureur 104, third state (of 3). Published for La Societe des amis de l’eau-forte, with the blindstamp with the inscription: Circle Librairie Estampes. From an edition in the third state of 109; there were also 5 impressions of the first state and five of the second state. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges bottom and sides, 6 3/4 x 14; a remarque lower left 2 x 3 1/2, the sheet 12 3/4 x 19 3/4 inches.
Provenance: unknown collector’s mark verso (GOE in oval)
A fine rich impression, printed in dark brown ink on cream laid paper with the Arches watermark.
The small remarque lower left is actually another print printed on a separate plate; it shows a man running after a London horse-drawn trolley.
Although Sortie is dated 1911 Laboureur apparently drew the model for this etching much earlier, in 1909 or late 1908. In the autumn of 1908 he took up residence in London, occupying a space in Chelsea. One can discern a modernist approach entering his work here, and also perhaps some of the English penchant for satire and exaggeration, as exemplified in the work of Hogarth and Rowlandson – certainly the characters, especially the women leaving this theatre are, in Laboureur’s rendering, larger than life.
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), A Group of Monks and a Woman (after Rubens ?), chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783. [with the inscription upper right: PP Rubens inv Joan:Skippe scul]. References: Le Blanc III 529, 13. On laid paper with a watermark Sitting Woman with Shield and Pitchfork (cf. Churchill 231, 234). In good condition, trimmed on or into the borderline, not laid down, some nicks on edges; 15 x 9 1/4 inches.
A fine impression, printed in four blocks (light and medium greyish green, light and dark brown).
Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons; also with the collector’s mark RE in a circle verso (not located in Lugt).
Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 56 in the catalogue of the exhibition.
Skippe’s attribution to a drawing by Rubens in his own collection should be amended; the drawing is apparently based on the Rubens painting The Marriage of St. Catherine, with Many Saints, and focuses on a group of figures in the right lower corner of the painting.
Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing. His prints were a success technically and aesthetically, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues. He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago. The small number of prints distributed by Skippe, and his avoidance of any commercial publication, have resulted in a paucity of Skippe prints appearing on the market; and today they are rarely seen or even known except by specialists or connoisseurs.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), A Naked Man Carried on the Shoulders of Two Others, after Guercino (?), chiaroscuro woodcut, 1781. [upper left: L.C./JS/1781]. In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline, affixed to a laid folio sheet, on laid paper, 10 x 5 3/4 inches.
A fine impression, printed in four blocks (olive green, light green, brown, dark brown).
Naked Man bears a dedication on a separate sheet below the print to James Edwards. Edwards was a bookseller and bibliographer whose family firm sold many valuable libraries, including the library of the famed chiaroscuro printmaker Antonio Maria Zanetti (1680-1757).
Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons.
Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 51 in the catalogue of the exhibition.
Naked Man is attributed by Skippe to a drawing by Guercino in his collection, but he also includes the initials (upper left) L.C., which presumably is a reference to Ludovico Carracci, who Skippe may have thought originated the composition. The meaning of the composition itself is not clear; it is certainly a complex aesthetic study, reminiscent of Michaelangelo’s nudes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing. His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues. He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), St. Sebastian and St. Roch before the Virgin and Child (after Titian), chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783. [inscribed Titianus lower center, initials in box lower right in the plate]. In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline, not affixed to a folio sheet, on laid paper, 6 x 4 1/4 inches.
A fine impression, printed in three blocks (tan, greenish grey, dark brown).
Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons, also with the collector’s mark RE in a circle verso (not located in Lugt).
Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 53 in the catalogue of the exhibition.
Skippe was often inaccurate when attributing the drawings in his collection to great artists; in this case the attribution to Titian has been re-assigned by Popham to the famed Dominico Campagnola, a sixteenth century Venetian painter influenced by Titian. The drawing was in reverse of Skippe’s print.
This is one of the few Skippe chiaroscuro prints to employ a key block.
Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing. His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues. He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), The Three Angels Before the Kneeling Abraham (after Titian), chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783. References: Nagler XVI 476,2; Le Blanc III 529, 2. [inscribed lower right “Titian in. JS. scl.”]. In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline, mounted to old watermarked laid album paper. 7 7 1/6 x 7 7/16 inches.
A fine impression, printed in four blocks (light brown, brown, grayish green, dark brown).
Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons
Exhibited: Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, Indiana University Art Museum (1989); Indianapolis Museum of Art (1990). Number 54 in the catalogue of the exhibition.
Skippe was rather liberal in attributing the drawings in his collection to great artists; in this case the attribution to Titian has been re-assigned by Popham to “seventeenth century Italian school.” The drawing was in reverse of Skippe’s print.
Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing. His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues. He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Franz Weirotter (1730-1771), Suite of 12 Views of Italy, etchings, 1759 [most signed in the plate by Weirotter]. Reference: Nagel 5. 10 printed in pairs on one sheet; one on a smaller sheet (still with margins), and the larger frontispiece on a single sheet. In generally good condition, browning toward the outer edge of the sheets, some other defects affecting outer edges but not the images. Each of the paired compositions about 6 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches on sheets 16 3/4 x 10 3/8; the frontispiece 7 1/4 x 10 5/8 on a sheet 16 3/4 x 10 3/8 inches. All on laid paper, most with a Bunch of Grapes watermark.
Very good/fine impressions; the impression of Viterbo possibly a proof before the signature (and printed with some ink/soiling); the rest with the Weirotter signature clearly printed.
Although these views were made in Rome or its outskirts, Tivoli, Viterbo, etc., they are not generally of well-known monuments or vistas but rather portraits of the Italian countryside, often depicting relatively modest structures with nearby ruins, and generally with people busily engaged in fishing, talking, preparing food, or otherwise engaged.
Weirotter was one of the most distinguished of the German 18th Century landscape etchers. Although many of these printmakers specialized in reproducing the work of others, Weirotter tended to create original compositions for his prints. The 12 plates in this set are original Wierotter compositions, although they are remindful of the work of 17th Century Dutch artists such as Jan van Goyen, Pieter Molyn, or Jacob van Ruisdael. Hind noted of Weirotter that he was “most successful when he keeps to plates of the small dimensions, to which his delicate and clearly etched line is fitted.”
We illustrate 3 of the views; of course illustrations of all of them are available on request.
Posted in Artist, Franz Weirotter |
Monday, December 7th, 2009
Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975), Discussion, 1969, Lithograph.
Fath 82. Edition 250. Signed in pencil. Signed in the stone, lower left.
Image size 9 7/8 x 12 inches (251 x 305 mm); sheet size 12 7/8 x 17 7/8 inches (327 x 454 mm).
A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 3 1/8 inches); hinge glue stains on the top sheet edge, recto, well away from the image; otherwise in excellent condition.
Published by Associated American Artists.
“In the summer of 1937 Life magazine hired me to report, with drawings, on the famous ’sit down’ strikes occurring in the Detroit area at the time. Some newspaper reporters had written of these strikes as if they were the beginnings of revolution. I found neither Talk about or desire for revolution only an itch for more money. The drawing from which this litho was made represents a discussion between a union recruiter and a negro worker. The Union boss sits in the background looking on.” -THB
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Ira Moskowitz (1912-1985), [Mountain Scene], 1943, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right, numbered lower left (27/50) [also signed and dated 1943 in the plate lower right], from the (presumed) edition of 50, not in Czestochowski. In pristine condition, on a cream wove paper with deckle edges, 10 1/8 x 14, the sheet 13 3/4 x 18 inches.
A fine impression of the hilly countryside, with donkeys and goats grazing on the hillside, farm cabins in the distance; probably Taos. A rarely encountered print, apparently not known to Czestochowski (and not in his catalogue raisonné).
Ira Moskowitz was born in Poland in 1912, a descendant of a long rabbinical line. The family moved to Prague in 1914, and then in 1927 to New York City, where Ira studied with Jerome Myers and Henry Wickey at the Art Student’s League. In 1939, Moskowitz made his first trip to Mexico, and stayed for six months. In 1943 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and moved to New Mexico, where he remained for seven years drawing the Indians and becoming an active member of the Taos-Sante Fe artists group which included John Sloan, a Moskowitz admirer.
- Detail
Posted in Ira Moskowitz |
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Alphonse Legros (1837-1921), The Wall of the Presbytery (Le Mur du Presbytere), c. 1890, etching and drypoint, signed in pencil lower right. In good condition, printed on a cream laid paper (probably a journal or bookkeeping paper), very slight toning, remains of prior hinging verso. 5 3/8 x 7 1/4, the sheet 7 3/4 x 9.
A fine impression with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
This etching is closely aligned with a number of Rembrandt’s smaller landscapes; in particular the tower and dense wooded areas in front of it and at the left attest to Legros’s love of the work of the master.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Cecil Bell (1906-1970), At the Round House, soft-ground etching and aquatint, c. 1935, signed in pencil lower right and titled lower left (also numbered 45), printed on a cream wove paper, the full sheet, in excellent condition, 5 3/4 x 7 5/8, the sheet 8 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of this evocative image.
Cecil Bell, born in Seattle in 1906, started his artistic career as a cartoonist. He moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Student’s League in 1930, where he had John Sloan as a teacher. “I want principally to get down life as I see it and if it turns out to be Art, so much the better,” he told an interviewer in 1939, in the spirit of his Ash Can School mentor. Bell’s Depression-era vignettes were informed by a creative sensibility that acknowledged New York City as its life-giving force.
A roundhouse is a building used for servicing trains; it features a turntable. In this depiction we can observe a worker at the right, possibly re-refueling the engine; another works near the center foreground.
Posted in Cecil Bell |
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
Pierre Gatier (1878-1944), Petite Rue Royale (Prise de l’angle de la rue Saint-Honore), 1922, etching. Reference: Felix Gatier 193, sixth state (of 6). From the edition of 60 published with the catalogue raisonne of Gatier’s prints in 2004 by Felix Gatier [numbered 21/60 and with the Pierre Gatier blindstamp. In pristine condition, the full sheet, 4 3/8 x 6 3/4, the sheet 9 3/4 x 8 1/2.
A fine impression, printed on a firm cream wove paper with full margins, deckle edges.
The lifetime first edition of Petite Rue Royale was printed in an edition of 30 after 19 proofs were pulled in proof states.
Detail
Posted in Pierre Gatier |
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Mathias Hornung after Callot's Man Playing Grill as Violin (Lieure 423)
Months of the Year, a set of 12 prints derived in large part from Jacques Callot’s Les Gobbi (cf. Lieure 407-426, dated 1616). Published and possibly engraved by Paul Fürst (1608-1666), Nurnberg. [with the publisher/artist’s name P.Fürst Excu in the plate, and the name of each character]. Each print glued to a card just at the corners, with margins, glue and other stains coming through, other defects, 2 x 2 1/2 inches, the sheets 2 3/8 x 3 1/4 inches
A fascinating set, combining the humorous characterizations of Callot and following the German tradition of personifying the months of the year.
Each print is named after a month, i.e., the first is Fabianus Ienner (Fabianus January), then Mathias Hornung (Mathias February), Gregorius Mertz (March), Marcus April (April), up to Simion Weinman (October), Martius Wintermon (November) and Nicolaus Christmon (December). This follows an old tradition in German printmaking. For example, Hans Sebald Beham’s Peasant Festival or The Twelve Months, 1546 (Bartsch 154-163) follows the identical naming practice.
Paul Fürst was a publisher, print dealer, and possibly an artist as well. He is perhaps best know for his image of Doktor von Schnabel von Rom, a man dressed in a hawk costume, which apparently 17th Century doctors used when visiting patients to ward off the Plague. He published a few prints by Hollar; he was a contemporary of Hollar, but not Callot, although the Gobbi set would have been rather freshly known to Fürst since it would presumably have been made only a couple of decades before this set.
In creating the set the Gobbi imagery was followed loosely (and in reverse); in some cases the artist took imagery from a couple of the Gobbi plates to arrive at the desired composition. For example, Simon Weinman has the gross stomach of Callot’s “Man With Large Stomach” (Lieure 415), but holds a cup in the air in line with Callot’s Le Buveur (Lieure 411) (Weinman is of course a wine-man as well as Mr. October). Some of the images do not appear derived from Callot in any way except in spirit. But Nicolaus Christmon is clearly derived from Callot’s Man with a Falling Belly (Lieure 417), Philipus May from Callot’s Violin Player (Lieure 418), and Mathias Hornung from Callot’s Man Playing a Grill as a Violin (Lieure 423).
Posted in Jacques Callot |
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
Mathias Hornung after Callot’s Man Playing Grill as Violin (Lieure 423)
Months of the Year, a set of 12 prints derived in large part from Jacques Callot’s Les Gobbi (cf. Lieure 407-426, dated 1616). Published and possibly engraved by Paul Fürst (1608-1666), Nurnberg. [with the publisher/artist’s name P.Fürst Excu in the plate, and the name of each character]. Each print glued to a card just at the corners, with margins, glue and other stains coming through, other defects, 2 x 2 1/2 inches, the sheets 2 3/8 x 3 1/4 inches
A fascinating set, combining the humorous characterizations of Callot and following the German tradition of personifying the months of the year.
Each print is named after a month, i.e., the first is Fabianus Ienner (Fabianus January), then Mathias Hornung (Mathias February), Gregorius Mertz (March), Marcus April (April), up to Simion Weinman (October), Martius Wintermon (November) and Nicolaus Christmon (December). This follows an old tradition in German printmaking. For example, Hans Sebald Beham’s Peasant Festival or The Twelve Months, 1546 (Bartsch 154-163) follows the identical naming practice.
Paul Fürst was a publisher, print dealer, and possibly an artist as well. He is perhaps best know for his image of Doktor von Schnabel von Rom, a man dressed in a hawk costume, which apparently 17th Century doctors used when visiting patients to ward off the Plague. He published a few prints by Hollar; he was a contemporary of Hollar, but not Callot, although the Gobbi set would have been rather freshly known to Fürst since it would presumably have been made only a couple of decades before this set.
In creating the set the Gobbi imagery was followed loosely (and in reverse); in some cases the artist took imagery from a couple of the Gobbi plates to arrive at the desired composition. For example, Simon Weinman has the gross stomach of Callot’s “Man With Large Stomach” (Lieure 415), but holds a cup in the air in line with Callot’s Le Buveur (Lieure 411) (Weinman is of course a wine-man as well as Mr. October). Some of the images do not appear derived from Callot in any way except in spirit. But Nicolaus Christmon is clearly derived from Callot’s Man with a Falling Belly (Lieure 417), Philipus May from Callot’s Violin Player (Lieure 418), and Mathias Hornung from Callot’s Man Playing a Grill as a Violin (Lieure 423). Note: This set is not for sale.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Max Pollack (1886-1970), Bohemia, drypoint with wash and pencil additions, c. 1925, signed in pencil lower right and titled lower left. In very good condition, printed on a chine colle with wove backing, the full sheet with deckle edges, 4 1/2 x 5 1/4, the sheet 11 1/2 x 9 3/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in a blue/black ink on a white background, rich burr from the drypoint work, with extensive pencil additions particularly as shading for the houses and added trees in the background, and a darker grey wash with pencil additions at the top. The coloration and pencil additions create a snowy landscape, with a dark wintry sky above the horizon.
Pollack was an inventive printmaker, who often added color etching to his plates; here he creates a unique work with the additions to the drypoint composition. Although the added work may have been in contemplation of a later state of the print, it is an aesthetic gem as it stands.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Max Pollack |
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Israel Silvestre (1621-1691), View of the Palace and Gardens of Cardinal Ludovisi, etching, c. 1660 [with the title and address of Henriet in the margin below]. Printed on a cream laid paper, with a bunch of grapes watermark, in good condition, trimmed just outside or inside of the plate mark and outside of the borderline, 4 5/8 x 9 3/4 inches.
Silvestre was the nephew of the print dealer and publisher Israel Henriet, who often used the name Israel alone when listing himself as a publisher (as in this example). Henriet took his nephew in as an orphan, and Silvestre went on to become a leading etcher in the late 17th Century. Henriet was a friend of Jacque Callot, published much of his work, and in 1661 at his death left the plates to his nephew Silvestre (whose aesthetic debt to Callot is evident in plates such as this view.
The Villa Ludovisi in Rome was built in the 17th century by Domenichino for the Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi; the gardens, some of which are shown in this view, were made even more opulent and magnificent years later by the designer Andre Le Notre, the architect of the gardens of Versailles.
Detail
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Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Israel Silvestre (1621-1691), Veduta di Campo Vaccina, Vieu du Campe Vaccine, etching, c. 1660, from the series of Veduta, plate 8 [with the titles, name of Israel and the publisher Mariette in the plate]. In generally good condition, with margins, 5 1/4 x 10 1/8, the sheet 5 1/2 x 10 5/8 inches. Watermark: dagger with shield.
A very good impression, printed on a cream laid paper.
Israel Silvestre was a nephew of the print dealer Israel Henriet, who was a friend Jacques Callot. Henriet took Silvestre in as an orphan at an early age. Silvestre became a prolific etcher, making many view of France and Italy; later in his career he inherited his uncle’s plates, including many of the works of Callot and Stefano Della Bella. As is evident from this etching, he was strongly influenced by the work of these artists.
During the 17th and 18th Century the Roman Forum, the area between the Capitoline Hill and the Colosseum, was called the “Campo Vaccino” or cow field, for the Forum had been largely buried for many years in this area; in this etching we can still see cattle wandering over the middle ground; the Colosseum is visible in the background.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Bead-Stringers, etching, 1879-80, signed on the tab with the butterfly and inscribed “imp”. Reference: Kennedy 198, eighth state (of 8). In excellent condition, trimmed on the platemark by the artist all around except for the tab, printed on laid paper. From the “Set of Twenty-Six Etchings”, the Second Venice Set. From the edition of 30 (an additional 12 were planned for certain titles including The Bead-Stringers. 9 x 6 inches.
A very fine impression, with a subtle plate tone overall, selectively wiped so that the bottom of the plate is slightly darker.
The Bead-Stringers is one of only two subjects from Whistler’s Venice stay for which a drawing exists; the view is that of the Calle de le Mende, Dorsoduro, which opens through the sottoportico, onto the Fondamenta Ospedaleto.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, November 19th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Velvet Dress, drypoint, 1873, printed in black ink on japan paper, signed with the butterfly on the tab [also signed with the butterfly in the plate]. Kennedy 105, fourth state (of 5). Trimmed on the plate mark by the artist, 9 1/8 x 6 1/8 inches.
A fine delicately printed impression of this rare print, known in only about two dozen impressions, only two of which are signed in pencil.This is one of the first prints in which Whistler used the butterfly monogram.
Whistler made three drypoints of Mrs. Francis Leyland; The Velvet Dress is the most successful of these. Susan Grace Galassi devotes a chapter to Francis Leyland in the catalogue of the exhibit Whistler, Women and Fashion, shown at the Frick Collection in 2003. Apparently after Mrs. Leyland saw a model in a velvet dress she told Whistler she wanted to be painted in a similar dress, and perhaps to appease her Whistler made this beautiful spare drypoint of Mrs. Leyland standing in profile, in a full gown.
In this fourth state impression Whistler has straightened Mrs. Leyland’s hair a bit, added some background lines; in a fifth state (we know of only one example, in the Smithsonian Freer collection) he strenghthened the drypoint substantially.
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Gambler, etching, 1897, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Söhn 52803-6. The matrix in good condition; mat burning well outside of plate mark. 2 x 3 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered tiny gem, printed on laid paper, with plate tone. This print was later published in Pan, Vol. 3, October 1897.
Allan Wolman, in his indispensable website on Orlik (www.orlikprints.com), writes of the context of Orlik’s career at this early stage:
In 1896 Orlik returned to Munich to work with his fellow pupil and life-long friend Bernhard Pankok on their first essays in the making of colour woodcut prints. They had seen examples of Japanese woodcut prints and were fascinated by them. He began contributing illustrations to the journal Jugend. By 1897 Orlik was such an accomplished print-maker that four of his small etchings were chosen for publication in the prestigious art magazine PAN. Also illustrated in PAN was a reproduction of his first poster ‘Die Weber’, designed for the play of the same name produced by Gerhart Hauptmann. Hauptmann was so impressed by the poster that he invited Orlik to Berlin to visit his studio and this was the first stepping stone to Orlik’s involvement in the theatre.
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), The Forum of Nerva; With the Two Half-Buried Corinthian Columns, etching, 1770, from the Views of Rome [with the title on stone lower left: Veduta degli Avanzi del Foro di Nerva, signed lower right: C. Piranesi f.]. References: Hind 95, Focillon 750, Wilton Ely 228. The first state (of 4), before numbers. In excellent condition, with the usual centerfold and full margins, 18 3/4 x 28, the sheet 21 x 30 3/4 inches.
A fine fresh impression.
Watermark: Fleur de Lys in a Double Circle (Robison’s watermark 34, Hind’s watermark 3).
This lifetime impression is of course relatively rare; for example both Hind and Wilton-Ely illustrate the print with a second state impression.
Detail
Detail
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Final State
Auguste Lepère (1849-1918), LA MUSIQUE ET LA POESIE SECOURANT LES ARTISTES, chiaroscuro woodcut, a set of 5 including 4 proofs (two color blocks, two proofs before letters and initials, and the final proof), each signed in pencil. Reference: Texier-Bernier 517. In good condition, each attached at corners to a backing card; the proofs each on chine volant, the final proof on wove. 7 1/2 x 5 1/4, each with margins 1-2 inches, matted on a single presentation mat.
A superb set of proofs demonstrating Lepere’s working method. Includes two color blocks, and two trial proofs before the initial in the block and the letters below. Each proof and the final impression is signed; one proof before letters is inscribed “essai”, another before letters is numbered, and the final proof is also numbered.
Proof before letters, numbered
Although the two trial proofs before letters are similar to the final state in several respects, the final state colors are a bit more vivid, and, most notably, in the final state Lepere has more clearly defined the buildings and particularly the figures.
Proof before letters inscribed "essai"
Orange Block
Yellow Block
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Petite Images de la Guerre Sur le Front Britannique, Portfolio of 9 engravings, 1916, with the signature in pencil on the justification sheet, and numbered (95), from the total edition of 120; there were also about 30 proofs of earlier states and 15 in this state not in the edition. Reference: Laboureur 144-152, fourth state (of 4). In good condition, the cover of the portfolio worn but the prints and inside sheets in very good condition. The portfolio includes a title page which reads in part: “Neuf gravures au burin de J.-E. Laboureur precedees d’une Lettre sur les spectacles de la Guerre, de Roger Allard. A Paris, de ‘imprimerie d’A. Vernant, 6 rue Emile Dubois.” Each print is about 7 x 5 1/2 inches, on a sheet 11 x 8 3/4. Each impression is printed on a double sheet, which, when folded, is 11 x 8 3/4 inches.
Fine impressions, in excellent condition.
For the show The Cubist Print, 1981, Burr Wallen wrote: “The plates represent evolved versions of the artist’s slender, elongated figures with long necks and stylized poses in the matter of Parmigianino. It is possible that Laboureur may have been inspired by Winslow Homer’s Campaign Sketches, a portfolio of lithographs published in Boston in 1863 that take a similarly casual approach to camp life during the Civil War. One cannot fail to be impressed by the consummate precision of his fine engraved lines,possibly executed with the help of a magnifying glass. A rich variety of hatching and cross-hatching grw from the artist’s study of old master engravings…” It seems too that Laboureur was influenced by the Mannerist old master engravings he studied in the years before the Great War; here he melds Mannerist and Cubist idioms to create his own modernist aesthetic.
We show only four of the set of 9 engravings, but of course pictures of all the prints are available on request.
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Paysage aux Buttes-Chaumont (First Plate), etching, 1920, signed in pencil lower left, numbered (2/8) and inscribed imp, also titled. Reference: Laboureur 204, only state. In very good condition, the full sheet, some thin spots in margins verso. 7 7/8 x 9, the sheet 10 5/8 x 14 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of this rare plate, printed on cream wove paper.
Laboureur made only 10 impressions in all, two trial proofs and 8 numbered. He later made another version (L. 205).
Conceived by the architect Haussmann in the late 19th century, the Buttes-Chaumont is a sweeping romantic-style park whose dramatic (albeit primarily man-made) bluffs, waterfalls, and rolling green hills provide a welcome sense of space and fresh air to overcrowded Parisians.
$1150
Detail
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Auguste Lepère (1849-1918), Sur la Seine, vue prise de la frégate du Pont Royal, wood engraving, 1879, signed in pencil [also initialed in the plate lower left]. Reference: Lotz-Brissonneau 270. In very good condition apart from some printing scratches, full margins, 8 3/4 x 5 7/8, the sheet 18 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches.
A fine clear impression, printed on a cream simile-japon paper.
Provenance: Phillips Gallery, sold October 27, 1981, to the current owner.
Auguste Lepère was the undisputed leader in the creative revival of wood engraving in Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. Beginning his art studies as a teenager, he had by the mid 1870s clearly emerged as one of the most renowned printmakers of his time. In both etching and wood engraving, he became known as the prime delineator of daily life. Sur la Seine represents a tour-de-force example of the wood-engraver’s art.
Detail
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Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), The Courtisan, or Mädchen aus Niingata, 1902, etching, roulette, and aquatint, signed and dated in pencil lower right. Reference: Kuwabara R-6, plate 11 of the portfolio “Aus Japan”. In good condition apart from a number of thin spots and tears in the margins not affecting the matrix; 7 3/4 x 5 1/4, the sheet 10 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches.
A fine fresh impression, printed on cream laid paper; one of the most beautiful of Orlik’s Japan subjects.
An extremely rare print, made just after Orlik’s first major voyage to the Far East.
Detail
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009
James Ensor (1860-1949), Les Peches Capitaux Domines Par La Mort (The Deadly Sins Dominated by Death), etching, 1904, signed and dated in pencil lower right, titled in pencil lower left [also signed in the plate lower right]. References: Delteil 126, Croquez 126, Taevernier 126, Elesh 131, only state. In excellent condition, printed on a simile japon paper, with full margins, 3 5/8 x 5 1/2, the sheet 9 3/8 x 11 5/8 inches.
A fine early impression, as indicated by the quality of the printing as well as the early Ensor signature.
The seven sins are represented by carnival figures: Pride as a soldier at the left, then Avarice holding a bag of money, Anger as a women furious at the man representing Lust, then Gluttony eating a sausage, Envy menacing a knife, and finally Sloth falling asleep while a snail creeps up his nightgown.
Detail
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Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Alphonse Legros (1837-1921), Les Moissonneurs (The Reapers), etching, c. 1890, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Bliss 464, third state (of 3). In excellent condition, printed on a cream wove paper, the full sheet, 6 x 9 7/8, the sheet 9 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches.
Provenance:
Colnaghi’s, London (with their stock number c65632 verso)
Kennedy Galleries, New York (with their stock number A22741 recto)
A delicately printed impression, with a light veil of plate tone overall.
This is a rare example; there were only 12 impressions of the third state, and 5 of the second.
Detail
Posted in Alphonse Legros |
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
Edmund Blampied (1886-1966), A Jersey Vraic Cart. 1939, etching, signed in ink lower margin [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Appleby 183, the full sheet, on a J. Whatman cream laid paper, with the watermark, in excellent condition, 8 9/16 x 11 1/16 (sheet 11 7/16 x 15 5/16). From the edition of 250 for the Print Club of Cleveland.
Provenance: Gift of the Print Club of Cleveland to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; sold at Christie’s New York to benefit the SFMMA.
A fine fresh impression, still in its original Cleveland mat. Printed with selective use of plate tone, with a light veil of tone left on the plate toward the bottom, the plate wiped cleaner and thus whiter in the area of the figures.
Vraic is the Norman name used in the Channel Islands for the seaweed traditionally used as fertilizer.
Detail
Posted in Edmund Blampied |
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Adolphe Beaufrere (1876-1960), [Mountain and Sea], soft ground etching, c. 1910, signed in pencil lower right margin and with the artist’s red stamp lower right. Not in Morane. In very good condition, printed on a cream/tan card, with small (1/4″) margins all around, 105 x 149 mm, 4 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches.
Provenance: acquired directly from Jean-Noel Beaufrere, the artist’s son.
A fine impression of this most unusual modernist image, printed with plate tone.
This is an exceedingly rare proof impression, quite possibly unique.
Detail, showing estate stamp and signature
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Friday, October 30th, 2009
Adolphe Beaufrere (1876-1960), La Vache Noire, Le Pouldu (The Black Cow. Le Pouldu), soft ground etching, 1910, unsigned. Reference: Morane 10-23, only state. In very good condition, trimmed about 1/8-1/4 inch outside of the platemark, 7 x 8 1/8 inches.
Printed in black on a laid paper, with the watermark Original Hindostan Mill, with the letters and crest.
Provenance: acquired directly from Jean-Noel Beaufrere, the artist’s son.
A fine proof impression of this very rare composition. Morane notes that only 1 or 2 proofs of Le Vache Noire was pulled.
It appears that at this time Beaufrere was experimenting with a variation on a soft ground etching technique, perhap just brushing or dabbing acid on the plate, and then printing the plate.
Beaufrere was among the many artists who worked on the French Le Pouldu coast, others included Gauguin, Emile Bernard, and Paul Seurisier.
Detail
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Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1891-1978), Una (Portrait of a Creole Lady), etching, 1929, signed in pencil lower right, and also inscribed by the artist: “2nd State, GB”. Reference: Fletcher 65, second state (of 10), before the edition of 111. In very good condition, printed on a cream wove paper with full margins, 8 5/8 x 6 1/4, the sheet 15 3/8 x 10 1/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression of this early state, before the signature in the plate and much additional shading in the background and on the figure.
Only 4 proofs are known in this state.
A painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York by Brockhurst is related to this etching; the model is the same woman.
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst was one of the outstanding British artists of the early 20th Century, hugely popular in the ’20’s and early ’30’s. Today he is still renowned for his poignant images of young women and girls and several portraits of contemporaries (Rushbury, McBey); to print lovers portraits such as this example show him at his best: as a master etcher, and superb draftsman.
Detail
Posted in Gerald Brockhurst |
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), The Manicure, drypoint, circa 1908, signed in pencil lower left. Reference: Breeskin 199, first state (of 2).In very good condition, printed on laid paper with margins, 8 3/8 x 6, the sheet 12 3/4 x 9 inches.
Provenance: Robert Hartshorne, New York (with his stamp verso, Lugt 2215b).
A fine delicately printed impression, printed in a dark brownish/black ink, with touches of burr from the drypoint work in many places, and a very subtle veil of plate tone.
Robert Hartshorne collected fine examples of work by artists such as Degas, Cezanne, Matisse, and Picasso, and was known for his particularly distinguished collection of Cassatt prints.
Although Manicure is frequently seen in the later second state restrike impressions, first state impressions are exceedingly rare.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1896-1954), Pennsylvania Rail Road Loco Waiting to be Junked, 1932, etching, signed in pencil lower right and numbered “12” lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 130, fifth state (of 5). In very good condition, with margins (slightest trace of light stain), 6 x 11 3/4, the sheet 7 1/4 x 13 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries (with their stock number on margins.
A fine impression, printed in black on cream wove BFK Rives paper (with a partial watermark).
This impression was printed by Marsh personally (and has margins trimmed a bit irregularly, as is typically of Marsh’s self-printed prints). His notes are of interest, e.g., he notes that he “Drew design from nature in two afternoons” and that the design was complete in the first state “except for tracks and sky.” He made only small changes thereafter, e.g., in state 3 added “cinders in track and sky drawn.” Only about 19 impressions were made of the 5th state, and only 1, 2 or 3 impressions of the prior states.
Detail
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), Advice, etching and drypoint, 1915, signed in pencil lower right and titled lower left. In generally good condition but obviously a proof impression, with margins (trimmed irregularly), remains of prior hinging showing through at upper margin, a red ink notation lower margin (“29 Conversation”), 4 3/8 x 2 1/2, the sheet 6 1/8 x 4 5/8 inches.
Provenance: ex Collection: Jonathan Greenberg, New York.
A very good, inky impression of this great rarity. The total number of proofs is about 6 or less, probably 3 or 4. This is listed as number 3 in the Kennedy Galleries Walt Kuhn Checklist, made for an exhibit of his prints in 1967; it is cited as a print where no more than 6 impressions are known to exist.
Advice appears to be a portrait of circus or carnival performers in an off-stage moment.
Detail
Posted in Walt Kuhn |
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), Strong Girl, drypoint, 1916 [signed in pencil by Kenneth Hays Miller and inscribed Zinc sheet E printed by Howard Moore Park 1928). In very good condition, printed on a cream wove paper, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4, the sheet 11 1/8 x 8 1/2 inches.
Provenance: ex Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of New York, with their stamp verso.
ex Coll: Jonathan Greenberg, New York City
A very good impression of this rare early Kuhn print.
This is listed as number 48 in the Kennedy Galleries Walt Kuhn Checklist, made for an exhibit of his prints in 1967.
Kuhn was of course intimately familiar with circuses and carnivals. To the left of the Strong Girl holding the barbells is another woman, less muscular, perhaps a trapeze artist.
Kenneth Hays Miller was an important figure in modernist art for many years, a teacher of Reginald Marsh, Isabel Bishop and other members of the 14th Street school, and a prominent artist and printmaker in his own right.
Posted in Walt Kuhn |
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
Adolphe Appian (1819-1898), Barque de Pecheurs (also known as Barques de Cabotage Cotes d’Italie), etching, 1874, printed with title below and with the inscription Appian Sc. lower left. References: Curtis and Proute 40, Jennings 35, G. and A. Burton 37, second or third state (of 3). In excellent condition, printed on a cream laid paper, 5 3/4 x 8 3/4, the sheet 8 x 11 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, printed with a subtle veil of plate tone, wiped selectively so that the central sail is bright; printed in a dark brownish/black ink.
In the fine Burton catalogue it is noted that:
“The painting of this title was exhibited at the 1872 Paris Salon, and the print was exhibited there three years later. It is another rare composition arranged around a central element…with the white sail as the static focus of the picture.”
detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Christ Taking Leave of His Mother (Der Abschied Christi von seiner Mutter), a proof impression before the edition of 1511, woodcut on laid paper, from the Small Woodcut Passion. References: Bartsch 21, Meder 132, Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 193. In excellent condition, 5 x 3 3/4 inches (128 x 98 mm).
Provenance:
Stefan Jamesy, Vienna and New York (Lugt 1529 d)
Watermark: Bull’s Head (Meder 70)
A fine fresh proof impression (before the edition of 1511)
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1891-1978), Una (Portrait of a Creole Lady), etching, 1929, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in reverse in the plate lower left]. Reference: Fletcher 65, tenth state (of 10), from the edition of 111. In very good condition, the slightest marginal toning, printed on a cream wove paper with full margins, 8 5/8 x 6 1/4, the sheet 15 3/8 x 10 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A very fine impression, delicately printed in brownish/black ink.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, with their stock number (A53211) lower right.
A painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York by Brockhurst is related to this etching; the model is the same woman.
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst was one of the outstanding British artists of the early 20th Century, hugely popular in the ’20’s and early ’30’s. Today he is still renowned for his poignant images of young women and girls and several portraits of contemporaries (Rushbury, McBey); to print lovers portraits such as this example show him at his best: as a master etcher, and superb draftsman.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Le Grand Nu, lithograph, 1906, signed and numbered (23/50) in pencil lower right. Reference: Duthuit-Garnaud 403, only state, from the edition of 50. Printed by August Clot, Paris. In excellent condition, the full sheet, 11 1/8 x 9 7/8, the sheet 17 11/16 x 13 3/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine rich impression, printed in black on a soft light China paper.
Le Grand Nu is Matisse’s first lithograph, drawn directly on the stone; it is a landmark print both in his career as an artist and printmaker, and in the history of modernist printmaking.
By 1906 Matisse had been involved in Fauvist art for a couple of years, and Le Grand Nu is often regarded as a Fauvist print (and so it is, at least chronologically). But as many commentators have observed, it also has strong cubist elements, although Braque and Picasso were to embark on their cubist work some time after Le Grand Nu. But perhaps the cubism of Le Grand Nu is really a reflection of the importance of Cezanne to Matisse – Cezanne’s ability to abstract form, to reduce objects to their simplest forms – his cones, cylinders, spheres. At about the time he created Le Grand Nu Matisse defined his aesthetic aims:
“What I am after is expression…Expression to my way of thinking does not consist of the passion mirrored upon a human face or betrayed by a violent gesture. The whole arrangement of my picture is expressive. The place occupied by figures or objects, the empty space around them, the proportions, everything plays a part….every part will be visible and will play the role conferred upon it…All that is not useful in the picture is detrimental. A work of art must be harmonious in its entirety; for superfluous details would, it the mind of the beholder, encroach upon the essential elements. “
detail
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Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778), etching, 1748 [signed in the plate lower left, and titled]. References: Wilton-Ely 87, Focillon 90. First Edition. From Varie Veduti de Roma Anticha e Moderna. In very good condition, stray spots of oil mostly on verso not affecting image, a written number in margin upper right, 4 3/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 8 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches.
A fine early lifetime example from this series of small plates made early in Piranesi’s career. Printed in black on a firm cream laid paper.
The plates of the Views of Ancient and Modern Rome were made at the outset of Piranesi’s career. Impressions from the First Edition are rare; in fact any impressions from the set are quite rare, largely because Piranesi sold the plates, and they were not included in the many frequently re-issued editions of Piranesi’s collected works.
The Villa Ludovisi in Rome was built in the 17th century by Domenichino for the Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi; the magnificent gardens were designed by Andre Le Notre, the architect of the gardens of Versailles.
The plate below by Israel Silvestre (1621-1691), an eminent 17th Century etcher, shows the Ludovisi Palace about 75 years earlier, before the construction of the gardens and elaborate entrance area and fountain. (This etching will be sold as an interesting companion piece to the Piranesi impression).
Detail
View of Villa Ludovisi circa 1770 by Israel Silvestre (1621-1691)
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
William Zorach (1887-1966), Pegasus, 1921, linocut, signed in pencil lower right. In very good condition, on thin cream laid paper with margins, 4 1/2 x 4 7/8, the sheet 8 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine clear black impression.
Provenance: Heald Collection.
Pegasus is of course the winged horse of Greek mythology; among other stories, the young warrior Bellerophon rode Pegasus when he went off to slay the monster Chimaera, and after this success he rode Pegasus as he successfully destroyed a series of monsters. Pegasus is also the name of a constellation in the Northern Hemisphere.
Efram Burk, in his brilliant article on Zorach’s prints in the Print Quarterly (The Prints of William Zorach, December, 2002) conjectures that the rider in Zorach’s Pegasus might have represented a girl Zorach met while hiking in 1920; Zorach wrote that he had seen her riding, and he wrote her letters over a period of a decade.
Zorach studied modernist art in Paris in the years 1909-11, and was introduced to it as well through Marguerite Thompson, who met Matisse, Picasso, Zadkine, etc. in Paris at that time; Marguerite met Zorach in 1911 and they married in 1912. Pegasus, one of his more abstract compositions, was created in Provincetown, in 1921.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
John R. Barclay (1884-1962), The Proof, drypoint, c. 1920, signed in pencil lower left and numbered (no. 9) lower right 9also with the stamp number 3551 . In very good condition, on a laid paper (with the partial watermark Gelder), with margins, 7 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 14 3/8 x 9 7/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered image, printed in a dark brownish/black ink with substantial drypoint burr, and with a subtle layering of plate tone at the right and bottom of the composition, the left area and the face of the man wiped more thoroughly.
Barclay was a member of the Edinburgh Group, a group of Scottish painters who exhibited together in 1912 and 1913, and then after the war in 1919, 1920 and 1921. Other members of the group included Eric Robertson (1887-1941), William Oliphant Hutchison (1889-1970), and Mary Newbery (1892-1985).
This impressionistic composition of a man holding an etching proof may be a self portrait of the artist, and the print itself bears evidence of its being a working proof, i.e., it is printed toward the top of the sheet, and has a number of faint fingerprints or ink marks at the edges of the sheet.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Girl Running (or Woman Running), drypoint, 1917, signed in pencil (twice) lower leftand dated lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 44, Price 126, first state (of 2). In very good condition, on a light cream laid paper, with margins, 4 3/8 x 3 7/16, the sheet 6 1/2 x 5 1/8 inches.
Provenance: ex Collection Elizabeth Luther Carey (pencil verso). Ms. Carey was an American art and literary critic, well-known in the early 20th century for her works on Tennyson, Browning and Emerson, and the artists Whistler, Daumier and Blake.
A fine impression, with much burr from the drypoint work, and selective plate tone, a bit darker under the lines which suggest a road or path near the bottom of the composition; also many lines have extended shading probably through the use of retroussage (pulling ink out of the etched or drypoint lines with a cloth or feather). Czestochowski notes that Davies experimented with different inkings on Girl Running in its first state, and we show another impression below in the same state (also in our collection) with a very different look because of the inking.
A comparison impression, with darker overall plate tone.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Iris (Nude Seated), 1916, drypoint on zinc, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 33, second state (of 2), total printing unknown but small. In very good condition, with margins, printed in black with an overall plate tone on a light cream wove paper. 8 7/8 x 6 15/16, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 5/8 inches, archival matting.
A very good impression, after the addition of roulette and various shades of aquatint in 1918.
In this delicately printed impression Davies achieves the floating gauzy effect of his pre-Armory show symbolist imagery. The light drypoint lines of the first state are now barely evident, as if they have been burnished, and three layers of aquatint now surround the wispy image.
There is an impression of Iris in the second state hand-colored by Frank Nankivell at Michigan State University. This was perhaps a guide for a contemplated color edition; however, no such color edition was made.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Iris (Nude Seated), drypoint on zinc, 1916, signed in pencil lower left. Reference: Czestochowski 33, first state (of 2). In excellent condition, on a very light laid paper. With margins, 8 7/8 x 6 15/16, the sheet 11 1/4 x 8 3/4 inches, archival matting.
Provenance: ex Collection Lansing C. Baldwin
A fine impression of this rare proof, with a substantial layer of plate tone, and burr from the drypoint work. This print was not editioned in any state.
This first state impression shows the design drawn in drypoint; in the second state aquatint was added as well as some roulette work.
At this stage of his printmaking career Davies was immersed in experimentation with cubism, surely as influenced by his involvement in the Armory Show of 1913 – but Davies had always been one of the few American artists conversant with the work of the European modernists. In Iris he explores a number of cubist elements such as the intersection of flat planes, while adhering to a realistic rendering of the central figure.
Detail
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Monday, October 19th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Moonlight on the Grassy Bank, soft ground etching and aquatint, drypoint and roulette, 1919, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 71, fourth state (of 5); total printing unknown but small. In good condition apart from traces of foxing and staining especially toward to the margin edges away from the image, remains of prior hinging verso, with margins, 11 3/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 14 1/4 x 9 7/8 inches.
A fine impression, with the aquatint layering contrasting vividly. Printed in black ink on a cream laid paper.
Moonlight on the Grassy Bank is a tour-de-force both compositionally and technically. Here Davies has his emblematic nude figures posing, dancing with their hands, in an usual vertical composition. The etching is rich with at least 4 layers of aquatint, from a very light layer on the figures and in the sky to a deep black in the tree. Davies has also added drypoint, with rich burr, as well as dotted lines created by a roulette, between the arms of the figure at the left, and the arm of the right figure and the tree.
Detail
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Gerard Edelinck (1649-1707), Philippe, Duc d’Anjou, after de Troy, engraving, c. 1698. Reference: Randall Coll. 736. In very good condition (remains of prior hinging verso), with margins, 15 1/4 x 11 1/2, the sheet 16 5/8 x 12 7/8 inches, archival matting.
Provenance: ex Collection Gottfried Eissler (Lugt Supplement 805b, with his stamp verso)
A fine impression.
Philippe, Duc d’Anjou (1683-1746) is pictured just before he was named King Philippe V of Spain in 1700. Philippe was born at Versailles, the second son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin and Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria. At his birth he was named Duke d’Anjou, which he would be known as until he became the king of Spain.
Edelinck is of course well known as one of the great 17th Century masters of portraiture, and the burin. Francoise de Troy (1645-1730), who painted this portrait, was a renowned painter and engraver, a director of the Royal Academie of Painting and Sculpture, and a member of an eminent family of artists.
Detail
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Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Gerard Edelinck (1649-1707), Philippe, Duc d’Anjou, after de Troy, engraving, c. 1698. Reference: Randall Coll. 736. In very good condition (remains of prior hinging verso), with margins, 15 1/4 x 11 1/2, the sheet 16 5/8 x 12 7/8 inches, archival matting.
Provenance: ex Collection Gottfried Eissler (Lugt Supplement 805b, with his stamp verso)
A fine impression.
Philippe, Duc d’Anjou (1683-1746) is pictured just before he was named King Philippe V of Spain in 1700. Philippe was born at Versailles, the second son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin and Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria. At his birth he was named Duke d’Anjou, which he would be known as until he became the king of Spain.
Edelinck is of course well known as one of the great 17th Century masters of portraiture, and the burin. Francoise de Troy (1645-1730), who painted this portrait, was a renowned painter and engraver, a director of the Royal Academie of Painting and Sculpture, and a member of an eminent family of artists.
Detail
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Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Pour le Bapteme de Madeleine, 1900, aquatint , etching, printed in soft blue ink, signed in pencil lower right and numbered 7/10. On laid paper. Reference: Genestet and Pouillon 45, only state. [Also signed in the plate “G Duchamp”, fully titled, dated “Juin 1900”, and with the name Madeleine added on the box cover (?) lower right.] In very good condition, the full sheet with margins (indications of inking in margins, as typical of a trial proof). 7 1/8 x 5 5/8, the sheet 14 1/4 x 11 inches.
A fine, delicately and lightly printed impression of this great rarity (the picture above shows a pink not in the actual print). Although an edition of 50 impressions is indicated, this print is only rarely encountered, and is here numbered as in an edition of 10.
In 1970 Lucien Goldschmidt (Jacques Villon, A Collection of Graphic Work 1896-1913 in Rare or Unique Impressions) catalogued an impression of “Pour le Bapteme de Madeleine” as the frontispiece of a menu, presumably for the celebration of Madeleine’s (Villon’s young sister) Baptism.
At this early point in his career (he was 25) Villon had begun experimenting with aquatint; this proof shows that he had achieved mastery by this time.
Posted in Jacques Villon |
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), L’Amour, woodcut, 1910, signed in pencil lower right and annotated “a J. E. Laboureur”, printed on a chine appliqué, in adequate condition apart from small creases mostly in margins, a stain and associated thin spot lower left. Printed apart from the early edition of 100 which were signed and numbered by Dufy (there was also a later edition unsigned and estate stamped); this is probably a proof apart from the initial edition of 100 reserved for the artist (which he then gave to Laboureur). Impressions from the original edition are now rare. 11 7/8 x 12 1/2, the sheet 17 3/8 x 20 1/2 inches.
A very good impression of this important woodcut.
It is quite fitting that we find Dufy inscribing this woodcut to Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943). Laboureur and Dufy were contemporaries (born in the same year, 1877), and both were influenced by similar currents of modernism, including the adaptation of the woodcut technique to modern art (particularly the example of Vallotton’s woodcuts), and of course Cubism. Dufy had an early exposure to Cubism (in 1908, working with Braque at L’Estaque, near Marseilles); Laboureur created his unique adaptation of the Cubist idiom a few years later.
L’Amour is one of a set of woodcuts Dufy made on his return in 1910 from a visit to Munich; observers have noted that it shows evidence of his being inspired by the German Expressionists. But largely because of its date and Dufy’s involvement with the Fauvists, L’Amour can be seen as an important example of Fauvist woodcutting. The set of woodcuts was exhibited at the Salon d’Automne of 1910.
Detail
Posted in Raoul Dufy |
Monday, October 12th, 2009
Adriaen Van Ostade, The Singers, circa 1668, etching. References: Godefry, Hollstein 19. The fifth state (of seven). In very good condition. [with the inscription on the plate [A. v. oftade fecit et excud.]. With margins, 9 7/16 x 7 17/32, the sheet 9 17/32 x 7 19/32 inches. On old laid paper.
Provenance: Craddock and Barnard, London, acquired on December 8, 1967 by Dr. S. W. Pelletier (with his stamp verso, Lugt 4193). Dr. Pelletier was known for his fine collection of Van Ostade etchings (as well as superb examples of etchings by Rembrandt, Van Dyke, Meryon, and others).
A fine impression in black ink on ivory laid paper, with superb contrasts.
In this state the three vertical lines above the jug are crossed by three diagonal strokes, also appearing in the margin, before the scratch on the nose of the standing man). Dr. Pelletier notes that Godefry is not correct in stating that state V is a Picart (and thus possibly posthumous) printing; and that the Picart is of state VI (cf. Adriaen Van Ostade, Etcher of Peasant Life in Holland’s Golden Age, pp. 109-110. This impression is illustrated in this volume, p. 106).
Further data on this and other Van Ostade prints, in the exhibition catalog for the 1998 exhibition at the Rembrandthuis, Everyday Life in Holland’s Golden Age: The Complete Etchings of Adriaen van Ostade, sheds additional light on the dating of this impression. Laurentius points out, based on watermark evidence, that there were posthumous printings of Van Ostade prints in the period 1685-1700, probably by Gole, and indeed, that Picart may not have printed/published a posthumous edition at all. In the initial essay in the catalogue Pelletier revises his ’94 opinion that this impression is definitely lifetime in light of Laurentius’s conclusion that the print in this state is found in the posthumous editions. Pelletier notes, however, that “In some cases impressions of a Picart-Gole state are still in the condition left by Van Ostade. My own studies indicate that the following fifteen etchings, in the states corresponding to those in the Picart-Gole edition, do not contain the characteristic fine, close, parallel strokes, and therefore probably exist in lifetime impressions: B. 1,2,5,6,8,10,13,16,19,20,24,27,33,40, and 41.” He then gives examples of Mariette-dated prints that were in lifetime states but the same states in the posthumous edition(s). (Slatkes also notes that whomever produced the early posthumous edition re-worked only those plates which were especially worn.) Laurentius points out that a number of the etchings examined did not have watermarks. Watermark evidence would shed light on the lifetime status of this impression but unfortunately, without the watermark evidence, we can not conclude with certainty that this is not (or is) a lifetime impression (and we can not find a watermark on this impression, nor could Pelletier).
The Singers is one of Van Ostade’s most important and impressive works. It shows four singers, three of whom are highlighted by the candlelight held by the man at the left; a fourth man is in the shadows upper left, and other shapes, suggesting figures, lurk in the background as well.
The Singers probably depicts members of a rhetorical group; these groups were common in The Netherlands during the late 15th and 16th centuries (there were two in Haarlem at the time, and many local artists such as Frans Hals and Esaias van de Velde, were members). Their members presented public readings, plays, and sponsored literary competitions. Jan Steen created well-known paintings of such a group (at Worcester and Philadelphia), probably after Van Ostade’s conception. Van Ostade as well made several drawings and a watercolor on the subject, and probably at least one painting (now lost). The triangular shape at the bottom of the etching is surely the upper half of a “blazon” or coat of arms that these rhetorical groups used to identify themselves.
Detail
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Monday, October 12th, 2009
Etienne Delaune (1519-1583) Grotesques Sur Fond Noir, engravings, circa 1560, the set of 6 plates of Grotesques Sur Fond Noir (Oval Compositions of Divinities and Fables). Reference: Robert-Dumesnil 371-376. Very good condition, tiny crease upper left margin (R-D 373); parts of collector’s stamps on several at margins; trimmed well outside of oval borders, archival mat. Sizes: two prints are larger size (R-D 375-6 2 7/8 x 2 1/4 inches), the rest smaller (R-D 371-4 2 1/4 x 2 1/2 inches). Archival mounting.
Fine impressions of these rarities.
Provenance: unidentified collector’s stamps (not in Lugt) recto
The greatest achievement of the early 16th C. French School of engraving was in ornamental and architectural prints, and Delaune, trained as a goldsmith, was the pre-eminent master and leader of this school. In this set we see depictions of Apollo, Mars and Hercules, as well as women with palms, women sitting, and a sacrificial altar; each in great detail in a gloriously ornamental context.
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Monday, October 12th, 2009
Adriaen Van Ostade, The Singers, circa 1668, etching. References: Godefry, Hollstein 19. The fourth state (of seven). In very good condition. With the inscription on the plate [A. v. oftade fecit et excud.]. With margins, 9 7/16 x 7 15/32, the sheet 9 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches. On old laid paper with the Fleur de Lys in Crowned Shield watermark, a variant of the several comparable watermarks cited by Godefry as characteristic of the early impressions.
Provenance: J. Danser Nyman, sale Amsterdam, March 19, 1798, to Hendriks [Knoedler Gallery, New York (Lugt 2007)]; Martin Carlsson, Stockholm; George Bjorklund, Stockholm, acquired from him on August 18, 1966 by Dr. S. W. Pelletier (with his stamp [twice] verso). Inscribed in graphite by J. Danser Nyman verso, also by another unidentified collector [OE] in violet ink verso. (This is the earliest state impression of this print collected by the eminent Van Ostade collector Dr. S. W. Pelletier.)
A fine richly printed impression in black ink with plate tone, with superb contrasts – a fine example of Van Ostade’s use of chiaroscuro – on ivory laid paper. This state shows Van Ostade’s signature bottom right, and the three very tiny vertical strokes across the border above the jug at the top, before the further shading above.
It is of course only in the early, lifetime impressions that Van Ostade etchings can be fully appreciated. Additional printings were made posthumously; this is the fourth state; the Picart (posthumous) edition was made in the sixth state (not the fifth, as noted by Godefry). Godefry described impressions of this state as “rare.”
The Singers is one of Van Ostade’s most important and impressive works. It shows four singers, three of whom are highlighted by the candlelight held by the man at the left; a fourth man is in the shadows upper left, and other shapes, suggesting figures, lurk in the background as well.
The Singers probably depicts members of a rhetorical group; these groups were common in The Netherlands during the late 15th and 16th centuries (there were two in Haarlem at the time, and many local artists such as Frans Hals and Esaias van de Velde, were members). Their members presented public readings, plays, and sponsored literary competitions. Jan Steen created well-known paintings of such a group (at Worcester and Philadelphia), probably after Van Ostade’s conception. Van Ostade as well made several drawings and a watercolor on the subject, and probably at least one painting (now lost). The triangular shape at the bottom of the etching is surely the upper half of a “blazon” or coat of arms that these rhetorical groups used to identify themselves.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685), Bust of a Peasant (or, A Female Peasant Laughing), etching, 1647 (see discussion below). Reference: Godefroy 2, third state (of 5). In very good condition, with small margins outside of the platemark, 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches.
A fine strong impression, before the artist’s initials were added and the borderline was strengthened with a burin.
Godefroy indicates that impressions from this state were included in the later Picart edition, but there is evidence that impressions of this state were also taken before the Picart edition; this impression appears sufficiently fine to suggest that it is a lifetime impression.
Godefroy dates this to 1636, but subsequent authorities have concluded that this work is far too mature to date that early, and suggest a later date (Schnackenburg 1647-52; Slatkes 1650-52).
This was probably meant as a companion piece or pendant to Godefroy 1, Bust of a Laughing Peasant.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Hilan Delgado, (They Spin Finely), etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin, 1799. References: Harris 79, Delteil 81. Plate 44 from Los Caprichos, First Edition (of 12), edition of approximately 300. In very good condition, with wide margins, 8 1/4 x 6, the sheet 11 5/8 x 8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in sepia ink, on a fine quality, soft but strong laid paper. The two layers of aquatint contrast effectively with the highlights on the spinner. The drypoint lines on the threads held by the spinner, and the gravure lines on her neck, can be seen clearly in this impression (along with touches of burr).
Goya’s commentary: They spin finely and the devil himself will not be able to undo the warp which they contrive.
Detail
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Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Se Repulen (They Spruce Themselves Up), etching, burnished aquatint and burin, 1799. References: Harris 86, Delteil 88. Plate 51, Los Caprichos, First Edition (of 12), edition size was approximately 300. In very good condition, with wide margins. Printed on fine quality, soft but strong laid paper, 8 3/8 x 6, the sheet 12 x 8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in sepia ink, with the 2 layers of aquatint contrasting well between each other and the white sky. The burnishing on the figures and the cloud to the right creates an effective half-tone. (These subtleties are lost in the later, posthumous, impressions from the eleven subsequent editions of Los Caprichos.)
This is one of the series of portrayals of witches in the Caprichos. Goya’s commentary: This business of having long nails is so pernicious that it is forbidden even in Witchcraft.
Detail
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Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677), The Mineral Spring, etching, c. 1645. Reference: Pennington 1238, fourth state (of 4). In generally adequate condition, trimmed on or just into the borderline, tiny nick lower margin edge, repair (?) upper right, hinging slightly showing through. 4 5/8 x 7 5/8. Watermark: Crown with initials MM.
A good/fair impression, showing wear at the extreme left.
This interesting composition shows a sunken stone basin with steps; water is running from two pipes in a decorated wall. People are seated in the basin and under the trees, and a man with two pitchers walks toward the well.
Pennington notes that various locations have been identified for the Mineral Spring.
The publisher, Paul Furst (1608-1666) died about a decade before Hollar.
Detail
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Monday, October 5th, 2009
Wenzel Hollar (1607-1677), Charles I, etching, 1644. Reference: Pennington 1686, third state (of 3) [with initials WH fec in the plate]. On laid paper, In adequate condition, a pinhole in the wide margin at bottom away from image, slight staining in spots, with small margins top and sides, larger bottom, 9 7/8 x 7 3/4, the sheet 11 1/2 x 8 inches, archival matting.
A fair impression printed in 1705 for the frontispiece of Edward Walker’s Historical Discourses, with lettering verso (showing through slightly).
Charles I is pictured bareheaded, in armor, holding a baton; in the background between the horse’s feet are battalions of cavalry and infantry.
Detail
Posted in Wenzel Hollar |
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
State 14
Henry Somm (1844-1907), Japonisme, drypoint, c. 1881. Four proofs, in states 2 (with pencil additions), 7, 14, and an intermediate state between 7 and 14 with pencil drawing, states 2, 7 and 14 signed and annotated as to their states. Each impression in good condition, with margins, 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches.
State 2: A fine impression on wove, with a figure drawn in to the left of the woman, with extensive penciling below the woman’s face and elsewhere in preparation for later states, signed and annotated “2 epreuves”.
State 7: A fine rich impression on cream wove, still with the figure to the left of the woman, but with two figures added in the lower foreground – a woman in a stylish dress and a devilish figure to her left, signed and annotated “7eme etch” and 2 epr”.
Intermediate working proof: A fine rich impression on cream laid paper, with the man at the right fully drawn as in state 7 above, but with the figure to the left of the woman and the two foreground figures burnished out, with extensive penciling in the unprinted areas.
State 14: A fine rich impression on cream wove, with the man on the right now holding a lantern with a detailed picture on it, standing on folders and in front of a house, signed and annotated 14 etat, 2 epreuves.
Henry Somm, whose original name was Francois-Clement Sommier, was a well-known impressionist illustrator and artist, a friend of Buhot, and of course much influenced by Japonisme.
State 2, with extensive pencil additions
State 7, with new figures in the foreground
Working Proof between states 7 and 14, with extensive penciling.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Charles Meryon 1821-1868), La Morgue, etching, fourth state (of 7), printed in brown/black ink, Schneiderman 42 [with the inscription, date, address in the plate]. In very good condition, with margins (several nicks at margin edges, remains of prior hinging verso, tiny loss left margin edge, bottom right corner). 9 x 8 1/8 inches, the sheet 10 13/16 x 9 1/2 inches.
Provenance:
Sir John Day (his blindstamp recto lower left, Lugt 526)
C.W. Dowdeswell, 36 Chancery Lane, London (stamp verso, Lugt 690)
Arthur Hahlo and Company
A fine, richly inked impression, printed on thin laid paper in a dark brown/black ink.
Meryon personally printed the impressions of this state (he printed all the impressions of The Morgue up to state 6 himself). In this impression he has left a delicate layer of plate tone throughout, but has wiped the plate slightly more on the central third of the plate.
The Morgue isone of the Meryon’s greatest achievements, and a landmark in 19th Century printmaking. It was done as part of Meryon’s program of creating etchings of some of the wonderful architectural landmarks of Paris that had remained essentially untouched through the years, but that were likely to be demolished or moved. (The morgue, moved after the etching was made, stood on the Ile de la Cite; it was built in 1568, and was formerly an abbatoir.) The superimposed roofs, the collision of angles, the striking contrasts of shadows all create an aesthetic excitement that was new to the art of its time, and eventually became recognized as an early expression of modernism, presaging cubism, and even precisionism. The composition has a mysterious quality – not only because of its subject matter, but because of the extraordinary mood Meryon achieves through the interplay of lights and shapes.
Detail
Posted in Charles Meryon |
Monday, September 28th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), La Morgue, etching, 1854, third state (of 7), printed in dark brown/black ink. References: Delteil Wright 36, Schneiderman 42. On a thin laid paper with a watermark with the initials CD. In excellent condition, hinge remains verso, with margins, image 8 3/8 x 7 1/2, the plate 9 1/8 x 8 1/8, the sheet 9 3/4 x 8 1/2 inches.
A superb atmospheric impression, with extensive and selective wiping of the plate, and particularly effective inking and plate tone in the ominous clouds of smoke and the shadowy areas at the left. The richness of the lines attest to the fine condition of the plate at this stage of its evolution. This is of course a proof impression hand printed by Meryon.
Provenance: Henri M. Petiet, with his blue oval stamp verso (affixed to the hinge verso); cf. Lugt 2021A).
Impressions of the Morgue in the third state are of the utmost rarity. One impression of the first state is known (National Gallery), 2 of the second (Cincinnati and Paris), and eight of the third. We have not seen other impressions of this state on the market, and believe this may be the only impression of the third state still in private hands (cf. James D. Burke, Charles Meryon Prints and Drawings, p. 70; other third state impressions are in Cincinnati, Chicago, Detroit, London, New York, New York PL, and Washington).
In this state the borderline and work on the composition are complete, but the inscriptions in cursive at the lower border have yet to be entered (including the name, date, address).
The Morgue is one of the Meryon’s greatest achievements, and a landmark in 19th Century printmaking. It was done as part of Meryon’s program of creating etchings of some of the wonderful architectural landmarks of Paris that had remained essentially untouched through the years, but that were likely to be demolished or moved. (The morgue, moved after the etching was made, stood on the Ile de la Cite; it was built in 1568, and was formerly an abbatoir.) The superimposed roofs, the collision of angles, the striking contrasts of shadows all create an aesthetic excitement that was new to the art of its time, and eventually became recognized as an early expression of modernism, presaging cubism, and even precisionism. The composition has a mysterious quality – not only because of its subject matter, but because of the extraordinary mood Meryon achieves through the interplay of lights and shapes.
Posted in Charles Meryon |
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Ursula Fookes (1906-1991), Dancers, two linocuts, c. 1930, each signed in pencil, one impression also numbered (9/50). Only state. In very good condition, one impression trimmed to the image (with a fold or crease across the matrix), the other with about a half inch margin (two tiny loses in the lower margin).
Fine fresh impressions of these great rarities. Each printed on a very thin Japanese mulberry paper. Printed in green, sea green, red, brown, blue.
These prints are mirror images of each other. We initially thought these were from separate linocut plates, but after much examination realized that since the paper is so thin Ms. Fookes was able to turn one impression over, sign it on the verso side, and achieve a slightly (almost indiscernible) different, muted, effect (in addition to an entirely different direction).
Ursula Fookes was a member of the Grosvenor School, the early 20th Century British movement associated with Sybil Andrews, Claude Flight, and Cyril Power. Her linocuts were made in small editions, and only recently, as the work of Andrew et al has become sought after, has it been brought to the light of the marketplace. We have not encountered other impressions of this print.
Because of the unusual method Fookes employed to create these two impressions, they will be sold as a pair.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Ornament with Two Genii Riding on Two Chimeras, engraving, 1544 [with initials and date in the plate]. References: Bartsch 236, Hollstein 241, Pauli 241, third state (of 4, but see note below). In very good condition, trimmed on the borderline, slight thinning bottom verso, 1 1/4 x 4 inches.
A superb impression; impressions of this quality are of the greatest rarity in today’s print market.
The state progression of this print is subtle, e.g., the second state is identified as one hatching on the shank of the genius on the left, the third as “with a third diagonal hatching on some parts of the background”, and the fourth as a fourth vertical hatching between the body of the left genius and the back of the chimera. We have had difficulty assessing the state but believe this is an early impression based on it’s extraordinary quality.
Beham was one of the Northern Renaissance Little Masters, so called because of their eminence in producing small-scale engravings such as Ornament with Two Genii Riding on Two Chimeras. Beham was born in Nuremberg in 1500, and may have trained under Durer, though his training is no more certain than that of his younger brother Barthel. He made his first engraving in 1518, and later became known for producing woodcuts, as well as engravings.
This is one of the tiny prints Beham which no doubt served as the basis for decoration of objects during the Northern Renaissance, objects such as clocks, locks, cups, ceramics, stained glass windows, boxes, cabinets, swords, etc.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Hercules and Cerberus, engraving, 1545. Bartsch 100, Pauli 104, Hollstein 67, second state (of 3) [with initials, date and title in the plate]. In very good condition, trimmed on the platemark but outside of the borderline, 2 1/4 x 3 inches.
Provenance: I.H. von Hefner, Alteneck (Lugt 1254, his stamp on verso)
A fine impression.
This shows the last of Hercules’s labors: pulling Cerberus out of the underworld. To do this he got Pluto to bring the monstrous dog into the light of day, but on the condition that Hercules would not use his weapons to drag Cerberus – and so his weapons can be seen on the ground.
The buildings burning in the background are borrowed from a Caraglio print of the same subject; Beham borrowed heavily from Italian sources for his Labors, and in fact his entire series appears to have been based on Caraglio’s series.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Am Gänsehäufel in Wien, 1911, soft-ground etching, signed and dated in pencil lower right. In very good condition, on firm laid paper with margins, 5 1/2 x 8, the sheet 9 3/4 x 12 1/2 inches.
A fine impression of this great rarity; few impressions are known to exist. Printed on a cream colored laid paper in dark brownish/black ink.
In this splendid example of Orlik’s printmaking expertise, he may have used aquatint to achieve the solid areas of print and selected wiping of the plate to achieve shading; the burr on some of the figures suggests that he used the drypoint needle as well.
I am indebted to Alan Wolman, Orlik expert, for his pointing out that The Gänsehäufel was a popular swimming resort on the banks of the Danube, still existing today. (A treasury of Orlik information is available on his website www.orlikprints.com)
Posted in Emil Orlik |
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), A Mask Held by Two Genii (First State) 1544, engraving, Bartsch 228, Pauli, Hollstein 232, first state (of 2), [initialed and dated in the plate], in excellent condition, trimmed on the platemark but outside of the borderline, archival mounting. 1 15/16 x 2 7/8 inches.
A brilliant impression of the rare first state.
In the second state lines were added to the right hand of the geni at the left; in this first state impression these lines have yet to be added (see detail below).
Provenance: Unidentified collector EW (with initials in graphite verso, not located in Lugt).
Beham was one of the Northern Renaissance Little Masters, so called because of their eminence in producing small-scale engravings such as A Mask Held by Two Genii. Beham was born in Nuremberg in 1500, and may have trained under Durer, though his training is no more certain than that of his younger brother Barthel. He made his first engraving in 1518, and later became known for producing woodcuts, as well as engravings.
A Mask Held by two Genii is one of the better known small prints made by Beham which has (apparently) served as the basis for decoration of objects during the Northern Renaissance, objects such as clocks, locks, cups, ceramics, stained glass windows, boxes, cabinets, swords, etc.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Jeune Femme Enserrant son Genou Gauche (Young Woman Holding her Left Knee), drypoint, 1929, signed in pencil lower right margin and numbered (24/25). Reference: Duthuit 144, only state. From the edition of 25 (there was also one artist’s proof). In good condition (unobtrusive creasing upper right), printed on chine applique on a strong Arches wove paper, the full sheet, 4 7/8 x 6 1/8, the sheet 11 x 12 3/8 inches.
A fine impression.
In his small etchings and drypoints Matisse displayed a mastery of draftsmanship unmatched in modernist printmaking. Jeune Femme Enserrant is a splendid example of Matisse’s genius.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), A Mask Held by Two Genii, 1544, engraving, Bartsch 228, Pauli, Hollstein 232, second state of two,[initialed and dated in the plate], in very good condition, trimmed on or possibly just into the platemark but outside of the borderline (on the borderline at left), some ink drawing verso not visible recto, archival mounting. 1 15/16 x 2 7/8 inches.
A fine black evenly printed and clear impression. In this second state lines have been added to the right hand of the genius at the left.
Provenance: Dr. Karl Herweg, with his stamp verso (Lugt 3974).
Beham was one of the Northern Renaissance Little Masters, so called because of their eminence in producing small-scale engravings such as A Mask Held by Two Genii. Beham was born in Nuremberg in 1500, and may have trained under Durer, though his training is no more certain than that of his younger brother Barthel. He made his first engraving in 1518, and later became known for producing woodcuts, as well as engravings.
A Mask Held by two Genii is one of the better known small prints made by Beham which has (apparently) served as the basis for decoration of objects during the Northern Renaissance, objects such as clocks, locks, cups, ceramics, stained glass windows, boxes, cabinets, swords, etc.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), an engraving after Beham’s Two Fools (or Fool and Foolish Woman), engraving, c 1540, a copy or impression in reverse of Pauli 215, Bartsch 213, the copy after the first state. In excellent condition, trimmed on or just outside or inside the plate mark, on old laid paper, numerous notes in pencil verso, 1 15/16 x 2 1/16 inches.
A brilliant impression of this famous image, after the Beham composition.
The subject matter for this print was addressed by numerous artists in the 15th and 16th centuries. In this rendering the allusions refer to the folly of love. For example, the man holds what was known as the “fool’s stick”, an instrument with obvious phallic references. The woman rests her hand on a vessel, a reference to female sexuality. The man holds a flagon of wine – wine drinking was at the time a metaphor for love-making. Many prints of the time show flies or dragonflies flying around a lover’s head in association with love; here three dragon flies circle the man, but another is aiming toward the woman.
Detail
Posted in Hans Sebald Beham |
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Steeplechase, etching and engraving, 1932, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (13) lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 138, Tenth state (of 10). Edition of about 25. Very good condition, a touch of light tone, printed on a cream wove paper, with margins, 7 7/8 x 10 7/8, the sheet 9 1/16 x 12 inches, window matting.
A superb black impression.
This is one of Marsh’s iconic Coney Island images, a couple – a girl and a sailor – at the center of the composition, and two girls at either end. The sense of movement is palpable.
Posthumous impressions were made for the Whitney benefit edition, but of course these are merely a ghostly reminder of the richness and sweep of the lifetime impressions, which in this case was printed by Marsh personally (he printed impressions 6 through 19).
A painting was made of this subject, called George Tilyou’s Steeplechase, which is now at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Steeplechase Park was one of the most famous amusement parks in the industry’s history. The park opened in 1897 and its feature attraction was the Steeplechase Ride, a horse race which wound around the Pavilion of Fun. The park closed in 1964.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), Le Pont au Change, 1854, etching. Reference: Schneiderman 40, fifth state (of 12). On old laid paper with a Crowned Shield watermark. In very good condition, with full margins, 6 1/8 x 13 1/8, the sheet 11 1/2 x 17 1/4 inches.
A brilliant, rich impression, printed in dark brown ink.
Provenance: Dr. William Pelletier, with his stamp on verso.
From a point of view at water level we can see the Pompe de Notre Dame (the old water pump) beyond the bridge, and the Palais de Justice and Tour de Horloge on the Isle de la Cite at the right. In the water a man, presumably drowning, reaches toward a boat, but those in the boat are turned in the other direction, looking toward the balloon marked Speranza (hope) in the sky. On the bridge a hearse and a parade of mourners walk toward the left, as a group of soldiers at the far left marches toward them.
Meryon made a few changes in the figures and clouds in the next state (the 6th), and removed the balloon in the seventh state; then, in 1859-60 he famously added a flock of huge birds to the sky – this was variously interpreted as the result of the influence of Poe (The Raven), as evidence of Meryon’s mental instability after his stay at the institution Clarenton; and of course there were other possibilities. Indeed, the meanings of the print in its earlier states – the ironies of the conjunction of the balloon Speranza, the drowning man and those turning away from him, and the funereal procession, for example – has been the subject of much speculation as well.
It is however indisputable that in this early state, Le Pont au Change is one of the most dramatic and beautiful of Meryon’s compositions.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Chez la Corsetiere, soft ground etching and drypoint, a color etching made with two plates, 1934, signed in pencil lower left, also titled and inscribed “epreuve d’essai (en couleur)” and “tire a 5 epreuves” lower margin by the artist. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 494, first state (of 2). In excellent condition, printed on a cream wove paper with the watermark initials AMV. The full sheet with margins, 8 1/4 x 6, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression of the rare first state, before additional definitional lines to the mirror and other areas were added. Printed in black and sanguine. Only 5 trial proofs of the first state were made, and only 22 impressions printed overall (although a larger edition may have been intended).
In this trial state this print has an experimental impressionistic quality which is quite affecting and effective; in the second state the composition was more straightforward and perhaps a bit less seductive.
$1250
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Friday, September 4th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Sea Maidens (or, Sunshine; Girls on the Beach), soft ground etching and aquatint, 1919, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochoski 79, second state (of 3). Total edition unknown but small. In generally good condition apart from a tear (repaired, now unobtrusive, see detail one below) upper center c 1″ into image, soiling verso and in margins, nicks at paper edges. Printed in black on a green laid paper. With margins, 8 x 11 7/8, the sheet 9 5/8 x 14 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, with the several aquatint layers contrasting effectively against the greenish paper (see detail number 2 below).
Czestochoski describes the first state as a cut down plate focusing on the group of girls, with some aquatint on the girls, and the second state as the larger plate. This is curious because ordinarily the first state would be the larger plate; the cutting down of the plate would be later (and then this impression would be a first state).
This modernist/symbolist composition is one of Davies’s most popular; he rendered it in a drawing and oil as well.
Detail #1
Detail #2
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Old Arab Man, etching with platetone, c. 1912-16, signed in pencil and annotated (or dated) 16. In very good condition, printed on cream laid paper, 3 3/4 x 2 1/8, the sheet 5 3/4 x 3 7/8 inches.
A fine clear impression.
The invaluable Emil Orlik website (www.orlik.com) dates this print to about 1912; they note that “In 1912 he made his next important journey abroad, visiting North Africa, Ceylon, China, Korea and Japan, returning via Siberia.”
Orlik demonstrates his familiarity with the old masters, especially Rembrandt, in this tiny print – he had carefully studied and copied the old masters as a student, working at the Munich Pinakothech in the early 1890’s.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Charles Emile Jacque (1813-1894), Petits, Petits, etching on chine colle, c. 1864 [signed in the plate upper left, also with the name of the artist and the printer (Sarazin)]. Reference: Guiffrey 187, third state (of 3). In good condition, the full sheet, 5 x 6 7/8, the sheet 12 x 16 3/4 inches, archival matting.
Provenance:
Alfred Beurdeley (his stamp recto lower right, Lugt 421).
A fine clear impression.
Although Jacque’s training as an artist was spotty, he did learn printmaking early in his career, and developed a strong reputation in the graphic arts. In 1845 Baudelaire wrote of this young printmaker, who had submitted a copy of a Rembrandt self-portrait to the Salon: M. Jacque is a name which will continue, let us hope, to grow greater. M. Jacque’s etching is very bold and he has grasped his subject admirably. There is a directness and a freedom about everything that M. Jacque does upon his copper which reminds one of the old masters. He is known besides to have executed some remarkable reproductions of Rembrandt’s etchings.
When a cholera epidemic hit Paris in 1849 Jacque and his family, along with his friend Millet, decided to move to Fountainebleau, where they were to become associated with the famed Barbizon School.
Detail
Posted in Charles Émile Jacque |
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
Henri Rivière (French, 1864-1951), Loguivy le Soir (Loguivy at Evening), 1904,Plate 7 for Le Beau Pays de Bretagne. Published by Eugène Verneau, Paris. Color lithograph. Signed in blue crayon lower right and numbered 37 [also signed in the stone]. The full sheet with full margins, 9 x 14, the sheet 19 x 23 5/8 inches. In good condition, some soft folds well outside of the image.
Provenance: ex Collection Ernest Shapiro
A fine atmospheric impression, with the intentionally subdued colors effectively contrasting.
Rivière was one of the most creative artists of his time – he created a form of shadow theatre at the Chat Noir in Paris in the late 1880’s; later he helped originate color printmaking in woodcuts and lithographs; he was a photographer and etcher as well. Much of his work was influenced by the Japanese woodcut tradition, and that’s evident in Loguivy le Soir, which, although it is lithography, has the look of a complex woodcut.
Rivière first visited Brittany in 1884, spending most of his summers there until 1916. Together with bustling Parisian life, rural Brittany was the subject for most of his landscape works.
Posted in Henri Rivière |
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), Un Charron (The Wheelwright), etching, c. 1890, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Bliss 267. In good condition, printed on a cream laid paper with a flower (?) watermark, with margins, 6 x 8, the sheet 6 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches.
Provenance:
Frank E. Bliss (with his stamp verso, Lugt 265. Bliss was the author of a catalogue raisonne of the Legros prints).
Collection of the Artist. The following is written on the mat: “Ex library Deigton 16/12/09. The proof bought from Deighton was subsequently exchanged Legros for the proof in the artist’s Private Collection.”
A fine lightly printed impression, printed with a layer of plate tone.
It is also noted on the mat “Rare only 10 proofs.”
The wheelwright is apparently shaping wheels or related implements from the wood being brought to him by the woman to his left.
Detail
Detail
Posted in Alphonse Legros |
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Alphonse Legros (1837-1921), A Wayfairer, etching and drypoint, c. 1890, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower right]. Reference: Bliss 265. In good condition, with margins (some dealer stock numbers in margins, slight soiling), printed on a cream laid paper, 5 1/2 x 10 5/8, the sheet 9 x 12 7/8 inches, archival mounting.
Provenance:
Frank E. Bliss (stamp [variation] lower right recto, Lugt 265. Bliss was the author of the a catalogue raisonne for the artist)
C.J. Knowles (1840-1900), London, oval stamp with initials CJK (Lugt 576). Knowles was an active art collector, a close friend of Legros, as well as other artists such as Strang and Rodin.
A fine impression.
The British Museum entitles their impression Un Vagabond Passant dans une Ruelle.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Barbara Latham (1896-1988), Bear Family, 1937, wood engraving, unsigned [signed and dated in the block]. Published by American Artists Group. In excellent condition, on an ivory wove paper, the full sheet with full margins, 10 x 8, the sheet 13 x 18 inches. Window matting, with archival board, unattached mylar hinging.
A fine impression of this charming image.
The American Artists Group was formed in 1934, during the Great Depression, with the express purpose of providing unsigned inexpensive prints which were to be widely distributed. AAG published prints by Ganso, Spruance, Meissner, Ruzicka and Lankes, among many other noted artists. Although the prices of these prints was minimal, sales were sluggish in that economy and editions were not sold out; most printings were under 200 and many under 100. Today, these prints are prized and highly valued by discerning print collectors.
Barbara Latham studied art in New England and New York, and started her career as a commercial artist. She later moved to Taos, New Mexico, married artist Howard Cook, and became famous in her own right for her paintings and prints depicting people and animals of the Southwest.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), The Fireworks (Le Feu D’Artifice), lithograph, 1840. Reference: Daumier Register 656, second state (of three). Published initially in this state in Actualities as number 14 in this series; then later in state 3 in La Charivari. A sur blanc impression, in very good condition, printed on a cream wove paper, 11 5/8 x 8, the sheet 13 3/4 x 10 inches, archival mounting.
A fine fresh impression of this night scene, with dark charcoal blacks contrasting with the light of the woman lower left and the father.
This sur blanc impression has no lettering verso; it is from the rare collector’s limited edition, made at the time of the publication of the lithograph in newsprint for collectors who wanted the Daumier lithographic composition on a heavier paper than the newsprint, and without the interference of the newsprint in the image.
Taken unabashedly from the invaluable Daumier Register, here’s a translation:
Original Text:
LE FEU D’ARTIFICE.
Un Père est un traiteau donné par la nature.
Translation:
AT THE FIREWORKS DISPLAY.
A father is a draft horse, provided by nature.
$250
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Richard Earlom (1743-1822), etching and roulette, mezzotint, 1776, after a drawing by Claude Lorrain (Claude Gelee), number 135 from the Original Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, 1776, published by John Boydell. [With the lettering in the plate Claude le Lorrain delin at left, the Boydell address center, R. Earlom fecit right, and below the lettering From the Original Drawing in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, No. 135]. In generally good condition, with margins (a stain upper right edge well away from image), printed in sepia on a laid paper with a watermark 1809, 8 1/4 x 10 1/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches, matted.
A very good impression.
Richard Earlom was a master printmaker, specializing in the mezzotint. In 1774 the Duke of Devonshire lent his collection of Claude drawings to the publisher Boydell for the purpose of having them engraved, and Boydell commissioned Earlom to do this job. It took about three years, and resulted in several volumes entitled Liber Veritas – the same as the title for the collection.
To create the look of the original drawings Earlom started with etching, then used the roulette tool which he was familiar with in his mezzotint work to create the wash tones. It appears that in certain areas Earlom would scrape the roulette work, using a conventional mezzotint technique, to create areas of solid wash with varying intensities of darkness and light. The plates were then printed in a sepia ink, similar to the bistre of the drawings.
The impressions were printed in a number of editions; the watermark 1809 suggests a printing of that date. Earlom died in 1822.
Detail
Posted in Richard Earlom |
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Harriet Lanfair (1900-1988) lithograph, c. 1935, signed in pencil on lower right margin. Printed on a very light japan paper, with margins. A proof impression, with printers ink and creasing in irregularly trimmed margins (as characteristic of a working proof, these margin defects not affecting image), slight foxing also mostly in margins. Archival matting, 8 1/4 x 13 inches, the sheet 12 x 15 inches.
A fine impression of this rarity – this is a working proof impression, and we know of no edition or other impressions of this fascinating composition that have appeared on the market.
Lanfair, a California painter and printmaker (born in Pasadena, studied art in California and lived in the LA area), specialized in lithography; she exhibited actively with the LA Print Group during the 1930’s.
Posted in Harriet Lanfair |
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Richard Earlom (1743-1822), etching and roulette, mezzotint, 1776, after a drawing by Claude Lorrain (Claude Gelee), number 162 from the Original Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, 1776, published by John Boydell. [With the lettering in the plate Claude le Lorrain delin at left, the Boydell address center, R. Earlom fecit right, and below the lettering From the Original Drawing in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, No. 162]. In generally good condition, with margins (a stain upper right edge well away from image), printed in sepia on a laid paper with a watermark 1809, 8 1/4 x 10 1/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches, matted.
A very good impression.
Richard Earlom was a master printmaker, specializing in the mezzotint. In 1774 the Duke of Devonshire lent his collection of Claude drawings to the publisher Boydell for the purpose of having them engraved, and Boydell commissioned Earlom to do this job. It took about three years, and resulted in several volumes entitled Liber Veritas – the same as the title for the collection.
To create the look of the original drawings Earlom started with etching, then used the roulette tool which he was familiar with in his mezzotint work to create the wash tones. It appears that in certain areas Earlom would scrape the roulette work, using a conventional mezzotint technique, to create areas of solid wash with varying intensities of darkness and light. The plates were then printed in a sepia ink, similar to the bistre of the drawings.
The impressions were printed in a number of editions; the watermark 1809 suggests a printing of that date. Earlom died in 1822.
Detail
Posted in Richard Earlom |
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Jerome Myers drypoint, Springtime: Immigrant Mother and Children, circa 1907, signed in pencil lower right, in good condition (soft printer’s creases lower left margin corner), on a soft cream wove paper with a shell/leaf watermark, wide margins, 7 7/8 x 5 7/8 (the sheet 17 1/4 x 11 1/2) inches, archival mounting.
A fine clear impression, with a veil of plate tone, with substantial drypoint burr.
Myers (1876-1940) was an actor and artist, a specialist in the American turn of the century immigrant experience, particularly those immigrants in the Lower East Side of Manhattan; this is a prototypical example of his work. Active in the art life of the times, he was a prime mover behind the Armory Show of 1913, working with Walt Kuhn to get the (then) highly esteemed Arthur B. Davies to help run the show. Myer’s paintings are an important part of America’s aesthetic and historical heritage; they can be found, for example, in the National Gallery in Washington alongside those of Bellows and the members of the Ashcan school. Although his paintings show that he was a talented colorist, his etchings prove that he was (unlike several of his colleagues) also a master draughtsman, able to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the times with an impressionistic approach to printmaking.
Posted in Jerome Myers |
Monday, August 31st, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Les Envies de Madame, lithograph, c. 1839-42, plate 32 from the series Moeurs Conjugales. Reference: Daumier Register 655, second state (of 3). In good condition, sur blanc, 12 x 8 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/2.
A fine impression with the blacks particularly strong and fresh.
This is a sur blanc impression, produced especially for collectors in a limited edition; the paper is a cream wove, and there is no newprint verso as found in the journal impressions.
This print was first published in the journal La Caricature, then later it was selected for publication in La Charivari.
Here is a translation, taken from the Daumier Register:
Original Text:
LES ENVIES DE MADAME.
– Oscar je veux manger du melon ! va m’acheter du melon !
– Mais il est une heure du matin, et nous sommes en Janvier !
– N’importe, Oscar, je veux du melon à tout prix, ou je vais te mordre.
Translation:
THE WHIMS OF A WIFE.
– Oscar, I want to eat a melon! Go and buy a melon for me!
– But it is one o’clock in the morning and we are in January!
– Doesn’t matter, I want a melon at any cost, or else I bite you!
$250
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, August 31st, 2009
Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Nurse and Child (or Virgin and Child), etching, c.1928, signed in pencil lower right and numbered 25 lower left. Reference: Associated American Artists 25, from the edition of about 25, probably the second state (of 2). Printed on a strong wove paper, watermark FRANCE. In good condition apart from moderate light stain, with margins, 6 7/8 x 5, the sheet 10 1/2 x 7 7/8 inches.
A very good impression, with the lines added to the pillow at the left, and cross hatching added to the woman’s dress at the right.
Hayes Miller studied at the Art Students League and the New York School of Art, teaching at the latter for 12 years and the former for 38 years. His students at the League included Isabel Bishop, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. He loved printmaking, and studied and emulated the old masters including Durer and Rembrandt, Callot and Meryon. He exhibited at the famous Armory Show in 1913, and his paintings and prints were shown widely throughout his life; his work is represented at the Whitney, MOMA, Brooklyn and Met in New York, and other museums throughout the US.
Detail
Posted in Kenneth Hayes Miller |
Monday, August 31st, 2009
Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Nurse and Child (or Virgin and Child), etching, c.1928, signed in pencil lower right, titled Virgin and Child, signed, priced ($25) and addressed by the artist verso (Hayes Miller, 6 E. 14th Street, New York). Reference: Associated American Artists 25. A proof impression of presumably the first state (of 2?), in generally good condition but somewhat soiled in the margins, remains of prior hinging verso, some grease stains in margin and matrix bottom right and verso, creases in matrix (all as befitting a proof impression). On a heavy wove paper, 6 7/8 x 5, the sheet 8 x 6 inches.
A fine strong impression, with plate tone.
This is a first or early state, before lines were added to the pillow at the left and elsewhere.
Hayes Miller studied at the Art Students League and the New York School of Art, teaching at the latter for 12 years and the former for 38 years. His students at the League included Isabel Bishop, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. He loved printmaking, and studied and emulated the old masters including Durer and Rembrandt, Callot and Meryon. He exhibited at the famous Armory Show in 1913, and his paintings and prints were shown widely throughout his life; his work is represented at the Whitney, MOMA, Brooklyn and Met in New York, and other museums throughout the US.
Detail
Posted in Kenneth Hayes Miller |
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Edward Landon (1911-1984), In the Beginning, serigraph, 1953, signed in pencil lower, titled lower left, and numbered (7/25) center. Reference: Ryan 102, only state, from the edition of 25. In good condition (no signs of prior matting or framing), with margins (soft folds in margins away from image), 12 x 18, the sheet 15 x 21 1/2 inches.
A very good impression, printed in colors on a cream wove paper.
During his travels from about 1950 Landon devoted himself to the study of pre-Christian Scandinavia art, filling his notebooks with studies of Viking ships, runes, sculpture and design. The forms in In the Beginning are direct descendants of prehistoric Celtic petroglyphs.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Edward Landon (1911-1984), Time Silhouette, serigraph, 1969, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “Edition 30” lower center, and titled lower left. Reference: Ryan 201, only state, edition of 30. In excellent condition (no sign of prior matting or framing), the full sheet with margins (some trivial soft folds near edges), 18 x 9, the sheet 13 1/4 inches.
A fine rich impression. This is the cover print for the Ryan catalogue raisonne of the Landon prints.
Late in his complicated and often difficult life and career Landon often focused very intently on a few well-chosen forms, leaving aside the complex imagery and references of earlier years. Among these career-culminating images, Time Silhouette is one of his most successful.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Edward Landon (1911-1984), Disputation, serigraph, 1949, signed in ink lower right and titled in pencil lower left. Reference: Mary Ryan 59, only state, from the edition of 35. Pictured in Ryan on page 18. In good condition (soft folds at bottom edge not near image); the full sheet, 21 1/2 x 25 1/2, the sheet 25 1/2 x 14 7/8 inches.
A very good impression, printed in colors on a cream wove paper.
Disputation exemplifies Landon’s involvement with abstraction, and with Surrealism – with its concerns with irrationality, absurdity and unconsciousness. Here, figures appear to be in conflict but they seem to arise from the same place, so the conflict portrayed may be psychological, internal.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, August 24th, 2009
George Biddle (1885-1973), Carnival in Rio No. 4, lithograph, 1947, signed and dated in pencil lower right; titled lower left [also signed and dated in the stone lower left]. Reference: Pennigar 151, only state, from the edition of 20. In good condition, with margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 10 1/2 x 11 1/4, the sheet 11 3/4 x 16 inches, not matted.
Biddle signs and dates the print “Biddle 1944” in the stone in barely visible scratches just above the pencil title. This dating would presumably change Pennigar’s dating of the print from 1947 to 1944. Also, it might change the title of the print; perhaps this should be Carnival in Rio No. 1 (currently the title for Pennigar 141, dated to 1944) or Carnival in Rio No. 2. Still, Biddle dated the print in pencil 1947 – could this be the date he signed it, a couple of years after it was printed?
A very good impression, printed in black on wove paper.
After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle decided that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art).
After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-20’s).
Carnival in Rio seems to reflect Pascin’s influence, particularly in the modernistic flattening of the perspective, and also in the exacting lithographic lines more characteristic of drypoint (a favorite medium for Pascin) than lithography. Indeed, the black areas of the print have the character of drypoint burr.
This print along with several other Rio subjects was based on sketches Biddle made while in Rio de Janeiro in 1942 executing a mural.
Detail
Posted in George Biddle |
Monday, August 24th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Un Dernier Toast, lithograph, 1843. Reference: Daumier Register 1040, third state (of 4). With letters [signature in the stone]. From the Album Les Canotiers Parisiens, Plate number 18. With text this print appeared in the journal Le Charivari; it was also issued sur blanc (see below) by Pannier and Aubert. In good condition, slight staining outside of image lower left, 11 1/2 x 8, the sheet 13 7/8 x 10 1/2 inches.
A fine clear impression.
This is a sur blanc impression, printed in a small contemporaneous edition for collectors (probably 100-150 impressions only). This form of the print was and generally is preferred over the newprint impressions for a number of reasons – the paper is better quality, one doesn’t see newsprint through the image because there’s no newsprint verso (that’s why they call it sur blanc), and of course it’s just rarer than the newsprint editions – and for all these reasons the sur blancs do have the drawback of being more costly than the newprint versions (although the price difference is minimal given the other differences).
I unabashedly quote the invaluable Daumier Register for a translation:
Original Text:
UN DERNIER TOAST.
Messieurs, ne retournons pas à bord sans porter un dernier toast en l’honneur de deux des objets qui contribuent le plus à charmer notre existence… buvons aux dames et au veau froid…….
Translation:
A LAST TOAST!
Gentlemen, let’s not go back on board without a final toast in honour of the two things which, most of all, bring charm to our lives… let’s drink to the ladies and cold veal!
$325
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, August 21st, 2009
Charles Turzak (1899-1986), Methodist Temple, Chicago, c. 1930, woodcut, signed, titled and numbered (16/50), from the edition of 50. Reference: Turzak 22. In very good condition, with margins on a very thin hand made Japan paper, 8 1/2 x 13 1/4, the sheet 16 x 11 1/4 inches; archival mounting.
A fine bright impression. Printed on a cream/tan paper in a black ink.
Turzak noted in his catalogues that this print was cut on bass wood, and that this was the “view from my studio window – 6th floor.”
Turzak was a painter, printmaker, illustrator and designer. While a high school senior he won a national cartoon contest sponsored by Purina Mills. With the (relative) notoriety and riches he achieved through the contest he was able to get into (and pay for) the Art Institute of Chicago in 1920. After graduating in 1924 Turzak stayed in Chicago as a free-lance and commercial artist.
He gained a measure of serious fame during the Depression, participating in various federal arts programs; his modernist versions of Chicago sights created during those years are particularly valued today.
After the Depression he made more commercial art, then in his later years worked again as a painter and printmaker. His art is represented in the collections of the Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago, Northwestern University’s Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, the Illinois State Historical Library, and other public collections.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
Michael Goldberg (1924-2007), Cover (from Odes)– – 1961, Color Serigraph.
Edition 10. Signed, dated and annotated Special Edition 2/10 in pencil.
Image size 16 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches (425 x 343 mm); sheet size 19 5/8 x 14 15/16 (498 x 379 mm).
A fine, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on off-white wove paper; full margins (5/16 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition.
Created for the Tiber Press four-volume set of poetry by Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler, illustrated with original silkscreen prints by Alfred Leslie, Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldberg, and Grace Hartigan. The four volumes are entitled Permanently, Odes, Salute, and The Poems. Printed by Floriano Vecchi.
Posted in Michael Goldberg |
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
Cornelis Bega (1631/32-64), The Young Hostess, c. 1660-64, etching. Reference: Hollstein, Bartsch 33, third state (of 5). With the address of J. Covens and C Mortier bottom left – before the address was removed (in the fourth state) and the artist’s signature was added (in the fifth state). In excellent condition, printed in black/grey ink on an old laid paper, with a 3/16 inch margin outside the plate mark all around, archival matting.
Provenance: Ex collection Graff (with stamp verso, Lugt 1092a), LRV (with stamp verso, Lugt 1761), an unidentified collector’s stamp verso, and Dr. Karl Herveg (his stamp verso, not in Lugt). (Verso illustrated.)
A very good impression, with the guidelines of the address strongly visible.
Dr. Karl Herweg was a noted collector of 17th Century Dutch prints, especially those of Van Ostade and Bega. Dr. Herweg bought most of his old master prints from CG Boerner in Dusseldorf, where he was advised by legendary connoisseur and scholar-dealer Eduard Trautscholdt whose real passion was the etchings of the Haarlem genre painter-etchers: Cornelis Bega, Adriaen van Ostade, and the latter’s pupil Cornelis Dusart.
In this late stage of Bega’s career he typically grouped his figures tightly in a pyramidal cluster. Here the setting is austere, with various elements extending the middle grouping. The light comes from an undisclosed source in the foreground, and from the open window at the right.
The figures in this scene are characteristic of Bega’s portrayals of Dutch tavern life in the late 17th Century: one old patron caresses the barmaid as the other – his left foot seemingly placed between the feet of the girl – chews on a bone.
Verso, showing collector's marks
Posted in Cornelis Bega |
Monday, August 17th, 2009
Lester George Hornby (1882-1956), Market Day on Blvd. Edouard Quinet, Paris, c. 1910, etching, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (8/30) lower left [also signed and titled in the plate lower left. In excellent condition, with small margins (trimmed just outside of the plate mark top and sides, a bit more space below), 6 x 8 7/8, the sheet 6 3/8 x 9 3/8 inches.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York (with their label intact)
A fine impression, printed in a dark brown ink on thick laid paper, with a strong layering of plate tone wiped slightly more towards the middle of the composition to highlight the donkeys and the activity underneath the central market tents.
Hornby moved from Massachusetts to Paris in 1906, and made that his home base for several years while he traveled throughout Europe.
The critic Rowland Thomas wrote in 1910 “Hornby is beyond doubt a master etcher with such power of eye and hand as our generation has hardly known before. Not since Whistler posed with the Universe on his needle point has anyone scratched on solid metal lines of such electrifying, such insolently simple conciseness as these- a new old Paris leaps transfigured and revealed for those who will glory in her.”
Hornby often numbered prints in terms of his hoped for sales rather than in terms of the actual number of impressions printed; hence this print, rarely encountered, may in fact have been issued in less than 30 impressions.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, August 14th, 2009
Muirhead Bone (1876-1953), On the Stocks, lithograph, 1917, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in the stone], in very good condition (remains of hinging verso), printed on a handmade cream wove paper, 13 7/8 x 18, the sheet 15 1/4 x 21.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York, with their mat and annotations.
A very good impression.
Bone started his printmaking career in lithography, eventually achieving renown as a leader of the British Etching movement through his work in etching and drypoint. On the Stocks suggests that lithography, rather than drypoint, would seem to be just the right medium to capture the rough grit and smoke of shipbuilding, and the mammoth size of the effort – but Bone created most such compositions in drypoint.
In On the Stocks a large merchant ship is being built under a shed to shelter a hive of workmen beneath the weather. The many little railways seen in the foreground bring the material from the shops to the stocks. This is one of a group of lithographs of the Western Front (a reproduction of which is included in a book called the Western Front, Doubleday, New York, 1917, with drawings by Bone, documenting the World War I effort); it was also included (as number 2) in a set of 6 lithographs entitled Building Ships.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies, Uprising, soft ground etching and aquatint on a green laid paper, 1919, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 78, second state (of 3). In good condition, with margins (slight mat stain away from platemark); on a green laid paper. From a small edition, 6 x 9, the sheet 8.3/4 x 12 inches.
A fine atmospheric impression, carefully printed in black/grey ink on old green laid paper.
The first state of this print was before the aquatint; it was in soft ground etching only (the third state was printed in color by Frank Nankivell in 1924). The few impressions of the second state show the aquatint to fine effect.
At this stage of his career Davies was experimenting with modernism in his printmaking; he had developed substantial expertise in sophisticated printmaking techniques (here effectively using soft ground and aquatint), and was fusing the cubism which interested him in the years after the 1912 Armory Show (he was a primary organizer of the show), with the symbolism that had led him to be regarded as America’s most distinguished artist prior to that. His printmaking continues to be one of the most interesting areas of his work.
This is one of a large number of Davies prints that we maintain in our inventory. Inquiries about these, or other fine prints, are always welcome.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Les Fantaisies, etchings, 12 from the set of 14, 1635. Reference: Lieure 1372-5, 1377-84, first states (of 2); the frontispiece second state (of 2). In excellent condition (the Lieure numbers had been written on each, now erased), with small/thread margins, printed on laid paper, each c. 2 9/16 x 3 3/8 inches.
Fine early impressions of these tiny figures, three to a sheet. These first state impressions are each before the numbers which were added to the lower right.
According to Lieure, in each of these prints Callot depicts the “dames, les seigneurs et les cavaliers du regne de Louis XIII.” They are drawn in a line, with all the grace and character of the figures that Watteau would paint a half-century later.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboueur (1877-1943), La Repasseuse (The Presser), 1937, engraving and drypoint. Signed and numbered in pencil (29/67) [with the monogram bottom left]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 527, third state of three. In good condition, on tan wove paper, with wide margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 9 1/4 x 7, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression.
Jean-Emile Laboureur traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. In 1886 he met Toulouse Lautrec, who influenced Laboureur’s emerging aesthetic style, as did the work of Odilon Redon, Bonnard, and perhaps most notably Felix Vallotton, who became a close colleague. Laboureur traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own. Cubism remained an important theme for Laboureur, a theme he varied, sometimes using it as a strong design or compositional component, sometimes only as a subtle background element.
In La Repasseuse, Laboureur shares his fascination with the modernist shapes of the shirts and collars dwarfing the girl pressing them in the background. His work is perhaps looser than usual, and, at this mature stage of his career, brimming with confidence.
$900
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
Grace Hartigan (1922-2008), Untitled (from Salute), 1961, color serigraph, edition not stated, unsigned, numbered 23 in pencil verso.
Image size 17 x 14 1/2 inches (432 x 368 mm); sheet size 17 1/2 to 14 1/2 inches (445 x 368 mm).
A fine, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on the full sheet of off-white wove paper; with top and bottom margins (1/16 to 1/2 inch) and the image extending to left and right sheet edges; in excellent condition.
Created for the Tiber Press four-volume set of poetry by Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, and James Schuyler, illustrated with original silkscreen prints by Alfred Leslie, Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldberg, and Grace Hartigan. The four volumes are entitled Permanently, Odes, Salute, and The Poems. Printed by Floriano Vecchi.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Dawn (or, Kneeling Figure), 1918, soft ground etching and aquatint, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 59, second state (of 3). In very good condition, with margins, 11 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 14 x 9 1/2 inches. Printed in black ink on a cream wove paper.
A fine impression of this very strong composition.
Dawn is unusual among Davies’s printed images for the great clarity and strength of the image, undergirded by the blackness of the aquatint background. At this stage of his career Davis was making a transition from explorations into the areas of cubism/modernism, back to a Symbolist idiom that had characterized much of his work prior to World War I and the 1913 Armory Show. Although not cubist, Dawn could certainly be regarded as essentially modernist.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Baptism (or, Group of Ten Men – One Seated), drypoint on zinc, 1917, signed in pencil , printed in black on very thin laid paper. In very good condition, cockling top and bottom margins (result of printing process), the matrix excellent, 6 3/8 x 4 1/4, the sheet 9 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches. Reference: Czestochowski 52, second state (of 2), total printing unknown but small.
A fine rich impression of this great rarity (most of the other impressions are in museums), with substantial burr from the drypoint work, with platetone overall but carefully wiped to shed more light on the central figures.
An excellent example of Davies’s cubism, which he experimented with after the 1913 Armory Show (which he was instrumental in organizing). Here Davies begins with a characteristic composition – a complex Symbolist figural group – and re-works it in a modernist/cubist spirit. Baptism, and the few other cubist/modernist prints that Davies did at this time are important expressions of the growing American interest in modernist art; Baptism is one of his most successful achievements in this realm. After several more such works he returned to the “pre-modernist” Symbolist idiom which had earned him the esteem of his artist colleagues, and the reputation as one of the great American artists of his time.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Guiding Spirit, 1918, etching, drypoint and roulette, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Czestochowski 55, Second state (of 2), edition of 22, 4 ¾ x 6 7/8, the sheet 8 ¾ x 11 inches. In good condition apart from some light rust marks or paper imperfections dotting the surface.
A fine impression with substantial burr from the drypoint work, wiped selectively so that the central floating figures are much lighter than the figures below or to the sides.
Printed in black on a cream wove paper.
A superb example of Davies’s Symbolist work as well as a demonstration of his effectiveness in using the medium of printmaking to achieve his aesthetic aims.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925) woodcut The Piano Player, 1896, signed in blue crayon, numbered 35, from the edition of about 100. Plate IV of Instruments de Musique. Reference: Vallotton and Goerg 174. In good condition apart from an unobtrusive printing crease at right, occasional pale staining in margin, with full margins, conservation matted, 9 x 7 1/8 inches, the sheet 12 7/8 x 10.
Provenance: Sold at Christie’s New York, May 3, 1999.
A fresh, clearly printed impression of this striking composition, printed on cream wove paper.
Vallotton was the Fin de Siecle master of the modernist woodcut, using just a few lines to create a readable and delightful image. Nowhere is this ability more evident than in The Piano.
The pianist portrayed is Raoul Pugno, a well-known turn of the century musician.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Gerald Brockhurst (1890-1978), A Galway Peasant (also, An Irish Peasant), etching, 1920, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Fletcher 10, from the edition of 55, third state (of 3), printed on laid paper, the full sheet, in very good condition (remains of prior hinging verso), 4 x 4 1/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 9 inches, window mount.
A fine impression, printed in greyish/black ink on ivory laid paper.
Brockhurst was one of the outstanding British artists of the early 20th Century, hugely popular in the ’20’s and early ’30’s. Today he is still renowned for his poignant images of young women and girls (including the famed Adolescence) and several portraits of contemporaries (Rushbury, McBey); to print lovers portraits such as this example show him at his best: a master etcher, and superb draftsman.
Posted in Gerald Brockhurst |
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Gerald Brockhurst, Elizabeth (Anais, also called the London Coster Girl), etching, 1922, signed in pencil lower right, also initialed and annotated “1st State” lower left margin corner [also signed, in reverse, in the plate lower left]. Reference: Fletcher 32, first state (of 10), 2 proofs in this state, edition of 76. In very good condition, with inkmarks, slight soiling and fingerprints in the margins as befits an early proof impression. 7 x 5 3/8, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 1/8; the image is 5 3/4 x 4 3/8.
A very fine impression of this first state impression (there were only two proofs in this state), before any wear and thus with Brockhurst’s exquisite detailing intact.
In this state Brockhurst has yet to cut the plate down to the borders which he has etched in in this proof, so the plate mark is well away from the image. The composition is completed at this stage. There are some practice etching marks in the borders; these will of course be lost when the plate is cut down, and at that point Brockhurst also strengthened the borderline.
The subject appears to be Brockhurst’s first wife. A coster is one who sells goods – fruits, vegetables, crafts – on the street.
Posted in Gerald Brockhurst |
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Irving Wolfson (b.1899), West Street, New York City, etching and drypoint with plate tone, signed, titled and inscribed in pencil “ed 99.” In very good condition (with only the slightest hint of any light stain) on a cream laid paper with margins, 11 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 15 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine atmospheric impression.
Wolfson here looks at downtown, facing east from West Street (which lies close to the Hudson on the lower west side of Manhattan), and of course the most famous landmark from that vantage point at the time (and perhaps still today) is the Woolworth Building, which is the large building in the composition.
Wolfson was working in the tradition of Whistler, and later Pennell, leaving some ink in selected areas on the copper plate when he printed this (instead of wiping the plate clean), thereby creating plate tone (darker or lighter areas where more or less ink is left on the plate) representing areas of darkness and light, shadows and space.
Posted in Irving Wolfson |
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
Michael Augustin Power O’Malley (1870-1946), Cat in Doorway, c. 1930, etching and drypoint, on pinkish/tan wove paper with the watermark with the Van Gelder Zonen Holland watermark, with condition issues: slight creasing in the image, creasing, handling folds and soiling in the margins, rippling in the matrix associated with printing, staining verso, browning toward margin edges, the full sheet with full margins, deckle edges. 9 7/8 x 8, the sheet 18 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches, not matted.
A very good impression of this modernist, stark image.
Provenance:
Ex Collection: Albert M. Bender Collection
San Francisco Museum of Art (with its label verso)
Christie’s New York, 2008
Power O’Malley was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1870, studied at the National Academy of Design with Robert Henri and Walter Shirlaw, and between 1913 and 1919 painted covers for Life (magazine). He was active in Los Angeles in 1926-29 and, after a decade in Ireland, again in 1938. He died in New York on 3 July 1946.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Les Mannequins Politiques, lithograph, 1834. Reference: Daumier Register 96, first state (of 2), on wove paper (no lettering verso).Published in La Caricature, 11/20/1834. In good condition, slight soiling at outer edges, with wide margins, 9 1/2 x 10 1/2, the sheet 10 5/8 x 13 3/4 inches.
Provenance: ex Collection: Vouay, S. Mme (Lugt 2373c, with the red stamp lower right recto)
Here is the explanation of this print, and translation, unabashedly taken verbatim from the invaluable online Daumier Register (with my continuing indebtedness and thanks to Lilian and Dieter Noack):
Two persons, the King and de Rigny (or Dupin?) are holding straw puppets. The caption says: “This game only lasted three days”. The King is holding Marshall Gérard, playing the old political game of shaking straw men at each other. Between July 1834 and March 1835, Louis-Philippe was unable to form a stable government. A provisional government was formed, which lasted only three days.
Original Text:
Les Mannequins Politiques.
Ce jeu n’a duré que trois jours.
Translation:
Political puppets.
The game has lasted only three days.
$700
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Adolphe Beaufrere (1876-1960), Fermes et Marais, Port-Louis, 1908, etching, signed in pencil lower right [also initialed and dated in the plate lower right]. References: Morane 08-03, Laran 36. Printed on a thin wove Japan paper, in brown/olive ink. In very good condition, with margins, 7 7/8 x 11 3/4, the sheet 8 1/2 x 12 1/4 inches.
Provenance: acquired directly from Jean-Noel Beaufrere, the artist’s son.
A fine impression, with a light veil of plate tone, carefully wiped more cleanly in the field and middle sky; the foreground, especially the foreground right, is dark.
Morane notes that the intended edition was 40, there were 3 proofs of a first state and 5 of a second.
Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Moreau encouraged him to study old master prints, especially the prints of Rembrandt and Durer, which were available in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris – this was to be critical in his development. He was also influenced by the stirrings of modernism in Paris at the time, as well as the Japanese woodcut tradition and the French frenzy with Japonisme.
Beaufrere began printmaking near the end of his formal training; he made a number of woodcuts, but soon focused more on etching and engraving, as well as painting (curiously, one of his printmaking teachers at that time was the Canadian etcher Donald Shaw MacLaughlan; Fermes and Marais appears to evidence a MacLaughlan influence). He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905 his new wife convinced him to move out of Paris and back to Brittany, a move having a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants would provide a continuing source of inspiration – as illustrated in Fermes et Marais, Port-Louis.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, August 7th, 2009
Adolphe Beaufrere (1876-1960), Lavoir de Kervino, 1908, etching, with the Beaufrere red estate stamp lower left recto [also signed and dated in the plate lower right]. References: Morane 08-02, Laran 35. Printed in a dark brown ink, on a thin wove Japan paper. In very good condition, unobtrusive water stain lower left, crease lower right corner, with margins, 9 1/2 x 12, the sheet 10 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches.
Provenance: acquired directly from Jean-Noel Beaufrere, the artist’s son.
A fine impression of this very rare print.
This impression is probably a first state working proof, before some foliage was added lower right, shading lines lower left, and clouds in the sky (as illustrated in Morane). Morane notes that there were only 6 proofs of the state he illustrated (presumably the second state); then the plate was cut down radically to about one-third of its width, leaving only a strange looking vertical print of the trees and lavoir (where a woman appears to be washing her feet); then cut a bit more for a small edition of 10.
Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Moreau encouraged him to study old master prints, especially the prints of Rembrandt and Durer, which were available in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris – this was to be critical in his development. He was also influenced by the stirrings of modernism in Paris at the time, as well as the Japanese woodcut tradition and the French frenzy with Japonisme.
Beaufrere began printmaking near the end of his formal training; he made a number of woodcuts, but soon focused more on etching and engraving, as well as painting (curiously, one of his printmaking teachers at that time was the Canadian etcher Donald Shaw MacLaughlan). He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905 his new wife convinced him to move out of Paris and back to Brittany, a move having a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants would provide a continuing source of inspiration – as illustrated in Lavoir de Kervino.
Posted in Adolph Beaufrere |
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Francisco de Goya Y Lucientes (1746-1828), La Tauromaquia, the complete set of 33 etchings with aquatint, drypoint and engraving, 1814-16. First Edition, with the explanatory text page, impressions printed in sepia ink on laid paper, one with watermark SERRA, nine with watermark MORATO. References: Delteil 224-256, Harris 204-236, 247 x 353mm, the sheets approx. 298 x 411 mm. Published in Madrid by the artist, with wide margins, in very good condition, some plates with unobtrusive printing creases, with black cloth-covered binding with artist’s name in gilt.
Fine impressions of this great rarity.
Provenance:
M. Murillo (19th C.), bookseller, Madrid (not in Lugt, with his label inside back cover)
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), The Durdans, Epsom, Surrey (not in Lugt, his stamp on the front fly-leaf)
Philip Hofer (1898-1984), Curator, Houghton Library, Harvard University (not in Lugt, with his book plate inside front cover)
Much has been written about Goya’s intent in creating the Tauromaquia set (of course including many articles and books by Philip Hofer, a prior owner of this set). Goya was nearing 70 as he began the plates, and to a certain degree he recalls his youth in them – growing up he knew or at least had seen many of the great bullfighters, and later claimed to have done some bullfighting himself. He began the set with portraits of contempory bullfighting, and the great moments he personally recalled, but then added historical figures as well, going back to medieval times, and 16th Century figures, so the set became a sort of review – although certainly not an accurate history – of bullfighting through the years. Goya is unconcerned with the historical validity of the costuming or even the setting, and as he redid certain plates and worked from his original drawings, he simplified the compositions radically, so that only the most essential shapes and characters appear. Many commentators have identified the plates of the Tauromaquia set as forerunners of impressionism, and expressionism, which they surely are; we would also suggest their evolution also evokes the modernist temper of abstraction, for in these plates one can see Goya re-ordering a finite number of shapes in different ways, in each instance revealing a new and fascinating aesthetic form.
The First Edition of La Tauromaquia was published in very small numbers, both as a set and as single plates; the initial edition is thought to have been much smaller than that of the Caprichos (which was about 300). Long after Goya’s death the Calcographia produced additional editions, starting with a small one in 1855 (on wove), a Third in 1876 (on laid), up to a Seventh in 1937. The plates of La Tauromaquia deteriorated substantially after the First Edition, so it is only be viewing the prints of the lifetime First Edition that one can fully appreciate the splendid technical and aesthetic achievement that Goya’s Tauromaquia represents.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Narrow Street in Rouen (Petite Rue Nationale, a Rouen), etching, drypoint, maniere grise, aquatint, 1896, signed in pencil lower right, numbered (No 6) and annotated “ep defi” (definitive proof) lower left, titled below (and with the added annotation Z). Reference: Delteil 122, third state (of 3). In excellent condition, the full sheet with very wide margins (remains of prior hinging verso, mat staining in margins not affecting image), printed on an ivory laid paper, 6 1/2 x 5 1/8, the sheet 16 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches.
There was one impression of the first state, one of the second state, and 8 or 9 of the third state, according to Delteil. Each of the third state impressions is annotated “ed defi”, numbered and signed, as is this impression; this impression is also titled. In the second and third states Pissarro darkened the plate substantially (see notes below).
Provenance: Henri Petiet, with his blindstamp verso (Lugt Supplement 2021a)
A very fine impression of this great rarity, printed in a black/grey ink with substantial plate tone overall, wiped to convey a sense of light near the streetlight at the back of the street, in the sky, and in the face of the building to the right.
Several years before etching Petite Rue Nationale Pissarro and Degas had worked closely together, developing a variant of the aquatint technique called “maniere grise”, in which they scraped the plate with an emery point; that technique appears to have been used in this print. Both Pissarro and Degas loved to re-work their plates through a number of states, carefully giving the plates different shadings and nuances. Printing in this way is time consuming, and for the vast majority of prints Pissarro insisted on doing the printing himself. Although Petite Rue Nationale was created in only three states, and printed only about 10 or 11 impressions in all, the plate appears to have been worked over in astonishing detail, with a myriad of etching or drypoint lines as well as aquatint and maniere grise. Then the plate was wiped carefully after each printing. Of course all this meant that the plate could withstand only very limited printings (and no large edition was even contemplated). For all of these reasons, it is understandable that only a relatively few lifetime impressions of Petite Rue Nationale were ever made, and today lifetime impressions of Pissarro etchings such as this are rarely available.
Posted in Camille Pissarro |
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
Kenneth Hayes Miller (1876-1952), Pause by a Window (or Waiting for the Bus), etching, 1930. Associated American Artists checklist 101. Two impressions, one of the first state, one of the second. The first is stamp/estate signed, the second pencil signed by the artist and numbered 27. In very good condition, both with wide margins, the state 1 proof with drying holes all around, on a white/cream wove paper,9 x 4 7/8, the sheet 13 x 7; state 2 on a cream/ivory wove paper, 9 x 4 7/8, the sheet 13 3/8 x 9 inches.
Fine impressions of each state, the second state printed with a light veil of plate tone.
The composition is essentially the same in each state, with one major exception: in state 2 Miller has burnished an area on the boy’s right hand and added a ball (or an apple?)!
Kenneth Hayes Miller is known both as a teacher and inveterate etcher. Working in the area of 14th Street, he observed the crowds on the sidewalks, and shoppers at Kleins (on-the-Square) and Hearns. A student of great printmakers such as Durer, Callot, Meryon, Rembrandt, he taught a generation of great American printmakers including of course Isabel Bishop and Reginald Marsh.
Detail - State 1
Detail - State 2
Posted in Kenneth Hayes Miller |
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
George Bellows (1882-1925), Legs of the Sea, lithograph, 1921, signed in pencil lower right, signed by the printer Bolton Brown and annotated “imp” (impressit) lower left [also initialed in the plate]. Reference: Mason 85, only state, edition of 53. In very good condition, with margins (hinging at upper corners showing through slightly), 8 1/2 x 11 1/4, the sheet 9 3/4 x 12 1/8 inches.
Provenance: H.V. Allison and Company, 11 East 57th Street, New York; with their label on mat verso.
A fine fresh impression.
Legs of the Sea depicts Third Beach in Newport, Rhode Island; Bellows and his family summered for two seasons in Rhode Island, where he made a number of sketches which were re-worked into paintings and four lithographs: another bathing lithograph (Bathing Beach, Mason 86), and his two tennis lithographs (Mason 71 and 72).
Two related drawings for Legs of the Sea are in the Wiggin Collection, Boston Public Library.
Detail
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Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
George Bellows (1882-1925), Tennis (Tennis Tournament), lithograph, 1921, signed in pencil lower right, also signed and annotated by the printer Bolton Brown, imp lower left, and numbered 37. Reference: Mason 71, only state, from the edition of about 63. In very good condition, repaired tears in margins left and bottom not affecting image, with margins; 18 3/8 x 20 inches.
A superb impression, printed on a thin Japan paper.
A souvenir of the summers Bellows spent with his family at Middletown, Rhode Island. Emma Bellows can be seen wearing the black hat, sitting at the left. Critics have speculated that the Rhode Island lithographs and paintings provided unusual subject matter for Bellows, who often focused on social or political issues in his work, but a broader view of Bellows indicates that aesthetic considerations were generally of primary concern to him. For example, in this lithograph the spectators and setting are given greater primacy than the tennis match itself. Still, Bellows depicts the spectators, including his wife, as an elegant and rather pretentious group, a perspective consistent with his social viewpoint.
Bellows created two major paintings related to this lithograph: Tennis Tournament (at Newport), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and Tennis at Newport in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. In addition there is at least one drawing nearly identical to Mason 71, Tennis at Newport, at the Arkansas Arts Center; he also created a smaller, less ambitious lithograph on the same subject (The Tournament, Mason 72).
Detail
Posted in George Bellows |
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Childe Hassam (1859-1935), The Old Mulford House, etching, 1926. Signed by the artist with his monogram in pencil, together with the annotation “imp.” Titled The Old Mumford House in the artist’s hand, bottom left sheet edge. [Also signed and dated in the plate lower right] Reference: Wofsy 264. Edition not known but very rare.
On cream wove paper with full margins. In very good condition, with the artist’s tack holes (used for drying) at the sheet edges, repaired tear and reinforced crease bottom left corner away from image. 8 3/8 x 10 7/8 inches (213 x 276 mm); the sheet 12 1/2 x 16 1/4 inches (318 x 413 mm).
A fine impression of this rarely encountered American Impressionist print – an atmospheric impression of an Easthampton landmark, with the play of shadows across the house working effectively as seen in the best impressions of Hassam’s work.
The “imp” after Hassams monogram stands for the Latin imprimivit, a notation indicating that this was printed personally by the artist.
Hassam is of course one of America’s pre-eminent Impressionist artists, celebrated on a large stage most recently with a show devoted to his work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Queensboro Bridge , 1930, Lithograph.Flint 61. Edition 50. Signed, titled and dated in pencil.
Image size 13 1/2” x 7 5/8” (342 x 193 mm); sheet size 15 7/8” x 10 3/4” (403 x 272 mm).
A fine, rich impression, on Rives BFK cream wove paper, with full margins ( 7/8 to 1 5/8 inches), in excellent condition.
Lozowick attended Kiev Art School from the age of 12 to 14, at which point he emigrated to the US. In New York he studied for three years at the National Academy of Design, then attended Ohio State, worked as a lithographer, and traveled extensively in Europe and Russia between 1919 and 1924. With this exposure to cubism and Russian modernism, combined with his talent as a draughtsman, he was able to help adapt cubism/modernism to America, creating an exciting new idiom called Precisionism.
By 1930, when Queensboro Bridge was made, Lozowick had already spent several years making superb Precisionist lithographs, proving that this printmaking method was ideal for the movement. But the public was not convinced, and he reverted in the later ’30s to more conventional, easily accessible compositions. Of course with hindsight it’s clear (and has been for about the last 30 years!) that this Precisionist work was the high point of Lozowick’s career, and of American art of the period.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Marché aux Fleurs ou la Rencontre, 1914, Engraving. Sylvain Laboureur 127, second state (of 2). Edition of 35. Signed, titled, and numbered 2/35 ép in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left.
Image size: 11 1/8 x 13 9/16 inches (283 x 344 mm); sheet size 12 7/8 x 16 3/8 inches (327 x 416 mm).
A superb impression, with rich burr and delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper; full margins (6/8 to 1 3/8 inches); slight light toning within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition.
One of Laboureur’s most successful and earliest essays in his adaptation of cubism.
Laboureur printed the first part of the edition, numbers 1 through 20, in 1914; then after the War, in 1920, completed the printing of the edition.
$4500
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1887-1943), Le Jockey d’Epsom (Deuxieme Planche), 1913, engraving. Reference:Sylvain Laboureur 125, only state. Edition of only 30. Signed, titled, and numbered 17/30 in pencil. Initialed and dated in the plate, lower left.
Image size: 8 1/4 x 8 13/16 inches (210 x 224 mm); sheet size 9 1/2 x 10 inches (241 x 254 mm).
A fine impression, with rich burr throughout and delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper; full margins (5/8 to 3/4 inch), in excellent condition.
In the “L’Express de l”Ouest” of February 18, 1914, the critic Bernesto wrote: “Cette eau-forte est une des seules manifestations en cette exposition [the XXIII exposition des Amis des Arts] de la mentalite et de l’interpretation du mouvement artistique moderne.”
Laboureur created a painting of the same subject, now at Nantes, and also a drawing on a fan of the same subject (which is less cubistic than the etching); he also created a sketchy “draft” of this etching which he apparently discarded after printing only 3 examples, and then created this print (in reverse of the first plate).
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1887-1943), Le Jockey d’Epsom (Deuxieme Planche), 1913, engraving. Reference:Sylvain Laboureur 125, only state. Edition of only 30. Signed, titled, and numbered 17/30 in pencil. Initialed and dated in the plate, lower left.
Image size: 8 1/4 x 8 13/16 inches (210 x 224 mm); sheet size 9 1/2 x 10 inches (241 x 254 mm).
A fine impression, with rich burr throughout and delicate overall plate tone, on cream wove paper; full margins (5/8 to 3/4 inch), in excellent condition.
In the “L’Express de l”Ouest” of February 18, 1914, the critic Bernesto wrote: “Cette eau-forte est une des seules manifestations en cette exposition [the XXIII exposition des Amis des Arts] de la mentalite et de l’interpretation du mouvement artistique moderne.”
Laboureur created a painting of the same subject, now at Nantes, and also a drawing on a fan of the same subject (which is less cubistic than the etching); he also created a sketchy “draft” of this etching which he apparently discarded after printing only 3 examples, and then created this print (in reverse of the first plate).
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Night Windows (also referred to by Sloan as Roof and Windows, and Man on Roof), etching, 1910, signed, titled and annotated 100 proofs in pencil [also signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference:Morse 152, state 5 (of 5). Edition 100 (110 printed). In very good condition (minor toning in the margins well away from image), 5 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches (130 x 171 mm); sheet size 9 5/8 x 12 1/2 inches (232 x 318 mm).
A fine, rich impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/4 to 2 7/8 inches).
The tack holes near the margin edges of this impression indicate that it was printed by Peter Platt, one of Sloan’s favorite printers; Platt impressions are coveted by Sloan collectors since they are invariably masterfully printed – fine, rich, and black.
Years later Sloan wrote of Night Windows: “While his faithful wife is doing the wash downstairs my neighbor casts a roving eye across the areaway. A commonplace or even vulgar incident may produce a work of art.”
Exhibited in the Armory Show, New York, February 1913.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
TRAVIÈS, (Traviès de Villers, Charles-Joseph) (Wülflingen, Switzerland, February 21, 1804 – Paris, August 13, 1859), Drole Politicians, c. 1845 hand painted lithograph. Published by Aubert [with signature lower left image, letters and addresses in margin below, in the plate]. In very good condition, small paper loss left margin, printed on a tan wove paper with wide margins, 10 x 7 1/2, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches, archival window matting.
A fine impression of this amusing portrait, skillfully hand colored; a print sur blanc (on wove paper, no lettering verso).
This balding establishment figure, himself surely a member of the Chamber of Deputies, expresses amusement at the appearance of a fellow member who has a somewhat similar appearance.
Traviès came from the atelier of François Joseph Hein at the Beaux-Arts, debuted as a genre painter at the Salon of 1823, then dedicated himself to industrial drawing, cloth and wallpaper. He made himself a name with his creation of the figure of the hunchback Mayeux. Collaborator at “La Caricature” and “Le Charivari”. He also did illustrations for novels by Balzac (1842-1855). (Note: I am indebted to the invaluable Daumier Register and associated website for background on Traviès, which I’ve taken the liberty of quoting verbatim.)
Posted in Charles Traviès |
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
Leo Meissner (1895-1977), Sea Gulls, wood engraving, 1936, not signed [signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Published by American Artists Group. In very good condition, on an ivory wove paper, the full sheet with full margins, 8 x 10, the sheet 13 x 18, still in the original AAG mat with the printed statement by the artist verso.
A fine impression of this dramatic image.
Although Meissner worked in several media he was a leading master of the difficult technique of wood engraving (using engraving tools to create an image on the polished hard end of the timber). Sea Gulls likely represents the birds hovering over the craggy Maine coast where he generally summered.
The American Artists Group was formed in 1934, during the Great Depression, with the express purpose of providing unsigned inexpensive prints which were to be widely distributed. AAG published prints by Ganso, Spruance, Meissner, Ruzicka, Chaffetz and Lankes, among many other noted artists. Although the prices of these prints was minimal, sales were still sluggish in that difficult economy; most printings were in editions of under 200 and many under 100. Today, these prints are highly valued by discerning print collectors.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
Boris Margo (1902-1995), [Abstract Composition], 1969, etching, aquatint and embossing [cellocut method] signed and dated in pencil lower right margin; initialed AP lower left. In pristine condition, on BFK RIVES cream wove paper, with their watermark, the full sheet, 8 7/8 x 12 7/8, the sheet 13 x 19 3/4 inches. Archival mounting (mylar unattached hinging between acid free boards, glassine cover).
A fine atmospheric impression.
Here Margo creates a powerful image, using a rather more direct composition than in many of his works, and working with only black and white, and a range of intermediate greys.
This impression was made shortly after completion of the important catalogue raisonne of Margo’s print work (Gelb and Schmeckebier, Boris Margo Graphic Work, 1932-1968). However we believe this work was done using the cellocut method, a printmaking technique which Margo invented. Margo had been making prints of cut plywood, but one day found a piece of celluloid on the ground, and began using it as a printing matrix. It is subject to solvents, and so there were various ways in which the celluloid could be worked upon: by dripping a solvent onto it, by brushing or drawing on it with the solvent.
Best known as a painter of surrealist imagery, Boris Margo was born in Wolotschisk, Ukraine, in Russia. In 1919 he enrolled at the Polytechnik of Art at Odessa, and in 1924 received a grant to study at the Futemas (Workshop for the Art of the Future) in Moscow. A second grant enabled him to study the work of the old masters in the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad and to attend Pavel Filonov’s Analytical School of Art in 1927. In 1928 Margo received a certificate from the Polytechnik and immigrated to Montreal, where he worked as a muralist for a year. Moving to New York City in 1930, he studied at the Roerich Museum and two years later began teaching there.
Margo appeared in a show called “The Ideographic Process” at the famed Betty Parsons Gallery in 1947, along with Hans Hoffman, Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, and a year later had his own one man show with Betty Parsons. Later important shows were held at the Brooklyn Museum, the Tweed Gallery at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, and the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in New York in 1993.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
Nicholas LeSueur (French 1691 – 1764), Emperor Henry IV at the Feet of Pope Gregory VII, chiaroscuro woodcut, circa 1730, from two blocks (olive brown, tan), and etching, from a drawing by Frederick Zucarri, in the Cabinet Crozat [with the names of the artist, title, cabinet in the block]
On heavy laid paper with a Shield watermark, with very wide margins, on a mottled laid paper, in very good condition, 17 1/2 x 8 1/2, the sheet 20 3/4 by 14 inches.
A fine, fresh impression of this striking composition.
From the Cabinet Crozat series – a folio of works, by LeSueur and others, of chiaroscuro woodcuts after famous drawings and paintings in France (sponsored by Pierre Crozat). Shortly after his initial involvement in this project (about 1725), he became the chief wood engraver for the series, and was one of the champions of the chiaroscuro woodcut technique during the 18th Century.
The outline of the drawing was initially done in etching, and then the color tones were successively added using the woodcut blocks. This accounts for the strong detailing ordinarily not possible using a pure chiaroscuro woodcut technique.
This impression was exhibited in the show Beyond Black and White: Chiaroscuro Prints from Indiana Collections, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Indiana University Art Museum, 1989-90, catalogue number 39.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, July 31st, 2009
Erich Heckel (1883-1970), In der Muschelstube II (In the Oyster Bar), also known as Gent (Ghent), lithograph, 1916, signed in pencil lower left [also signed in the plate lower left and titled Gent lower right]. From the publication Der Bildermann [The pictureman], Vol.I, No.4, 1916 Edition: 137: 12 on Japan for the deluxe edition of Der Bildermann 1916; 75 on cream wove, and 50 on wove as published by Paul Cassirer Berlin, 1920. Reference: Dube 229 I/B (of II), from the edition of 75. In good condition, with slight soft folds in margins, with full margins, 11 x 8, the sheet 13 1/4 x 12 inches.
A fine impression, printed in black on cream/ivory wove paper.
Heckel was classified as unfit for service during World War I, but volunteered to work in an ambulance unit stationed in Roeselaar and Ostend, each quite near Ghent (title of this lithograph). The unit was staffed mostly by artists, who were allowed time to work on their art.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, July 31st, 2009
James Ensor (1860-1949), Les Diables Dzitts et Hihahox Conduisant le Christ aux Enfers (The Devils Dzitts and Hihahox Leading Christ to Hell), etching and drypoint, 1895, signed and dated in pencil lower right, titled lower left, also countersigned on verso [also signed and dated in the plate]. References: Delteil 88, Croquez 90, Taevernier 90, Elesh 90, only state. Printed on strong tan/ivory wove Japan paper. In excellent condition, with full margins, 6 5/16 x 8 7/8, the sheet 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 inches.
A fine impression of this enigmatic – and emblematic – Ensor composition.
According to apocryphal texts after his death Christ descended into Limbo to bring redemption to the first sinners, Adam and Eve. In 1886 Ensor made a drawing of this event, and later made this etching, both with the same curious title. Many years later he explained in a letter to Max Gevers in May 1936 that the title, including the names of the devils, was purely imaginary.
In the etching Christ is led to Satan, who sits at the top of the stairs at the upper left; the two Devils leading Christ are armed and ugly. Fanciful characters and insects crawl along the bottom foreground, and at the lower right is a menacing group of horned and lobster-like creatures – some with faces reminiscent of the masks then available in his mother’s Ostende souvenir shop, still on display there today.
Another fine impression of this print, printed in brown ink, is included in the major Ensor exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1873-1963), Une Grand Mere, drypoint, 1943, signed in pencil lower right, inscribed “epreuve d’essai” lower left, and inscribed “a Arnold Newman” center. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon 475, only state; a trial proof impression before the edition of 45. In very good condition, with margins (slight soiling in margins and verso, slightest mat tone), on laid paper, 9 3/8 x 7, the sheet 12 5/8 x 9 7/8 inches, matted.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered image.
Villon’s cubist prints are among his most interesting and sought after. Here he demonstrates his use of the drypoint technique to interweave various gradations of black against a background of straight drypoint or engraved lines.
This impression is inscribed to the late Arnold Newman, a world-famous photographer; Newman was friendly with a number of artists who, as in this instance, provided him with examples of their work.
Une Grand-Mere has been exhibited at various museums in the United States including the Museum of Modern Art (1953) and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1964), and was also shown widely in Europe – Athens, Paris, Oslo, Lisbon, etc.
The portrait is of Mme. Merlin, the mother of Mme. Andre Mare; Villon also made a painting of this woman.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Jacques Villon, Minne Sitting (Minne Assise a Terre), drypoint, 1907, signed in pencil. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon 196. In very good condition, on hand made cream laid paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, 9 1/2 x 6 3/4, the sheet 11 x 8 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A very fine artist’s proof impression of this delightful subject (who was the subject of a number of etchings Villon made at about this time), with carefully wiped plate tone creating a halo-like ground surrounding Minne.
G&P call for an edition of approximately 50; however, we have not seen other impressions of this print on the market, nor was it included in Lucien Goldschmidt’s major Villon print sale of 1970 (A Collection of Graphic Work 1896-1913 in Rare or Unique Impressions); we thus believe this print to be quite uncommon in any state, and this proof impression of the utmost rarity.
This is from the Minne series, a group of prints made by Villon in 1907, portraying the young daughter of a friend in various poses. Minne’s real name was Renee, and she achieved a sort of fame four years later when Villon made his landmark cubist prints of her. In this modernist/expressionist portrait Villon explores the enigmatic character of a young girl, a subject which held much fascination for him at this early stage in his career.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Lime-Burner, 1859, etching and drypoint, printed in black ink on very thin Japan paper with margins
Kennedy 46, second (final) state; Lochnan 49. With small margins, 10 x 7, the sheet 10 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches.
A very fine rich impression.
The print was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1860 under the title W. Jones, lime-burner, Thames Street. Forming the visual center of an early example of Whistler’s frame-within-a-frame compositions, the figure of Mr. Jones, although small, is nevertheless treated very much like a portrait and the name explicitly given by Whistler in the title for the Royal Academy would confirm this. The lime-burner looks straight out at the viewer while the artist’s complex perspectival devices draw us back into the depth of the image; here a passage opens a small view onto the river and even beyond to the other bank of the Thames.
Published as part of the Thames Set in 1871.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Lime-Burner, 1859, etching and dryoint, printed in brown on laid paper, with wide margins
Kennedy 46, first state (of two), Lochnan 49; 9 7/8 x 6 3/4, the sheet 14 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches. Watermark: Hudelist
provenance:
Edgar Degas, Paris (Lugt 657)
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London (their stock no. in pencil in lower margin C.13502)
A fine impression of the rare first state. This impresssion was exhibited widely in the traveling exhibit of etchings and other works from the Degas collection.
The print was exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1860 under the title W. Jones, lime-burner, Thames Street. Forming the visual center of an early example of Whistler’s frame-within-a-frame compositions, the figure of Mr. Jones, although small, is nevertheless treated very much like a portrait and the name explicitly given by Whistler in the title for the Royal Academy would confirm this. The lime-burner looks straight out at the viewer while the artist’s complex perspectival devices draw us back into the depth of the image; here a passage opens a small view onto the river and even beyond to the other bank of the Thames.
The Degas provenance of this print is highly intriguing. Katharine Lochnan (Etchings of James Whistler) quotes a letter from Mary Cassatt to Joseph Pennell in which she writes that “long ago M. Degas told me he had once written a very urgent letter to Whistler asking him to join a group of painters who were intending to exhibit together, the same group afterwards nicknamed impressionists, but Whistler never replied to the letter” (Lochnan, p. 223). (For an interesting discussion of the relationship of Whistler and Degas see: Betsy G. Fryberger, Whistler: Themes & Variations, 1978.)
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), lithograph (Delteil 94), published in La Caricature (November 11, 1834), [with the inscription, address, initials in the plate].
A very good impression of this early (1834) political print.
Louis-Phillipe is shown addressing 3 Republicans in the ruins of the prison at St. Michel (“Tres-bien! Tres-bien! Vous etes parfaitment conduites!”).
An impression of the only state, on heavy white wove paper without the letterpress verso (as published and inserted in the journal).
The top margin is trimmed closely and roughly, outside the upper borderline but just abutting printing on top, otherwise with margins and in satisfactory condition, archival matting. 9 1/2 x 11 inches.
The indispensable Daumier Register points out: “This print shows political prisoners who had helped extinguishing a fire in their prison Saint-Michel. Although an amnesty was already in the making, they were simply moved to a different prison after the fire.”
Here is a translation of the text, courtesy of the Daumier Register:
Original Text:
Très bien! très bien! vous vous êtes parfaitement conduits! l’on va vous diriger sur Beaulieu, sur Poissy, sur Bicêtre, je suis content de vous.
Translation:
Very good!… You have behaved perfectly and done a good job… thank you, you will be transferred immediately to another prison at Beaulieu, Poissy or Bicètre.
$450
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Seymour Standing Under a Tree, 1859, etching and drypoint on fine laid paper; inscribed in pencil by Seymour Haden in lower margin “1st pr from plate”. References: Glasgow 30, second state (of three); Kennedy 31, second state (of three); Lochnan 35. On laid paper, watermark:
Hunting Horn in Shield, 5 ¼ x 3 7/8, the sheet 7 1/8 x 5 5/8 inches
Provenance:
Kennedy Galleries, New York (their stock number in pencil on verso a37155)
Ethel Gardner; a gift in memory of her husband George Peabody Gardner (nephew and heir of Isabella Stewart Gardner)
to Bishop Laurence of the Archdiocese of Boston
George S. van Houten, Waalre, Netherlands
The young boy leaning against a tree, possibly in Greenwich Park near London, with his partial reflection visible on the surface of
the water in the foreground, is Francis Seymour Jr. (born 1850), the older son of Whistler’s half-sister Deborah Delano, known
as Dasha (1825–1908), and her husband Francis Seymour Haden (1818–1910). The couple had another son, Arthur Charles
(born 1852) and a daughter, Anne Harriet, known as Annie (born 1848), both of whom were portrayed by their uncle in some
of his earliest etchings (Kennedy 9 and 10).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Mortimer Menpes (1855-1938), Dresden, Old Market Square, etching and drypoint, c. 1908, signed by the artist in pencil lower right and annotated “imp” indicating that he personally printed this impression; on a fine antique laid paper. The full sheet, in very good condition, with deckle edges all around (some slight printer’s ink fingerprints and some fox marks in margins), 5 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 10 x 16 inches, archival matting with window mat, acid free non adhesive mylar hinging.
This was first exhibited by Menpes at the Fine Art Society, London, 1908, no 14 and entitled “Dresden, Old Market Square.”
Reference: National Museum of Australia Accession Number 84.1328.
A fine impression, printed in a dark brownish/black ink, with a subtle veil of plate tone overall.
Menpes was of course the great Australian printmaker and printer, known for his close relationship to Whistler – as a student and colleague in printmaking – but also famed in his own right as one of the towering figures of the British Etchers movement.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Gabled Roofs, lithograph, 1893. Reference: Chicago (Spink et al) 64, only state. From the lifetime edition of 12 (there was also a posthumous edition of 53 printed by Goulding in 1904). In very good condition, with margins, 7 3/4 x 6 1/4, the sheet 12 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches.
Provenance: Childs Gallery, Boston, with their stamp verso, and on their mat (with their catalogue notations).
A fine impression of this rare lithograph, printed on a cream laid paper with the watermark ProPatriaB (this is Spink watermark 251, one of the watermarks specified in Spink as characteristic of the lifetime impressions of this lithograph.
Gabled Roofs is one of the five lithographs Whistler made during the tour through Brittany he made in 1893 with his wife.
Gabled Roofs - Detail
Posted in James Whistler |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Le Bambillon (Red Mullet; or Le Barbillon entraîne la ligne, The Fish Pulls the Line), lithograph, 1840-41, [with initials in the plate]. Reference: Daumier Register 818, second state (of 2), with the letters, Plate 4 from LA PÊCHE, in the published form in Caricature, a sur blanc impression, in very good condition, with margins, on wove paper, 8 1/4 x 6 3/8, the sheet 14 x 9 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine clear impression.
This is a sur blanc impression, printed in a small contemporaneous edition for collectors (probably 100-150 impressions only). This form of the print was and generally is preferred over the newprint impressions for a number of reasons – the paper is better quality, one doesn’t see newsprint through the image because there’s no newsprint verso (that’s why they call it sur blanc), and of course it’s just rarer than the newsprint editions – and for all these reasons the sur blancs do have the drawback of being more costly than the newprint versions (although the price difference is minimal given the other differences).
The text of this print, stolen unabashedly from the indispensable Daumier Register, reads as follows:
Original Text:
Le Barbillon entraîne la ligne, notre homme se penche, le pied lui glisse, et voilà le pêcheur qu’on repêche.
Translation:
The fish pulls the line… our man bends down, his foot slips and there goes our fisherman… ready to be fished out.
$275
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
Rudolph Ruzicka (1883-1978), A Summer Day, wood engraving, 1936, unsigned [with the initial R in the plate; the AAG logo, title, name, address stamp verso). Published by the American Artists Group. In very good condition, in the original AAG mat, the full sheet with full margins, 5 1/16 x 7 7/8 inches, the sheet 13 x 18 inches.
A fine impression, still in its original mat as issued.
The American Artists Group was formed in 1934, during the Great Depression, with the express purpose of providing unsigned inexpensive prints which were to be widely distributed. AAG published prints by Ganso, Spruance, Meissner, and Lankes, among many other noted artists. Although the prices of these prints was minimal, the editions were still not sold out; most printings were under 200 and many under 100. Ironically, today, these prints are considered rare collector’s items.
On the reverse of the mat for this print these words are written: This print is an original woodcut made by me and printed from the block with my approval. It is issued exclusively in this form and its price is made possible by the edition being neither signed nor limited – Rudolph Ruzicka. (Of course the edition was in fact limited, in large part by the market.)
Rudolph Ruzicka was an eminent wood engraver, etcher, illustrator, book designer and inventor of typographic fonts. He came to the US from Bohemia, living first in Chicago where he took drawing lessons at Hull House and later becoming an apprentice wood engraver. From 1900 to 1902 he studied at the Chicago art institute, and in 1903 moved to New York where he worked as an engraver and furthered his artistic studies. He went on to achieve fame as a book illustrator, artist and typographer. As a wood engraver he surely was influenced by the 19th Century French master August Lepere, and in turn Ruzicka influenced generations of American artists and illustrators who worked in the difficult and exacting field of wood engraving.
$125
Posted in Rudolph Ruzicka |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Carl Schultheiss (1885-1961), The Shepherd, engraving, 1951, signed in pencil lower right margin. In excellent condition, with prior hinging verso, on a cream wove paper, the full sheet, 7 1/2 x 4 3/4, the sheet 11 3/8 x 8 5/8 inches. Archival storage, with non-attached mylar hinging between acid free boards.
A fine fresh impression.
Provenance: The Print Club of Rochester Presentation Print, 1951.
At the time Schultheiss was created the presentation print for the Print Club of Albany John Taylor Arms wrote of him: “His prints have a rich mellowness born of study, contemplation and understanding. Conceived in the classical spirit, the warmth of the artist’s imagination and his sympathy with life assure for them a significance and vitality for which his brilliant but disciplined technique is a fitting vehicle.”
A note from the Print Club of Rochester discussing Schultheiss’s work and life will accompany this print.
Posted in Carl Schultheiss |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Carl Max Schultheiss (1865-1963), Off to Market, etching, 1944. Signed in pencil bottom right and numbered bottom left margin (2/50). In excellent condition, on a cream wove paper, with wide margins, 8 3/8 x 7 3/8, the sheet 11 3/4 x 10 5/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh impression printed in black ink.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, Inc. (still in their mat, with their label)
German-born artist Carl Schultheiss was trained classically, and his respect for the Old Masters is always evident in his work (and Off to Market is no exception; it recollects the pastoral tradition in 15th and 16th C. Northern Renaissance printmaking). Although best known for his etching, he also worked as an engraver and painter. He came to the United States in the 1930s, and eventually was so highly regarded by his colleagues that he was chosen to serve as honorary president of the Society of American Graphic Artists.
Posted in Carl Schultheiss |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Vue de Rouen (Cours-la-Reine), etching, soft ground etching, drypoint, maniere grise, 1884, signed in pencil lower right “C Pissarro”, numbered (No. 3) lower left, inscribed “Epreuve d’artiste” lower left, and titled “Vue de Rouen au Cours la reine” lower left. Reference: Delteil 50, state 3 (of 3). One of the dozen or so artist proofs of the third state (there was no edition, and only 1 proof of the first state and 4 of the second), and one of the five artist’s proofs that were numbered. In excellent condition with full margins, printed on a tan/buff colored hand made Dutch laid paper with the watermark Van Gelder. 5 7/8 x 7 7/8, the sheet 11 x 14 1/4 inches
A fine impression, printed in brown ink, with a veil of plate tone overall.
Pissarro did not like professional printing of his etchings, and so he printed most of his plates himself (working at this time with Degas, who also apparently printed many Pissarro proofs). The concept was not to produce a large edition of prints similar in appearance (only about 5 of Pissarro’s prints were in fact editioned during his lifetime); printmaking for Pissarro was a way of experimenting, achieving variations in light, mood, sensibility, with each proof. He did not intend to earn much money through printmaking (and he never did). In 1883 Pissarro was painting at Rouen, and returned to Paris with a number of sketches and full of recollections, which he used in developing the Rouen prints, which were probably completed in early 1884; Pissarro did not yet have a printing press of his own, so he used printing facilities in Paris. These are among his most engaging prints, and Vue de Rouen (Cours-la-Reine) is among the most successful of this group.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Sir Frank Short (1857-1945), The Lifting Cloud, mezzotint, 1901, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Hardie 118. In good condition, slight light toning, remains of prior hinging verso, with margins, on an ivory wove paper, 6 x 9, the sheet 8 x 11 1/4 inches, archival matting with un-attached mylar hinging and acid free window mat.
A fine atmospheric impression.
Hardie describes the print in dramatic terms: Heavy clouds cast a shadow over an angry sea, with breakers showing flashes of white; the clouds lift to the right, where a labouring ship is seen; in the foreground a large boulder and a half-submerged anchor. Short based the print on a color sketch he made on Whitby Scaur.
Short was one of the most productive and eminent of the British Etchers; an artist whose influence as a teacher was profound, and who in addition to promoting the art of printmaking in general, revived the techniques of aquatint and mezzotint. The Lifting Cloud demonstrates his total mastery of the difficult and laborious mezzotint technique.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Emil Ganso (1895-1941). Little Harbor or Boats, Maine, etching and aquatint, c. 1920, not signed [signed with a copyright mark in the plate], inscribed “To Lucille”. Reference: Smith I78B. In very good condition, the matrix excellent, a couple of small spots in margins and the remains of a prior hinge verso, with margins, 10 3/8 x 14 7/8, the sheet 13 x 17 inches, window mat.
A fine impression, with effective aquatint tonalities.
Little Harbor, a very successful composition, was chosen as an American Artists Group print, reproduced in AAG original etchings, and also in Zink, American Artists Group Prints, 30. We do not believe this impression itself was an American Artists Group print but that it was printed earlier, since the paper is heavier than most of the AAG prints, and it does not bear the AAG imprint verso (the AAG produced relatively inexpensive prints during the Great Depression, explicitly and intentionally unsigned and thus sold as populist art works available and accessible widely. Ironically, these prints and their proofs have a special collector’s appeal and value today).
Posted in Emil Ganso |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Emil Ganso (1895-1941), Studio Mirror, chiaroscuro wood engraving, 1936. Not signed [signed and dated in the block, with the backward s in Ganso and the date also reversed]. Reference: Smith R-77B, edition not stated. In very good condition, on cream wove paper, the full sheet, 14 3/8 x 9 3/8 inches, the sheet 18 x 13 inches. Published by the American Artists Group, and in their original mat.
A fine impression, printed in two colors, light and dark brown.
The American Artists Group was formed in 1934, during the Great Depression, with the express purpose of providing unsigned inexpensive prints which were to be widely distributed. AAG published prints by Ganso, Spruance, Meissner, Ruzicka, and Lankes, among many other noted artists. Although the prices of these prints was minimal, collectors were saving what money they had, and so the editions were not sold out; most printings were under 200 and many under 100. Ironically, today, these prints are considered rare collector’s items.
Ganso, a master of a number of printmaking techniques, here successfully recreates a composition – now in greater detail and in two colors – that he first explored in the etching and aquatint Nude with Mirror of about 1930. One interesting difference: the two pictures on the wall, not identifiable in the etching, are here shown to be a Ganso nude and a country scene.
Posted in Emil Ganso |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Le Trepas du Caniche, lithograph, 1840. Reference: Delteil 651. Plate 28 from Moeurs Conjugales. [initialed in the plate, and with the inscription, name of publisher, seller.] Third state of three, after removal of the address of Aubert; a sur blanc impression (no newprint verso). On cream wove paper, pale light staining overall, tear upper right and bottom margins (not affecting image), light foxing verso, mounted in acid free mats, 10 x 8, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 inches.
A very good impression.
The sur blanc impressions of this print were taken apart from the large run for the letterpress (the prints appeared in the journal Le Charivari). The sur blancs were printed on better paper than the newsprint impressions, and there’s no newprint interfering with the image (as in the newpaper impressions). The size of the edition varied, but is likely to have been around 100-150; the sur blanc edition was for collectors of Daumier lithographs.
As the older woman bemoans the passing of her poodle (she calls him “pauvre zozore”), her husband comforts her saying he too is heartbroken, and that we are all mortal (“que veux tu nous sommes tous mortels”). The woman at the back, standing over “zozore,” appears not to empathize with these emotions (and one suspects the husband isn’t very upset either).
Here, from the invaluable online Daumier Register (see my eBay Guide on this resource) is the full commentary and translation:
Le trépas du caniche.
Oh mon Dieu, mon Dieu, est il possible!…. pauvre zozore, ma joie, ma consolation, je ne le verrai plus!…. ah! je vois que je n’y survivrai pas. – Malheureuse épouse! comme le tien mon cœur est navré. Viens sur mon sein nous confondrons nos larmes. Hélas! que veux tu: nous sommes tous mortels!
The Demise of the Poodle.
– Oh my God, my God, is it possible?…. my poor Zozore, my joy, my consolation, I shall never see him again… ah! I shan’t survive.
– Wretched wife! like yours, my heart is saddened. Come to my bosom and we shall mingle our tears. Alas, what can we do… we are all mortal!
$275
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), She’s Gone (Ciel! apres trois mois…), lithograph, 1841, published in Le Charivari as plate 45 in the series Moeurs Conjugales. References: Delteil 668, Daumier Register 668, Delteil’s third state of three, DR’s fourth state of four. A sur blanc impression, without letterpress verso. [With the address, inscription, number, and initials of artist in the plate] In very good condition, with wide margins, 12 1/4 x 8, the sheet 14 x 11 inches, archival matting.
A fine clear and black good impression of this humourous print.
Loys Delteil did not identify this state of the print, but the recently published (online) Daumier Register notes that this is a fourth state, with the address of the publisher Bauger at the lower left.
The sur blanc issues of the Daumier prints were for collectors of the prints who appreciated the heavier paper (heavier than newsprint) and lack of interference of the letterpress verso in the image. They were issued in very limited editions of about 100 (especially popular prints perhaps a few more, others possibly less), in this case probably just after the publication of the lithograph in Le Charivari.
Uncharacteristically, the idea for this print, and the language below, were Daumier’s.
Here the translation (courtesy of the Daumier Register):
Original Text:
Ciel! après trois mois d’absence, je trouve ma femme déménagée!….. et quels souvenirs me laisse-t-elle, grand Dieu!…
Translation:
My God!… After having been away for three months I find that my wife has moved out! And what memories she leaves behind, good Lord!
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), She’s Gone (Ciel! apres trois mois…), lithograph, 1841, published in Le Charivari as plate 45 in the series Moeurs Conjugales. References: Delteil 668, Daumier Register 668, Delteil’s third state of three, DR’s fourth state of four. A sur blanc impression, without letterpress verso. [With the address, inscription, number, and initials of artist in the plate] In very good condition, with wide margins, 12 1/4 x 8, the sheet 14 x 11 inches, archival matting.
A fine clear and black good impression of this humourous print.
Loys Delteil did not identify this state of the print, but the recently published (online) Daumier Register notes that this is a fourth state, with the address of the publisher Bauger at the lower left.
The sur blanc issues of the Daumier prints were for collectors of the prints who appreciated the heavier paper (heavier than newsprint) and lack of interference of the letterpress verso in the image. They were issued in very limited editions of about 100 (especially popular prints perhaps a few more, others possibly less), in this case probably just after the publication of the lithograph in Le Charivari.
Uncharacteristically, the idea for this print, and the language below, were Daumier’s.
Here the translation (courtesy of the Daumier Register):
Original Text:
Ciel! après trois mois d’absence, je trouve ma femme déménagée!….. et quels souvenirs me laisse-t-elle, grand Dieu!…
Translation:
My God!… After having been away for three months I find that my wife has moved out! And what memories she leaves behind, good Lord!
$250
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Honore Daumier, The Pleasures of Fishing, lithograph, Plate 50 from the series Moeurs Conjugales, 1839-42. Reference: Daumier Register 673, Delteil 673. DR fourth state (of 4). A sur blanc impression (without newsprint verso) issued apart from the edition published in La Caricature. In very good condition, only slight traces of foxing. With margins, 11 1/2 x 8 1/2, the sheet 12 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches, matted.
A fine bright impression.
The sur blanc edition was made for collectors, published on a cream wove paper (the Caricature impressions are on a lighter paper, and the newsprint can be seen through the image). The sur blanc edition size varied but was about 100 impressions, and so is relatively rare.
Here’s the translation of the French, courtesy of the Daumier Register (which is available free online):
Original Text:
LES PLAISIRS DE LA PÊCHE.
– Tu es toujours pressée toi!…. que diable nous sommes arrivés à midi et il n’est encore que cinq heures un quart……. donne moi le temps, je suis sur que je finirai par en attraper un!…
Translation:
THE PLEASURES OF FISHING.
You are always in such a rush – Good God, we only just got here at noon and it is now only a quarter past five – Just give me a little more time, I am sure I’ll end by catching one.
$275
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Une Navigation Difficile, lithograph, 1843, plate 6 from the series Les Canotiers Parisiens [with the addresses, text, and Daumier’s initials in the plate]. Reference: Daumier Register, Delteil 1028. Second state (of 3), on wove paper, sur blanc, with the address of Aubert; printed before the publication in the journal Le Charivari. In very good condition, 9 3/4 x 10 3/8, the sheet 10 x 13 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine strong impression, printed on a heavy wove paper, before the newsprint edition (sur blanc) for the collector’s edition, which was limited to about 150 impressions.
During the 1840’s boating on the Seine was a popular pastime for Parisiens, but it was not always the pleasure it was supposed to be. Here (courtesy of the online Daumier Register) is the translation of the text:
Original Text:
UNE NAVIGATION DIFFICILE.
– Le canot n’avance pas!… tirez donc M. Dumouchel… que diable vous ne tirez pas!. – Mais je ne fais que cela depuis 3 heures… et on appelle ça une partie de plaisir! j’aime encore mieux vendre mes pruneaux rue de la verrerie… c’est moins fatiguant.
Translation:
A DIFFICULT NAVIGATION.
– The boat doesn’t move! Pull Dumouchel, pull…. why the devil don’t you pull!
– But I am doing nothing else than that for the last three hours!…. and this is called a pleasure trip! I’d rather sell my prunes in rue de la Verrerie…. that’s less tiring!
$275
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Jeune et Vielle Garde, 1848, lithograph. Plate 52 froma the series Tout ce que on Voudra; as published in the Album Comique. Reference: Daumier Register 1698, Delteil 1698. Second state of two, sur blanc (without the letterpress verso as it appeared in the journal Charivari). [with the initials hD and stone number 1267 in the plate]
In very good condition (with only a few fox marks mostly verso not affecting image, mounted on the left side), with margins, 10 1/4 x 7 1/2, the sheet 13 x 9 inches, matted with a window mat.
A fine fresh black impression of this rare print.
This print is in a number of institutional collections, always on wove paper in the second state, as our impression (impressions in the first state either do not exist or have not been located); it is rarely encountered in the market.
$250
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Monday, July 27th, 2009
Hans Burgkmair (1459-1519), The White King Receiving a Message About the Defeat of the Croats, woodcut, 1514-1516. Reference: Bartsch 80-(224) 153 [by Leonhard Beck], from the History of Emperor Maximilian I. In very good condition (with margins; some very old script in ink bottom margin, some slight staining, foxing), on old laid paper, 8 1/4 x 7 5/8, the sheet 10 x 8 1/2 inches.
Provenance: Karl Edward von Liphart (1808-1891, Dorpat, Bonn and Florence), with his graphite mark verso (Lugt 1651, see also Lugt 1687, 1688). Lugt notes of Liphart, a distinguished collector of old master prints, “il commence par l’oeuvre de Ridinger et par un achat considerable GG. Boerner in Leipsig en 1836.”
A very good impression, superbly printed on the right side, a bit dry on the left.
The History of the Weisskunig (White King) is an autobiography in the style of an illustrated novel without words. Although it is the story of Emperor Maximilian I all the characters have symbolic names. The White King is the name Maximilian chose for himself, as it both stands for whiteness (purity) and is associated with the word for wisdom (Weisheit).
Hans Burgkmair, the eminent Augsburg painter and printmaker was in effect Maximilian’s official court artist. He worked with other artists, including Leonhard Beck (Germany, Augsburg, 1480 – 1542), in developing the plates for the Maximilian series. At the time of the original cataloguing this block was given to Beck; in the more recent edition of Bartsch it is given to Beck but the decision was made to continue its cataloguing under Burgkmair, to avoid confusion and keep the ordering and placement of all the blocks of the series intact.
This is one of a bound group of old master prints, including other woodcuts by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein and others. Many of these prints have the mark of the eminent collector Karl Edward von Liphart (Lugt 1651) verso. We are currently doing research on the collection so it is not on the market as yet.
Posted in Hans Burgkmair |
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Femme a la Barriere (Woman at the Gate), etching and drypoint, 1889, signed in pencil with the initials CP lower right (annotated “imprime par C.P.”), annotated “No. 3, 6 etat” lower left and also titled “femme a la barriere” (largely erased) lower left. Reference: Delteil 84, sixth state (of 10). In very good condition, on a cream laid Arches paper, with a partial Arches watermark, with wide or full margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 6 7/8 x 4 1/8, the sheet 9 3/8 x 6 inches.
A fine delicately printed impression, printed in brown ink.
Pissarro printed Woman at the Gate himself, working through successive states as he experimented with slight variations from state to state and, as was his typical printmaking practice, making only one or a few impressions of each state and then omitting any edition. Here, he added the two ducks and the chicken in the yard just to the left of the woman (her right) in the third state (only 1 proof of this state), and added some shadow lines to the peasant’s dress and the house in the 4th and 5th states. In this impression, the sixth state, he added some lines to the leaves of the trees and clarified the hair of the woman. He printed (personally) three proofs of the sixth state, each annotated and numbered (1 to 3, this is 3). He made small changes in states 7, 8; darkened the plate quite a bit in state 9, and in state 10 added a layering of aquatint. Some lifetime impressions were made of state 10, and another group of 12 impressions in the 10th state were printed posthumously (of course these later impressions do not withstand comparison in aesthetic terms to the lifetime impressions).
The Impressionists, especially Pissarro and his printmaking partner Degas, approached printmaking as an evolutionary medium. It allowed them to have a composition evolve through successive states; the initial state or states were not viewed as merely a prelude to some definitive finality, but rather as a representation of one impression of the subject, and the last state generally represented the point at which they abandoned the print, not as the place to print an edition (and typically no edition, at least no lifetime edition, was made).
Even within states Pissarro experimented with different papers and inks; e.g., we’re aware of one impression of the 7th state (of 3 altogether) printed in bistre, and other impressions printed in black; this impression is printed in a brown ink which contrasts well with the light brown tint of this paper.
Posted in Camille Pissarro |
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Toilette– 1930, Drypoint.
Sylvain Laboureur 432, Godefroy 432. Total printing only 26, in both states; 2nd state (of 2). Signed and annotated 4/15 ép. in pencil. Signed in the plate, lower left.
Image size: 10 1/2 x 7 inches (267 x 178 mm); sheet size 17 5/8 x 11 inches (448 x 479 mm).
A fine impression, on pale gray wove paper, with full margins (2 to 4 1/2 inches), in excellent condition.
Laboureur considered Toilette, initially titled “Le Baton de Rouge or Femme a Sa Toilette, an “essai de pointe seche”; it is a very rare example of a Laboureur drypoint.
$2000
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Sunday, July 19th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1887-1943), La Peche aux Crevette– 1928, Engraving.
Sylvain Laboureur 375, Godefroy 375. Total printing 82 (58 in the third state); 3rd state (of 3). Signed and numbered 24/58 ep in pencil. Initialed in the plate, lower left.
Image size: 5 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches (143 x 105 mm); sheet size 12 7/8 x 9 3/4 inches (327 x 248 mm).
A fine impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (2 3/4 to 4 5/8 inches); in excellent condition.
One of Laboureur’s most delightful small-scale compositions, La Peche aux Crevette has been included in at least 24 important exhibitions of Laboureur’s work; in addition 10 of the 15 impressions made of the second state were included in deluxe volumes of Godefroy’s catalogue raisonne of Laboureur’s prints.
$2250
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Friday, July 17th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669), Christ and the Woman of Samaria, 1657, etching, drypoint and burnishing, signed in the plate and dated (1658). References: White-Boon 70, Bartsch, Rovinski, Seidlitz 70; third state (of 3); Nowell Usticke 3e (of 5). Printed on a heavy ivory/tan gampi laminate Japan paper, in excellent condition, with margins, 4 7/8 x 6 3/16, the sheet 5 5/8 x 6 7/8 inches.
Provenance:
Collections of Carlos Gaa (cf. Lugt 538a), and the Kopping collection (according to sales records of C.G. Boerner, as described in sales in 1926 and 1929)
Richard Gutekunst, Stuttgart, London and Bern, 1870-1961 (Lugt 2213/a; stamp verso). The Gutekunst Collection was renowned for the quality of each and every one of its Rembrandt impressions.
A fine impression, with substantial burr on the well and the vines lower left, the faces of Christ and the woman, Christ’s hand, and elsewhere. In the third state Rembrandt burnished a number of areas including the upper right above Christ’s head, and the area between Christ and the woman; in this impression the burnishing marks are quite evident. There is a light veil of plate tone overall.
From about 1647 Rembrandt often favored for printmaking the heavy Japan paper available in Amsterdam through the Dutch East India Company; he used this very rare and expensive paper on many of his finest impressions, including this example.
In this state Rembrandt has darkened the lower left area of the composition and the well significantly with drypoint, added some definition to the stones of the well, lightened the area between Christ and the woman and the section above Christ’s head. In this impression the blackening of the lower left quadrant is particularly dramatic.
The woman of Samaria was amazed that Christ, a Jew, would speak to her as Jews traditionally stood quite apart from the Samaritans. He explains that “whomever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.” The woman was interested. Christ suggested she go and bring her husband, but she said she has no husband. Christ intuits that in fact she had five husbands, and that the present one is no true husband. The woman, impressed by this insight, declares that Christ must be a prophet. Christ’s disciples, who had gone into town to get some food, return (as seen at the right) and are amazed to find Christ involved in discussion with this woman. Christ proceeds to Galilee, noting that although this woman – from another land – was able to understand him, “a prophet hath no honour in his own country.”
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Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
Anders Zorn (1860-1920), The Waltz, etching, 1891, signed in pencil lower right margin [also signed and dated in the plate lower left]. Reference: Hjert and Hjert 178, Asplund 54, third state (of three), from the edition of 40. In excellent condition, on an ivory/tan Japan paper, with full margins, 13 5/8 x 8 13/16, the sheet 16 x 11 1/8 inches.
A fine fresh impression of one of Zorn’s best known images.
An oil painting of this subject was bought by Mr. George Vanderbilt at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893; the painting, together with a watercolor study, are now in the Vanderbilt collection in Biltmore House, Asheville, North Carolina.
In the original draft of this composition the artist Louis Sparre was dancing in the foreground with Zorn’s model Marta Petrini, but in the final version Zorn substituted himself for Sparre. The woman of the couple at the right is Emma Zorn. The setting is a ball given by the Zorns in their Paris studio on the Boulevard de Clichy.
The use of light, the composition, and movement created by the linear patterning make this one of Zorn’s most successful compositions.
$13,500
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Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
Israhel van Meckenam (c.1440/5-1503), Children’s Bath (Das Kinderbad), engraving, c. 1480. Lehrs, Band IX, 478III – Hollstein III. In excellent condition, with small/thread margins all around, 4 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches, 11 x 13 cm.
Provenance:
Karl Ferdinand Friedrich von Nagler, Bayern and Berlin, 1770-1846 (Lugt 2529, stamp verso)
Kupferstichkabinett der Koniglichen Sammlung, Berlin (Lugt 1606, stamp verso)
Richard Fisher, Hill Top, Midhurst, 1809-1890 (Lugt 2204, stamp verso)
Adalbert Freiherr von Lanna, Prague, 1836-1909 (Lugt 2773, stamp verso); then sold at the auction of H.G. Gutekunst in Stuttgart, May 11, 1909, and described there as “Ausgezeichneter Abdruck von schonster Erhaltung und mit Randchen. Ausserst selten.”
Ritter Rudolf von Gutmann (Lugt 2770)
Albert Blum, Short Hills New Jersey and Zurich (Lugt 79/b, stamp verso).
A superb impression; an impression of this condition and quality is of the greatest rarity.
One of Israhel van Meckenem’s specialties was scenes of everyday life, including engravings of couples engaged in various activities. He often engraved an elaborate banderole around the figures, not including any printed material on the banderole but perhaps suggesting the observer supply some witty inscription inspired by the composition. Although it is a larger print than the couples subjects, and the composition more complex, Das Kinderbad appears to be created in this spirit, inviting the viewer to write a proverb or witticism in the blank banderole at the top.
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Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
Israhel van Meckenam (c.1440/5-1503), Children’s Bath (Das Kinderbad), engraving, c. 1480. Lehrs, Band IX, 478III – Hollstein III. In excellent condition, with small/thread margins all around, 4 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches, 11 x 13 cm.
Provenance:
Karl Ferdinand Friedrich von Nagler, Bayern and Berlin, 1770-1846 (Lugt 2529, stamp verso)
Kupferstichkabinett der Koniglichen Sammlung, Berlin (Lugt 1606, stamp verso)
Richard Fisher, Hill Top, Midhurst, 1809-1890 (Lugt 2204, stamp verso)
Adalbert Freiherr von Lanna, Prague, 1836-1909 (Lugt 2773, stamp verso); then sold at the auction of H.G. Gutekunst in Stuttgart, May 11, 1909, and described there as “Ausgezeichneter Abdruck von schonster Erhaltung und mit Randchen. Ausserst selten.”
Ritter Rudolf von Gutmann (Lugt 2770)
Albert Blum, Short Hills New Jersey and Zurich (Lugt 79/b, stamp verso).
A superb impression; an impression of this condition and quality is of the greatest rarity.
One of Israhel van Meckenem’s specialties was scenes of everyday life, including engravings of couples engaged in various activities. He often engraved an elaborate banderole around the figures, not including any printed material on the banderole but perhaps suggesting the observer supply some witty inscription inspired by the composition. Although it is a larger print than the couples subjects, and the composition more complex, Das Kinderbad appears to be created in this spirit, inviting the viewer to write a proverb or witticism in the blank banderole at the top.
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Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Portrait of Slevogt, etching, 1921, signed in pencil and numbered (27/100) [also signed and dated in the plate], from the presumed edition of 100. In very good condition, 3 5/8 x 3 3/4, the sheet 12 x 10 1/4 inches.
A very good impression, on ivory laid paper.
Max Slevogt (1866-1932), a friend of Orlik, was a leading German artist, printmaker, and illustrator.
The definitive source of information on Orlik, with pictures of his prints (some for sale) and an extensive biography, is of course the comprehensive website produced by Allan Wolman and Anne Schneider (www.orlikprints.com).
Posted in Emil Orlik |
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Adriaen Von Ostade (1610-1685) etching, circa 1647(Godefry 41, Bartsch 41), 6th state (of 8). [signed in the plate] In very good condition, with (small) margins all around, archival matting. 118 x 116 mm (4 5/8 x 4 1/2 inches)
A fine, bright and clear impression, with traces of inky plate edges and wiping scratches still printing outside of the image.
The Pig Killers is the first of Ostade’s complex compositions, made when he was in his late 30’s. It portrays the entire farm family in this celebratory ritual: the head of the family oversees the operation (at the left), the farmhand kneels on the just slaughtered pig while the farmer’s wife collects the blood in a ladle; the eldest son holds a candle lighting up the scene while two other children – perhaps understandably – are less focused on what’s going on.
Night scenes such as this were popular with Van Ostade and his contemporaries (most notably, Rembrandt). Van Ostade’s work at this time sometimes resembles that of Rembrandt, although Van Ostade’s teacher was Frans Hals, and Van Ostade worked and lived in Haarlem his whole life (but of course Rembrandt’s etchings were known to him, and the tradition of night scenes in 17th Century Dutch etching precedes both Van Ostade and Rembrandt).
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Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur, The Amores, plate 5 (Impotence), etching in sanguine, 1931, signed. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 440, volume 2, page 231. The rare first state (there were six proofs of the first state, only one printed in sanguine); in the second state the etching was included as part of the book The Amores at the Golden Cockerel Press, Waltham St. Lawrence, Berkshire. In very good condition, remains of prior hinging top corners, on a cream wove paper with the watermark AMV, the full sheet with wide margins, 5 3/8 x 4, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches, archival window matting.
A fine fresh impression of this rarity; only 6 proofs were made before Laboureur’s monogram was added for the book edition, 5 in black ink and only one – this impression – in sanguine.
The book The Amores of P. Ovidius Naso was illustrated with 5 etchings by Laboureur. Plate 5, called Impotence, was to illustrate these words: “Though I desired it, and the girl desired it just as much, I could not use the pleasant part of my futile groin.”
The final production of this apparently steamy book was limited to 350 copies, issued in 1931; by 1933 the publisher conceded that book sales had not gone well in this period of the Great Depression. Of course today Golden Cockerel books, and the books illustrated by Laboureur are sought after by book collectors.
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Negres Americains a Saint-Nazaire, 1917-1920, engraving on cream wove paper, signed in pencil lower left, titled lower left margin edge, and numbered (4/35) and inscribed imp lower right [monogram in the plate], 6.25 x 5.06, the sheet 9.75 x 7.5 inches. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur, Godefry 180. Second state (of 2). In very good condition, with margins and archival mounting.
A fine impression of this important and rare cubist-influenced engraving. One of the most popular and engaging of Laboureur’s early images of World War I, Negres Americains a Saint-Nazaire has been exhibited at at least 18 of the larger Laboureur shows and retrospectives.
Although this print was numbered as if the edition was 35, only 28 impressions were printed in total, 8 in the first state (before the monogram in the plate), and 20 in the second.
This is a splendid example of the effectiveness of Laboureur’s engraving technique, with its pointed and regularized incisions, in a cubist/modernist composition. This impression was printed (by Laboureur himself) with a light veil of platetone which lend an atmospheric quality to the scene.
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Israhel van Meckenem (1445-1503), St. Stephen, engraving, circa 1480-1490. Reference: Lehrs IX 382, Bartsch 93. First state of two. [with initials below in the plate] On old laid paper with a Hand and Flower watermark (Lehrs watermark 10), edges made up a few mm. within borderline, skinned and reinforced in places on verso from removal of old backing, with a few associated repaired breaks, most noticeably on right arm of the saint, and another into top of palm frond in his left hand, some stains.
A fine impression of this great rarity (we know of no other impressions in North America). In a brown/black ink, unusually strong in the printing of the lower part of the vestments and on the ground.
Provenance: ex coll S. Paelinck (sepia ink inscription on verso, “V Pael, No 103”, see Lugt 257)
Ducs d”Arenberg (Lugt 567)
Dr. Albert M. Blum (stamp on mat), his sale Sothebys New York, 2/88
This impression is cited by Lehrs in his register of sales (auction Paelinck, Brussels, 1860 first state, 60 francs to the Duke of Arenberg) and classified as a * impression (no *** impressions are cited). Lehrs knew of 40 impressions only.
Israhel van Meckenem, trained as a goldsmith, was one of the earliest, and most prolific Renaissance printmakers. He is notorious for copying the work and reworking the plates of other engravers (including Master ES) and well-known also for creating the first double portrait – of himself and his wife.the printing process. His original engravings show scenes from everyday life, recording contemporary dress and manners with honesty and humour; but of course he also made religious prints, and in fact made prints of anything that would sell; he was well-attuned to the market.
St. Stephen was the first Christian martyr – according to the Acts of the Apostles he was taken outside of the city and stoned to death. Generally depicted as a young and beardless man, with the stones, he’s invoked by headache sufferers; the association is with the pain of the stoning.
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Friday, July 10th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn (Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam), Self Portrait in a Cloak with a Falling Collar: Bust, 1630-31, etching, [signed RHL and dated 1630 which was altered to 1631 in the plate]. References: Bartsch 15, White/Boon, Hollstein 15; fifth state (of six; see note below). In very good condition, with a 1/4 inch thread margin all around. 2 1/2 x 2 1/8, the sheet 2 5/8 x 2 3/16 inches.
Provenance:
George Hibbert, London (Lugt 2849)
William Esdaile, London (Lugt 2617)
Otto Gerstenberg, Berlin (Lugt 2785; with the “Montag number” M. 180 on the verso, cf. Lugt 1840c)
David Tunick Inc., New York (ca. 1983)
Private collection, USA.
A fine crisp impression of this exceedingly rare print. Nowell-Eusticke rates its rarity as RRRR (“Practically unobtainable, greatest rarity”)
In a note in the Print Quarterly (Vol. 1, no. 2, June 1984, p. 124) Linda Papaharis described an impression of Self-Portrait in a Cloak in the Morgan Library as a sixth state; this impression has a broad area of additional shading to the left center edge of the plate above the shading at the lower left. She noted that this Morgan Library impression was apparently known to Rembrandt expert Arthur Hind for there is a pencil notation indicating this on the mount, but that the Morgan had catalogued the impression as an undescribed state; hence although earlier cataloguers traditionally account for five states of this print we catalogue this impression as a fifth state (of 6).
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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Femme Cuellant des Choux (Woman Picking Cabbage), etching, 1888. Signed, titled and inscribed by the artist (lower right: “Imp. par C.P.”; lower left: “3’etat No. 2, femme cueillant des choux/cuivre”). Reference: Delteil 77, third state (of 7). In very good condition, with wide margins (barely discernible mat stain in margins), 3 15/16 x 2 1/2, the sheet 9 1/4 x 6 inches.
A fine, delicately printed impression of this rare print, printed in a light brownish/red ink, with a subtle layer of plate tone overall, on a laid paper.
Eight impressions of this state were pulled (by Pissarro himself), each annotated 3rd etat and numbered. There were only one or two impressions pulled in each of the prior or subsequent states. After this, the third state, Pissarro darkened the composition considerably. (There were also 24 impressions pulled posthumously.)
The cabbages toward the bottom of this impression appear to be printed twice, on a greyish ground, and then defined with careful etching lines (see detail below). Here Pissarro has used the technique he and Degas developed when working together in the early 1880’s, which has been called “maniere grise” (gray manner). According to Pissarro scholar Barbara S. Shapiro (Camille Pissarro, The Impressionist Printmaker), “a pencil-shaped emery stone rubbed on the plate simulated very fine-grained aquatint that reads as a gray tonality.” The technique gives the impression that the artist has either created the print with two plates, or perhaps worked over the paper somehow with a pencil or wash by hand before pulling the impression. But although the plate has in fact been worked over carefully using different techniques, the print is made in a single pull through the press. Pissarro (and Degas) wanted to produce various printmaking effects through the print process itself, not by inking the plate by hand (a la Whistler).
As Shapiro notes: “The prints of these brief years are triumphs of printmaking, characterized by shimmering surfaces that show varying degrees of light. Yet the unusual and seemingly spontaneous effects were the result of complex procedures.”
Detail
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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur, Anzacs, woodcut, 1918-22, signed and numbered (7/45), the second state (of 2). Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 713. In good condition, with remains of old hinges at left margin, a fold at bottom margin edge, archival matting. Plate 10 x 5 1/2 inches, the sheet 17 x 9 1/4 inches.
A clean, bright impression, made in 1918 (a few proofs printed at that time; the edition printed a bit later) just as Laboureur’s singular approach to cubism was emerging. ANZACs stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps (in France during WWI). On laid paper, with an MBM watermark.
Jean-Emile Laboureur was born in Nantes in 1877. He traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene.
The great wood engraver Auguste Lepere taught him woodcutting, which initiated Laboureur in an involvement in printmaking that would extend through his career. In 1886 he met Toulouse Lautrec, who influenced Laboureur’s emerging aesthetic style, as did the work of Odilon Redon, Bonnard, and perhaps most notably Felix Vallotton, who became a close colleague, and whose woodcut work often bears a close relationship to Laboureur’s. Laboureur traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own.
ANZACS shows Laboureur working confidently, and successfully, within a cubist idiom.
We maintain a large inventory of Laboureur prints; your inquiries are always welcome.
$900
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Theophile Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923), Dan le Rue, lithograph, 1911, signed in pencil [also signed in the plate). Reference: Crauzat 295, titled by him as Dan la Rue or also Femme Seule. In the only state, printed on a chine colle, on a heavy cream wove paper. In good condition, with full margins (9 3/4 x 6 1/8, the sheet 15 x 11 inches), archival matting.
Published “hors texte” in the volume La Misere Sociale de la Femme,” a compilation of essays by writers from the 16th to the 20th Century, in 1911, in Paris, by Dewambez.
A very good impression of this rarely encountered image.
Theophile Alexandre Steinlen began his career as an illustrator for several Paris journals (Le Chat Noir, Gil Blas), and was attracted to printmaking presumably because he was such an excellent draughtsman. His lithographic work, such as Dan la Rue, was of course informed by the marvelous draughtsmanship of his fellow-countryman and predecessor Honore Daumier, and in this example we see also the strong influence of impressionism.
Although he is famed publicly for his studies of cats, and his fin de siecle posters, his work throughout his career was marked by strong social consciousness. Early on, he created images of French life – prostitutes and pimps, construction workers and miners, ragpickers and soldiers, and, in this example, a young woman with an umbrella, alone in the wind-blown streets, probably coming home from work.
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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-, Souper a New York, etching on zinc, 1907, signed in pencil bottom left margin; also annotated “No 11/20 imp” bottom margin. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 67, only state. [with the signature and date in the plate lower right] From the small edition of only 16 impressions. In very good condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, on cream laid Ch. Whittman paper with their watermark, 6 x 7 1/2, the sheet 9 3/4 x 13 inches; archival mounting.
A fine impression, printed in a dark brown/black ink.
Sylvain Laboureur notes that this print was numbered according to a proposed edition size of 30, but only 16 were pulled; according to the annotation at the bottom of this impression the proposed edition may have been only 20. In any case, this print is quite rare, as are the few other prints of New York subjects Laboureur created in his early trip to the US.
Jean-Emile Laboureur was born in Nantes in 1877. He traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. In 1886 he met Toulouse Lautrec, who influenced Laboureur’s emerging aesthetic style, as did the work of Odilon Redon, Bonnard, and Felix Vallotton. Laboureur traveled widely as a young artist, staying for periods in the US, where he created Souper a New York, and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany, before returning to Paris in 1910.
Displaying what contemporary poet and friend Max Jacob described as “chic” and “grand classical elegance”, Laboureur has been widely collected in both Europe and North America; in the US his work can be found at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art, Washington.. Laboureur died in 1943.
We maintain a large inventory of Laboureur prints, and welcome your inquiries about them.
$3000
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jan-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Touristes en Bretagne, engraving and roulette, 1928, signed in pencil lower left; numbered (42/58) and annotated “imp.” lower right [with the initial L bottom right in the plate]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 376, third state (of 3). In very good condition, with wide/full margins, printed on a cream wove paper, 4 3/8 x 4 3/4, the sheet 9 1/4 x 12 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine delicately printed impression.
The natives of this small town are at the left, carrying baskets and wearing aprons and wooden shoes; the small group of tourists at the right are gazing at the architecture – one woman reads a guidebook as the other two talk. Laboureur used a roulette tool to create regularized patterns of dots marking the fine woolen clothing of the tourists.
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), L’Enfant Blessé, engraving, 1916, signed in pencil lower left and numbered (4/25) twice lower right. Reference: Laboureur 142, second state (of 2). From the edition of 25, the total printing was 32. In very good condition apart from some soft folds toward the left; printed on a cream laid paper with margins, 4 x 3 3/4, the sheet 5 x 4 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression of this exquisitely detailed rendering.
This composition is a marvelous example of Laboureur’s adaptation of the Cubist idiom to his own work. In particular, Laboureur capitalizes on the capacity of the engraving burin to create nearly microscopic regularized sharp lines and patterns which compliment the modernist, cubist approach.
This World War I subject is a walking couple: a woman and a man – a soldier – cradling a bandaged child.
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur, Jeunes Filles Sur Le Port, 1920, engraving, signed in pencil [also initialed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Godefry, Sylvain Laboureur 200, second state of two. An artist’s proof apart from the edition of 85 in this state; there were about 110 impressions printed in all before the plate was cancelled. In pristine condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 6 x 5 3/8, the sheet 11 x 9 inches, archival mounting.
A fine clear impression.
Jean-Emile Laboureur was born in Nantes in 1877. He traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. The great wood engraver Auguste Lepere taught him woodcutting, which initiated Laboureur in an involvement in printmaking that would extend through his career. In 1886 he met Toulouse Lautrec, who influenced Laboureur’s emerging aesthetic style, as did the work of Odilon Redon, Bonnard, and perhaps most notably Felix Vallotton, who became a close colleague, and whose woodcut work often bears a close relationship to Laboureur’s.
Laboureur traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own. Cubism remained an important theme for Laboureur, a theme he varied, sometimes using it as a strong design or compositional component, as in this engraving, sometimes only as a subtle background element. His experiments with engraving, started about 1915, began perhaps because of the difficulty of carrying complicated etching materials while working as an interpreter in the British Army, but were also based on his familiarity with the old masters, who typically worked in engraving.
Few modern artists use engraving, for although it doesn’t require much equipment, it is far more difficult and time consuming than etching. But engraving became his method, and the clear, clean engraving line seemed to complement Laboureur’s cubism. This happy marriage of cubism and engraving is demonstrated in Jeunes Filles Sur Le Port.
$1200
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Promenade Sur Le Port, 1933, engraving, signed in pencil lower left. Reference: Godefry 482, Sylvain Laboureur 482, second state (of 2); from the edition of 235 (a total of 263 were printed) printed for the Print Club of Cleveland as a Presentation Print (1935). In pristine condition, still in the original presentation mat, on a cream wove paper with full margins, 8 1/2 x 8 3/4, the sheet 13 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches.
A fine impression, printed with a subtle veil of plate tone.
By the mid-Thirties Laboureur was of course well known as a printmaker who had developed his own variation on cubism, using etching and engraving as his medium. In this print chosen by the print lovers of Cleveland for their annual print Laboureur – perhaps ironically – has depicted a scene in his beloved (French) Croisic. Perhaps it is remindful of Cleveland.
This print was issued in a rather larger edition than is typical for Laboureur prints, and so is not considered rare today, at least in the US. But this print is considered somewhat of a rarity in Europe (Sylvain Laboureur notes of the edition impressions “ces dernieres sont d’une grande rarete en Europe”), and when it has appeared at auction there it commands a hefty premium.
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943) engraving La Halte des Bohemiens, 1938, signed and numbered (73/108) in pencil. References: Godefry, Sylvain Laboureur 539. Third state of three, edition of 108 in this state, about 120 in all states. Published by the Societe de Peintres – Graveurs, and with their blindstamp lower left. In excellent condition, with full margins (tiny nick bottom margin edge); archival mounting. 12 3/4 x 11, the sheet 19 x 14 3/4 inches.
A fine impression of this tour-de-force of modernist engraving.
La Halte des Bohemiens is one of Laboureur’s larger plates, an ambitious undertaking for the artist who was just over 70 at the time; in fact he fell ill while working on the print, and it is one of his last (and his last major engraving). The subject was inspired by an encampment of Bohemians between Herbignac and Asserac, near Penestin.
Jean-Emile Laboureur traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. Laboureur traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own. His experiments with engraving, started about 1915. Few modern artists use engraving, for although it doesn’t require much equipment, it is far more difficult and time consuming than etching. But engraving became his method, and the clear, clean engraving line seemed to complement Laboureur’s cubism.
In La Halte Laboureur creates a work of extraordinary complexity. Many of the figures are carrying on activities – the woman at the left hovers over a boiling pot on a fire, a boy carries a pail, another walks a monkey; the old man is weaving a tall basket; a young girl carries an infant. An older woman stands in the doorway, and a younger one faces us. Throughout his career Laboureur loved to create beautifully engraved trees and plants, and he populates this grove with a range of wonderful examples.
$900
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943) etching and engraving Paysage au Buttes-Chaumont (2nd Planche), 1920-21, signed and numbered ( 38/55) in pencil. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 205. In very good condition with wide margins (remains of old hinging on margin verso, some showing through not near image). On white wove paper, 7 7/8 x 9 1/4, the sheet 10 x 13 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine, fresh and clear impression of this important cubist-influenced scene.
Jean-Emile Laboureur was born in Nantes in 1877. He traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. Laboureur then traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own.
Cubism remained an important theme for Laboureur, a theme he varied, sometimes using it as a strong design or compositional component, sometimes only as a subtle background element. In Paysage aux Buttes Chaumont we see Laboureur working confidently within the idiom, using cubist elements in various ways in different parts of this complex composition. He also mixes his modes of printmaking, combining etching and engraving. This successful composition was preceded by a less successful simpler version which lacked the strong tonal contrasts, depth, and structural elements (such as the bridge lower right) of the present image.
$1250
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1947), Coin de Rue Dans Soho, woodcut, 1909, signed in pencil lower left and numbered (15/15) [also initials in the plate]. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 642, Godefroy 642, second state (of 2). In very good condition, with wide margins, deckle edges left and bottom, slight traces of spotting in margin at left and bottom. 4 1/2 x 5 3/4, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches. Archival mounting with window mat.
A fine clear and bright impression of this early and rare woodcut.
At this stage of his development Laboureur had arrived at an interesting modernist approach to the woodcut, somewhat comparable to that of his colleague and friend Felix Vallotton. Here he achieves an atmospheric sketch in woodcut; people are dressed for cold weather, engaged in walking or talking on a busy London street corner. In the sign at the upper right one can read Laboureur’s initials in tiny letters.
$875
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies, Spring Dance (or On Willow Brook), lithograph, 1924, signed in pencil. Reference: Czestochowski 211, Price 116, only state. From the edition of 25. Printer: George C. Miller. In good condition apart from moderate light stain, remains of glue and backing from prior hinging verso. With margins, 12 x 19 1/2, the sheet 14 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A very good impression of this classic Davies composition.
Provenance: Fort Worth Art Museum. This impression is the print shown in Czestochowski’s catalogue raisonne of the Davies prints. It is noted there that the impression was a “Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Hudson, Jr.” The print was deaccessioned from the Fort Worth Art Museum and sold for its benefit at Sotheby’s New York on March, 2004. The Fort Worth cataloguing numbers are on the mat.
Arthur Davies was America’s pre-eminent artist at the time of the New York Armory Show (1913), and the organizers of the show (including Walt Kuhn) involved Davies as a way of lending prestige to the exhibit. Davies had much familiarity with his European counterparts and their work, and helped the organizers locate the work, and legitimate the entire enterprise. Spring Dance or On Willow Brook was done after a period in which Davies experimented with cubism; here he reverts to his earlier Symbolist/Impressionist leanings.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
John Sloan ((1871-1951), Westminster Abbey, c. 1891, the complete set of13 etchings, ribbon bound with ahand-painted gilt cover [many of the etchingssignedand variously annotated in the plate]. Reference: Morse 11-23, only state. Printed byPeters Brothersand published byA. Edward Newton (1864-1940).Theetching imagematrices are in excellent condition, thefull sheets with wide margins (slight soiling and foxing near margin edges, the first (blank) page with some losses; other pages with nicks, some water stains not near images). Etchings are c. 3 1/4 x 5,the sheets 8 x 10 1/4 inches.
These etchings are finelyand delicately printed in dark brown or sepia ink on heavy wove paper;an exceedingly rare set of these very early Sloan etchings.
Morse knew of only one complete set of Westminster Abbey, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which is also with an embossed and painted cardboard cover (also with the illustration of hand-painted flowers, but in the Philadelphia set the flowers are placed a bit further to the right) tied with a ribbon (a flat ribbon in Philadelphia, braided here).
Although the publisher’s name is not on the volume,Sloan recalled doing this series forA. Edward Newton, who in later years became America’s most revered rare book collector. Sloan had worked at a bookshop in Philadelphia called Porter and Coates after high school, where Newton was a young salesman. After Newton left and set up a “fancy goods” business he recruited (with a three dollar a week raise) Sloan as a designer, and Sloan, who had learned etching techniques from reading at Porter and Coates,suggested doing some etching sets. Hecreated the Westminster Abbey series after photogravures made after paintings by English artist Alfred Dawson (Sloan never left the US). Size differences and other comparisons with a few of the photogravures that have been located show that Sloan did not trace them but copied them freehand.
Although A. Edward Newton achieved fame as a rare book collector and author, very little is known about the few early “books” he did with Sloan, including the size of the editions. Morse noted that “In many respects[Newton] was the first man to popularize book collecting beyond a small select group. For this reason his works have themselves become the object of book collectors…” Yet although this bound set is quite beautiful, and may have been produced in relatively large numbers, this appears to be the onlybound complete set knownoutside of the Philadelphia Museum set.
The 6 illustrative plates are signed by Sloan and variously titled and annotated,e.g., the Poet’s Corner includes names of several poets. The 6 title plates have verses as well as titles and are illustrated with decorative designs, e.g.,the West Front title with an “Ancient Coronation Chair”; the Poet’s Corner title with a harp; the Henry VII Chapel title with a knight’s armor and shield.
It is likely that Sloan designed the gilt tower on the cover, which is very similar to the etched tower; the hand painted flowers may have been done by him or, more probably, by one of the 28 (!) women of varying ages who worked at Newton’s with Sloan (the only male) painting frolicking French lovers and flowers and on the covers of candy boxes, portfolios, and novelties at Newton’s store.
Posted in John Sloan |
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Clement Haupers (1900-1982), Metro 2nd Class, aquatint and etching, 1928, signed, titled, numbered (6/20), dated and inscribed “Paris.” In very good condition, slight toning and remains of prior hinging, on Van Gelder Zonen cream wove paper with margins, the full sheet, 4 x 5 3/4, the sheet 9 7/8 x 12 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine fresh impression, with the various aquatint tonalities contrasting vividly.
A fascinating study of rush hour in a Paris Metro 2nd Class car.
Haupers studied in Paris with the Cubist painter André Llote, who influenced his style and perspective. Upon completing his studies in France, Haupers returned to Minnesota where he became an influential teacher at the St. Paul School of Art. He rose to prominence in 1935 as the state and regional director of the New Deal’s Federal Art Project in Minnesota, which hired unemployed artists to decorate public buildings and parks.
In 1981 Clement Bernard Haupers was the first recipient of the “Minnesotan of the Year” award. He was born and died in the same house in St. Paul.
Posted in Clement Haupers |
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Paul Gavarni (1804-1866), Fashion Plates (a collection of 12), lithographs, c. 1840, as published in Le Charivari, with the letterpress verso. [Some are signed in the plate, the address of the gallery Aubert is noted, most are noted as by Gavarni] Several with customs stamps (Royal Seine) verso. In generally good condition, with folds (generally four folds per sheet, as the newspaper was folded), the full or near full sheets, the images c. 8 x 6 1/2, the sheets c. 13 1/2 x 8 1/2, unmatted, to be issued loose.
Very good impressions of these fascinating fashions and models.
Paul Gavarni (the nom de plume of Hippolyte Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier) started his career as an engineering draftsman, but turned to making portraits of fashionable French woman and men, and there found his metier – in fact, he was surely the leading illustrator of French fashion in his time. He moved from directing the Gens de Monde to the journal Le Charivari, where these illustrations appeared (9 are part of a series called Revue Fashionable). He later moved to caricature and book illustrations, showing a less cheerful and more cynical side, and in the last stage of his career became interested in scientific endeavors, such as aerial navigation, which were not nearly so successful as the fashion plates, such as those in this collection, created much earlier in his career.
Posted in Paul Gavarni |
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Prescott Chaplin (1896-1968), Purse Sienners, color woodcut, signed in pencil lower right and titled lower left margins; on a heavy brown wove paper, with margins, in very good condition, 11 5/8 x 6 7/8, the sheet 14 x 9 1/4, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this splendid image; one of Chaplin’s great woodcuts. The colors appear to have been applied by hand, perhaps using the guidance of a stencil.
Prescott Chaplin was a California artist noted for his woodcuts, and especially esteemed for his work in color. His modernist aesthetic, perhaps best known through his many works on Mexican subjects, works particularly well in this harbor scene, which shows the reflections of light on the water.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, July 6th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Los Moros Hacen Otho Capeo en Plaza con Su Albornoz (The Moors made another pass at the bull with their cape). Etching, burnished aquatint and drypoint. 1815-1816. Plate 6 from Tauromaquia. Reference: Harris 209, Delteil 229. First Edition (of 7). In very good condition, on laid paper with full margins, 310 x 440 mm (exactly the sheet size specified by Harris of the First Edition), 9 1/4 x 13 7/8, the sheet 12 1/4 x 17 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine clear impression, printed in sepia ink As noted by Harris: This edition is the only one in which the full qualities of the plates can be appreciated. The impressions are extremely fine and are all clean-wiped. (Only the First Edition impressions are lifetime).
Goya etched the Moorish bullfighters wearing their traditional Marmeluke uniforms; he also thought that hey introduced the notion of enticing the bull with a cape (or albornoz).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Emil Ganso (1895-1941), Two Nudes, 1928, wood engraving, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Smith R-86A, First state (of 2). Edition of 5. In pristine condition, printed on a wove paper with margins, 3 3/4 x 5 1/8, the sheet 6 x 7 7/8 inches. Loose as issued, not matted.
A good impression of this engraving, rare (edition of 5) before letters.
In a later state this print was used as an announcement card, with these letters added: Paintings and Drawings by Emil Ganso at the Weyhe Gallery…October 22nd to November 10th, 1928.
These models are picknicking, as evidenced by the basket lower right; a lake and mountain are in the background.
This was reproduced in Salaman, New Woodcuts, and American Artists No. 17.
Posted in Emil Ganso |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Emil Ganso (1895-1941), Landscape and Houses (or, Woodstock, number 3, or Country Path), c. 1928, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Smith R-29, only state. In pristine condition, not mounted or matted, with margins, deckle edges sides and bottom, 3 7/8 x 5 3/8, the sheet 5 1/8 x 6 7/8 inches.
A fine impression of this tiny wood engraving, printed in black ink on a cream wove paper with the watermark ITALY.
We believe this is a relatively rare Ganso print; Smith did not know of an edition.
Starting in the late ’20’s Ganso spent much of May through November in Woodstock, New York, and in the period from 1925-30 he did most of his woodcuts and wood engravings. Wood engravings are often made in a small format largely because they are difficult to create – this is a relief technique where the artist uses engraving-like tools to cut the smoothed end of a log or board. Ganso learned this technique relatively early in his career; eventually he was to master most of the basic printmaking methods.
Reproduced in Rochester, Prints from the Collection of Charles Rand Penney, 76.
Posted in Emil Ganso |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Emil Ganso (1895-1941), Eddyville, or Morning Stroll, 1935 (also given as 1932), wash and scratch lithograph in brown ink, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed Ed 35 lower left. Reference: Smith L 30B. In good condition, with margins (loss at upper left corner), on a chine colle on cream wove, 10 3/4 x 15 1/2, the sheet 13 5/8 x 18 1/2 inches, archival window matting.
A fine impression, printed in brownish black ink.
Eddyville is a superb example of Ganso’s experimental “wash and scratch” lithographic technique – one can see numerous scratches in the grassy banks in the foreground, and wonderful wash effects in the hills in the middle ground.
Eddyville is just south of Woodstock, where Ganso generally spent much of the year working (other artists in the area included Eugene Speicher, Leon Kroll, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Mortimer Borne, and Aline Freuhauf).
Posted in Emil Ganso |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Marguerite Zorach, Temptation, etching and drypoint, signed, dated (1909) and inscribed “Paris” in pencil, lower right. In good condition, on a cream laid paper with margins (7 3/4 x 5, sheet 9 3/4 x 7 inches).
A fine impression, with a veil of plate tone, carefully wiped to create dark passages (e.g., to the left of the trees, against the wall).
Marguerite Zorach ( 1887-1968) had enrolled at Stanford, but was invited to Paris by her aunt. On the day of her arrival, in November 1908, she visited the Salon Automne, and so was exposed to the French Fauves. Soon thereafter she met Gertrude Stein, talked with Picasso, and was befriended by Zadkine (and eventually met, and married, William Zorach). In the very rare and early etching (we have not seen another impression on the market) The Temptation we get a feel for the swirl of artistic movements which may have affected Marguerite soon after her arrival in Paris. Though she was later influenced by cubism and expressionism, here the dominant themes appear to be Symbolism and its counterpart in the applied arts, Art Nouveau. So this very unusual etching and drypoint represents a pivotal moment in the history of America’s – and an American’s – adoption of modernism. At the time Marguerite Zorach made this print (1909) she was not yet married to William Zorach (they met in Paris in 1911 and married in 1912); she was still Marguerite Thompson. The print was no doubt signed and dated (for the time the print was made) after she was married to Zorach, and she used her married name when signing it.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1954) etching, James B. Moore, Esq., signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “100 proofs” lower left (although only 25 were printed). [Also signed and dated lower left, and titled upper left, in the plate.] Reference: Morse 126. Third state of three. In very good condition, on a cream wove watermarked Van Gelder-Zonen Holland paper, archival matting. Plate size 12 x 10, picture size 11 1/4 x 9 1/4, sheet 15 x 12 1/2, with the drying holes at left and right margin edges. This paper, the characteristic drying holes, as well as the high quality of the impression, indicate that Peter Platt (one of the great printers at the time, and one of Sloan’s favorite) was the printer.
A very good impression of this great rarity. We have not seen another impression of this print on the market in over 25 years. Sloan routinely put an edition size on his prints, but this often represented wishful thinking, or at least habit; in this case Morse gives a printing size of 25.
Sloan’s notes to his friend, advisor and supporter John Quinn tend to confirm the rarity of the print, and give us a good notion of who Moore was: “My dear Quinn – I have just unearthed this in going through some old proofs. It was drawn on copper from the life. It represents James B. Moore who, as proprietor of The Cafe Francis, Bohemian Rendezvous, figures quite importantly in the artistic life of New York. His house, ‘The Secret Lair Beyond the Moat’ was the scene of such gay parties as few of us who participated can hope or wish to see again. He dozed in the chair while I drew the copper…”
The picture at the upper right appears to portray the devil toasting a couple writhing in bed.
$3250
Posted in John Sloan |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Romany Marye in Christopher Street, 1922, etching, signed in pencil lower right, titled, dated and inscribed 100 proofs bottom margin. Reference: Morse 278, seventh state (of 7), from the edition of 52 impressions, all printed by Charles White. In very good condition, with barely visible light toning, printed on a cream laid paper with margins (small loss upper left margin edge), 6 x 8 inches, the sheet 8 1/4 x 10 3/8 inches, archival mounting.
A fine rich atmospheric impression, printed with a plate tone overall which heightens the sense that this is a night scene.
Although Sloan writes “100 proofs” in the lower left margin, as he customarily did, the total printing size of the edition was half that – 52.
Sloan wrote of this print: “All Greenwich Villagers know Romany Marye, who has acted the part of hostess, philosopher, and friend in her series of quiet little restaurants for the past thiry-five years. The etching shows her chatting in her deep comfortable voice to Dolly and myself.” Sloan is depicted at the lower right, with the pipe; his wife Dolly is at the lower left.
$3400
Posted in John Sloan |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Jan Matulka (1890-1972), Spanish Woman with Guitar, lithograph, 1925, an unsigned proof impression. Reference: Flint 13, only a few impressions known. In generally good condition except for faint soiling or spotting, trimmed near the margin at left, just outside the margin right and bottom, and well above the margin (although unevenly) top. 13 3/4 x 11 5/8, the sheet 15 x 11 3/4 (approx.) inches, archival window mat.
A very good strong impression of this rarity, printed on a cream wove paper. The inky borders and irregular trimming (as well as the lack of signature) are characteristic of Matulka’s proof printing.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1890, Jan Matulka became a leading American modernist working at the same time as Lozowick to develop the earliest American Precisionist work, and with Stuart Davis to evolve a new form of Americanized Cubism. In 1907, he came to the Bronx, New York where he had a poverty-ridden childhood with a mother who tried to raise a family by herself. From 1908 to 1917, he studied at the National Academy of Design, and in 1917, received the first Pulitzer traveling scholarship with which he traveled and painted in the Southwest and Florida. In 1919, he first went to Paris, where he was exposed to European modernism, (especially Cubism).
Spanish Woman reflects both the realism that was always a theme in the Matulka’s work and also a Cubist idiom that he was to work with through the years. Matulka often varied his approach from rather conventional realism to cutting edge modernism, even during the same periods. Matulka had his first one-man exhibit in New York City in 1925, the year Spanish Woman was created. A reclusive and independent figure, he did not fashion his art or career for optimal art world recognition. Still, he has been the subject of great interest and regard over the years, especially among artists and curators, and his work is increasingly sought after among those interested in the evolution of American modernism.
Posted in Jan Matulka |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Jan Matulka (1890-1972), Maine, lithograph, c. 1925, an unsigned proof impression. Reference: Flint 25, only a few impressions known. In generally good condition, with the inky and oily margins and irregular trimming (as well as the lack of signature) characteristic of Matulka’s proof printing. 11 1/2 x 14 3/8, the sheet 12 1/2 x 19, archival matting.
A good strong impression of this rarely encountered print (no edition was published), printed on a cream wove paper.
Provenance: ex Collection Sylvan Cole
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1890, Jan Matulka became a leading American modernist working at the same time as Lozowick to develop the earliest American Precisionist work, and with Stuart Davis to evolve a new form of Americanized Cubism. In 1907, he came to the Bronx, New York where he had a poverty-ridden childhood with a mother who tried to raise a family by herself. From 1908 to 1917, he studied at the National Academy of Design, and in 1917, received the first Pulitzer traveling scholarship with which he traveled and painted in the Southwest and Florida. In 1919, he first went to Paris, where he was exposed to European modernism, (especially Cubism).
Maine exemplifies both the realism that was always a theme in the Matulka’s work and also a Cubist idiom that he was to refine through the years. Matulka often varied his approach from rather conventional realism to cutting edge modernism, even during the same periods. Matulka had his first one-man exhibit in New York City in 1925, about the time that Maine was created.
A reclusive and independent figure, Matulka did not fashion his art or career for optimal art world recognition. Still, he has been the subject of great interest and regard over the years, especially among artists and curators, and his work is increasingly sought after among those interested in the evolution of American modernism.
Posted in Jan Matulka |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Childe Hassam (1859-1935), Fifth Avenue, Noon, 1916, etching, signed with the artist’s monogram in pencil, and inscribed “imp” [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Cortissoz 77. Edition c. 20, 2nd state of two. In excellent condition, with full margins (the artist’s drying tack holes at the sheet edge), 9 15/16 x 7 3/16 inches (252 x 183 mm); sheet size 12 5/8 x 9 3/4 inches (321 x 248 mm).
A fine, crisp impression, on cream wove paper
Hassam printed this impression personally.
A view from a window at Fifth Avenue, New York, looking north from 34th Street, etched from life.
Collections: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Cleveland Museum of Art, Corcoran Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exhibited: Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 1922; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1916, 1922. Cover illustration for 94 Prints by Childe Hassam, Joseph Czestochowski, 1980.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Tir Forain, engraving, 1920-21, signed in pencil lower left, titled lower left, and numbered 10//85 lower right, also annotated “imp.” [also with the monogram and date 1920 in the plate upper right]. Reference: Godefroy, Laboureur 191. Fourth state (of 4), total lifetime edition of 108 including all states. Posthumous impressions were taken in 1988, which are clearly stamped and identified. The plate has been cancelled. In very good condition, on an ivory laid paper with a double MBM watermark; the full sheet with wide margins (very slight toning, remains of prior hinging verso), 10 1/2 x 9, the sheet 15 1/2 x 10 3/4 inches.
Provenance:
Unidentified collector’s stamp verso ( ABS, not found in Lugt)
Purchased Exposition Galerie Marcel LeComte, 1974, to current owner.
A superb, rich impression of this splendid image, printed in an unusual dark brown ink.
Le Tir Forain was conceived in sketches and drawings in 1914, and some components of the image can be seen in one of the small woodcuts Laboureur created for a series of scenes depicting the troops in World War I. A major painting on the theme was not completed, and the engraving itself was done in 1920-21; the edition was printed in 1921. Le Tir Forain is one of the most famous of Laboureur’s images, and has been exhibited widely, serving as a theme for art shows and even as a decorative panel for the restaurant Boulestin.
Le Tir Forain demonstrates Laboureur’s remarkable adaptation of the cubist idiom; his engraving technique is a perfect way of achieving the angularity and freshness of line that his unique approach requires.
The general composition of Le Tir Forain was set out in the first state, which is of great interest in understanding the development of the print, and the intermediate states are of interest as well (and of course represent the plate in its early and more pristine condition). But in this case, the final state – in which the lines of the targets are filled in – is really a culmination of the developmental process; so in the case of Le Tir Forain the definitive fourth state represents the last word on what the artist was aiming at in this, one of his most appealing prints.
The drawing is in pencil on a very thin orange Japan paper, the same size as the engraving (10 1/2 x 9 inches), and then carefully re-traced by the artist in ink on the verso, so the verso is in the same direction as the print. It is signed in pencil. The verso is pictured. The condition is typical of a working drawing, i.e., not pristine – a paper loss upper left (outside of the image), a tear (now expertly repaired) where a pencil line was drawn too hard and sharp. Interestingly, in the upper left of the drawing the artist has drawn lines within the curtains in a purple ink.
(Note: a superb impression of the print, without the drawing, is also available; please inquire if interested)
Laboureur – Le Tir Forain – The Drawing
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
The rare first state
James Whistler (1834-1903), La Marchande de moutarde – The Mustard Merchant 1858, etching and drypoint on cream laid paper (with a partial script watermark). Reference: Kennedy 22, first state (of five); Glasgow 20 (Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011) first state (of 5). Lochnan 24. In very good condition, with wide margins: 6 ¼ x 3 1/2; the sheet 9 1/8 x 7 ¼ inches.
A very fine impression of the extremely rare first state of five, printing with rich tone; before the intricate lines above the pots on the shelf and the vertical lines on the beam just below the arch.
According to the Glasgow catalogue : “The unique first state is in the National Gallery in Washington DC. There are comparatively few impressions of the second state (but more of the third state).” This first state impression would thus double the total of known first state impressions. This impression has been examined by Margaret MacDonald, head of the Glasgow project, and will be included in the Glasgow catalogue as the second known impression of this print.
The composition is based on a pencil drawing Whistler made in Cologne during a walking tour through France and the Rhineland
with Ernest Delannoy in 1858. The print was shown together with a portrait etching at the Paris Salon of 1859 and can be considered
the artist’s first introduction to the public. For this historic reason, but also because of the charming quality of the image
itself, La Marchande is rightly considered one of Whistler’s most important early prints.
This impression has wide margins: 6 ¼ x 3 1/2; the sheet 9 1/8 x 7 ¼ inches.
Posted in James Whistler |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Desperate Fisherman (or, There is No Accounting for Taste), lithograph, 1840 [with letters in the plate]. Reference: Daumier Register 817. A sur blanc impression, on cream wove paper, issued apart from the newsprint publication in Charivari (also issued in the Album Comique in 1842). In very good condition, with margins, 11 3/4 x 8, the sheet 13 3/8 x 10 1/4 inches, archival window matting.
A fine fresh impression of this classic fishing scene.
The sur blanc impressions were published in quite limited editions for collectors (typically 100 or so impressions), in this case prior to the wider publication of the lithograph. Collectors generally preferred the sur blancs because the paper was better grade, there was no newsprint to show through and, the printing quality was generally quite fine.
Here, from the invaluable online Daumier Register, is a translation of the lettering, as well as a comment on the translation:
Original Text:
LE PÊCHEUR ACHARNÉ
ou
il ne faut pas disputer les gouts.
Translation:
THE DESPERATE FISHERMAN
or
“There is no accounting for tastes”.
There is a play on words in the text of this print. “des goûts” means “of tastes”. It is pronounced in the same was as the word “d’égout”, meaning “sewage”.
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Desperate Fisherman (or, There is No Accounting for Taste), lithograph, 1840 [with letters in the plate]. Reference: Daumier Register 817. A sur blanc impression, on cream wove paper, issued apart from the newsprint publication in Charivari (also issued in the Album Comique in 1842). In very good condition, with margins, 11 3/4 x 8, the sheet 13 3/8 x 10 1/4 inches, archival window matting.
A fine fresh impression of this classic fishing scene.
The sur blanc impressions were published in quite limited editions for collectors (typically 100 or so impressions), in this case prior to the wider publication of the lithograph. Collectors generally preferred the sur blancs because the paper was better grade, there was no newsprint to show through and, the printing quality was generally quite fine.
Here, from the invaluable online Daumier Register, is a translation of the lettering, as well as a comment on the translation:
Original Text:
LE PÊCHEUR ACHARNÉ
ou
il ne faut pas disputer les gouts.
Translation:
THE DESPERATE FISHERMAN
or
“There is no accounting for tastes”.
There is a play on words in the text of this print. “des goûts” means “of tastes”. It is pronounced in the same was as the word “d’égout”, meaning “sewage”.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Honore Daumier 1808-1879), Ah Tu Trouves…, lithograph, 1841 [with initials in the plate, other annotation: Chez Aubert, gal. Véro-Dodat lower center Se vend chez Bauger & Cie Editeurs… lower right Imp. d’Aubert & Cie]. Reference: Daumier Register 661, second state (of 3), before the erasure of the address. Published in Le Charivari. Plate 38 from Moeurs Conjugales. In good condition, with margins (spotting in margins) 9 x 12, the sheet 13 1/2 x 10 1/8 inches, archival matting.
A very good black sur blanc impression. The sur blanc impressions were printed in a limited edition apart from the large newsprint edition, for collectors, on a white wove paper. This paper is stronger than the newprint, and is superior insofar as the newsprint does not show through the image. For more background on the print, including the position of women v. men in French households in the mid-19th Century, please see the discussion of the topic in the Daumier Register, a free on-line catalogue raisonne.
Here is the translation of the text from the Daumier Register:
. Original Text: – Ah! tu trouves que ta femme ne te soigne pas assez, brigand; quand tu dépenses tout, canaille!… Eh bien je m’en ferai des accroche-cœur, polisson!…. et je m’achèterai des bonnets…. et je te ferai manger des bouchons de liège, gredin…….. – Mon ange j’ai tort, tu es une bonne femme de ménage….. mais tu casses tout.
Translation: – Ah! So you think your wife does not care enough about you, you rascal, when you spend everything you good-for-nothing! Well, I am going to arrange my hair in lovelocks, you scoundrel! And I am going to buy fancy hats and I will give you corks to eat, you villain! – My angel, I am wrong, you are a good housewife …. but you’re breaking everything!
$250
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), UNE DEMANDE EN SÉPARATION (A Divorce Case), lithograph, 1845. Reference: Daumier Register, second state (of 2, with letters [initials in the plate]), Plate 40 of Les Beaux Jours de la Vie, published in Le Charivari, 8 7/8 x 9 1/4, the sheet 14 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches. In good condition, slight paper toning, horizontal fold.
A fine strong and clear impression of this iconic Daumier lawyer image, as published in Le Charivari, with the letterpress verso.
Here, as quoted from the Daumier Register is the translation:
Original Text: UNE DEMANDE EN SÉPARATION. – Mon client n’est pas un des maris présomptueux qui viennent se vanter devant vous d’avoir été trompés par leur femme, sans avoir autre chose que de vagues soupçons…. grâce au ciel nous avons des preuves… nous en avons à foison, et c’est le front levé et sans crainte d’un démenti, que monsieur peut annoncer hautement et en tout lieux… qu’il est… enfin ce qu’il est!….
Translation: A DIVORCE CASE. My client is not one of these presumptuous husbands who appear here before you in order to boast that they have been deceived by their wives and have only vague suspicions for saying so… Thank God, we have proof… More than that. We have ample proof, and holding his head high, and without fear of contradiction, the gentleman can say loud and clear that he… that he is… well, that he is what he is…
The complainant appears to be as baffled by his lawyer as he seems to have been by his wife.
$750
Posted in Honore Daumier |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), The Sleeping Model or The Sleeper, etching and drypoint with additional pencil coloring, signed on the tab and inscribed “imp”, also inscribed “to Hetty” and initialed verso. Reference: Hausberg 145, an undescribed third state (of 5), colored by the artist in pencil, in very good condition, on antique laid paper trimmed to the plate mark by the artist with the tab left for the signature, 5 1/8 x 7 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of a proof before the addition of lines on the couch and background, shading near the model’s fingers, and the addition of aquatint for color printing. In this proof the artist has added colors in pencil; in the last state a small number of impressions (5) were printed in colors.
This proof impression was given to the model, Hetty Pettigrew, by Roussel. Ms Pettigrew (1867-1953), a model for Whistler as well as Roussel, was also Roussel’s student, and had, according to Hausberg, a personal relationship with Roussel as well as a professional one. Both Roussel and Whistler made a number of prints, and Whistler a few pastels, of Ms. Pettigrew on the couch depicted in this etching.
Posted in Theodore Roussel |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), Low Tide Fowey (First Plate), etching, 1911, signed on the tab and inscribed imp (Latin for impressit)[also signed in the plate lower left]; Reference: Hausberg 100, third state (of 3). In excellent condition (remains of prior hinging verso), trimmed by the artist on the platemark with a tab left for the signature and annotation, on a laid paper, 3 1/2 x 5 inches, archival matting.
A fine delicately printed impression of this rare print. Roussel printed only 15 in this state, 8 in the second state and 1 in the first.
Apparently this delicate plate wore out quickly, so Roussel made another version (Hausberg 101) which was then steel-faced (although no edition was made of this version).
Roussel was an admirer, and one of the more talented students of Whistler, and, like Whistler, he printed his etchings personally, then trimmed them at the plate mark and left his signature on a tab.
The subject dates from Roussel’s visit to Fowey, Cornwall during the summer of 1911.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), The Street, Chelsea Embankment, etching, 1888-9, signed in pencil on the tab and annotated “imp” [also signed lower left in the plate]. Reference: Hausberg 26, only state, about 40 impressions printed. In good condition (tiny repaired tear upper margin, trimmed by the artist at the platemark leaving a tab for the signature), 5 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches. Printed in brownish/black ink on an old laid paper, archival mounting.
A fine atmospheric impression, printed by the artist with an overall veil of plate tone.
Roussel was a student and admirer of Whistler, and, like Whistler, he printed his etchings personally, then trimmed them at the plate mark and left his signature on a tab. This print is illustrated in Lochnan’s The Etchings of Whistler, as an example of Roussel’s work (Lochnan notes that Roussel was so full of respect for the master that he always went bareheaded in his presence). As it developed, Roussel was surely one of the most outstanding of Whistler’s accolytes.
This commercial section of Cheyne Walk was destroyed in 1889, when it was razed in connection with the building of Battersea Bridge. Meg Hausberg, in her superb catalogue raisonne of Roussel’s prints, was able to find the names of each of the shops; the sign board for James Clarke, Dining Rooms; and Mrs. Sarah Weller, Furniture Dealer are both visible in the etching, as is the large News of the World sign above the shop at the far left.
Posted in Theodore Roussel |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
James Whistler (1834-1903), The Bridge, Santa Marta, 1879-80, etching with drypoint, printed in sepia on fine laid paper. Signed with the butterfly and inscribed imp on the tab (also with an exceedingly light butterfly lower right in the plate). Kennedy 204, probably eighth (final) state; Glasgow 201, probably state 9 (of 9) (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011), Lochnan 199. Trimmed to the platemark by the artist, h: 11.8 x w: 7.9 in / h: 30 x w: 20.1 cm.
A fine impression, printed with subtle tone.
The bridge theme occurs repeatedly in Whistler’s vistas. It is also the main focus of more than one of the Venetian prints. While some bridges are seen from below, from where one would see it if approaching in a gondola (for example Ponte del Piovan, Kennedy 209), The Bridge depicts the scene from a high perspective, opening up the view into the far distance. The small boat approaching the arch in the foreground is again, as in the earlier Thames prints, a stock motif that is probably ultimately derived from the Japanese woodcuts of Hokusai and Hiroshige. The bridge here is the Ponte de le Terese over the Rio de l’Arzere in the Santa Marta quarter.
The early biography of Whistler by Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell is essential for its “immense quantity of information” but also notorious for “the inherent hyperbole and misinformation” (Eric Denker, Annotated Bibliography, in Fine, p. 184). Still, it is worth quoting from the Pennels’ appraisal of The Bridge: “Simplicity of expression has never been carried further. Probably the finest plate, in its simplicity and directness, is The Bridge. Whistler now obtained the quality of richness by suggesting detail, and also by printing. In The Traghetto there is the same scheme as in The Miser and The Kitchen, but the Venice plate is more painterlike. Without taking away from the etched line he has given a fullness of tone which makes the background of [Rembrandt’s ] The Burgomaster Six weak by comparison. And he knew this” (Pennell/Pennell, p. 197).
The plate was originally advertised for but not included in the First Venice Set where it was substituted by the somewhat more conventional view of The Little Mast (Kennedy 185). It was published as part of the Second Venice Set in 1886.
Posted in James Whistler |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
James Whistler (1834-1903), Price’s Candle Works, drypoint on laid Japan paper, circa 1875. Trimmed on the platemark by the artist. With an early butterfly signature and inscribed imp in pencil on the tab. Kennedy 154, an intermediate state between states III and IIIa, before drypoint addition to the topsail but with additions to main sail; Lochnan 155. h: 8.9 x w: 8.9 in / h: 22.6 x w: 22.6 cm
Provenance:
Kennedy Galleries, New York (their stock no. in pencil on verso a65820)
Tracy Dows, New York (Lugt 2427)
Charles C. Cunningham, Jr., Boston (not in Lugt)
The Fine Art Society, London
George S. van Houten, Waalre, Netherlands
A fine impression, printed with subtle and even plate tone and burr on the drypoint.
Kennedy initially listed four states and then added two additional states; one should therefore properly count six states, this one being an intermediate one between (new) states four and five.
This print is an example of the effect that Whistler could achieve with the contrasts of night and illumination, making, as Wedmore remarked, “the chimney of a brewery or a candle works […] not less beautiful than […] King’s College Chapel”.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
James Whistler (1834-1903), Price’s Candle Works, drypoint on laid Japan paper, circa 1875. Trimmed on the platemark by the artist. With an early butterfly signature and inscribed imp in pencil on the tab. Kennedy 154, an intermediate state between states III and IIIa, before drypoint addition to the topsail but with additions to main sail; Glasgow (Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011) 166, twelfth state (of 13). Lochnan 155. h: 8.9 x w: 8.9 in / h: 22.6 x w: 22.6 cm
Provenance:
Kennedy Galleries, New York (their stock no. in pencil on verso a65820)
Tracy Dows, New York (Lugt 2427)
Charles C. Cunningham, Jr., Boston (not in Lugt)
The Fine Art Society, London
George S. van Houten, Waalre, Netherlands
A fine impression, printed with subtle and even plate tone and burr on the drypoint. This is the impression illustrated in the Glasgow catalogue for the twelfth state.
Kennedy initially listed four states and then added two additional states; one should therefore properly count six states, this one being an intermediate one between (new) states four and five. But Glasgow (see reference above) describes 13 states; this would appear to be a very early impression of the twelfth state.
This print is an example of the effect that Whistler could achieve with the contrasts of night and illumination, making, as Wedmore remarked, “the chimney of a brewery or a candle works […] not less beautiful than […] King’s College Chapel”.
on reserve
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Palaces, 1879-80, etching on laid paper; trimmed on the platemark by the artist, signed with the butterfly and inscribed imp on the tab. Reference: Kennedy 187, third (final) state; Lochnan 184.
Provenance: P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London (their stock no. in pencil verso C.13455)
Kennedy Galleries, New York (their stock no., partially erased, in pencil verso a 66798)
Thérèse Lowndes Noble, New York (Lugt 1953 but not stamped; according to a note on the mat of the previous owner)
private collection, USA (acquired 1979–80)
A fine impression.
The print shows on the verso three tiny circles in pencil, a sign that has often been interpreted as Whistler’s method of marking a choice impression. However, as Ruth Fine has pointed out, “no document […] has been located which verifies this. […] If these annotations were a Whistlerian designation of quality, they were probably one more aspect of the artist’s public relations campaign, allowing certain buyers to think they were getting something extraordinary”.
The Palaces is Whistler’s largest etching, depicting the Sagredo and Pesaro palaces at Santa Sofia. Both of them “are Gothic, a period Whistler otherwise largely avoided in Venice”. Compositionally one may position it at an interesting transition point. In most of the other architectural views from the First Venice Set Whistler continues to use his characteristic framing devices, usually with some kind of passageway that pulls the viewer into the image (see e.g. The Lime-Burner above). Here one is confronted with the large facade of the palace, set parallel to the picture plane. The door is shaded with dense lines and does not allow any view through into a deeper layer of space. If one were to cut out the palace alone without the surrounding sky and water, the composition would already closely resemble the later Venice and Amsterdam facades. Steps and The Embroidered Curtain show this artistic development in the present catalogue at its most accomplished level.
Published as part of the First Venice Set in 1881.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), etching, lavis, burin and burnisher, 1810, Plate 20 from the Disasters of War. Harris 140 I/2 (of III/7). A working proof before letters and numbers [with signature and date lower left]. 6 1/8 x 9, the sheet 7 5/8 x 9 15/16 inches.
Provenance: Infante Don Sebastian de Borbon y Branganza; George Prevot (This is the proof referred to in Harris as Lima Private Coll. (ex Provot). Sold by Prevot in Paris, April 10, 1935, Hotel Drouot, in the sale of Prevot’s Goya collection, catalog number 49. );Private Swiss Collection
An extraordinarily fine proof impression.
One first state impression is known, and about nine other second state proofs have been accounted for; eight are in major institutions (Boston MFA, Madrid BN, New York MMA, Paris BN and BAA, Berlin KK).
In this state there was extensive etched re-working of the original design and filling in of the unworked areas in the right foreground; with the false biting burnished on the figures, with lavis which fails to print in some of the very clean wiped impressions. Although relatively clean wiped, lavis bordering can be seen quite clearly on this impression. No proof is known with the earlier 8 only, or with nos. 8 and 20.
The print quality is extraordinary, particularly when compared to that of the edition (the First Edition was printed posthumously, in 1863; six additional editions followed).
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968), Two Female Nudes (also known as The Dancers), c. 1915-20, lineolum cut, signed in pencil lower right margin. One of a small number of proofs; there was no edition. In excellent condition, on a very thin cream Japan paper, with margins, 8 1/4 x 6 1/2, the sheet 12 x 10 1/2 inches. Archival mounting with window mat.
A fine impression of this very rarely encountered American modernist/cubist print.
Provenance: The Heald Collection, with its mat.
The Zorachs (William and Marguerite), who met in Paris, spent several summers in Provincetown (1915, 1916, 1921, 1922), and it is surely there that Marguerite created this cubist composition, which bears some resemblance to other linoleum cuts she created there, including A New England Family, and Provincetown Players (indeed the two women portrayed here may have been Provincetown Players).
The linoleum cut technique was well suited to Zorach’s approach to printmaking at the time; she could carve the image herself, and print it herself by hand.
Zorach was focused on the artmaking, not marketing or distribution of prints, so she did not edition them, number them, sign them all, or keep careful records of the number of prints produced. This has had a mixed effect on Zorach’s reputation as a printmaker – some of her prints are little known and rarely seen – but today her prints are increasingly sought after by knowledgeable collectors.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Who Will Bell the Cat (Quien se Pondra El Cascabel at Gato?); also Animal Folly (Disparate de Bestia), etching, c. 1820, burnished aquatint and drypoint. Reference: Harris 268, Delteil 222. In excellent condition, the full sheet, on fine laid paper, 9 1/2 x 13 3/4, the sheet 12 x 17 1/4, archival window mat.
Published by L’Art with the title “Otras Leyes Por el Pueblo and below “(Autres loie pour le peuple)” [other laws for the people] with “Goya inv. et sc.” and “L’Art” to the left and “Fcois Lienard, Imp Paris” to the right. One of the four additional plates prepared for the Proverbios Series but unpublished until the late nineteenth century (1877). (There were initially 18 prints in the set, which was first published in 1864.) One working proof of Quien se Pondra is known, then some posthumous trial proofs before letters prior to the edition.
Provenance: ex Collection Frederick Garnet Rice (Lugt Supplement 1042a), his stamp verso.
A fine impression, with the aquatint contrasts clear, and the drypoint scratches vivid as well.
Harris notes that the “elephant is copied from a pen and ink drawing which represents two elephants and their keeper. There are etched traces of the second elephant in the rocks above the Moors.” In this impression these etched traces are quite clear.
The generally accepted interpretation of this print is that the elephant, representing the people, is being seduced into accepting laws which would sap its strength and put it at the mercy of the ruling class. The fable of the mice who held a meeting to discuss what to do with the cat (they decided to bell it, but then had to decide who would take on the task) was in an anthology that was almost surely known to Goya. In the composition one of the cowering Moors holds a book (laws?) while another holds out a bell harness in the direction of the massive animal.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Francisco de Goya (1746-1828), Bien te se está – It serves you right, etching with aquatint with touches of burin; on laid paper, circa 1808-1814, Harris 126 I.3 (of III.7). 14.1 x 20.4 cm; the sheet 20.8 x 29.7
A working proof impression for plate 6 of Los Desastres de la Guerra , with the earlier number 26 in the lower left corner, but before the additional burin work in the two known I.4 working proofs (Paris Gil and the Cean Bermudez Album impressions).
Harris lists one impression of state I.1 (Berlin) and one of state I.2 (Boston). Of the present state I.3, six impression are known, including this one that was formerly in the collection Georges Provôt in Paris
Provenance: Infante Don Sebastian de Borbón y Braganza
Georges Provôt, Paris
his sale, Hôtel Drouot, April 10, 1935, lot 37
private collection, Switzerland
Working (lifetime) proofs of the Disasters prints are of course of the utmost rarity; no edition was made during Goya’s lifetime – the First Edition of Los Desastres de la Guerra was published posthumously, in 1863, and seven editions were made in all.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Jules Pascin (1885-1930), Comparaison (Nude Bathers), 1929, drypoint and aquatint, signed in pencil and numbered (99/253). Reference: Hemin 162 (p. 133). In good condition with full margins, slight light stain, on cream wove paper, 7 1/4 x 7, the sheet 16 1/2 x 13 inches.
The plate for this print was not cut squarely, so the top margin is angled; also, at the right of the plate one can see a watery line within the platemark where the plate was not completely bitten by acid.
A very good impression of this rather idiosycratic print. The voluminous nudes, and light virtuoso drypoint lines are characteristically Pascin’s; the darkness and shading of the aquatint gives the print an ominous, disturbing feel – another side to Pascin’s character.
Although the numbering suggests an edition of 253, we believe this number (and the other number shown, 99, might well have been made up; our experience with Pascin prints is that the numbering is often quite arbitrary, bearing no relation to the actual number of impressions printed (which, we believe in this case to have been relatively small).
The plate for this print was not cut squarely, so the top plate mark is angled; also, at the right of the plate one can see a watery line within the platemark where the plate was not completely bitten by acid. These are characteristics of a trial proof; one wonders – again – whether an edition for this plate was even planned. Yet despite it’s curious flaws – it’s hardly an example of professional printing – it has its aesthetic value.
Pascin (born Julius Pincas) was born in Bulgaria, in 1885. By his mid-teens he had experienced life in a bordello, had traveled widely in Europe developing as an artist, and early in the new century ventured to Paris, where he became a fixture in the burgeoning art scene. He had a dozen works in the Armory Show in New York (1913), and soon thereafter became a citizen of the US, living and showing his works in New York. He was married to the artist Hermine David.
Posted in Jules Pascin |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Edgar Chahine (1874-1947), drypoint, Le Ciacolone (Les Bavardes), Venise, 1922, signed, titled and numbered (74/100) in pencil. Reference: Tabanelli 348, third state of three, from the edition of 100. On a green laid paper with a letters watermark. With small margins, 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 (the sheet 13 1/2 x 10). In generally good condition apart from nicks and remains of old hinging right margin edge; fold at lower right; the image surface excellent, archival mounting.
A fine atmospheric impression, printed in brownish/black ink on an old green laid paper, with a veil of plate tone but carefully wiped to create areas of light (e.g., the blouse of the woman at left), and with ink left on the plate to create areas of shadow (e.g., lower left). The very heavy burr from the drypoint work gives the print a satiny glow.
Les Bavardes was created at a propitious moment in Chahine’s career – he had recently married Julia Gaumet, had left Paris and traveled through France and down to Venice. At the height of his artistic powers (and about to receive much recognition back in Paris), his Venice portraits of this time are quite different from his earlier Belle Epoque work – he portrayed women with children, little known Venetian alleys and courtyards, and, as in this example, older Venetian women talking in the streets.
Posted in Edgar Chahine |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Edgar Chahine (1874-1947), drypoint, Le Ciacolone (Les Bavardes), Venise, 1922, signed, titled and numbered (74/100) in pencil. Reference: Tabanelli 348, third state of three, from the edition of 100. On a green laid paper with a letters watermark. With small margins, 12 1/2 x 8 1/2 (the sheet 13 1/2 x 10). In generally good condition apart from nicks and remains of old hinging right margin edge; fold at lower right; the image surface excellent, archival mounting.
A fine atmospheric impression, printed in brownish/black ink on an old green laid paper, with a veil of plate tone but carefully wiped to create areas of light (e.g., the blouse of the woman at left), and with ink left on the plate to create areas of shadow (e.g., lower left). The very heavy burr from the drypoint work gives the print a satiny glow.
Les Bavardes was created at a propitious moment in Chahine’s career – he had recently married Julia Gaumet, had left Paris and traveled through France and down to Venice. At the height of his artistic powers (and about to receive much recognition back in Paris), his Venice portraits of this time are quite different from his earlier Belle Epoque work – he portrayed women with children, little known Venetian alleys and courtyards, and, as in this example, older Venetian women talking in the streets.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Sir David Young Cameron (1865-1945), Old St. Etienne, etching and drypoint, 1907, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Rinder 400. In very good condition, on old cream wove paper, with small margins (remains of prior hinging verso), 16 7/8 x 9, the sheet 19 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches. Archival storage with window mat.
Provenance: estate of Elizabeth Hutton Tupson, Lady Cameron.
A fine impression, printed in a dark brown ink with a veil of plate tone.
Cameron was, of course, one of the greatest of the British Etchers, and Old St. Etienne is one of the finest of his several church-front portraits.
In 1929 Cameron’s work sold at record prices for British prints; his The Five Sisters, York Minster sold for $3200 in August 1929, perhaps a higher price than any British print even to this day. Cameron’s star fell with the Depression. Robin Garton, always an insightful observer, noted in the early 1990’s that Cameron was “an artist of quite remarkable qualities and it would be hard to find a more worthwhile artist who is more out of fashion.” Today there are stirrings of interest in artists whose reputations have withstood the fashions of recent art movements, and Cameron’s time may be – again – at hand. In any case, this is a splendid print.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Fiske Boyd (1895-1975), Interior, woodcut, 1936, unsigned. Published by the American Artists Group. In very good condition, on ivory wove paper, the full sheet, 6 x 10 1/4, the sheet 13 x 18 inches. In the original mat as issued (the mat has some soiling and a tear, not affecting the print).
A very good impression.
The American Artists Group was formed in 1934, during the Great Depression, with the express purpose of providing unsigned inexpensive prints which were to be widely distributed. AAG published prints by Ganso, Spruance, Meissner, and Lankes, among many other noted artists. Although the prices of these prints was minimal, collectors were saving what money they had, and so the editions were not sold out; most printings were under 200 and many under 100. Ironically, today, these prints are considered rare collector’s items.
Boyd seems to have become more modernist over time; in the picture depicted in this woodcut one can see a vision of the sort of prints he was to make a bit later in his career. Even here, he uses the medium of the woodcut to carve out a flat, modernist composition, in a sense ahead of his time for an American artist.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Fiske Boyd (1895-1975) woodcut Concept, 1951, signed in pencil [also initialed and dated in the block], from the edition of 100 published by the Society of American Etchers-Engravers and Woodcutters, NY.
A fine impression, in very good condition, with wide margins, on a heavy cream wove paper, 12 x 9 inches (the sheet 17 1/4 x 14 1/4), archival mounting.
This is a modernist view of the East River Drive (also known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive), New York City. (The tall building is the UN Building, etc.) One of Boyd’s most famous images, this print is frequently chosen by museum curators to represent the post War modernist woodcut in America (and it is featured in the collection of many museums such as the Smithsonian Museum of American Art or the San Francisco Museum of Art).
Fiske Boyd printed each of his woodcuts by hand, “by hand rubbing with the back of a spoon.” He said that “Even though it is relatively labourious and takes too long the way I do it, I come back to it time and time again….the very tediousness of the labor involved makes possible – nay unavoidable – the working out of a pictorial design with a kind of deliberateness that gives a peculiar control over certain aspects of the work.”
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
HERMAN ARMOUR WEBSTER (1878-1970), Monte Caprino, Rome, etching, c. 1925, signed in pencil lower right. In excellent condition, with full margins and deckle edges, 5 3/8 x 7, the sheet 9 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine strong impression, printed in black ink on cream laid paper.
Born in New York and educated at Yale, Webster discovered Paris and its artistic ferment in 1900, moved there in 1904 to study at the Académie Julian with J.-P. Laurens and the etcher Eugène Béjot, and also was inspired by the etchings of Whistler and Meryon. Webster travelled extensively in Europe, and made numerous etchings of Paris and other European cities; he became widely distinguished as a painter-etcher both in Europe and the U.S.
During the middle ages the Campidoglio, one of the Seven Hills of Rome, was simply known as “Monte Caprino” where goats grazed among the ruins. In the 16C Michelangelo redesigned the square to accommodate the position of a pre-existent palace, the Palazzo dei Conservatori. On its foot there is the imposing Piazza Venezia, one of the biggest and most central squares of the city.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Henri Boutet (1851-1919), Au Theatre a Paris, drypoint, 1884, signed in pencil and inscribed 1 etat (1st state). Reference: Henri Beraldi, Les Gravures du XIX Siecle, Vol. 2, p. 176. In excellent condition, printed on wove paper with full margins, 9 1/4 x 5 1/2, the sheet 13 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches, archival matting.
With the red Boutet stamp (Lugt Supp. 1295a).
A fine rich impression, with much burr from the drypoint work, a light plate tone wiped selectively, e.g., the ribbon is whiter than the background. Boutet apparently used a tiny roulette tool to create the effects of gray shading in the spaces surrounding the model.
This is a proof impression; before the addition of letters at the bottom margin.
Boutet was one of the most talented of the Belle Epoque artists. He made a number of small drypoint portraits of women in tiny editions (20 or so), of which this example is a first state proof. These prints, carefully printed, wiped and signed, are rarely encountered today, although reproductions of Boutet’s work are quite common. He became popular as an illustrator for magazines such as the Paris-Croquis and Le Courrier Francais, and later founded publications including La Revue Artistique. He was well known at the turn of the century as “le Petit maître au corset” – the small master of the corset.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
Georges Braque (1882-1963), Femme Assise (Seated Woman), etching, 1934, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (12/50) lower left. Reference: Vallier 24, only state. From the edition of 50 published by Maeght, Paris, in 1953 (only a few trial proofs were printed in 1934). Printed by Visat, Paris. In very good condition apart from pale light and mat stain, on Arches wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, 9 1/2 x 7 1/8, the sheet 17 3/4 x 12 1/2 inches. Archival mounting with window mat.
A fine impression, with good contrast among the various cross-hatching and linear patterns.
In this classic cubist composition of a girl playing a guitar Braque displays a panoply of textures and patterns, apparently working the plate to a near breaking point in pure etching. In doing this he follows a long tradition of printmaking, from Callot and Hollar to Meryon and Whistler, and then even to his cubist colleague Picasso.
The etching is similar to a Braque painting called Femme a la Guitare (Girl with a Guitar); this is shown in the Maeght volume Peintures de Braque, 1928-35, p. 59.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
George Biddle (1885-1973), Goat Herder’s Wife, 1928, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right and titled and numbered (64/100) in pencil lower left margin [with the inscription “Biddle/1928” in the plate lower right] Reference: Pennigar 82, Trotter 48. Printed by George C. Miller. From the edition of 100. In excellent condition, on Rives cream wove paper, with full margins (tiny nick upper right edge); 9 1/2 x 13, the sheet 16 x 18 1/2 inches. Archival mounting (unattached mylar hinging between acid free boards, glassine cover).
A fine clear impression, in pristine condition.
After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle decided that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art).
After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-20’s). Goat Herder’s Wife reflects the time he spent with Pascin, expecially in terms of the modernist flatness and freedom of the composition. Biddle reached a an aesthetic high point in this and several other prints he did of Mexico and Haiti in the late ’20’s; later his work was caught up in the social realism of the ’30’s.
Posted in George Biddle |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
George Biddle (1885-1973), Goat Herder’s Wife, 1928, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right and titled and numbered (64/100) in pencil lower left margin [with the inscription “Biddle/1928” in the plate lower right] Reference: Pennigar 82, Trotter 48. Printed by George C. Miller. From the edition of 100. In excellent condition, on Rives cream wove paper, with full margins (tiny nick upper right edge); 9 1/2 x 13, the sheet 16 x 18 1/2 inches. Archival mounting (unattached mylar hinging between acid free boards, glassine cover).
A fine clear impression, in pristine condition.
After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle decided that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art).
After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-20’s). Goat Herder’s Wife reflects the time he spent with Pascin, expecially in terms of the modernist flatness and freedom of the composition. Biddle reached a an aesthetic high point in this and several other prints he did of Mexico and Haiti in the late ’20’s; later his work was caught up in the social realism of the ’30’s.
Posted in George Biddle |
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
George Biddle (1885-1973), The Expectant Thistles, 1928, lithograph, signed and dated in pencil lower right, titled and numbered in pencil lower left [also inscribed in the plate lower left Biddle/1928/46]. References: Pennigar 80, Trotter 46, only state, from the edition of 100. Printed by George C. Miller. On cream wove Rives paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, in pristine condition (never framed or matted), 7 x 11 1/4, the sheet 11 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches. Archival mounting (mylar unattached hinging between acid free mats, glassine cover).
A fine fresh impression; a good example of Biddle’s technique of scratching and sanding the lithographic stone in order to get detailed effects (which sometimes approximated the appearance of drypoint burr in etching).
The year 1928 was important for Biddle; he made many of his greatest images of Haiti and Mexico (where he traveled with Diego Rivera) in this year.
The composition of The Expectant Thistles reflects the experience Biddle had working with Jules Pascin, who became his friend and colleague when Biddle was in Paris from 1924-6. The composition is modernist – without rigid adherence to conventional positioning and depth, and it’s witty too; while Pascin typically populated sheets such as this with nudes, Biddle turns to donkeys, and a few tiny (dressed) people as well.
Posted in George Biddle |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Virgin and Child with the Pear, engraving, 1520. Initials monogram and date in the plate. References: Bartsch 18, Pauli, Hollstein 19. First state (of two). In good condition, on old laid paper with thread margins on three sides, trimmed on the platemark bottom right and bottom, and archival mounting. h: 4.5 x w: 3 in / h: 11.4 x w: 7.6 cm
A very good impression of this rarity.
Hollstein indicates that earlier impressions, such as this one, do not have a scratch above the head of the Virgin.
Beham was one of the Northern Renaissance Little Masters, so called because of their eminence in producing small-scale engravings such as the Virgin and Child with a Pear. Beham was born in Nuremberg in 1500, and may have trained under Durer, though his training is no more certain than that of his younger brother Barthel. He made his first engraving in 1518, and later became known for producing woodcuts as well.
Beham’s Madonna with the Pear has a similar composition but in reverse to Durer’s engraving of the same subject done only 9 years earlier. In both prints the Madonna rests against a tree and holds the pear away from the Child; Durer’s image is larger and includes a city background; Beham draws no clouds or buildings in the space next to the Virgin, but instead features her long curly hair blowing towards the right.
The pear as a pacifier as opposed to the “apple of discord” or temptation occurs as an attribute of the Virgin in a sculpture at the Cathedral at Chartres, completed in 1240.
Posted in Hans Sebald Beham |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
James Whistler (1830-1903), Battersea Morn (also Battersea Dawn), drypoint, 1875, Kennedy 155, signed in pencil with the butterfly and inscribed “imp”. Kennedy 155, first state (of 4), Glasgow 174, first state (of 5). On laid paper with a Coat of Arms watermark, also signed in the plate with a faint butterfly upper right, with full margins, in good condition apart from a few slight fox marks and light soiling in the margins, a tiny printer’s crease in the right edge, hinge stains and small related creases in the upper corners verso, 5 3/4 x 8 7/8 (sheet 8 x 13) inches, archival mounting.
Provenance: Ex coll. George Mathew Adams (Lugt 59, with his stamp on recto lower right and verso).
Kennedy Galleries (stock no. a 38302)
Knoedler & Co., New York (stock no. MK 17120).
A fine, rare, very early proof impression, printed in a pale sepia ink, before extensive additional line work and shading were added to give the buildings and vessels further definition. In this state the print is an iconic impressionist image. This is rather rare; this print was not published but only issued in proofs.
Katherine Lochnan has suggested that when Whistler turned to the Thames in the 1870’s for subjects for printmaking (as he had in earlier years) he was experimenting with the possibilities of printmaking, without having any publication in mind. In Battersea Dawn, according to Lochnan, Whistler “reduced his line to the thinnest, most suggestive ever employed in the history of the medium. The images were drawn with faint, hair like lines, probably using a diamond-tipped needle.” In this delicate impression, Whistler gives the industrial area of Battersea, across the Thames from Chelsea, an atmospheric, impressionistic glow.
Posted in James Whistler |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), Three Oriental Figures (Jacob and Laban), etching, 1642, [signed and dated in reverse in the plate].h: 5.8 x w: 4.4 in / h: 14.7 x w: 11.2 cm
References: Bartsch, Hollstein 118, second state of two. In very good condition, two tiny (oil?) dots in matrix, with thread margins all around. With a Seven Provinces watermark (characteristic of numerous lifetime impressions of Rembrandt prints). Archival mounting.
Provenance: J.B. de Graaf (Lugt 1120), with the chop mark recto bottom edge
A very fine clear impression, with the drypoint work at the right of the porch, the man’s hat at center, and the pointing hand clear, with faint traces of burr on the latter. Still with lines in the sky. This is not an uncommon print, but it is unusual to encounter the Three Oriental Figures in such a fine impression.
In the second state light drypoint work was added to the foliage at the right opposite the porch and elsewhere, but the essential composition was unchanged from the first state.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Rudolph Ruzicka (1883-1978), [Riverside Factory], wood engraving in colors, circa 1920, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed imp. In excellent condition, on laid paper with wide margins, 7 3/4 x 5 1/4, the sheet 12 x 9 1/2 inches, archival mounting with window mat.
A fine impression, with the subtle colors fresh.
Ruzicka’s color wood engravings are rarely encountered in today’s marketplace, but are highly valued by collectors, both because of the subtlety of their design and composition, and Ruzicka’s technical mastery of the medium.
Rudolph Ruzicka was an eminent wood engraver, etcher, illustrator, book designer and inventor of typographic fonts. He came to the US from Bohemia, living first in Chicago where he took drawing lessons at Hull House and later becoming an apprentice wood engraver. From 1900 to 1902 he studied at the Chicago art institute, and in 1903 moved to New York where he worked as an engraver and furthered his artistic studies. He went on to achieve fame as a book illustrator, artist and typographer. As a wood engraver he surely was influenced by the 19th Century French master August Lepere, and in turn Ruzicka influenced generations of American artists and illustrators who worked in the difficult and exacting field of wood engraving.
$1000
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Wallerant Vaillant (1623-1677), [Venetian Woman], mezzotint, circa 1670. References: Wurzbach 68, Hollstein p. 205, in good condition, with thread margins, on old laid paper, 12 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches.
A fine rich impression.
This rare print has been the subject of much discussion among art historians. Wurzbach attributes it to Vaillant; Hollstein to another (unknown) artist. It was clearly done in the 17th Century, early in the development of the mezzotint technique.
Vaillant, a French portrait painter and etcher trained in Flanders was a collaborator of Prince Rupert, one of the earliest artists working in mezzotint, and he developed the technique further after leaving the employ of Rupert, to achieve prints more beautiful and technically satisfying than those of Rupert. The subtle technique and professionalism of Venetian Woman has led historians to attribute the print to Valliant.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Tod Lindenmuth (1885-1956), Low Tide, color woodcut, c. 1915, signed and titled in pencil lower margin. In very good condition, with wide margins (some flattened creases in margins, small area of thinning upper left margin edge, a few prior hinges attached to margin edges, only the slightest hint of light tone); on a Japan wove paper, 14 7/8 x 14, the sheet 21 x 17 3/4 inches, archival mounting with window mat.
A fine impression of this rare Provincetown woodcut, made from three blocks in light, medium and dark blue.
Although Lindemuth himself titled this Low Tide, there appears to be some confusion about this title. In her classic volume American Prints and Printmakers Una Johnson refers to another Lindemuth color woodcut (pictured on page 15) as Low Tide. (We believe this may in fact be The Runway, as titled in another impression by Lindenmuth.)
We do not know the edition sizes of the Lindenmuth prints, but believe they are small; they are rarely encountered on the market today.
In the extensive archives on Lindenmuth in the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institute), his daughter, in an interview, points out the Provincetown piers and fishing runways Lindenmuth depicted in his color woodcuts. These prints were important to Lindenmuth, who regarded the color print as a “small painting.”
These woodcuts were important as well to the group of American artists (including the Zorachs, Max Weber, BJO Nordfeldt) who were influenced by European Modernism and Japonisme (quite evident in Low Tide), and who made woodcuts along with Lindenmuth in Provincetown in the 1915-1925 period; these were in many respects the beginnings of American Modernism.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Tod Lindemuth (1885-1956), The Runway (Provincetown), color woodcut, 1917, signed in pencil lower right, titled and numbered (67/100; possibly later, see below) lower left. On medium weight Japan paper, in very good condition, with margins (slight evidence of yellowing here and there, the slightest marginal light staining), the full sheet with deckle edges, 14 3/8 x 11 1/8, the sheet 18 x 15 1/2 inches, archival mounting with window mat.
A fine, carefully printed impression of this important – and rare – American early modernist woodcut.
Although the print is annotated with a number, we believe this is probably not evidence of the number of impressions made (and this misnumbering of prints was not unusual at that time); in fact this print appears to be exceedingly rare, and probably was not made in an edition at all. When Lindemuth’s daughter was interviewed for the artist’s file for the Archives of American Art (Smithsonian Institute) she noted that this print was “one of the few color wood blocks I’m aware of, it’s of the fish hauling runways in Provincetown in 1917.”
A variant of this print (from the collection of the New York Public Library), without the background structure (the runway, in fact) is pictured in Una Johnson’s American Prints and Printmakers (page 14). There it’s called “Low Tide.” (We have another Lindemuth print which he titled “Low Tide” which bears no resemblance to either of these.)
Lindemuth, a painter, was one of a number of American artists (including the Zorachs, Max Weber, BJO Nordfeldt) who were influenced by European Modernim and Japonisme, and who made woodcuts (often in Provincetown) in the 1915-1925 period; these were in many respects the beginnings of American Modernism.
Posted in Tod Lindenmuth |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Irving Place Burlesque (#2), etching, 1928, signed in pencil lower right by Felicia Meyer Marsh, numbered (21) lower left margin, also with the initials RW lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 49, a proof impression of the 7th state (of 8). In good condition with margins, with characteristics of a Marsh proof, i.e., some inky fingerprints in margins, trimmed irregularly especially at left margin edge, printer’s creases. On an ivory laid paper, 7 x 10 3/4, the sheet 9 3/4 x 13 1/4 inches.
A very good impression, before engraving and additional work darkening composition.
Apparently Marsh experimented with burnishing and scraping this plate, particularly the group of dancers at the left. In this impression they are rather lightly drawn, and in the final state they appear to be darker. The only lines he added for the final state (that we can find) are cross-hatching lines on the column at the far right (partly hidden by a man); this is definitive evidence that this is an earlier state, but in other respects the lines and composition are the same as in the last state.
The numbering 21 on this impression is a confusing element; according to Sasowsky an impression in the final state was numbered 21 (and the two known impressions in the seventh state were numbered 13 and 14), but of course Marsh (and to a lesser degree Sasowsky) were not infallible in their numbering and records. The highest number Sasowsky cites for the print is 25.
Irving Place Burlesque #2 is a close-up depiction of the stage, the piano player, and some of the audience; aother print entitled Irving Place Burlesque (S 75) done about the same time shows only a tiny portion of the stage and focuses more on the house and the audience.
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Switch Engines, Erie Yards, Jersey City, Stone No. 3, lithograph, 1948, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Sasowsky 30, only state, from the edition of 253 as published by the Print Club of Cleveland. In very good condition, slight spotting verso, 9 x 13, the sheet 13 x 16 3/4 inches.
A fine fresh impression, in its original mat with the inscription on the mat of the Print Club of Cleveland, with its stamp verso, printed on a cream wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges.
Marsh made two earlier versions of this lithograph, which he apparently decided were not adequate, before developing this version for the edition. The earlier versions were more detailed and realistic; this is more impressionist, and perhaps captures the feel of the rail yards better than the more straightforward versions.
Railroad imagery was an important recurring theme for Marsh, both in his etching and lithographic work. Sasowsky wrote that the locomotives “are phallic in form and appear in Marsh’s work almost as a leitmotif throughout his career. They are rendered with great knowledge, affection, and dignity.”
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), St. Jean de Luz, lithograph, c. 1928, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “40 proofs” lower left [also signed in the plate lower left], printed on a chine colle. In good condition, the full sheet with full margins (slight soiling, nicks, handling folds in margins, remains of prior hinging verso). 8 1/4 x 12 5/8, the sheet 12 3/4 x 19 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A good strong impression.
Provenance: Estate of Ernest Shapiro
In this marvelous display of draftsmanship, Marsh draws a fierce storm, with a fiery sky and a group of people trying to get onto a pier just as an enormous wave breaks over it.
Marsh made a group of lithographs during a trip to France in 1928; most were scenes of Paris street and cafe life. Aesthetically St. Jean de Luz is surely the most accomplished of this group (and is also a rather unusual subject for Marsh).
Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a fishing port on the Basque coast, just south of Biarritz. The port lies on the estuary just before the river joins the ocean.
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Loco-Erie Watering, 1929, etching, signed in pencil lower right, and numbered (16) lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 85, fourth state (of 4). On Whatman paper. In very good condition (apart from two hinging stains verso showing through top margin just into plate mark, some printers ink and soiling in margins), with margins, 7 x 9 7/8, the sheet 8 1/4 x 11 7/8 inches. Archival matting (acid free hinging and board, window mat, glassine cover).
A fine clear black impression.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York, and with their label and annotations still on mat.
Marsh (obviously) printed this personally, and this paper is specified in Sasowsky for his numbered impressions 8-18 of the definitive fourth state. He probably did not print more than about 20 impressions.
In Thomas Craven’s Treasury of American Prints (1939), Marsh is quoted as saying in response to a question about the size of his editions: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print. I usually print fifteen or twenty and sell one or two in the next five years – so why limit the edition?” (That was in 1939; today of course Marsh’s etchings are treasured as icons of American printmaking in the ’20’s and 30’s.)
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Fan Dance at Jimmy Kelly’s, etching, 1936, signed and inscribed 50 proofs (only 24 known printed) [also with the initials and date in the plate lower left]. Reference: Sasowsky 161, third state (of 3). In very good condition, with wide margins, on Rives cream wove paper (with the Rives watermark). 6 x5, the sheet 9 1/2 x 7 inches. Archival mounting.
A fine, delicately printed impression.
Fandance was printed in three states; the design was essentially complete in the first state and small changes were made for the second and third states. Two proofs were made of each of the first and second states; Sasowsky indicates that although Marsh noted that an edition of 50 impressions was scheduled, only 20 impressions of the third state were printed.
The Marsh notation “50 impressions” represented wishful thinking as to the size of the edition on his part. In Thomas Craven’s Treasury of American Prints (1939), Marsh is quoted as saying in response to a question about the size of his editions: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print. I usually print fifteen or twenty and sell one or two in the next five years – so why limit the edition?” (That was in 1939; today of course Marsh’s etchings are treasured as icons of American printmaking in the ’20’s and 30’s.)
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Fan Dance at Jimmy Kelly’s, etching, 1936, signed and inscribed 50 proofs (only 24 known printed) [also with the initials and date in the plate lower left]. Reference: Sasowsky 161, third state (of 3). In very good condition, with wide margins, on Rives cream wove paper (with the Rives watermark). 6 x5, the sheet 9 1/2 x 7 inches. Archival mounting.
A fine, delicately printed impression.
Fandance was printed in three states; the design was essentially complete in the first state and small changes were made for the second and third states. Two proofs were made of each of the first and second states; Sasowsky indicates that although Marsh noted that an edition of 50 impressions was scheduled, only 20 impressions of the third state were printed.
The Marsh notation “50 impressions” represented wishful thinking as to the size of the edition on his part. In Thomas Craven’s Treasury of American Prints (1939), Marsh is quoted as saying in response to a question about the size of his editions: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print. I usually print fifteen or twenty and sell one or two in the next five years – so why limit the edition?” (That was in 1939; today of course Marsh’s etchings are treasured as icons of American printmaking in the ’20’s and 30’s.)
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Erie Rail Road Locos Watering, etching and engraving, 1934, signed and number (# 2). Reference: Sasowsky 155, eighth state (of 8). From small group of impressions in this state (highest number located is #18, but possibly numbering was not in order; earlier states only 1 or 2 proofs. On BFK Rives cream wove paper, with their (partial) watermark. In very good condition, with margins, 8 7/8 x 11 3/4, the sheet 10 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches.
A brilliant black impression.
Marsh has captured the grime, dirt, black colors of the trains and smoke, partly through his artistry, and partly through the difficulty he had creating and printing this plate. After making two proofs the etching ground collapsed, and he had to burnish and scrape a film of foul biting; the plate still shows spots, akin to the phospherous grains which etchers from the time of Rembrandt used to create tiny dots of black on their impressions. Marsh then repeatedly re-engraved the plate, and this accounts for the astonishing blacks, and the burr (in the smoke at right center, for example). The final product was well worth the effort – it is arguably Marsh’s finest railroad engraving.
The number of prints that Marsh printed is not known precisely, but this print is quite rare, and many of the impressions are accounted for (e.g., #7 is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, #8 at the Whitney, #12 is at the New York Public Library, etc.). This impression is #2.
On the size of Marsh’s lifetime editions, his famous quote explains the situation: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print.” Written on pencil at the bottom margin of this print, quite probably in Marsh’s hand, are the words: “Erie Locomotives Watering – $20.”
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Tank Car Rail, 1929, etching, signed lower right and numbered 15 lower left margin [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Sasowsky 86, fifth state (of 5). In very good condition, on cream laid paper with margins, 6 x 8 3/4, the sheet 8 1/8 x 11 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this rarely seen image.
Marsh printed this personally, and worked on the plate extensively after creating areas of foul biting in the first state (foul biting occurs when acid gets through the etching ground and creates tiny holes in the plate, and resulting spots on the print). In his notes he writes that he “scraped, snaked and charcoaled this plate for hours.” He also added many lines in the sky and the smoke. The resulting gritty look, with tiny specks of black and lines of is perfectly appropriate for the subject matter.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, with their mat and label intact.
There are only about 18 impressions known of this print, and about 13 in this state. This was numbered 15 by Marsh; number 12 is in the Library of Congress, numbers 3, 5 and 6 in the New York Public Library Marsh estate collection.
In Thomas Craven’s Treasury of American Prints (1939), Marsh is quoted as saying in response to a question about the size of his editions: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print. I usually print fifteen or twenty and sell one or two in the next five years – so why limit the edition?” (That was in 1939; today of course Marsh’s etchings are treasured as icons of American printmaking in the ’20’s and 30’s.)
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Star Burlesk, 1933, etching, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Sasowsky 142. First state of three.
A very fine, early, clear and sharply printed proof impression of the very rare (perhaps unique) first state. (Sasowsky calls for only one impression of the first state, two of the second, and then an edition of an unknown number, probably about 20-25). In this impression some of the columns have yet to be shaded, the upper left corner is not yet fully etched, and some addititional shading has yet to be added to some of the heads in the foreground.
Star Burlesk was one of a series of such subjects undertaken by Marsh, and in the view of many observers (including this writer), is his most effective. The burlesque show took place at the Minsky’s Theatre in New York. Marsh had studied at Yale, and traveled through Europe, but found an inspiration in the life of New York. He was interested in sex, and the human body, but not just as an academician – he insisted on portraying real life rather than studio models. He discussed the burlesque work and world in these terms, “The whole thing is extremely pictorial. You get a woman in the spotlight, the gilt architecture of the place, plenty of humanity. Everything is nice and intimate.”
In very good condition, on white wove with margins (slight skinning margin corners verso), 12 x 9 (sheet 15 x 10 1/2) inches, archival mounting.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Subway Stairs, etching, 1926, signed, titled and inscribed “working proof 1;” also with the notation “JS imp” in pencil bottom margin [with the name and date in the plate]. Reference: Morse 221, third state (of 7). There was an edition in the seventh state, 60 printed. In very good condition, on ivory laid paper with margins (the slightest toning toward the margin edges). 6 7/8 x 5, the sheet 8 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches. Archival mounting, with acid free board, window mat.
A fine early state proof impression of one of Sloan’s most alluring subjects.
In this third state proof impression the composition is essentially complete, but the heavy cross hatching has yet to be done on the girl’s legs (which was added in the fourth state, and then burnished out in the seventh state), and some work has yet to be done on the girl’s face. According to the notation this impression was printed by Sloan; the prints for the edition were done by printers Platt, White and others.
Sloan wrote of this print: “In modern times incoming trains cause updrafts in the subway entrances. Getting on an omnibus in the hoop-skirt was exciting in grandmother’s day.”
$5250
Posted in John Sloan |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
John Sloan etching Schuylkill River, 1894, signed, titled, annotated “100 proofs” [only 25 were printed], also signed by the printer “Peter Platt imp’ in pencil lower left margin. From the edition (of 25) all printed by Peter Platt. Morse 60, only state. Provenance: ex. coll. VO and MP Potamkin Collection; Kraushaar Galleries.
A fine impression, with plate tone. On a tan wove paper with a partial crest and fleur de lys watermark, with margins, in good condition, a tiny nick right edge, slightest browning toward outer margin edges, 8 1/4 x 5 1/4 (the sheet 12 1/2 x 10) inches, archival matting.
A relatively early (and rarely seen) print for Sloan (1871-1954), he was 23 when he made this etching. Here are his later comments on the print: “One of my few plates that looks like an etching from the connoisseur’s point of view. It might be that had I pursued the direction here suggested my etchings might have become quite popular. This plate was made with William Glackens beside me, absorbing his first and only lesson in etching.”
By 1894 Sloan was coming into his own as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Glackens and Sloan had become devoted students of a local artist just a few years older than Sloan – Robert Henri. At this stage Sloan had become interested in Japanese prints, Fin de Siecle French posters; also, of course, there’s the hint of aWhistlerian aesthetic here.
Peter Platt was one of Sloan’s best and most favored printers. This print demonstrate why: the subtle use of plate tone (ink left on the plate during printing process) gives the impression an atmospheric quality.
$2250
Posted in John Sloan |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), “Up the Line, Miss?”, etching, 1930, signed, titled and inscribed 100 proofs [also signed in the plate]. Reference: Morse 243, fifth state (of 5). In excellent condition, with full margins (slightly irregular lower edge, typical for the older paper favored by this printer, see note below). On an old laid paper with a circles in shield watermark. 5 1/2 x 7, the sheet 9 1/2 x 12 inches. Archival mounting.
A fine impression.
Only 80 impressions of the edition were printed.
This impression is printed on an old laid paper, of the sort the printer and artist Ernst Roth collected and sometimes used for printing Sloan’s prints. Sloan remarked on this: “Roth is using some wonderful old paper he brought from Europe some years ago. This is very kind of him, as he is a first rate etcher himself.” This sheet may have been pulled from a book of old paper, accounting for the rough bottom edge.
Although this etching was made in 1930, it has the look of one of Sloan’s New York etchings, done much earlier. In fact, it is based on a 1907 drawing Sloan made, and was done when his dealer (Kraushaar) suggested he do some etchings based on his earlier New York drawings.
Sloan’s 1945 note on this etching: “A young lady of Greenwich Village who is about to treat herself to an afternoon drive on Fifth Avenue.”
Posted in John Sloan |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), “Up the Line, Miss?”, etching, 1930, signed, titled and inscribed 100 proofs [also signed in the plate]. Reference: Morse 243, fifth state (of 5). In excellent condition, with full margins (slightly irregular lower edge, typical for the older paper favored by this printer, see note below). On an old laid paper with a circles in shield watermark. 5 1/2 x 7, the sheet 9 1/2 x 12 inches. Archival mounting.
A fine impression.
Only 80 impressions of the edition were printed.
This impression is printed on an old laid paper, of the sort the printer and artist Ernst Roth collected and sometimes used for printing Sloan’s prints. Sloan remarked on this: “Roth is using some wonderful old paper he brought from Europe some years ago. This is very kind of him, as he is a first rate etcher himself.” This sheet may have been pulled from a book of old paper, accounting for the rough bottom edge.
Although this etching was made in 1930, it has the look of one of Sloan’s New York etchings, done much earlier. In fact, it is based on a 1907 drawing Sloan made, and was done when his dealer (Kraushaar) suggested he do some etchings based on his earlier New York drawings.
Sloan’s 1945 note on this etching: “A young lady of Greenwich Village who is about to treat herself to an afternoon drive on Fifth Avenue.”
$2100
Posted in John Sloan |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1954), Copyist at the Metropolitan Museum, etching, 1908, signed, titled, and inscribed “100 proofs,” also inscribed by the printer “Ernest Roth imp.” Reference: Morse 148, eighth state (of 8), from the JS edition (75 printed). In very good condition, on tan/ivory wove paper, with full margins, 7 1/2 x 9, the sheet 11 x 13 1/8 inches.
A fine impression printed in a brownish/black ink.
In his diary of September 1908 Sloan wrote “In the evening I stared to make a plate of a copyist at work in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, crowd around as it is a sheep picture which the lay copyist is ‘takin’ off’. Made preliminary drawing on tissue paper and grounded my plate and got the red chalk tracking sketches on the ground.”
Sloan had much difficulty with the faces of Dolly (his wife) and himself, at the left; that’s the reason for the multiple states. He noted in later years: “I’ve always had trouble with portraits of members of the family. I had the head of Dolly in and out of the plate innumerable times.”
In addition to the JS edition (in which this impression was included) there was a Weyhe edition of 115 prints, as part of a portfolio called Twelve Prints by Contemporary Artists, published in 1919.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), Joseph Sold by His Brothers, chiaroscuro woodcut after Raphael, 1783. [with these inscriptions in the plate lower right: R d’Urbino JS: Scul 1783 indicating that Raphael of Urbino is responsible for the composition and John Skippe for the print]. In good condition, mounted on a sheet of old cream laid paper, trimmed on the borderline; 8 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches; archival mounting.
A fine fresh impression of this rare chiaroscuro woodcut, printed in four blocks: light and medium olive green, dark grayish green and dark brown.
Provenance: ex Collection: Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons
Exhibited: Beyond Black and White, Chiaroscuro Prints, Indiana University Art Museum, and Indianapolis Museum of Art; 1989-90; number 55 in the catalogue.
Joseph Sold by His Brothers is based on the fresco designed by Raphael and executed in the Vatican by his assistant Polidoro da Caravaggio. Skippe has added three pyramids in the background, which were not in the original fresco – these may represent his own reaction to the slaver market he personally witnessed when he visited Cairo – he was appalled at the scene, and may be using this Biblical scene as an opportunity to depict it.
Skippe was a gentleman painter who made a series of chiaroscuro woodcuts, often based on paintings or drawings he had in his collection, to please himself and his friends. Because these were not distributed in large numbers commercially (Skippe was independently wealthy) they are quite scarce and rarely seen today. The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum are strong repositories of his work; in the United States small Skippe collections can be found at the Yale Center for British Art, the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and the Chicago Art Institute. Skippe prints are rarely encountered today on the print market.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), Two Standing Warriors (after Andrea Del Sarto), chiaroscuro woodcut, 1783, Reference: Le Blanc 25. [with these inscriptions in the plate upper left: Del Sarto Inv.; JS: Scul: 1783]. Printed in three blocks. The matrix in good condition, trimmed on the borderline and mounted onto a large sheet of old cream laid paper, 10 x 6 3/4 inches, the (backing) sheet 19 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches.
Provenance: Christopher Mendez (London Old Master Print Dealer), with his label appended to mat
Exhibited: Beyond Black and White, Chiaroscuro Prints, Indiana University Art Museum, and Indianapolis Museum of Art; 1989-90.
A strong, clear impression, with the colors (3 shades of green) contrasting effectively.
Skippe considered himself primarily a painter, but made a series of chiaroscuro woodcuts, often based on paintings or drawings he had in his collection, to please himself and his friends. Because these were not distributed in large numbers commercially (Skippe was independently wealthy) they are quite scarce and rarely seen today. The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum are strong repositories of his work; in the United States folios of his work can be found at the Yale Center for British Art, the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and the Chicago Art Institute, and although individual impressions can be found in other collection, they seem rarely to be found on the print market.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Jerome Myers (1867-1940), On Rivington Street, c. 1910, colored etching, signed in pencil lower right. In very good condition, with margins, 6 1/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 9 1/4 x 10 3/8 inches, printed on a cream wove paper, archival matting.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered print, with the colors fresh, printed in brown, red, yellow, orange, two shades of green. This print shows no signs of having been editioned.
Myers printed his color prints personally, using different plates for the coloring. Myers’s artistry, and printing skill, are apparent here – one can discern that the various plates used for the coloring were not registered perfectly. This gives the print a hand-crafted, unique quality all too absent in contemporary printmaking.
Myers was an actor and artist, a specialist in the American turn of the century immigrant experience, particularly those immigrants in the Lower East Side of Manhattan; and those immigrants are the subject matter of this work.
Active in the art life of the times, he was a prime mover behind the Armory Show of 1913, successfully working with Walt Kuhn to get the highly esteemed Arthur B. Davies to help arrange the show. Myer’s paintings are an important part of America’s aesthetic and historical heritage; they can be found, for example, in the National Gallery alongside those of Everett Shinn, John Sloan, George Bellows.
Posted in Jerome Myers |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Jerome Myers (1867-1940), Children in Mulberry Street, c. 1910, soft ground etching and plate tone, signed in pencil lower right. In good condition (apart from weakening at platemark left), with full margins, on a cream laid paper, 8 1/8 x 10 1/2, the sheet 12 x 18 7/8 inches, archival mounting.
A fine fresh impression of this great rarity.
This is a sketch pad, using the print medium (a la Rembrandt). The figure at the upper left is apparently a drawing, or at least the same figure, as Myers used in another etching called Conversation, two women on a bench talking. The other figures are sketches as well – a girl at the upper right reading, children sleeping on the sidewalk. We have not encountered another impression of these sketches, and they were certainly not issued in any edition or great number.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, Inc. (still in their mat with their label)
Myers was an actor and artist, a specialist in the American turn of the century immigrant experience, particularly those immigrants in the Lower East Side of Manhattan; and those immigrants are the subject matter of this work. Active in the art life of the times, he was a prime mover behind the Armory Show of 1913, working with Walt Kuhn to get the (then) highly esteemed Arthur B. Davies to help arrange the show. Myer’s paintings are an important part of America’s aesthetic and historical heritage; they can be found, for example, in the National Gallery in Washington alongside those of Bellows and the members of the Ashcan school. Although his paintings show that he was a talented colorist, his etchings prove that he was (unlike several of his colleagues) also a master draughtsman, able to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the times with an impressionistic approach to printmaking. Children in Mulberry Street demonstrates this.
Posted in Jerome Myers |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Receveuse, engraving, 1919-1920, signed in pencil lower left, numbered (2/38) lower right and annotated ”imp” [also with initials and the date 1918 in the plate (Godefry’s notes indicate that the plate was finished in 1919)]. Reference: Godefroy 190, Sylvain Laboureur 190, second state (of 2). In very good condition, the full sheet, printed on a cream wove paper with deckle edges, 7 7/8 x 5 7/8, the sheet 11 1/2 x 10 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this Cubist portrait.
Here Laboureur uses the engraving technique which produces straight or regularly curved sharp lines, well suited to his modernist/cubist perspective.
La Receveuse (train conductor) is working on the Nantes Tramway (hence the initials on her bag), and so it is fitting that Laboureur donated the plate for this print to the Nantes Museum, where it has been exhibited; the museum also has a Laboureur gouache of the same subject.
This print has been exhibited widely; the Laboureur catalogue lists about 20 exhibits where it has been shown.
$2400
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Monday, June 29th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Cabaretiere Obese, engraving, 1917, signed in pencil lower left and numbered 7/8 lower right, also inscribed imp. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur, Godefry 172, first state (of 2). There was a trial proof and eight impressions of the first state, made in 1917; then in 1921 an edition of 45 in the second state. In very good condition, on greenish/ivory laid paper, with an elaborate Crown with the initials MBM watermark, with margins, 7 1/2 x 6 3/4, the sheet 8 7/8 x 7 1/2, archival matting.
A fine impression, still with wiping marks and plate tone, especially on the apron of the woman.
The first state is compositionally complete, but before lines were added on the figure’s apron, some cross-hatching upper left corner, and a few other more minor additions.
La Cabaretiere Obese was shown in the famous The Cubist Print exhibit (1981), and widely exhibited in other shows. Laboureur also made a painting of this subject.
In a review in the Daily Telegraph (1929) R.R. Tatlock wrote: “Depicting a perfectly enormous lady in a wine cellar that seems only just large enough to contain her and the heap of barrels…the woman bears in her arms, like so many infants, a dangerously large number of tiny glasses and bottles.” He called this an example of Laboureur’s subtle humor.
$2750
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Connoisseurs of Prints, etching, 1905, signed in pencil bottom right (also titled in lower left margin near edge), Morse 127, from the New York City Life Series, edition of 100, on Arches cream laid paper, with wide margins (5 x 7, sheet 9 3/4 x 13 inches), in very good condition, tiny spot left margin just outside of platemark, barely visible light stain, archival window mounting.
Provenance: ex Collection Jessup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor, with the blindstamp of the University of Maine; sold at Sotheby’s New York sale, March 1988 ($4750 plus 10% commission), and then to current owner.
A very fine, black, vivid impression, with a light plate tone.
Here are Sloan’s notes: “Connoisseurs of Prints is the first of my New York life plates. It shows an exhibition of prints that were to be auctioned at the old American Art Galleries on 23rd St. Henri [Robert Henri, artist and teacher] and I talked about making a series of connoisseurs, he was so pleased with this one.”
The New York City Life set, 1905-6, consisted of 10 prints, which Sloan hoped to sell as a set (he met with little success, and eventually sold them separately). He later added three more prints which were also to be considered as part of the New York group. These prints of early 20th Century New York have ranked among Sloan’s most popular etchings, and Connoisseurs of Prints became one of the most famous of this set and of Sloan’s images generally.
Posted in John Sloan |
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Nude on Stairs, etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right margin, titled in pencil center, inscribed “100 proofs” lower left [also signed in the plate lower left]. Reference: Morse 241, ninth (published) state (of 9). In very good condition, the full sheet with margins (slightest toning in margins), printed in black on a cream wove paper, 9 7/8 x 8, the sheet 14 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A superb impression, printing very black and clear.
Provenance: Collection unknown collector, stamp SN in a circle verso (not located in Lugt)
At this point in his career Sloan was experimenting with the use of lines to produce sculptural effects in his prints, drawings, and paintings, and he tried these effects first in his prints. (Some of the great prints and paintings of Rembrandt and Durer had appeared at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and Sloan – even at this mature stage of his career – became an eager student of these artists.) Of this print he noted: “The etching Nude on Stairs of 1930 is the first important use of super-glazing with linework. There are sets of lines which define the form in light and shade, more which give it sculptural texture, and then there are top-texturing lines which attack the lights and give them greater realization than the eye can see.”
$1600
Posted in John Sloan |
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Louis Legrand (1863-1955), Le Tub, drypoint, 1909, signed in pencil lower right, also annotated Bon a Tirer bottom margin edge [also signed in the plate upper left]; published by Gustave Pellet (with his red stamp lower right margin recto (Lugt 1191). Reference: Exsteens 264. In very good condition, on Louis Legrand laid cream paper, with the Swan and the Legrand signature watermark. The full sheet, 11 x 5 3/4, the sheet 17 1/4 x 12.
A fine bon a tirer impression, with the remarque, before steelfacing of the plate and with substantial drypoint burr. Printed in a dark brown/black ink.
Legrand trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon and in 1884 moved to Paris, where he worked initially as a caricaturist and political satirist. After learning etching from Felicien Rops, he produced a successful series of etchings on themes of women, and dancing, that brought him to the attention of the great publisher Gustave Pellet, who published a set of Legrand prints in 1892, and worked with him for many years thereafter. This impression captures the artist at the height of his career.
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Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Lovis Corinth (1858-1925), Self Portrait, 1909, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Schwartz 34. In good condition, with full margins (slight but discernible light stain), 8 3/4 x 6 3/8, the sheet 16 5/8 x 10 1/2 inches, archival mounting. Published by Bruno Cassirer, Berlin. On cream laid paper, with the watermark H Antique. From the edition of 50.
A fine clear impression, with the burr from the drypoint particularly effective.
Corinth, surely influenced by Rembrandt, made a series of self-portrait prints through his career. This relatively early portrait is one of his strongest; it shows a mature, confident artist working at the height of his powers. At this stage, the end of the first decade of the Twentieth Century, Corinth was indeed a well-regarded artist, one of the leading German “impressionists.” It had been ten years since he had participated in the first Berlin Secession exhibition (that was in 1899, and the following year had a one man show with Cassirer). He was now well-known for his large romantic paintings of religious and mythological subjects – terribly fashionable at the time. This was a few years before he had his stroke (in 1911), which led to a series of darker portraits.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), White Tanks, lithograph, 1930, signed in pencil and dated “30”. In very good condition, on BFK cream wove paper (with their watermark), with full margins, 10 1/2 x 7 1/2, the sheet 16 x 11 inches. Archival mounting. An unnumbered impression apart from the small edition of only 5 impressions, published in 1972; the 1930 edition was only 10. (Lozowick had a few impressions made 1972 when he realized that the stone was intact, and that there was a demand for this print; he signed and dated these impressions, numbering 5 and reserving an additional few for himself; this impression is one of the latter.)
A fine impression of this exceedingly rare print.
Lozowick attended Kiev Art School from the age of 12 to 14, at which point he emigrated to the US. In New York he studied for three years at the National Academy of Design, then attended Ohio State, worked as a lithographer, and traveled extensively in Europe and Russia between 1919 and 1924. With this exposure to cubism and Russian modernism, combined with his talent as a draughtsman, he was able to help adapt cubism/modernism to America, creating an exciting new idiom called Precisionism.
By 1930, when White Tanks was made, Lozowick had already spent several years making superb Precisionist lithographs, proving that this printmaking method was ideal for the movement. But the public was not convinced, and he reverted in the later ’30s to more conventional, easily accessible compositions. Of course with hindsight it’s clear (and has been for about the last 30 years!) that this Precisionist work was a high point of Lozowick’s career, and of American art of the period.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916), Tentation de St. Antoine, lithograph, signed in pencil upper left,h: 12.2 x w: 9.9 in / h: 31 x w: 25.1 cm. Troisieme Serie Plate XVIII, Antoine: Quel Est Le But de Tout, Cela?. Mellerio 151.
A fine rare signed impression from the First Edition (< 50 impressions), on chine applique, with the printed text in the lower margin of the support sheet, printed by Blanchard, with full margins, in very good condition apart from light foxing mainly in the margins of the support sheet and verso.
Provenance: Sotheby’s New York, 1984, Lot 536
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Sunday, June 28th, 2009
James McBey (1883-1959), Ransdorp, etching, 1910, signed in ink bottom right margin and numbered XXXVI bottom left [also signed, titled and dated 29 Aug. 1910 in the plate]. Reference: Hardie and Carter 75, only state, edition of 41, 4 7/8 x 8 15/16, the sheet 9 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches. Printed on old laid paper, with wide margins, a deckle edge bottom and sides. In very good condition, slight soiling in margins, a touch of light tone, archival mounting.
A fine impression, with a veil of plate tone on the area of water in the foreground.
At the age of 26 McBey left his bank job (which he had had for 15 years!) and traveled to Holland, where from July to September of 1910 he created a number of etchings depicting the Dutch landscape. McBey had of course studied Rembrandt’s prints, and the influence of the Master is evident in etchings such as Ransdorp (and the subject matter is reminiscent of Rembrandt’s scenic etchings as well). During this trip McBey found a folio of old laid paper which he discovered enhanced his printmaking, thereby beginning a life-long habit of printing etchings on fine old papers.
Posted in James McBey |
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
James McBey (1883-1959), Laguna Veneta, 1926, etching, signed in ink bottom right and inscribed “Trial proof IX” bottom left margins. Reference: Hardie 227. One of 11 trial proofs before the edition of 80. In very good condition, with margins (slight mat staining upper margin well above plate line, trimmed irregularly bottom with a loss away from image). On fine laid paper with an elaborate initials (IHS?) watermark. Archival mounting. 7 x 15, the sheet 9 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches.
A fine impression, with plate tone especially toward the left in the water and sky, printed in a dark brown ink.
This is one of the 5 trial proofs used to test the different effects of printing. Here, the plate tone is used to create a brilliant lighting of the sky at the right. The skyline of Venice is shown mistily on the horizon, in the morning sun. McBey added his signature in the plate later for the edition.
McBey’s Venice plates were issued at the height of his career, at a point when his prints were commanding the highest prices in the history of the medium. Noted McBey commentator Robin Garton has written that McBey’s Venice prints are “one of the greatest achievements in twentieth century British printmaking,” and “the high point of his career, images of passion and energy, full of fascination in the subjects and the process of creating them.”
Posted in James McBey |
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1830-1903), Lagoon: Noon, etching and drypoint, 1879-1880, signed with the butterfly and inscribed “imp” on the tab [also signed with the butterfly in the plate lower left]. Reference: Glasgow 209, third state (of 3), Kennedy 216, third state (of 3); Lochnan 231, 4 7/8 x 7 7/8 inches.
A fine impression with very little plate tone, and printed with extraordinary attention to the etching and drypoint details. The printed butterfly, usually only barely visible, is clearly defined in this impression (see detail below). Kennedy mades special note that an impression like this, with the clearly visible butterfly, was in the collection of John H. Wrenn.
On a commission from the Fine Arts Society, Whistler created the plates of his Venice series, including Lagoon: Noon during the fall and winter of 1879-1880. He published them in two groups, first with the Fine Arts Society, and then, after much disputation with the Society, a second group with the firm of Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell (called the “Second Venice Set”). Lagoon: Noon was published in the latter set. Whistler insisted on printing these proofs himself, and of course had extremely high standards, so he got behind in printing these impressions (and he had not yet finished the impressions from the First Set) – but of course the care he took in printing these proofs make them highly sought after today.
Posted in James Whistler |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Max Weber (1881-1961), Prayer, color linocut with unique inking, signed in pencil, numbered 2 in the bottom left sheet corner. Reference:Rubenstein 32. Image size 8.94 x 2.75 inches (227 x 70 mm); sheet size 9.25 to 6.75 inches (235 x 171 mm)
A fine impression of this rare cubist work, with fresh colors, on tissue-thin cream laid Japan; apparently the full sheet, with narrow margins top and bottom (1/8 inch), wide margins left and right (2 1/4 inches). Several invisibly repaired tears in the top sheet edge, two extending into the image; otherwise in excellent condition.
Another impression of this work was reproduced on the exhibition catalog cover Max Weber: Prints and Color Variations, Daryl R. Rubenstein, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1980.
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Jan Matulka (1890-1972), Three-Quarter View of Nude Bathing Seated Near Lamp, lithograph, 1925, signed and dated in pencil lower right. Reference: Flint 9. Edition: only a few impressions known. On cream laid Japan paper. In good condition, with wide margins at top and bottom, narrow margins on sides, 11 1/2 x 9 7/8, the sheet 17 x 10 3/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this important – and rare – Matulka lithograph. This proof impression shows evidence of printing by the artist himself since there is substantial inking in the margins and outside of the image itself; also it is trimmed rather idiosyncratically – wide at the top and bottom, narrow at the sides. No edition is known.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1890, Jan Matulka became a leading American modernist working at the same time as Lozowick to develop the earliest American Precisionist work, and with Stuart Davis to evolve a new form of Americanized Cubism.
In 1907, he came to the Bronx, New York where he had a poverty-ridden childhood with a mother who tried to raise a family by herself. From 1908 to 1917, he studied at the National Academy of Design, and in 1917, received the first Pulitzer traveling scholarship with which he traveled and painted in the Southwest and Florida.
In 1919, he first went to Paris, where he was exposed to European modernism, (especially Cubism). Three-Quarter View reflects both the realism that was always a theme in the Matulka’s work and also a Cubist idiom that he was to work with through the years. Matulka often varied his approach from rather conventional realism to cutting edge modernism, even during the same periods.
Matulka had his first one-man exhibit in New York City in 1925. A reclusive and independent figure, he did not fashion his art or career for optimal art world recognition. Still, he has been the subject of great interest and regard over the years, especially among artists and curators, and his work is increasingly sought after among those interested in the evolution of American modernism.
Posted in Jan Matulka |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Jan Matulka (1890-1972), Three Nudes in a Landscape, drypoint, 1923, not signed. Reference: Flint 5, no edition, only several proofs were made. In very good condition, some soiling verso and some inky marks including fingerprints in margins (as characteristic of an artist’s proof), printed in black ink on an ivory laid paper with a bull in a circle (?) watermark, the full sheet with margins and deckle edges, 14 1/16 x 10 13/16, the sheet 15 5/8 x 11 5/8 inches, achival mounting with non-attached mylar hinging, window mat.
A fine fresh and rich impression of a rare proof (no edition is known), with extensive burr from the drypoint work, and a substantial layering of plate tone. It is quite unusual to encounter prints by Matulka – signed or not- in today’s art market, particularly since he often seemed to produce these prints in very limited numbers, without regard to making them in editions.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1890, Jan Matulka came to New York City in 1907, eventually becoming a leading American modernist. From 1908 to 1917 he studied at the National Academy of Design, and in 1917, received the first Pulitzer traveling scholarship enabling him to work Southwest and Florida. In 1919, he first went to Paris, where he was exposed to European modernism (especially Cubism).
Three Nudes reflects both the realism that was always a theme in Matulka’s work and also a Cubist idiom that he was to work with through the years. Matulka often varied his approach from rather conventional realism to cutting edge modernism, even during the same periods.
Matulka had his first one-man exhibit in New York City in 1925. His reputation as an iconoclast and loner, oblivious to the workings of the art world, prevented him from achieving the fame that was his due during his lifetime, but he has gained substantial and increasing recognition, especially among artists and curators, in recent years. He continued to paint until he died, in New York City, in 1972.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Jan Matulka (1890-1972), Boat Scene in Central Park, etching and drypoint, 1923 [initialed in the plate JM and bearing signature by another hand lower right]. Reference: Flint 20, second state (of three), a proof impression. In very good condition, with margins (the usual ink marks in the margins as typical of proofs pulled by Matulka), on J Whatman wove paper, with the J Whatman 1923 watermark, 10 3/4 x 13 1/2, the sheet 13 3/4 x 16 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A very fine rich and fresh impression of this night scene, with a moderate veil of platetone overall, wiped only slightly more on figures in foreground and around the lamp, and with the burr from the drypoint work strong.
The British Museum recently exhibited their impression of this rare work in their landmark show “The American Scene.” Their impression, also an unsigned proof, has the same watermark and although they identified its state as between first and second, appears to be the same state as this proof (Flint’s description calls for the addition of considerable linework to the lamp, sky, platform, fence and figures in the third state, but the differences between the first two states are not so clear).
The evening boat scene in New York’s Central Park was a subject of great interest to Matulka, who returned to it a number of times in prints and paintings.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James McBey (1883-1959), Early Morning, Fintray, etching and drypoint, 1911, signed in ink lower right and numbered XIX lower left [also signed, titled and dated in the plate]. Reference: Hardie and Carter 89, from the edition of 40 proofs. In very good condition, printed on cream laid paper, 5 3/8 x 8 3/4, the sheet 6 15/16 x 10 inches, archival matting.
A fine delicately printed impression, with a subtle veil of plate tone.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York, with their inventory number recto (A3688).
A view of the river Don, Aberdeenshire, with very lightly sketched trees and even more lightly sketched hills in the distance. A woman leans on the fence just to the right of the tree at the right. A boat with its bow out of the water can be seen in the marshy foreground.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Black Lion Wharf, etching, 1859 [signed and dated in the plate lower right]. Reference: Kennedy 42, third state (of 3). One of the 16 etchings of the Thames Set. Printed in black on thin antique cream laid paper. In very good condition, with full margins, 5 7/8 x 8 7/8, the sheet 8 7/8 x 14 inches, archival
Provenance: Ex Collection S. William Pelletier, with his stamp, initials and date of purchase (1990) verso (not in Lugt). Dr. Pelletier was renowned for his collection of old master prints including Rembrandt, Van Ostade, and Meryon, and for collecting fine examples of other artists such as Muirhead Bone and James Whistler.
Kennedy Galleries, with their stock number a66332 verso.
Frederick Keppel, with their labels attached to the mat verso.
An extraordinarily rich, atmospheric impression.
Black Lion Wharf is one of Whistler’s best known portraits of the London waterfront (and seemingly a favorite of Whistler as well, since it appears on the wall of his famed painting of his Mother in the Louvre).
The patterns and details of the buildings along the shoreline were surely influenced by Meryon’s depictions of Paris, made only a few years earlier – they presage Whistler’s focus on storefronts and facades as a compositional vehicle. Simultaneously, the sketchy lines of the figures and boats in the foreground signals his interest in impressionism, in breaking away from rigid adherence to conventional rendering of details.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James Whistler (1834-1903), The Mill, 1889, etching and drypoint, signed in pencil with the butterfly on the tab and inscribed “imp”, and inscribed “first state” (twice) and annotated “Wunderlich” and signed again with the butterfly verso. Reference: Kennedy 413, first state (of 5). Glasgow 457, second state (of 6; see discussion below) (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011)
On laid paper, in very good condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark all around except for the tab by the artist, 6 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches.
A very fine impression of this great rarity, printed in black/brown ink with a slight veil of plate tone.
provenance:
H. Wunderlich & Co., New York
Louis B. Dailey, New York (Lugt 4500)
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, October 31, 2003, lot 69
literature;
Neue Lagerliste 122: James McNeill Whistler – Etchings and Lithographs, sale catalogue, C.G. Boerner/Harris Schrank Fine Prints, New York/Düsseldorf 2007, no. 39
A very fine impression.
This impression shows accents of fresh drypoint work with burr, most discernable above the head of the woman standing in the shadows at right, above her right hand, and close to her left foot; these touches and additional lines on the woman seated at the left suggest this is a second state, not a first as noted by the artist (and, according to Glasgow, the only example of this state). It is a much richer impression, with more drypoint burr, than the examples of the first state (at the National Gallery and the Freer, Washington D.C.)
The print is annotated by Whistler himself in pencil on the verso 1st state (twice) and signed again with a small butterfly. Below this, the artist wrote Wunderlich, designating this impression for Hermann Wunderlich, the founder of H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York and the artist’s first and most important dealer in the United States. Whistler is known to have chosen particularly fine impressions for Wunderlich.
The print is extremely rare in every state. Fine calls it “little known because of its rarity” (p. 179) and Glasgow lists no more than a total of 13 impression. To our knowledge this is the only impression to have reached the market in the past thirty years.
Whistler attempted in his Amsterdam etchings to use extensive etching and drypoint lines to create the atmospheric changes in tone which he achieved in the Venice group through plate tone. Doing so, he created extremely delicate plates, which could only produce a few impressions before the plate became unusable.
Critics have viewed The Mill as a paean to Rembrandt, which it surely is, but one wonders whether Whistler might have also thought of the etchings of Van Ostade, particularly those showing the shadowy indoor settings (such as The Barn), with workers or peasants merging into the darkness. Whistler’s brilliant chiaroscuro etchings (such as Doorway and Vine, or the Nocturne: Furnace of the Venice Set) come to mind also – here the light of day illuminates windmills in the horizon.
POR
Posted in James Whistler, James Whistler |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Bibi Lalouette, 1859, drypoint and etching, printed in dark brown ink on old laid paper with a Bouchet watermark. [Signed and dated in the plate; at this stage Whistler was not signing prints in pencil] References: Glasgow 33, second state (of 2; see discussion below), Kennedy 51, second state (of 2). In very good condition, with small margins, 8 7/8 x 6, the sheet 9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches.
A fine early impression, with burr from the drypoint work quite visible especially in the boy’s hair (only visible in the early impressions). In the early impressions of this state a scratch is visible on the sleeve of the child; in the later impressions it is removed. It is visible in this impression. Also in later impressions of this state a scratch appeared on the blouse of the child (which some have considered a cancellation mark), which was also then removed; in this early impression this scratch has yet to appear.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York, with their stock number (a81516) verso.
Also on the verso in graphite the following words are written: London Office Collection and the initials WX (neither found in Lugt)
In the first state of this print there were two heads (upside-down) at the bottom of the plate, made when Whistler was formulating the composition. These were removed in the second state, but they (one in particular) are still visible in this impression. Also in the second state light horizontal lines to the left and right of the child were added.
Bibi’s father owned a pension where Whistler, Henri Fantin-Latour and Alphonse Legros (who called themselves the Societe des Trois) often ate during their student days. In this delightful portrait Whistler features the boy’s curly hair (reminiscent of his own).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Father and Son, 1895, lithograph, signed with the butterfly in pencil [also signed with the butterfly in the stone upper left]. Reference: Spink 123, Way 87. In good condition, with margins (slight browning at edges, cataloguer’s notations at margin edges), 9 1/2 x 7 inches, the sheet 12 1/2 x 8 inches. Archival matting.
A fine carefully printed lifetime impression of this very rare print.
This is the only impression we know of to appear on the market in recent history. Thomas Way, who printed Whistler’s lithographs, noted that he printed 15 impressions; we are able to account for 14 impressions in public institutions such as the Chicago Art Institute, Glasgow, Metropolitan Museum, British Museum, National Gallery in Washington, etc.
This impression is printed on ivory laid paper with the watermark Pro Patria and the letters IVDL countermark. This is Spink watermark number 232 (noting that this is a lifetime watermark).
Provenance: Birnie Philip stamp verso (Lugt 406). This is the Birnie Philip (Whistler’s sister in law) mark she used to denote the lifetime impressions in her collection.
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London (their stock no. verso C3315044).
The two blacksmiths pictured are George Govier and his son Samuel, shown working at their shop in the seaside town of Lyme Regis, Dorset. Whistler had problems with the printing of the several lithographs he made of these blacksmiths working; Father and Son was among the better printed examples, and he chose to include it in a show of his lithographs held at the Fine Art Society on Bond Street in 1895-6.
$8500
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Wapping – The Pool (or, The Large Pool), etching, 1878-9, signed in pencil lower margin with the butterfly, dated 1879 and annotated “imp”, also titled and dedicated to James Waddell. References: Kennedy 174, fifth state (of 7), Glasgow 180, seventh state (of 8). On laid paper with a Strasbourg Lily and initials WR watermark. In good condition (tiny fox mark at lower center), with wide margins. 7 3/8 x 10 7/8 inches, the sheet 9 3/4 x 13 3/4 inches, archival mounting.
Provenance: H. Wunderlich and Co., New York (with their stock number a25414 verso)
A. LE MASSON (cf Lugt 1746, with his collector’s mark, in pencil, not a stamp, verso). He is known to have had an impression of Wapping which was sold at Sothebys May 16, 1878.
James Waddell (see below)
A fine impression of this extremely rare print, signed in pencil with the early large shaded butterfly (butterfly of 1879). This print was not published; the Whistler Etchings Project at Glasgow has identified a total of 13 impressions in all states.
James Waddell was the accountant appointed to oversee the reclamation of Whistler’s artworks after his 1879 bankruptcy.
The Large Pool shows the Pool of London at Wapping, the scene of several prints of the Thames done some twenty years earlier. In composition it anticipates the etchings Whistler was about to do in Venice.
According to the Glasgow catalogue Whistler apparently had a high regard for this plate, as evidenced by the care he took with selection of papers and printing of various states, and by correspondence regarding the plate; and he may have hoped it would help him avert bankruptcy. But it did not; in the end no edition of the print was made.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James Ensor (1860-1946), The Entry of Christ into Brussels, etching and drypoint, 1898, on a cream colored simili Japan paper, signed, dated and titled recto, countersigned and titled verso, 9 ¾ x 14 ¾, the sheet 14 x 18 1/8 inches. Reference: Elesh 118, fourth state (of 4), Taevernier 114, third state (of 3). In superb condition, with some slight rubbing margins verso only, some tiny creases verso margins with archival matting.
A very fine dark impression, with wonderfully clear detailing, printing with relief.
Provenance: Paul van der Perre Behaegel, with their collector stamp (BG in a circle) verso (not in Lugt)
Sale: CG Boerner, to current owner.
The Entry of Christ into Brussels is perhaps Ensor’s most famous image, both through the painting and the print. In addition to the astonishing – and of course successful – complexity of the composition, the Entry shows in exquisite detail Ensor’s talent as a draftsman. Here is the myriad of faces, feelings and activities found throughout his work, but no where else so concentrated in a single composition.
Christ, a smallish figure, is located at the center of the composition, riding on a donkey. All around him are the citizens of the town – some stolid, some skeletal; wearing masks, demonstrating, playing music, marching, waving, kissing, snarling, watching – many staring at him, others at us. The scene is a carnival.
The related painting is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu; the Getty has a related drawing as well. The print is not identical to the painting at the Getty; the composition is reversed, and there are additional characters, other flags waving as part of the demonstration; the print may also have a darker quality, as exemplified by the many characters (not found in the painting) viewing the scene from the crevices and rooftop of the viewing stand at the left. Although the painting is perhaps Ensor’s greatest work, Ensor, the consummate artist, would never have been satisfied merely to copy it as a print; the print has a unique quality and flavor of its own, making it one of the masterpieces of printmaking.
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James Ensor (1860-1949), Boulevard Van Iseghem, Ostend, etching and drypoint, 1889, signed in pencil lower right [also signed and dated in the plate lower right, and annotated “Ostende” lower left]. References: Delteil 66, Taevernier 66, Elesh 66, third state (of 3). In very good condition, with margins (remains of prior hinging verso), printed in greyish/brown ink on ivory simuli-Japan paper, 5 1/2 x 4, the sheet 9 3/4 x 6 1/8 inches, archival window mounting.
A very fine impression, with exquisite detailing and clarity in the complex patterning of shades and textures in the buildings, street and sky.
The impression quality is evidence that this is an early impression. In addition Ensor’s signature conforms to that found in the early printings; it is quite likelythat this was signed about the time the print was created (Ensor had impressions made over a number of years).
This is a view of the seaside town roofs of Ostend, from Ensor’s studio. In many of his etchings and paintings of the town he filled the streets with people, but here the streets are vacant, but for two tiny carriages parked halfway up the street.
A painting of the same view (and title) is included in the major Museum of Modern Art show on Ensor; the painting is much more impressionistic than the print (it is not surprising that Ensor would chose this subject for work in various media, since it was the view from his studio, but other than having similar subject matter, the painting and the print do not appear related in any way; in addition the painting was done much earlier, perhaps c. 1880).
$3500
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Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James Ensor (1860-1949), etching, 1899, signed and dated (1900) in pencil lower right, countersigned and titled verso. The title verso is: “La Reine Parysatis ecorchant un eunuque” (Queen Parysatis flaying a eunuch). References: Elesh 121, Taevernier 116; Elesh’s second state (of 2). In very good condition, remains of prior hinging verso, on an ivory/tan simile Japon paper with wide margins, 6 3/4 x 4 3/4, the sheet 11 3/8 x 9 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine rich atmospheric impression, printed in dark brown/black ink with aquatint or grainy areas probably achieved through the use of phosphorus or other grainy elements.
Ensor illustrates an episode from Plutarch, in which the Persian Queen Parysatis, at the left, flays the eunuch who had killed her son. Her assistant stands at the center. Flames emanate from the helmets of those on the right, and a crowd of faces, one skeletal at the bottom, witness this sadistic happening.
$4500
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
James Ensor (1860-1949), Exterminating Angel (L’Ange Exterminateur), etching with drypoint, 1889, signed and dated in pencil lower right, also titled and countersigned verso. References: Delteil 77, Croquez 77, Elesh 77, Taevernier 77; second (final) state. In very good condition, on a Japan paper with wide margins, (remains of old hinging verso showing through at extreme corners). 4 3/4 x 6 1/8, the sheet 7 3/4 x 11 1/8 inches.
A fine impression printed in a grey/black ink, with substantial plate tone.
Provenance: ex Collection Johannes Hendricus de Bois (1878-1946), with his mark recto lower left corner (Lugt 733).
Only a few impressions of a first state of this print are known; one definitively identified in 2002 by Eric Gillis and Patrick Florizoone, published in the catalogue on Ensor prints presented for sale by CG Boerner.
Gillis and Florizoone note that this print “combines a Catholic element, the destroying angel of the apocalypse with the Flemish proverb ‘to go in one’s pants from fear.’ In his catalogue of the graphic works of Ensor, Albert Croquez made the link between this work and the painting [and print] by Henri Rousseau titled La Guerre. It is not very likely that the painting influenced Ensor, but it is possible that both artists were inspired by the same source, namely the parody of Le Tsar, published in the French magazine L’Egalite on October 6, 1889.”
Posted in James Ensor |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963) etching, aquatint, and drypoint, Minne Playing with a Cat (Minne Jouant avec un Chat),1907, signed in pencil and numbered (12/30)(Ginestet and Pouillon 192).
A very good impression, with bright contrasts and strong burr from the drypoint, on laid Japan with margins. Ex. coll: Estate of June W. Schuster; Mrs David Steinmetz III.
In good condition, with margins (pale light and mat stain in margins, minor soiling at the bottom left margin corner), 9 3/8 x 6 5/8 (the sheet 13 x 9) inches.
This is from the Minne series, a group of prints made by Villon in 1907, portraying the young daughter of a friend in various poses. Minne’s real name was Renee, and she achieved a sort of fame four years later when Villon made his landmark cubist prints of her. In this modernist/expressionist portrait Villon explores the enigmatic character of a young girl, a subject which held much fascination for him at this early stage in his career.
Posted in Jacques Villon |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Impressions (Drawings after Nature), 1907, lithographs, the complete suite of 10 lithographs plus the cover and album case, E221 (Vautours, Vultures) is pencil signed and numbered, and with the Sagot blindstamp [each sheet is also signed in the plate]. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E212-221, only states. As edited and published by Sagot.
In very good condition overall, the cover with slight soiling, nicks, minor losses; the lithographs in (original) mats, in very good condition (E212 with slight creasing upper corners). The title cover with the lithographed Vultures from the set recto and the Eagle verso, and also with the address of Sagot, is about 15 x 22 inches (folded); the lithographs are each c. 9 x 6 3/4 inches; and the cover and lithographs are included in a strong blue portfolio case titled in gilt lettering “Impressions.”
Fine impressions of this now-rare early set of Villon’s delightful lithographs based on his watercolors, with the subtle colors still fresh and vital. Printed on a light laid paper.
The 10 lithographs included in this set are, starting with E221, are: Femme de Profil; Fillette; Femme a L’Ombrelle; Femmes au Bord de la Mer; Jeune Serveuse; Femme au Cafe; Soldats (soldiers); Soldat; Aigle (eagle); Vautours (vultures).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), The Large Passion, 7 etchings (2 are illustrated), 1619-1624. Reference: Lieure 281-287. Five in the first state, one in the second and one in the second or third, as discussed below; an extraordinarily large proportion of the plates (6 of 7) have watermarks Lieure identifies as characteristic of the earliest impressions of this set (see below). Each in very good condition, on a brownish laid paper, with thread or small margins trimmed outside of the platemark, each approximately 4 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches.
States: Lieure 281 (Washing of Hands) second state (of 3)(the first state is extremely rare); L282 (Last Supper) first state (of 3); L283 (Condemnation) first state (of 2); L284 (Crowning of Thorns) first or second state, before completion of the background (of 4); L285 (Presentation to the People) first state (of 3); L286 (Carrying to the Cross) first state (of 3); L287 (Crucifixion) first state (of 2).
Lieure 281 has Lieure watermark 35 (countermark to the Cross of Lorrain mark)
Lieure 282, 283, 284, 285, 287 have the Cross of Lorraine watermarks (Lieure watermark 30).
A fine uniform, early set of this monumental work.
Provenance: Donald Judd Foundation
Unidentified collector (pencil signature verso on each impression, not found in Lugt)
The Large Passion is one of Callot’s larger format religious sets. Most of the portrayals are set as on a stage. For example, the Presentation to the People is set in classic architecture, with Christ isolated in the center background, and larger more darkly etched figures in the foreground. This theatrical approach would be used repeatedly by future generations of artists.
This set is complete, but Callot may have contemplated a larger grouping; he made sketches for as many as fourteen scenes for a Large Passion, most of which today are in the Collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth; other preparatory drawings, including sketches of figures found in the Large Passion, can be found in the Louvre, the Morgan Library, and the National Gallery in Washington.
This set is currently on reserve.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Isabel Bishop (1902-1988), Putting on the Coat, etching, 1943, signed in pencil lower right and titled (Putting on Coat (front)) lower left margins. Reference: Teller 31. In excellent condition, printed on cream wove paper, with margins, 5 7/8 x 3 7/8, the sheet 7 5/8 x 4 5/8 inches, archival mounting with window mount.
A fine atmospheric proof impression, before the edition printed decades later and before the corners of the plate were burnished (and thus with a platemark set in strong relief), printed with a light veil of plate tone.
Provenance: Associated American Artists, with a copy of their signed certificate of authenticity attached to the mat.
This is one of a small number of proofs that Bishop personally printed in 1943. In 1981 an edition of 25 was printed; these were printed professionally and numbered I-XXV. Proof examples are highly coveted today; printed by Bishop herself, they tend to have an atmospheric character that the later impressions lack.
Bishop was of course a member of the Union Square group of New York artists, an informal circle of friends including Reginald Marsh, Armin Landeck, Raphael Soyer, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Virtually all her prints were figure studies. In the early years her printmaking was focused on etching; later she added aquatint to her repertoire.
Posted in Isabel Bishop |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Hermine David, drypoint and engraving Boxing Match, circa 1927, signed and numbered (4/10) in pencil, lower margin. Reference: Jean Adhemar, Inventaire Bibliotheque Nationale #12. In excellent condition, with full margins (some staining top margin near edge) (8 1/4 x 9 1/2, the sheet 12 3/4 x 16 1/4 inches), on BFK Rives cream wove paper, archival mounting.
A fine impression, with the burr from the drypoint giving the composition an atmospheric quality, while at the same time the drypoint is used to convey even the finest details of the many figures.
Hermine David (1886-1970) studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts from the age of 16, and showed frequently at the Salon des Femmes Peintures from 1905. She met Jules Pascin in 1907, becoming his steady companion; they later married. David and Pascin traveled together to the US, where Hermine continued her successful career, then returned to Europe in 1920. Her flair for detailed drypoint work is evident in the Boxing Match, as is her talent at composition.
This impression captures the gay atmosphere of this event, a match – really a social event – taking place in a baroque Parisian theatre.
Posted in Hermine David |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Hermine David (1886-1970) La Corrida, etching and drypoint, 1929, signed and numbered (20/100) in pencil (Inventaire Bibliotheque Nationale de France #22). From Trois Plates au Nouvel Essor. On a medium weight cream wove paper, in very good condition with only the slightest trace of light stain, the matrix perfect, with wide margins, 10 x 11 3/4, the sheet 14 x 18 inches, archival acid free matting.
A fine, bright impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint and engraving work.
Hermine David was an established artist in Paris from about 1905 onward, even before she met Jules Pascin (in 1907), who she eventually married. She and Pascin exhibited in the US from about 1915-20 while they lived here, then moved back to France. Although David worked into the ’60s, her work of the ’20s and ’30s, particularly the drypoints, is perhaps most renowned today; this is the period when La Corrida was made.
Posted in Hermine David |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Gerald Brockhurst, L’Eventail (The Fan), etching, 1926, signed in pencil, from the edition of 76. Reference: Fletcher 22, Wright 22. In good condition, on cream laid paper with margins (a thin spot inherent in paper lower margin near edge), the matrix pristine, archival matting.
A fine impression of this small but impressive demonstration of Brockhurst’s mastery of etching.
The woman carrying the fan is of course Brockhurst’s favorite model, at least at this time, his wife Anais. She wears an embroidered coat which allows Brockhurst to display his capacity to capture complex textures with the etching needle – much as his predecessor Wenzel Hollar used women’s furs and fashions to display his legendary abilities.
The meticulous etching is contrasted – in an aethetically effective way – with the curiously messy border area below. It appears that Brockhurst was practicing using the etching needle in an area that would not affect the image, and he left it that way – surely intentionally – in the edition (including also his printed signature, written normally in the plate and thus printed backwards).
Posted in Gerald Brockhurst |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Gerald Brockhurst, L’Eventail (The Fan), etching, 1926, signed in pencil, from the edition of 76. Reference: Fletcher 22, Wright 22. In good condition, on cream laid paper with margins (a thin spot inherent in paper lower margin near edge), the matrix pristine, archival matting.
A fine impression of this small but impressive demonstration of Brockhurst’s mastery of etching.
The woman carrying the fan is of course Brockhurst’s favorite model, at least at this time, his wife Anais. She wears an embroidered coat which allows Brockhurst to display his capacity to capture complex textures with the etching needle – much as his predecessor Wenzel Hollar used women’s furs and fashions to display his legendary abilities.
The meticulous etching is contrasted – in an aethetically effective way – with the curiously messy border area below. It appears that Brockhurst was practicing using the etching needle in an area that would not affect the image, and he left it that way – surely intentionally – in the edition (including also his printed signature, written normally in the plate and thus printed backwards).
Posted in Gerald Brockhurst |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1891-1978), Aglaia, etching, 1926, signed in pencil lower right [also signed in reverse in the plate]. Reference: Fletcher 54, ninth state (of 9), from the edition of 106. In very good condition apart from slight light toning, with wide margins, 5 x 3 1/2, the sheet 11 x 8 1/4 inches, archival window matting.
A fine delicately printed impression, printed in a blackish/grey ink, on an ivory wove paper.
Aglaia was the Greek goddess of beauty, splendour, glory, magnificence and adornment. She was the youngest and most beautiful of the Three Graces, the sisters who typically appear dancing in a circle (the others were Euphrosyne (joy and mirth) and Thalia (bringer of flowers).
Brockhurst would often add a touch of drama to the naming of his etchings and paintings, using such names as Aglaia, Xenia, Melisande, Nedajda. But in this as in many other cases, the model for the work is Brockhurst’s first wife, Anais.
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst was one of the outstanding British artists of the early 20th Century, hugely popular in the ’20’s and early ’30’s. Today he is still renowned for his poignant images of young women and girls and several portraits of contemporaries (Rushbury, McBey); to print lovers portraits such as this example show him at his best, as a master etcher and superb draftsman.
Posted in Gerald Brockhurst |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Franz Edmund Weirotter (1730-1771), Paysages (Landscapes), 1759, complete set of 6 (4 are illustrated on this site), [signed in the plates lower right Weirotter sc, and also signed and dated in the images upper left; plate one with the title and inscription “Dessines et engraves apre nature par Weyrotter”]. Reference: Nagler 22. In generally good condition, with full margins (stains and spotting in margins away from images, browning at edges, plate 5 with an unobtrusive printer’s crease and thin area outside of image, plate 1 with a stain bottom edge well away from image). Platemarks app. 7 x 9 1/2, images 6 1/2 x 8 3/4, sheets 10 1/4 x 16 1/2 inches. Not hinged or matted.
A fine complete set of these rarely encountered images.
Weirotter was one of the most distinguished of the German 18th Century landscape etchers. Although many of these printmakers specialized in reproducing the work of others, Wierotter tended to create original compositions for his prints. The 6 plates in this set are original Wierotter compositions, although they are remindful of the work of 17th Century Dutch artists such as Jan van Goyen, Pieter Molyn, or Jacob van Ruisdael. Hind noted of Weirotter that he was “most successful when he keeps to plates of the small dimensions, to which his delicate and clearly etched line is fitted.”
Each of these six scenes involves waterways – rushing falls, and lakes and rivers with people walking along the shores, fishing and boating, and crossing flimsy bridges.
Posted in Franz Weirotter |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), Le Bon Marché Department Store, woodcut, 1893, signed in pencil lower right margin [also with the title in the block lower left and initials lower right]. Reference: Vallotton-Georg 116 a (of d). In very good condition, printed on a yellow/cream wove paper as specified for the lifetime impressions (there were also posthumous stamp-signed editions of 25 on white Japan and 15 on white wove), 7 7/8 x 10 1/4, the sheet 9 15/16 x 12 1/16 inches, archival matting.
A fine strong impression from the lifetime edition.
Founded in 1852, Le Bon Marché (which translates roughly to “good deal”) continues in operation today as a pre-eminent Paris department store.
Vallotton made drypoints and etchings early in his career, and began making woodcuts in 1891. By the next year he had achieved some measure of fame in this medium, with the publication of an article on his breakthrough approach by Octave Uzanne in the Paris journal “L’Art et L’Idee.” By 1893 he had obviously hit his stride, and Le Bon Marché represents one of the great examples of woodblock printmaking.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), The Disasters of War, etchings and aquatint.
Made in the Workshop of Laurenciano Potenciano for the Real Academia; published in 1863. On heavy, absorbent wove paper, many sheets with the watermark JGO and a palmette. Reference: Harris 121-200, First Edition 1b, with letters as corrected, 247 x 340 mm, 9 1/2 x 13 1/4 inches, images approximately 5 1/2 x 8.
An extremely fine complete set in superb condition, with the dated title page and biographical introduction on paper with the El Arte en Espana watermark; in a gilt-lettered box, the binding threads carefully removed.
The sets of the First Edition varied in quality (the edition was limited to about 500); this is one of the finest sets we have encountered. Seven editions were made in all.
The images of war and famine in Goya’s Los Desastres de la Guerra are timeless in their depictions of man’s inhumanity to man.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Hans Burgkmair (1459-1519), The Old White King Warning His Son Not to Trust the Flemish Party, woodcut, 1514-1516. Reference: Bartsch 80-(224) 62 [by Leonhard Beck], from the History of Emperor Maximilian I. In very good condition (with margins; some very old script in ink top and bottom margin, some slight staining, foxing), on old laid paper, 8 3/4 x 7 5/8, the sheet 10 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.
Provenance: Karl Edward von Liphart (1808-1891, Dorpat, Bonn and Florence), with his graphite mark verso (Lugt 1651, see also Lugt 1687, 1688). Lugt notes of Liphart, a distinguished collector of old master prints, “il commence par l’oeuvre de Ridinger et par un achat considerable GG. Boerner in Leipsig en 1836.”
A very good impression.
The History of the Weisskunig (White King) is an autobiography in the style of an illustrated novel without words. Although it is the story of Emperor Maximilian I all the characters have symbolic names. The White King is the name Maximilian chose for himself, as it both stands for whiteness (purity) and is associated with the word for wisdom (Weisheit).
Hans Burgkmair, the eminent Augsburg painter and printmaker was in effect Maximilian’s official court artist. He worked with other artists, including Leonhard Beck (Germany, Augsburg, 1480 – 1542), in developing the plates for the Maximilian series. At the time of the original cataloguing this block was given to Beck; in the more recent edition of Bartsch it is given to Beck but the decision was made to continue its cataloguing under Burgkmair, to avoid confusion and keep the ordering and placement of all the blocks of the series intact.
This is one of a bound group of old master prints, including other woodcuts by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein and others. Many of these prints have the mark of the eminent collector Karl Edward von Liphart (Lugt 1651) verso. We are currently doing research on the collection so it is not on the market as yet.
Posted in Hans Burgkmair |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-50), Doric Columns I and II, engravings, 1543. References: Bartsch 247 and 248; Pauli 257 and 258, first state of two. With the monogram, date and extensive annotation in the plate. In very good condition, on old laid paper. Both prints engraved on one sheet, and so with margins; each 3 x 2, the sheet 3 1/2 x 5 3/8 inches; archival mounting.
Both fine early impressions, with the guidelines for the lettering still clearly printing; these prints are rarely seen and very rare as printed on a single sheet.
Provenance: Dr. Karl Herweg (a well-known collector of Northern Renaissance prints); and an unidentified collector’s mark (KB?, not found in Lugt).
Beham, like the other illustrious German Little Masters of the Northern Renaissance including his brother Barthel, Heinrich Aldegrever, Albrecht Altdorfer, Georg Pencz and others, made a number of prints which were used as decorative models or with decorative applications in mind.
In this case the columns appear to have been referred to and perhaps illustrated in the writings of Vitruvius (active c. 90-20 BC), a Roman writer on architecture, whose writings were highly influential during the Renaissance. The first printed version of his works appeared in the late 15th C., and the first illustrated edition in 1511. Beham’s engravings may have been a way to circulate the illustrations widely, and they’re an aesthetic treat regardless of their function when issued.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Adolphe-Marie Beaufrere (1876-1960), Les Enfants Le Gall, drypoint, 1927, signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left margins (13/45) [also dated and monogrammed in the plate]. Reference: Laran 208, Morane 27-04, only state. In very good condition, with margins, printed on a ivory/orange laid Japan paper, 7 5/8 x 6 1/2, the sheet 10 x 8 3/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression, the black contrasting warmly with the ivory/orange paper.
With the Sagot blindstamp.
Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Beaufrere began printmaking in about 1904, with some woodcuts, but soon got into etching and engraving. He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905, and with the urging of his new wife, moved out of Paris and back to Brittany. This move had a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants – such as the woman, children and cows in Les Enfants – would provide a continuing source of inspiration.
During the Great War Beaufrere served in the infantry, and had few opportunities to make art. After the War Beaufrere experienced great success, both in France and the US. He received many awards (including Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1939, nominated by his friend Jean-Emile Laboureur). And throughout his life, despite various maladies including eye problems in the ’40’s and later, he continued to make prints as well as paintings and watercolors.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
Hans Burgkmair (1459-1519), The Alliance of the Four Kings, woodcut, 1514-1516. Reference: Bartsch 80-(224) 183 [by Leonhard Beck], from the History of Emperor Maximilian I. In very good condition (with margins; some very old script in ink bottom margin, some slight staining), on old laid paper, 8 3/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 10 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches.
Provenance: Karl Edward von Liphart (1808-1891, Dorpat, Bonn and Florence), with his graphite mark verso (Lugt 1651, see also Lugt 1687, 1688). Lugt notes of Liphart, a distinguished collector of old master prints, “il commence par l’oeuvre de Ridinger et par un achat considerable GG. Boerner in Leipsig en 1836.”
A very good impression.
The History of the Weisskunig (White King) is an autobiography in the style of an illustrated novel without words. Although it is the story of Emperor Maximilian I all the characters have symbolic names. The White King is the name Maximilian chose for himself, as it both stands for whiteness (purity) and is associated with the word for wisdom (Weisheit).
Hans Burgkmair, the eminent Augsburg painter and printmaker was in effect Maximilian’s official court artist. He worked with other artists, including Leonhard Beck (Germany, Augsburg, 1480 – 1542), in developing the plates for the Maximilian series. At the time of the original cataloguing this block was given to Beck; in the more recent edition of Bartsch it is given to Beck but the decision was made to continue its cataloguing under Burgkmair, to avoid confusion and keep the ordering and placement of all the blocks of the series intact.
This is one of a bound group of old master prints, including other woodcuts by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein and others. Many of these prints have the mark of the eminent collector Karl Edward von Liphart (Lugt 1651) verso. We are currently doing research on the collection so it is not on the market as yet.
Posted in Hans Burgkmair |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925) woodcut, La Modiste, signed in pencil lower right margin, 1894. Reference: Maxime Vallotton and Charles Georg 138a (of a-d). On a greenish tan wove paper, in good condition (apart from several repaired tears and nicks at margin edges and upper corners, a tiny pinhole lower left image), archival mounting, wide margins, 7 1/4 x 9, the sheet 11 3/8 x 13 1/4 inches.
A fine impression of this Fin de Siecle icon. From the signed edition of about 60; there were also some (35) posthumous impressions made, then the plate was destroyed.
Vallotton was of course known as a foremost Nabi painter, and a social critic as well. But perhaps his most notable contribution was through his woodcuts, all of which were done in the period of about 7 years, from age 26 to 33 (1891-98). In La Modiste, he satirizes the middle class shopping, while showing the design line and shapes, with their limited planar quality, that anticipate much of modernism including the Art Nouveau movement. Yet shortly after this period Vallotton married into a rich art dealer’s family – and he gave up the critical printmaking of his “youth.”
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), L’Assassinat, woodcut, 1893, signed in pencil lower right [also titled lower left and initials lower right in the block]. Reference: Vallotton/Georg 113b; a signed impression from the edition of 75 (most but not all numbered). On orange wove paper, in very good condition, with wide margins as published, 5 3/4 x 9 3/4, the sheet 10 x 12 3/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this powerful work.
This is an impression from the lifetime edition; there were two subsequent posthumous editions, one of 25 on white Japan, another of 10 on white wove, each identifiable by the stamped initials as well as the paper and blindstamps in the paper; after these editions the woodblock was canceled.
Vallotton (1865-1925) made drypoints and etchings early in his career, and began making woodcuts in 1891. By the next year he had achieved some measure of fame in this medium with the publication of an article on his breakthrough approach by Octave Uzanne in the Paris journal “L’Art et L’Idee.” By 1893 he had obviously hit his stride, and L’Assassinat, made in that year, represents one of the great examples of Vallotton’s woodblock printmaking.
In an interesting variant on most of his prints, he printed this on an orange/yellow paper; during this period of course many artists experimented with paper color and type, and this appears to be a particularly appropriate paper color for this medium (and perhaps, for this subject matter).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Felix Vallotton (1865-1925), L’Assassinat, woodcut, 1893, signed in pencil lower right [also titled lower left and initials lower right in the block]. Reference: Vallotton/Georg 113b; a signed impression from the edition of 75 (most but not all numbered). On orange wove paper, in very good condition, with wide margins as published, 5 3/4 x 9 3/4, the sheet 10 x 12 3/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this powerful work.
This is an impression from the lifetime edition; there were two subsequent posthumous editions, one of 25 on white Japan, another of 10 on white wove, each identifiable by the stamped initials as well as the paper and blindstamps in the paper; after these editions the woodblock was canceled.
Vallotton (1865-1925) made drypoints and etchings early in his career, and began making woodcuts in 1891. By the next year he had achieved some measure of fame in this medium with the publication of an article on his breakthrough approach by Octave Uzanne in the Paris journal “L’Art et L’Idee.” By 1893 he had obviously hit his stride, and L’Assassinat, made in that year, represents one of the great examples of Vallotton’s woodblock printmaking.
In an interesting variant on most of his prints, he printed this on an orange/yellow paper; during this period of course many artists experimented with paper color and type, and this appears to be a particularly appropriate paper color for this medium (and perhaps, for this subject matter).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), engraving, 1925, signed in pencil lower left, numbered 53/65 lower right and annotated imp. Reference: Laboueur 300, third state (of 3), from the total of about 69 lifetime proofs (there was also a posthumous edition). In very good condition, minor handling folds at margin edges; with wide/full margins, on a cream wove paper, archival mounting with window mat, 7 1/4 x 7 5/8, the sheet 9 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches.
A fine fresh impression.
Laboureur created Pecheurs au Carrelet in engraving, a technique which provided sharp and exact lines complimenting his personal interpretation of cubism; as is apparent, he had perfected the technique by the time he made Pecheurs.
The fishers (pecheurs) pictured are using a square net (a carrelet).
$1750
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur, engraving La Boutique du Cremier, 1937, signed and numbered 5/110, from the edition of 110 in this state (only a few proofs were made in a first state). Reference: Godefry, Sylvain Laboureur 526, second state of two. With the blindstamp of the Société des Peintres-Graveurs Français (Lugt 1195a).
In very fine condition, with full margins, 6 1/4 x 5 1/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this late 1930’s cubist/modernist composition.
Jean-Emile Laboureur was born in Nantes in 1877. He traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. Laboureur then traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany. Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own.
Cubism remained an important theme for Laboureur, a theme he varied, sometimes using it as a strong design or compositional component, sometimes only as a subtle background element. His experiments with engraving, started about 1915, began perhaps because of the difficulty of carrying complicated etching materials while working as an interpreter in the British Army, but were also based on his familiarity with the old masters, who typically worked in engraving. Few modern artists use engraving, for although it doesn’t require much equipment, it is far more difficult and time consuming than etching. But engraving became his method, and the clear, clean engraving line seemed to complement Laboureur’s cubism.
By 1937, when he made La Boutique du Cremier, Laboureur was working securely and successfully within his unique modernist idiom, as demonstrated in this delightful composition. The Société des Peintres-Graveurs Français chose this print to include (de hors texte) with the catalogue of their 1938 Exposition.
$750
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Policeman, Londres, 1913, etching on zinc. Signed lower left in pencil [also with the signature and date in the plate]. Reference: Godefroy, Sylvain Laboureur 119, only state, a proof impression apart from the edition of only 14 lifetime impressions (Laboureur calls for one trial impression). In good condition, with the deckle edges, on ivory laid paper with the watermark A Parbeauf. 7 15/16 x 10 1/4, the sheet 9 x 12 3/8 inches, archival matting with non-attached mylar hinging.
A very good impression of this rare print, printed with a light veil of plate tone
Le Policeman represents a critical turning point in Laboureur’s work: the moment when he full integrated cubism within his own unique style. Years after creating this masterpiece the critic Michel Cournot wrote in Le Monde: “Cette scene de la rue fait date dans l’histoire de la gravure francaise. Parce que d’un coup, sans crier gare, Laboureur vient de trouver sa maniere, d’inventer son style bien a lui.”
The importance of this print was underlined in 1988 with the publication of the definitive catalogue raisonne of the prints by Sylvain Laboureur. A small posthumous edition of this print was printed, numbered 15-25 of 25, each with a special “cachet du crab,” dated, and identified by the catalogue’s author; the plate was then cancelled.
$4000
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Blanchisseuse, 1922, engraving, signed in pencil and annotated “d’etat”. Sylvain Laboureur 229, second state of three, before the edition of 72. In good condition, with full margins (slight soiling at right margin edge), on a wove Van Gelder Zonen paper, with their watermark, 9 3/4 x 7 1/4, the sheet 14 x 11 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this early state. In the third state (the state pictured in the catalogue raisonne) cross hatching and additional lines were added in various places, but of course the structure of the composition is quite intact in this fine and rare earlier state. There were seven numbered proofs of the second state plus a trial proof; this is the trial proof.
At this stage of his career Laboureur had developed the unique and individualistic interpretation of cubism that was to be so influential for several generations of European and then American artists, and of course he had also mastered the engraving technique – a difficult and time consuming printmaking method which complements his cubist idiom perfectly in La Blanchisseuse.
$2500
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Chapeau de Velours, etching, 1914, signed in pencil lower left and numbered (17/30) lower right [also signed and dated in the plate upper right]. Reference: Godefroy, Sylvain Laboureur 128, only state. In very good condition, with margins (small thin areas verso toward corners), 8 x 6 1/4, the sheet 9 3/4 x 8 3/8 inches. Archival matting.
A fine impression, printed with plate tone on an ivory wove paper.
Le Chapeau is a markedly modernist print, done as Laboureur was immersed in developing the unique approach to cubism that represented a break from the more conventional aesthetic of his past.
$1750
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur, Lassitude, 1912, woodcut, signed and numbered (24/35) in pencil. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 682, third state (of 3). From the edition of about 35, published by Frequet, in very good condition, with wide margins, deckle edges right and bottom, a pinhole left and right margins, 9 1/2 x 10 1/8, the sheet 12 3/4 x 14 3/4 inches.
A fine impression of one of Laboureur’s most famous images; the colors fresh.
Although Laboureur’s own notes indicated that there were three states of this print (a few proofs inearly states) his later notes for an exhibition of his work (in 1917, at Galerie Jove in Paris) indicated that there was only one state.
For the catalogue of the Laboureur Centenary Tribute exhibit in 1977 (at the French Institute/Alliance Francaise; the Chrysler Museum and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts) Robert Allen wrote, of Laboureur’s woodcuts: The most extraordinary of these is Lassitude, in which the head, outlined in black and colored in pink, gray, and yellow, is a bold, close-up portrait of a lady clearly under the influence of opium. Her dreamy condition is emphasized by the weird out-of-focus treatment of her eyes, the flat, gray sockets of which are hatched in parallel blacks and seem to be superimposed, like tinted glasses, an inch or two beyond the actual plane of her face.
$7500
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Girl Standing – Repeated, engraving, 1943, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed: “& Hoppe”. Reference: Sasowsky 224, only state, no edition or printing numbers known. In very good condition, with wide margins (remains of prior hinging at upper corners verso, repaired tear upper left edge well away from image), printed on wove paper, 6 1/2 x 4 3/16, the sheet 9 5/8 x 6 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression of this great rarity, printed with plate tone.
Provenance: Estate of Ernest Shapiro
This unusual print is apparently the result of a session with the engraver William Hoppe (mentioned in the inscription), as Marsh was fine tuning his engraving skills. Marsh had learned engraving in the early ’30’s, and later took lessons from the eminent William Stanley Hayter. But he also learned from a man named Hoppe, as described by Edward Laning:
“I remember going to his (Marsh’s) studio one day and being introduced by him to a stranger. They were poring over bits of calligraphy – and dollar bills! Reg had found the man on Fourteenth Street, selling examples of penmanship (for a quarter he would write the purchaser’s name in fine italic script on a card). Reg had watched for a while and then said to him “Where did you learn to use your pen like that?” The man replied “I used to be an engraver at the mint in Washington.” Reg invited him to come up to his studio and immediately began to pay him for lessons in engraving.”
Examples of Hoppe’s calligraphy fill out bust of the girl at the right, and float in the area between the two figures, including a tiny leg, flowers, initials. Other examples of various calligraphic effects run down the right border. Between the legs of the figure at the right is an example of writing in fine italic script, which has printed in reverse – it spells “Smith.” It appears that Marsh engraved the figure at the left and most of the figure on the right, leaving some open spaces for these curiously modernist calligraphic effects.
Girl Standing, Repeated, is a rare print; we know of no other impressions to appear on the market, and Sasowsky does not list any in institutional collections.
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), East Tenth Street Jungle, 1934, etching, signed and annotated “Second Proof, First State”, in pencil [also initialed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Sasowsky 154, first state of 4. In very good condition, with margins, mat stain in margins outside of platemark, remains of glue from prior hinging upper margin corners recto, some pencil notations lower margin. Size: 8 x 12, the sheet 10 x 13 3/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine, delicately printed trial proof impression.
This is one of the two first state impressions, with the composition completed but before shading in the wall at left, the addition of the smoke upper right, some strengthening of the foreground. There were another 3 trial proofs; then a small printing of up to 22 impressions (by Marsh).
There is a painting of similar design at Yale; and two related drawings at the Fogg at Harvard.
This Breugellian scene captures men in various states of struggle as they make their way through the Great Depression.
In Thomas Craven’s Treasury of American Prints (1939), Marsh is quoted as saying in response to a question about the size of his editions: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print. I usually print fifteen or twenty and sell one or two in the next five years – so why limit the edition?” (That was in 1939; today of course Marsh’s etchings are treasured as icons of American printmaking in the ’20’s and 30’s.) East 10th Street Jungle is a rare proof before the “edition.”
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Coney Island Beach #1, etching and engraving, 1939, signed in pencil lower right, also titled lower center margin [also with initials and date in the plate lower right]. Reference: Sasowsky 191, second state (of 2), from the total lifetime printing of about 17 (there were also the posthumous Jones and Whitney printings). In very good condition, slight toning in outer margins, printed on a cream laid Whitman paper, with margins (small loss lower right, slightly irregularly trimmed as typical of the proofs printed by Marsh), 9 5/8 x 11 3/4, the sheet 11 x 14 3/8 inches; silk window mat.
A fine early impression, with substantial burr evident from the touches of engraving.
Marsh made several visits to Europe, studying the Renaissance and Baroque artists. Coney Island Beach is remindful of many of the drawings and paintings he may have encountered there (including of course Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, e.g., the Last Judgment at the Vatican).
In this complex, monumental composition there is little well-defined horizon or conventional spacing. Near the top a woman is being tossed about by seven or eight men. Others seem to be piled on top of each other, in various poses. Several figures appear to be nude (such as the woman sitting lower right), and obviously Marsh saw this as a vehicle for demonstrating his ability to draw the human figure (there is a preliminary drawing of Coney Island Beach #1 in the Benton Collection).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Bowery, etching and drypoint, 1928, signed and initialled in pencil lower right by the artist’s wife Felicia Marsh, and numbered 10. Reference: Sasowsky 54, fifth state (of 7). A working proof impression, printed in black on a hand made wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, in generally good condition (folds in margins, slight spotting in margins), 6 3/8 x 5 7/8, the sheet 10 x 7 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine working proof impression of this rare etching, with plate tone.
This impression is listed in Sasowsky as the fifth state proof numbered 10 and signed by FM. The number of impressions made of the seventh and final state is not known but was probably under a dozen; about 4 proofs were made of the fifth state, and about 6-8 proofs of the other states. A number of proofs can be accounted for in museums, and an additional group of proofs were held in the Marsh Estate (and signed by FM) and are now in the New York Public Library, and thus this print is rarely encountered on the print market.
This is not strictly a Depression era print since it was made in 1928, before the Great Depression. But New York’s Bowery (although an elegant street a century earlier) was an impoverished area, known as New York’s Skid Row, long before the onset of the Great Depression.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Pierre Gatier (1878-1948), La Toilette (also known as Le Rimmel or L’elegante a sa Toilette), 1911, etching and aquatint, signed and inscribed “Recherche de couleurs”. [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Felix Gatier 81, from the series L’Elegantes de Montmarte, 1911″ (4 plates), as edited by George Petit, and published in a suite of 100. In very good condition, on a heavy cream wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, 8 5/8 x 12 1/2, the sheet 13 7/8 x 19 5/8 inches.
A fine fresh impression of this colorful Fin de Siecle aquatint, printed in three colors.
In Le Rimmel (eyeliner) Gatier captures the spirit of the Belle Epoque, and demonstrates his facility with aquatint, and the method of using three color plates which apparently fascinated him -he wrote a treatise on the method, which is re-printed in the recently published catalogue raisonne of his prints.
Le Rimmel is the second plate of a series of four, showing a women of Montmarte waking, dressing (Le Rimmel), shopping, and then going out on the town. This is – in our view – the most interesting depiction in the series.
Posted in Pierre Gatier |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Le Couple, 1951, drypoint on chine volant, signed lower right margin and numbered (5/XI) lower left margin. References: Bloch 690, Baer 889. Presumably an impression of Baer’s 889 Bb before the edition of 400 included in the book Dons des Feminines. 8 1/2 x 6 5/8, the sheet 19 1/5 x 12 3/4 inches.
In good condition except for extensive rippling in the (very wide) margins, probably resulting from the process of printing on this paper (not affecting the image), a printer’s crease at right, a reinforced thin spot verso in the margin. Full margins with archival mounting.
Provenance: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
A fine, carefully printed impression.
In this fascinating drypoint Picasso seems to invoke the sensibility of the Vollard Suite classical etchings (of the ’30’s) within a cubist framework (of an even earlier period). This is amazing – and it works – but of course Picasso continued to amaze throughout his career.
Posted in Pablo Picasso |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Die Loge im Gaite Montparnasse (Paris), drypoint, etching and soft ground, 1911, signed and numbered in pencil lower right, for the portfolio Zuschauer und Zuhorer (Listening and Watching), in very good condition, on an orange chine colle paper, 5 x 7 1/2, the (backing) sheet 8 3/4 x 11 5/8.
A fine impression. Orlik captures the intense interest of each of these nine spectators, sitting and standing in the Loge at the Gaity in Montparnasse.
Orlik visited Paris often, getting to know artists including Vallotton, Toulouse-Lautrec, Pissarro and Renoir. And of course one of his great interests was the theatre where, like Renoir and Lautrec, he was fascinated both by the show and the audience watching it.
The definitive source of information on Orlik, with pictures of his prints (some for sale) and an extensive biography, is of course the wonderful website produced by the late Allan Wolman and Anne Schneider (orlikprints dot com).
Posted in Emil Orlik |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Martin Lewis (1881-1962, Stoops in Snow, 1930, drypoint and sand ground. McCarron 89. Edition 115 (including 8 trial proofs); second state of two. Signed in pencil. Signed in the plate, lower left.
Image size 8 7/8 x 14 3/4 inches (225 x 375 mm); sheet size 13 3/8 x 18 3/8 inches (340 x 467 mm).
A superb impression, on cream laid paper, with full margins (1 3/4 inches all sides). Slight toning to the center left and center right sheet edges verso, where previously taped; otherwise in excellent condition.
The composition was completed in the first state; in the second minor changes were made (i.e., lines representing snow were added at upper left to garbage cans, woman’s coat, and to the stonework at right and in foreground; shading added on umbrella; signature added at lower left).
Lewis initially called this Stoops in Snow – West Forties, then shortened it.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Winter on White Street, 1934, drypoint and sand ground, McCarron 110. Edition 41. Signed in pencil. First state (?) of three.
Image size 10 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches (273 x 171 mm), sheet size 14 15/16 x 10 1/8 inches (379 x 257 mm).
A splendid impression, on cream wove paper; with full margins (1 5/8 to 2 1/4 inches), in excellent condition.
This print was completed compositionally in the first state; in each of the next two Lewis added some branches to the tree. Our impression corresponds to that illustrated by McCarron, which is a first state, and so we believe ours is also; however, the state differences are minimal, consisting of additions of tree branches – indeed, it appears to be difficult to discern differences as described in the catalog, and Lewis himself only recorded two states.
The location shown is White Street in Danbury Connecticut, just east of the Benjamin Feed Store.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868) etching with engraving La Galerie Notre Dame, 1853. Schneiderman 29, Delteil 26. Schneiderman’s third state of six. In good condition, with wide margins, the matrix in perfect condition, on a fine old green laid verdatre paper, 11 1/8 x 6 15/16, the sheet 15 x 10 inches. [with the signature, date, address in the plate lower margin]
A fine impression of this important Meryon work, printed in dark brown/black ink.
In this early state Meryon has yet to strengthen the top border line, but has added the inscriptions in cursive below the bottom borderline. In the next state the borderline was strengthend, and in the fifth state he added 7 crows within the area between the columns above the bell tower in the middle distance, and strengthened the tiny bell tower itself.
This view is taken within the inside of the Notre Dame gallery; tiny segments of Paris can be seen in the distance. The towers of Notre Dame were of course a focus of fascination for Meryon (they sometimes appear in his prints in views where they should not be!); here Meryon gets close up to his prey.
Meryon printed impressions in this state personally. He wiped the plate selectively, leaving little ink on the central pillar, and leaving the areas to the right of the composition relatively dark.
The crows in the foreground were probably in tribute to Poe’s the Raven, which was published at the time Meryon made La Galerie; Meryon was a Poe fan, and included crows in a few other prints made at that time (e.g., Le Stryge, Le Pont au Change).
Detail
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Antwerp, drypoint, 1914, signed and dated in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Dube 123. In excellent condition, the full sheet on a cream/ivory wove paper, 12 1/2 x 7 3/4, the sheet 18 1/4 x 13 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh impression, printed in black ink on a cream/ivory paper with substantial plate tone and strong burr from the drypoint work.
Erich Heckel was born in Saxony in 1883. He studied architecture at the Technical College in Dresden where he met Kirchner and was a founding member of Die Brücke in 1905. Heckel moved to Berlin in 1911 with other members of the group, and was a founding member of the Berlin Sezession. Heckel’s early intaglio prints were etchings, but after about 1909 they are almost entirely drypoints.
The area depicted here appears to be Antwerp’s ‘Groenplaats’ (or Green Square), dominated by Our Lady’s Cathedral in the background.
Posted in Erich Heckel |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Emil Ganso (1895-1941), Halberstadt III, 1929, etching, aquatint, soft-ground etching, roulette, signed in pencil lower right,and numbered 13/35 lower left; also titled lower center. Reference: Smith I 59, second state (of 2), from the edition of 35. In very good condition, with some printer’s fingerprints in the margin edges, on a sturdy ivory wove paper with margins, 9 13/16 x 11 15/16, the sheet 11 x 15 inches, matted.
A fine atmospheric impression.
Provenance: Weyhe Gallery, still in their original worn mat, with their cataloguing annotations. Weyhe, one of the oldest and most distinguished Madison Avenue New York dealers, was Ganso’s dealer.
Halberstadt III is a tour de force of etching techniques. Ganso uses 3 levels of aquatint tone, as well as soft ground etching (creating lines through a thin sheet of paper over a soft ground, then picking up the paper to reveal broad lines which are then subjected to acid) and conventional etching; he also uses a roulette tool in just a few places, e.g., for shading of the girl at the right getting water from the well.
In 1929, on the eve of the Great Depression, Ganso made an extended trip to Europe to see his family, with the encouragement of his dealer Erhard Weyhe and Frank Crowninshield of Vanity Fair. The Halberstadt etchings date from this trip, as do a number of other etchings, mostly landscapes.
Posted in Emil Ganso |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Emil Ganso (1895-1941), Central Park Bridge, hard and soft ground etching and aquatint, roulette, 1927, signed in pencil lower right [also initialed in the plate lower left]. Reference: Smith I27B, the second state (of 2). In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges and full margins, no indication of framing, printed on an ivory wove Arches paper, with the Arches watermark. 7 15/16 x 9 15/16, the sheet 12 3/4 x 18 inches, archival storage (between acid free boards, non attached mylar hinging, glassine cover).
A fine atmospheric impression, with a delicate veil of plate tone overall.
Provenance: Weyhe Gallery, with their catalogue notation lower left.
Smith lists two states of this print, one before the initials lower left, one after. He does not indicate an edition.
Ganso depicts Central Park in New York in a subdued winter light; the trees are bare and snow covers the hills and paths as well as the lake and bridge.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Edward Landon (1911-1984), January Day, serigraph, 1979, signed, titled and annotated “Edition 20”. Reference: Ryan 106, only state, from the edition of 20. In excellent condition, printed on a cream wove paper, the full sheet, 13 1/2 x 9 1/2, the sheet 16 x 12 1/2 inches, never framed or matted.
A fine fresh impression.
Landon was a pioneer in the creation of abstract imagery using the medium of the serigraph. This aesthetically elegant construction demonstrates the validity of critic James Wechsler’s observation that as Landon matured as an artist he “honed in on what was most important, his compositions became less complicated.”
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Edmund Blampied (1886-1966), Loading Vraic St. Malo, drypoint, c. 1926, signed in pencil lower right margin and numbered 50/100 lower left. Reference: Appleby 122. In very good condition, with margins, on an ivory laid paper; 6 7/8 x 10, the sheet 10 x 15 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
Provenance: Collection: Albert M. Bender; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; sold at Christie’s New York to benefit the SFMMA.
The medieval city of St. Malo is a ferry’s trip from Jersey, and we can see the walled city with the spire of the church in the finely detailed background in Blampied’s etching. Of course the featured activity is loading vraic, the Norman name used in the Channel Islands for the seaweed traditionally used as fertilizer.
Posted in Edmund Blampied |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868) etching with engraving La Galerie Notre Dame, 1853. Schneiderman 29, Delteil 26. Schneiderman’s fourth state of six, Delteil’s third state of 5. In good condition, with very wide (full) margins (areas of staining in right margin but not near image), the matrix in perfect condition, on a cream laid paper, 11 1/8 x 6 15/16, the sheet 19 1/2 x 12 1/4 inches. [with the signature, date, address in the plate lower margin]
A very good impression of this important Meryon work, printed in brown ink.
In this early state Meryon has yet to add 7 crows within the area between the columns above the bell tower in the middle distance, and has yet to strengthen the tiny bell tower itself.
This view is taken within the inside of the Notre Dame gallery; tiny segments of Paris can be seen in the distance. The towers of Notre Dame were of course a focus of fascination for Meryon (they sometimes appear in his prints in views where they should not be!); here Meryon gets close up to his prey.
Meryon printed impressions in this state personally, paying close attention in many impressions (such as ours) to the careful wiping of the plate to produce areas of white (where the plate was wiped well before printing) but leaving some ink on the plate in other areas to create areas of plate tone. The central column and base, and the sky are wiped to create areas of bright light; ink is left, in differing layers of intensity, on other areas to create depth and shadow.
The crows in the foreground were probably in tribute to Poe’s the Raven, which was published at the time Meryon made La Galerie; Meryon was a Poe fan, and included crows in a few other prints made at that time (Le Stryge, Le Pont au Change).
$3000
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Charles Dufresne (1876-1938), Une Escale au Brasil (A Stopover in Brazil), etching and drypoint, c. 1920, signed in pencil lower right margin and inscribed “epreuve de artist” lower left. Reference: Thomas Dufresne 35. Edition of only 25. In very good condition, with full margins on a cream wove paper, with the watermark Van Gelder Zonen and also Alfred Porcabeuf (?), 9 1/8 x 12, the sheet 12 1/2 x 18 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression of this artist’s proof, printed in black ink.
Dufresne used techniques beyond etching and drypoint here, perhaps softground etching and a piercing tool too for dotting effects.
Une Escale was first exhibited at the Paris Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts in 1921, where it caused much comment regarding both its marvelous composition, and its subject matter – it led to much speculation about the artist (e.g., what’s he doing in Brazil? What is the meaning of the composition – the well-dressed fop at the table (presumably the artist); the sailor and largish waitress, and the nude women lounging or standing about? Dufresne’s stunning composition in Une Escale shows the influence of cubism and the Parisian School – after all he was born in France and studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts – but it also shows the influence of the years he spent in Africa, and his origins as part of a seafaring family. In 1910 won the Prix de l’Afrique du Nord and then spent two years in Algeria, which stirred his interest in exoticism and lyricism.
Posted in Charles Dufresne |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Against Green (also Three Figure Composition, Figures Against Green), soft ground etching and aquatint, 1918, signed in pencil lower right; also titled lower margin “Figures Against Green.” Reference: Czestochowski 58, fifth state (of 6). From an edition of unknown size, but according to Czestochowski “unknown but small.” In generally good condition, the matrix in very good condition, oil and slight light staining in margins and verso, remains of prior hinging, archival matting. Printed on an ivory laid paper, with margins, 7 13/16 x 11 7/8, the sheet 10 x 14 3/8 inches.
A fine strong impression, with good contrast among the varying shades of aquatint.
At this stage of his printmaking career Davies had for the most part abandoned the cubist idiom he had experimented with after his involvement in the Armory Show of 1913, and reverted to the expressive symbolism and mysticism characteristic of much of his earlier work. Of this work artist Marsden Hartley wrote: “Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation….Arthur B. Davies is a lyric poet…He is mystic only in the sense that perhaps all lyrical poetry is mystic, since it strives for union with the universal soul in things.”
When Davies produced Against Green he was probably the best known American artist, a towering figure who was the critical influence in bringing the Armory Show of 1913 to the United States. Today his prints, generally issued in small numbers and not editioned, can be found in all important museum print rooms in the United States, but are rarely encountered in the art market.
$750
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685), Bust of a Laughing Peasant, c. 1647. References: Bartsch 1, Godefry 1. Second state (of 4), before the monogram inscription to the right of the man’s chin and the borderline were added. In very good condition (remains of prior hinging verso), trimmed with a filet of paper outside of the platemark, 1 5/16 x 1 5/32 inches, archival window mat.
A fine strong impression.
Godefry indicates that impressions from this state were included in the later Picart edition, but there is evidence that impressions of this state were also taken before the Picart edition; this impression (highly magnified in the above illustration) appears sufficiently fine to suggest that it is a lifetime impression.
Impressions of the first state of this print are quite rare; in fact the distinguished S.W. Pelletier collection’s earliest impression was of the second state (he also had a third state).
Godefry dates this to 1636, but subsequent authorities have concluded that this work is far too mature to date that early, and suggest a later date (Schnackenburg 1647-52; Slatkes 1650-52).
Although tiny, the etching is very detailed and expressive; this is apparently an older man, and its companion print (Bartsch 2), an older woman, are sometimes seen in copies printed in pendant fashion facing one another, consistent with a northern tradition showing pairs of heads in relationship to each other. Copies of these etchings were used in a 1716 Haarlem songbook in which the two peasants talked about old age, and eventually focused on the frailty of the human condition.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Edward Landon (1911-1984), On the Beach (By the Sea), serigraph, 1962, signed, titled and numbered 11/23. Reference: Mary Ryan 145, from the edition of 23, only state. In excellent condition, apparently never matted or framed, on a medium/heavy ivory wove paper, with margins, 11 1/4 x 20 1/2, the sheet 13 1/4 x 24 inches.
A fine fresh impression.
Landon was a pioneer in the creation of abstract imagery using the medium of the serigraph. Landon studied natural phenomena patiently and persistently through his career, so that his nature studies, however abstract, have a close relationship to reality. In On the Beach the black shapes of sea creatures and vegetation are superimposed upon a setting of sand, sea and sky.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Edward Landon (1911-1984), Albatross, serigraph, c. 1955, signed in pencil lower right, titled and numbered lower left. Reference: Ryan 6, from the edition of 25. In adequate condition, with creases in the margins and one tear in the margin left (not reaching image), the matrix flawless, no evidence of lightstain or prior hinging. The full sheet, 18 x 14 3/4, the sheet 21 x 17 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh impression.
Landon was of course a pioneer in the creation of abstract imagery using the medium of the serigraph. This image is reminiscent of the Viking shapes Landon was taken with in the ’50’s and thereafter, and also has some resemblance to the sea and ship imagery that was a lifelong fascination for him. Indeed, a legendary Swedish four masted schooner (Landon was of Swedish ancestry) named the Albatross was built in 1942, and had circled the globe doing oceanographic research in the late ’40’s; in a collision in 1949 her original masthead – an albatross – was lost, but the ship sailed for some years thereafter. It seems quite certain that Landon’s imagery refers to this ship.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Mother with Smiling Child (Mutter Mit Lachelndem Kind), etching with roulette, 1896, signed and dated in pencil lower right [also signed in the plate lower right]. In very good condition, the full sheet with wide margins, 3 3/4 x 4 7/8, the sheet 5 1/4, the sheet 7 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches, archival window mat.
A fine atmospheric impression of this very early, rare image. Printed on a thin ivory laid paper with deckle edges.
At this point in his career Orlik was mastering printmaking, breaking away from his conservative teachers, and moving toward a more modernist approach as represented by the Munich Naturalistic movement.
For further information on Orlik, including pictures of his prints (some for sale) and an extensive biography, please refer to the definitive website on Orlik produced by Allan Wolman and Anne Schneider (orlikprints dot com).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Emil Orlik (1870-1932), Bei Enoshima, etching, 1901, signed in pencil lower right. In very good condition (slight toning); with full margins, 3 3/4 x 5 1/4, the sheet 7 1/8 x 9 3/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression, one of Orlik’s finest images of rural Japan.
This impression is on laid paper, carefully printed with dotted effects in the sky and the foreground (possibly made with the use of sulphur placed on the plate, to get a dotted, gritty effect). There is evidence of soft-ground etching in the lower left, and drypoint in the finely drawn lines in the sky. The composition is spare, exemplifying the approach toward such works characteristic of much Japanese art.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Edward Hopper, Night Shadows, etching, signed in pencil. Reference: Zigrosser 22, Levin 82. From the portfolio Six American Etchings, published by The New Republic, New York, 1924. Printed on a cream wove paper with full margins and deckle edges. Edition of approximately 500, 7 x 8 1/4, the sheet 10 15/16 x 14 1/4 inches, in very good condition (a tiny nick lower left corner which shows evidence of some attempt at repair, also evidence of pencil markings now erased lower margin near edge), archival matting.
A fine rich impression of this iconic image.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Daniel Hopfer (1470-1536), Three German Soldiers, circa 1505, etching. Reference: Hollstein 73; second state of three; a 17th Century impression, with the artist’s initials in the plate, Funck number lower left. In very good condition, with (small) margins, 8 x 11 1/4 inches, 20 x 28.5 cm.
A very good, strong impression of this rarity, with some iron spots near the borders left and right.
Provenance: ex. Collection: Quiring (Lugt 1041b); WE Drugulin (L 2612); AT Gerstaechker (L1077), and Dr. Karl Herweg (not in Lugt).
Daniel Hopfer became a citizen of Augsberg in 1493, which was fitting since he was an etcher of armor, and Augsberg, the main residence of the Emperor Maximilian, was a center of armor manufacturing. But Hopfer is known to the print world as the first, or certainly one of the first, to practice etching as we know it. He seems to have focussed on heavily ornamented Northern Renaissance forms and figures, such as the soldiers in this etching. Lifetime impressions of Hopfer prints are of course extremely rare, nearly unavailable, and this excellent impression – also quite rare – was taken by the publisher Funck in the 17th Century. Hopfer made his prints on iron, and the corrosion of the plate is evident in a few spotted/grayish areas, where ink remained on the plate even after wiping during the printing process.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), Tourelle, Rue de la Tixeranderie (Turret, Rue de la Tixeranderie), 1852, etching. Reference: Schneiderman 24, Delteil Wright 29. In very good condition, with full margins (9 3/4 x 5 1/4, the sheet 19 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches). Printed in dark brown ink, on a cream laid paper. With the watermark C&W COMP. Schneiderman’s second state of five.
A fine impression, carefully printed by Meryon personally. A very subtle veil of plate tone has been left on the lower sections of the buildings, but the upper sections and the sky are wiped fairly clean.
Only three impressions of the first state are known. In this, the second state, still quite rare, Meryon added his initials (upper right), but did not make major changes; in later states he added some shadow lines, and then for the fourth state (published)edition of 30 made in 1861 added a title inscription (these impressions were printed by Delatre).
The house pictured stood at the corner of the rue de Coq, which was demolished in 1851. One of the figures below points to the turret; this neighborhood was mentioned by Victor Hugo as one of the most interesting in Paris, and one of Meryon’s aims in making such prints was to capture the architecture and spirit of a Paris that was soon to be lost.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), Rue des Chantres, Paris, etching, 1862. Before letters. Reference: Delteil 17, Schneiderman 85. Fourth state (of 6). In very good condition, printed on a grey/ivory laid paper, with margins, 11 3/4 x 5 7/8, the sheet 13 1/8 x 7 5/8 inches.
A fine impression of this print, rare in this state before letters and before the edition.
The first four states of Rue des Chantres were printed by Meryon, in very small numbers; then in the fifth state an edition of 100 impressions was printed by Delatre, with the title, address, date in the margin below.
In this fourth state the bells and cartouche with the initials JB are added at the top; a dolphin is added to spire of Notre Dame, and some other small changes were added. In this impression the figure of the tiny dolphin is quite distinct, although Schneiderman notes that this figure is not very distinct. This suggests that this impression is an early one; in the later states this tiny dolphin wears away and is replaced by a weathercock.
This narrow street is filled with people: some soldiers possibly brawling with two policeman in their midst; a woman carrying bread, with a child; a howling dog. As in so many of Meryon’s prints, a spire of Notre Dame rises in the distance.
This is a composite view, based on separate drawings of the street which Meryon later aligned for the etching.
$2500
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), Bain-Froid Chevrier (Chevrier’s Cold Bath Establishment, or The School Baths, Paris), 1864. References: Delteil 44 (fourth state of six); Schneiderman 93 (fourth state of five). In very good condition, on cream laid Hudelist paper (with the lettered Hudelist watermark often found on Meryon proof impressions), with wide margins (5 1/4 x 5 5/8, the sheet 11 1/2 x 12 inches), archival mounting.
With a red inked monogram lower right margin, possibly that of Phillip Burty (cf. Lugt 2071), an eminent collector of Meryon prints and author of an early Meryon catalogue.
A very fine proof impression, rare in this early lifetime state. Of the 12 impressions printed in this state, 6 are recorded in museum collections.
In this state the words “Bain Froid Chevrier” were added to the tiny billboard. After printing the 12 impressions in this state Meryon added lettering below, an extensive verse, his monogram upper center and a few drypoint lines for the later final state which was published in a number of lifetime and also posthumous impressions.
The Ban-Froid Chevrier was one of the floating cold water baths and swimming schools for both sexes which were a feature of the Seine during the summer months. It was located at the western end of the Ile de la Cite, behind the statue of Henry IV (which is visible in the etching). At the left is Pont Neuf.
In a letter to Jean Lesecq who commissioned this print Meryon wrote that he spent 45 days making this print; he notes: “I first made a drawing of the scene as it is in reality, but finding that the Pont Neuf was too much in profile, I made a second sketch in order to make a more compact composition.”
Posted in Charles Meryon |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685) etching The Anglers, circa 1647, Godefry 26, Bartsch 26. Very good condition, with small (1/2 inch) margins, on cream laid paper, archival mounting. 4 1/2 x 6 5/8 inches.
A fine, rich impression of the sixth state of seven.
This state appears identical to Godefry’s fifth state, but the borderline appears a bit stronger than that pictured in Godefry, so we’ve taken a conservative position and assigned it as sixth state. But the horizontal lines in the sky upper right are printing quite well as in the earlier states, and the inking is quite rich and black, with details fine. Godefroy notes that 5th state impressions of The Anglers were included in the Picart edition.
Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685) specialized in scenes of individuals indoors, but in the few etchings he made of the outdoors he displayed mastery. In The Anglers on a Bridge, perhaps influenced by his contemporaries Rembrandt, and the landscape specialist Ruysdael, Van Ostade focuses on the landscape, the bridge and the water, not the two tiny figures on the bridge.
Posted in Adriaen van Ostade |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Adriaen Van Ostade (1610-1685), Village Romance, etching and drypoint, circa 1667. Godefry 11, Hollstein 11. Godefry’s 9th state (of 12). In good condition, remains of prior hinging verso, with margins, 6 1/2 x 5, the sheet 7 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches. On old laid paper with a Foolscap with 7 points watermark. This is Godefry’s watermark 21-22, characteristic of lifetime impressions c. 1680.
Provenance: Arthur FriederickTheodor Bohnenberger, Stuttgart (stamp verso, Lugt 68, Suppl.); Heinrich Buttstaedt, Gotha and Berlin (ink signature verso, Lugt 320); Martin Carlson, Stockholm; George Bjorklund, Stockholm; Dr. S. William Pelletier (acquired from Bjorklund August 18, 1966, with stamp, date and initials verso).
A fine impression in black ink on cream laid paper. In this state there are stong vertical stokes on the man’s hat. Godefry describes the 9th state impressions of this print as “rare.”
This impression of Village Romance is illustrated and discussed in the landmark volume on Van Ostade’s prints “Adriaen Van Ostade, Etchings of Peasant Life in Holland’s Golden Age,” by Pelletier, Slatkes and Stone-Ferrier, pages 71-3.
Van Ostade made the Village Romance at a relatively late stage in his career, after he had demonstrated his ability to create both large scale scenes (such as Dance in the Inn) and smaller more intimate plates. This is one of his most successful plates of the latter type (though it is not particularly small); the drawing is supple, the expressions of the young woman, and the much older man (whose hand is firmly planted on her breast, apparently with her consent), are both quite telling. The composition is intriguing, the framing of the images (with the window device, and the vine upper right) superb.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Adolphe-Marie Beaufrere (1876-1960), Aux Approches de Madrid (also Aux Abords de la Ville), drypoint, 1927, signed and numbered (14/55), from the edition of 55, with the blindstamp of Sagot, publisher (Lugt 2254). Reference: Morane 27-19. In good condition, on very thin cream Japan paper, 6 1/2 x 9, the sheet 8 3/8 x 11 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression, with the drypoint burr extremely rich and effective (due in part to the use of a Japan paper, which tends to diffuse the ink surrounding the drypoint lines).
Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Moreau encouraged him to study old master prints, especially the prints of Rembrandt and Durer, which were available in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris – this was to be critical in his development.
Beaufrere began printmaking in about 1904, with some woodcuts, but soon got into etching and engraving. Curiously, one of his colleague/teachers at the time was the Canadian etcher Donald Shaw MacLaughlan. He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905, and with the urging of his new wife, moved out of Paris and back to Brittany. This move had a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants would provide a continuing source of inspiration.
During the Great War Beaufrere served in the infantry, and had few opportunities to make art. But he did study a volume of Rembrandt’s prints, and wrote later that Rembrandt was his master, that there could be no better teacher of etching. Rembrandt’s continuing influence is evident in works such as Aux Approches de Madrid, particularly the use of drypoint against Japan paper, and the composition is remindful of a number of Rembrandt works such as Three Gabled Cottages (Bartsch 217).
After the War Beaufrere experienced great success, both in France and the US. He traveled a bit, in France (and here, in Spain), and received many awards (including Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1939, nominated by his friend Jean-Emile Laboureur). And throughout his life, despite various maladies including eye problems in the ’40’s and later, he continued to make prints as well as paintings and watercolors.
Posted in Adolph Beaufrere |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), two drypoints, 1905, (Ginestet and Pouillion E156) each signed in pencil: an impression of the final state (third state of three) printed in bistre, with lettering (Adresse Sagot); and an impression of the second state (of 3), before lettering, printed in sanguine.
Both in very good condition: impression in bistre on cream wove with wide margins; impression in sanguine with wide margins, on laid paper, with very pale time staining in upper right sheet edge, minor surface soiling. Image: 9 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches (sheets: 12 1/2 x 10, 14 x 10), archival mounting.
Both fine fresh atmospheric impressions of this rarely seen image, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
During the period 1904-6 Villon spent much time on printmaking, often focusing on portraits of women, and also made drawings for weeklies, re-using the drawings for prints. In this instance, he created an independent work of art which was ultimately used to illustrate an address card for the publisher Sagot.
Posted in Jacques Villon |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Le Combat a La Barriere (The Combat at the Barrier), 1627, etchings, the complete set of 10, including the title plate and the nine etchings. Reference: Lieure 575-584. In very good condition, on old laid papers with thread margins (occasionally trimmed on the platemark); two with center folds, occasional stains or soiling), the title 6 x 4 3/8, the plates approximately 6 1/8 -6 3/16 x 8 11/16 – 9 9/16 inches.
A fine, uniform early set, before the posthumous Fagnani printing, in only states except: L. 575 in state 2 (of 3) [Lieure notes that state one is extremely rare]; L. 578 first state (of 2); L 583 first or second state (of 2) [and with the early Lieure 29 watermark].
Watermarks: L. 577, 579, 580, 583 with the Interlaced C watermark (Lieure watermark 29); L. 582 with the 4 Lorrain watermark (Lieure watermark 35).
In Plate 578, the Entree of MM De Vroncourt, there are in the distance two small boats. This confirms that this plate is a first state; in the second state (Fagnani) impressions these have been effaced. On Plate 583 Lieure describes in vague terms a very rare first state with some problematic lines in the curtain at the right, corrected later. Our impression has some weak lines, as have several other very early impressions we have examined; it also has an early watermark; it is quite probable that ours is a first state or that no such first state as described by Lieure exists.
The 10 prints in the Combat series were created to commemorate a tournament sponsored by Duke Charles IV of Lorraine, in his palace at Nancy, in honor of his beautiful cousin the Duchess of Chevreuse who was in exile at Lorraine after the discovery of her role in the plot against Richelieu. The Duke and his cousin the Prince of Phalbourg fought for her favor in an evening joust – the fight itself is shown in the culminating plate.
The series shows Callot at his best in a range of motifs, showing crowds and individuals, astonishing details and marvelous compositions, reality and invention, all etched splendidly.
Callot’s illustrations eventually were included in a book on the event written by the blind court poet Henry Humbert. Various floats, chariots and individuals are shown entering the arena. Humbert writes of the entry of Vroncourt, Tyllon and Marimont: “They were raised up on a dolphin, armed with silver armor…Before their machine was seen Arion carried by another dolphin in the middle of the waves of the sea, who fondly touching his lute, blended his harmonies with the accidents of his voice.” The entry of the Duke (the star) is described thus: “Vulcan with the nude Cyclops appeared next in a grotto, at the rear of which was a blazing furnace, where these dark artisans forged the arms of the sun..” (Callot had in fact designed the chariot of the forge of Vulcan.)
Posted in Jacques Callot |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Parterre du Palais de Nancy (Gardens of the Palace at Nancy), etching, Lieure 566, first state (of two) before the address of Silvestre). On old laid paper, with the countermark of the Cross of Lorraine (watermark Lieure 35). In very good condition, with small margins (minor vertical fold visible verso, very slight creasing, some brown spots). 10 1/4 x 15 1/4 inches, 258 x 382 mm., archival mounting.
Provenance: Furstl Furstenberg Kupferstic Kabinett; Christie’s London, 12/6/85, lot 227.
A fine rich impression, with the exquisite detail of the distant landscape and the (nearly microscopic) deer hunt printing very clearly.
Callot’s depiction of the magnificent garden at Nancy is in some part imaginary: the garden at the left replaced a palace wall; the scale of the people is reduced to enlarge the garden, and Callot rearranged the walls to make the composition more spectacular.
The print was dedicated to the Dutchess of Lorraine, who can be seen in the lower center with the parasol, surrounded by a flock of courtiers. Above the scene is the Lorraine Coat of Arms surrounded by banners, which gives the title and the dedication. It’s springtime, and the scene and the gardeners suggest beginnings – it was dated October 15, 1625, at the beginning of the Nicole’s (the Dutchess) reign.
Callot includes in Le Parterre many famous images found in other prints, including a woman carrying a pan on her head (from Varie Figure), and a man carrying a weapon (from Combat a la Barriere). People can be found relaxing, fighting, playing ball and croquet, bowling, riding, boating, hunting, fishing, parading and preening.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), La Parisienne (tournee a gauche, petite planche), 1904, etching and aquatint in color (black, brown, red), signed and dated (’04) in pencil. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E093, fifth state (of five). In very good condition, with margins, 9 1/2 x 6 1/2, the sheet 13 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches.
A fine delicately printed impression.
Provenance: Louis Carre (1897-1977), Villon’s dealer in both New York and Paris, who organized the first comprehensive exhibit of Villon’s graphic work, in Paris in 1954, and who kept many of the finest working proofs of Villon’s early prints, such as this one, which passed through his estate. The Carre stock number 11320 is written verso.
At this stage in his career Villon was experimenting with colored etching, in a Belle Epoque/Modernist mode; this is much before his later cubist efforts.
Marcel Duchamp (Villon’s brother) has stated that Yvonne Duchamp was the model for this print, as shown by a note on the Museum of Modern Art impression of the print. Our impression is comparable to the MOMA impression – in both the chair is printed in orange (in the NY Public Library impression it’s salmon).
Posted in Jacques Villon |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), La Parisienne (tournee a gauche, petite planche), 1904, etching and aquatint in color (black, brown, red), signed and dated (’04) in pencil. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E093, fifth state (of five). In very good condition, with margins, 9 1/2 x 6 1/2, the sheet 13 1/4 x 9 1/2 inches.
A fine delicately printed impression.
Provenance: Louis Carre (1897-1977), Villon’s dealer in both New York and Paris, who organized the first comprehensive exhibit of Villon’s graphic work, in Paris in 1954, and who kept many of the finest working proofs of Villon’s early prints, such as this one, which passed through his estate. The Carre stock number 11320 is written verso.
At this stage in his career Villon was experimenting with colored etching, in a Belle Epoque/Modernist mode; this is much before his later cubist efforts.
Marcel Duchamp (Villon’s brother) has stated that Yvonne Duchamp was the model for this print, as shown by a note on the Museum of Modern Art impression of the print. Our impression is comparable to the MOMA impression – in both the chair is printed in orange (in the NY Public Library impression it’s salmon).
Posted in Jacques Villon |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), La Parisienne, (tournee a gauche, petite planche), 1904, etching, roulette and aquatint, signed in pencil [also signed in plate]. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon E093. Second state (of 5). In very good condition. On cream wove paper, with margins, 9 3/8 x 6 1/2, the sheet 15 x 11, archival mounting.
A fine proof impression, with the fine roulette effects very evident, the aquatint layering clear and effective, and careful shading through the use of plate tone.
Marcel Duchamp (Villon’s brother) has stated (in a note on the Museum of Modern Art impression of this print) that Yvonne Duchamp was the model for this print.
Posted in Jacques Villon |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), La Couseuse (The Seamstress), 1905, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Ginestet and Pouillon 147, Auberty and Perussaux 96. On a heavy cream laid paper with a partial initials watermark. In good condition apart from slight time stain; soft fold along a laid paper line, a few marks in margins. Archival mounting. With margins, 6 3/8 x 6 3/8, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches.
A fine, black atmospheric impression, with the drypoint burr fresh and satiny.
This is an exceedingly rare impression. When Ginestet and Poullon did their recent catalogue raisonne of Villon’s prints they were unable to locate an impression, and so made a photo of the impression shown in the very early Auberty and Perussaux catalogue. This impression is before any burnishing of the plate (if indeed it was burnished), so the platemarks are quite prominent. It was never editioned and exists in at most a few impressions.
In this relatively early period in Villon’s career as a printmaker, he made a number of color aquatints, and also began a series of very personal drypoints of his (and his sister Suzanne and his brother Marcel Duchamp’s) family as well as those of children (including the famed Minne series). This extraordinarily successful portrait appears to be within the latter tradition.
Posted in Jacques Villon |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), Virgin and Child with the Parrot, engraving, 1549, [with the initials monogram and date in the plate upper left, and the title S. Maria upper right ]. References: Bartsch 19, Pauli, Hollstein 12. First state (of three). In generally good condition, on old laid paper, soiling verso, slight staining recto, trimmed on or just into the platemark but generally within the borderline top and sides, 3 1/16 x 2 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A very good impression of this rarity.
The first state is before the 3rd hatching in the shadow near the foot of the Virgin. In the second state this 3rd diagonal hatching is added; in the third state cross hatching in the shadow of the Virgin’s gown above the girdle is added, and the tree branch in the upper right corner is extended.
Beham was one of the Northern Renaissance Little Masters, so called because of their eminence in producing small-scale engravings such as the Virgin and Child with a Pear. Beham was born in Nuremberg in 1500, and may have trained under Durer, though his training is no more certain than that of his younger brother Barthel. He made his first engraving in 1518, and later became known for producing woodcuts as well.
The parrot perched on the Virgin’s right hand may be a suggestion of the state of Paradise. The pear in her left hand (also featured in the Virgin with the Pear of Durer, Beham and others) has been considered as a pacifier as opposed to the “apple of discord” or temptation.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
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, early states (see state descriptions below). In very good condition (tiny loss upper left – John; slight stain – Luke; tiny nick upper left – Mark). With small margins, 1 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches. Archival mounting.
Provenance: D.G. de Arozarena (Lugt 109), another unidentified mark, both verso.
Fine rich early impressions, very rare in these early states.
Luke is the first state of five, with 1 hatching on the shoulder of the bull but before the diagonal hatching on the bull’s neck in the second state, and the additional work of the later states.
John is the first (or possibly second) state of five, with two hatchings in the deepest shadow on the coat to the right of the eagle’s head, but perhaps with a third diagonal characteristic of the second state (but before the fourth diagonal of the third state).
Matthew is the first state of five, with the buttons on the book visible only with a magnifying glass, before the buttons were made clearly visible, and before the third diagonal hatching to the right of the writing materials added in the third state.
Mark is the first state of four, before the third hatching in the shadowed part of the right wing above the book.
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.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), McSorley’s Back Room, etching, 1916, signed bottom right margin, titled and inscribed “100 proofs.” [also signed and dated in the plate lower left, and titled in the plate in the margin below the borderline] Also signed bottom left margin by the printer Charles White. Reference: Morse 181, third state (of 3). From the edition of 100, of which 90 impressions were printed. In excellent condition, on a cream wove paper with full margins and deckle edges, 5 x 6 7/8, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression, printed in black ink.
In 1945 Sloan wrote of this print made about 30 years earlier: “Old John McSorley and two friends in the back room of the now famous McSorley’s… Nothing but ale was ever served there…A very remarkable saloon…No woman ever touched foot in there and no hard liquor was ever served.” McSorley’s still exists in New York City (and it has admitted women for many years).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), McSorley’s Back Room, etching, 1916, signed bottom right margin, titled and inscribed “100 proofs.” [also signed and dated in the plate lower left, and titled in the plate in the margin below the borderline] Also signed bottom left margin by the printer Charles White. Reference: Morse 181, third state (of 3). From the edition of 100, of which 90 impressions were printed. In excellent condition, on a cream wove paper with full margins and deckle edges, 5 x 6 7/8, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression, printed in black ink.
In 1945 Sloan wrote of this print made about 30 years earlier: “Old John McSorley and two friends in the back room of the now famous McSorley’s… Nothing but ale was ever served there…A very remarkable saloon…No woman ever touched foot in there and no hard liquor was ever served.” McSorley’s still exists in New York City (and it has admitted women for many years).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Hell Hole, 1917, etching and aquatint, signed bottom right, titled bottom center, and inscribed “100 proofs”. Reference: Morse 186, second state (of 2). From the edition of 100, printing of 110. In good condition, slight toning; with wide margins (trimmed irregularly at right and left, soft folds in margins, with the printer Peter Platt’s drying holes and associated paper losses, reinforced tears and nicks at margin edges). On a cream wove paper, 8 x 10, the sheet 11 1/2 x 14 3/4 inches, window matted.
A fine impression of this Sloan masterpiece.
This impression was printed by Peter Platt, one of Sloan’s favorite and most effective printers. Platt impressions of The Hell Hole are richer and clearer than many of the other impressions of this print (he printed a bit less than half of the edition). Platt tacked the print to a board after printing, and so on impressions that have not been trimmed one typically finds his drying tack holes near the edges of his impressions.
Sloan wrote of this etching: “The back room of Wallace’s at Sixth Avenue and West Fourth Street was a gathering place for artists, writers, and bohemians of Greenwich Village. The character in the upper right hand corner of the plate is Eugene O’Neill. Strongly etched lines are reinforced by aquatint tones.”
Posted in John Sloan |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Easter Eve, Washington Square, etching and aquatint, 1926, signed in pencil lower right, titled, inscribed “100 proofs”; also signed by the printer Charles White and inscribed “imp.” Reference: Morse 222, third state (of 3). 60 proofs were taken of the third state. In very good condition, with wide margins, printed on a thin hand made laid paper (with some tiny paper imperfections), 10 x 8 1/8, the sheet 15 x 10 15/16 inches, archival mounting.
A fine atmospheric impression, delicately printed with an overall veil of plate tone, without the relatively harsh selective wiping found on some impressions. In this impression the overall effect is rather dark (as befits a depiction of a rainy evening); variations in light are created by the different aquatint layering.
Easter Eve is a complex composition, with several layers of aquatint which Sloan used to soften what was, for him, an initially overly harsh rendering. In his own words: “I hardly ever use a zinc plate. They are so soft that you can’t work on them long before they get worn down in deep hollows….The Easter Eve was started as a pure etching and the lines were bitten down too deeply and coarsely so I went on and made an aquatint out of it.”
The scene is Washington Square, April, 1926. Sloan’s description: “An aquatint record of an April shower, happy girls and spring flowers.”
Detail
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
James Whistler (1834-1903), Little Arthur, etching, 1857-8, 2 impressions. Reference: Kennedy 9, 3rd state and 5th state (of 5), Glasgow 8, third state, and fourth (of 4). Both impressions in very good condition, with margins. State 3: 3 1/4 x 2 13/16, the sheet 8 1/4 x 6 5/8; State 5: 2 1/4 x 2, the sheet 4 1/2 x 4 1/4 inches. Both on laid paper.
Provenance: ex Collection Melvin Zapata
State 3: Marcel Louis Guerin (with his stamp lower left recto, Lugt 1872b)
P and D Colnaghi and Company, London (with their stock number in pencil verso c22731 over MSX).
State 5: with stock numbers B19622 and NR 29770 in pencil verso.
Fine impresssions of both prints; state 5 in dark brown, state 3 in black.
Arthur is the youngest child of Seymour Haden, Whistler’s brother in law. It is one of the etchings of Haden’s family done at the outset of Whistler’s etching career, and the beginning of a period of collaboration between Haden and Whistler. These prints are rare in early states, intended for circulation only within the family – there are only 2 impressions known of the first, 2 of the second state, and about 10 of the third state.
It appears that the print entered the French State in the third state,with the addition of the ‘Imp. Delâtre. Rue St. Jacques. 171’ at lower left, and was included in editions of the French Set printed by Delatre. The plate was reduced and altered after Whistler and Haden undertook printing of impressions for the French Set.
$14,000 the pair
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Alderney Street, etching, c. 1880-1, signed in pencil with the butterfly on the tab and inscribed “imp” [also with the butterfly in the plate], Kennedy 238, first state (of 2), Glasgow 246, first or third state (of 3) (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011) on laid paper, in very good condition, trimmed on the plate mark by the artist except for the tab, 7 x 4 1/4 inches.
Provenance: P & D Colnaghi, with their stock number verso (C5462). We believe this is the impression sold in the Colnaghi Whistler sale (at 14, Old Bond Street, London) November-December, 1971.
Also with the initials AR verso (not in Lugt), and titled in pencil with the additional words: “The rare original.” This has been identified as the writing of Harold James Lean Wright (1885-1961), who was an art historian and print dealer with P. and D. Colnaghi & Co.
The Glasgow Whistler Project identified three impressions of the first state and five impressions of the third state, each printed by Whistler. The second state of Alderney Street was published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in April 1881 in a second state, in which the words “Gazette des Beaux-Arts” was printed in the lower edge at left, and “Imp. Cadart.” printed at the right. It was used to illustrate an article on Whistler’s Nocturnes and Etchings by his old friend Theodore Duret. After this the print was removed, and Whistler printed a few more impressions.
A fine impression, printed in brownish ink with a subtle veil of plate tone which is intensified toward the bottom of the composition.
On his return from Venice Whistler lived for a few months on Alderney Street.
on reserve
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Little Doorway, Lyme Regis; lithograph, 1895. Reference: Spink, Stratis and Tedeschi 119, only state, in good condition with margins (expert japan backing at thin spots verso corners), on a smooth cream wove proofing paper, image 11 x 7 1/4, the sheet 12 5/8 x 10 inches, archival matting.
Provenance: ex Collection Louis B. Dailey, with his stamp verso and also on the mat; and Kennedy Galleries, with a copy of their address and label attached to the mat (with their early address, 693 5th Avenue, New York). The Kennedy label notes: “Only 15 proofs Way, No. 83.” This refers to the fact that according to Way only 15 lifetime impressions were printed, and presumably this is one of that group (another 30 impressions were taken by Goulding in 1904, shortly after Whistler’s death).
A fine delicately printed impression; not as black and uniform in appearance as the posthumous impressions; also, the image is not centered on the sheet as is typical of the posthumous impressions. These characteristics, along with the Kennedy label, strongly indicate that this impression is lifetime, and although the evidence is not absolutely dispositive, it is our opinion that it is lifetime.
Whistler and his ailing wife Beatrix traveled to Lyme Regis, Dorset in late summer, 1895, hoping that the sea air would improve her health. He made seven drawings on special lithographic transfer paper while there; six were of a smithy on Broad street, the seventh was The Little Doorway. The dampness of the air in Lyme Regis affected the transfer paper, making printing difficult, and in a letter the printer Way explained to Whistler that it had been a “sort of guesswork on our part as to how far you would like the strengthening to go.” In the end Whistler apparently liked the Little Doorway and included it in the exhibition of his lithographs at the Fine Art Society a few months later.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), The Sign of the White Horse, Parson’s Green, etching, 1906, signed in pencil on the tab and inscribed “imp.” [also signed in the plate lower right] Reference: Hausberg 68, 14th state (of 14), from the total printing of about 60 impressions, about 30 in this state. In very good condition, on a laid paper, trimmed by the artist on the platemark with the tab, 4 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression with exquisite detailing, printed in black ink with strong plate tone.
Roussel apparently perfected this plate through a series of 14 states, making small changes each time and generally printing two or three proofs before arriving at this definitive last state, in which he added diagonal shading to the right awning, and his signature to the plate. In accord with the custom of his mentor James Whistler he trimmed the print on the platemark except for the small tab at the bottom where he signed his name and wrote the letters imp, standing for the Latin impressit (indicating that he printed the impression personally).
Meg Hausberg, who wrote the catalogue raisonne for Roussel (and painstakingly documented each of the 14 states of The Sign!) wrote this note on The Sign: “The pub The White Horse was less than one hundred yards from Roussel’s home, Belfield House, on Parson’s Green in Fulham. Like Belfield House, which is now part of Lady Margaret School, the pub is still standing today. This is one of three etchings Roussel made depicting the local scene at Parson’s Green. In them, he exhibited an interest in the everyday life of the neighborhood similar to that portrayed in his earlier etchings of Chelsea Embankment and its environs.”
Posted in Theodore Roussel |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), The Sign of the White Horse, Parson’s Green, etching, 1906, signed in pencil on the tab and inscribed “imp.” [also signed in the plate lower right] Reference: Hausberg 68, 14th state (of 14), from the total printing of about 60 impressions, about 30 in this state. In very good condition, on a laid paper, trimmed by the artist on the platemark with the tab, 4 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression with exquisite detailing, printed in black ink with strong plate tone.
Roussel apparently perfected this plate through a series of 14 states, making small changes each time and generally printing two or three proofs before arriving at this definitive last state, in which he added diagonal shading to the right awning, and his signature to the plate. In accord with the custom of his mentor James Whistler he trimmed the print on the platemark except for the small tab at the bottom where he signed his name and wrote the letters imp, standing for the Latin impressit (indicating that he printed the impression personally).
Meg Hausberg, who wrote the catalogue raisonne for Roussel (and painstakingly documented each of the 14 states of The Sign!) wrote this note on The Sign: “The pub The White Horse was less than one hundred yards from Roussel’s home, Belfield House, on Parson’s Green in Fulham. Like Belfield House, which is now part of Lady Margaret School, the pub is still standing today. This is one of three etchings Roussel made depicting the local scene at Parson’s Green. In them, he exhibited an interest in the everyday life of the neighborhood similar to that portrayed in his earlier etchings of Chelsea Embankment and its environs.”
Posted in Theodore Roussel |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Young Man (Ein Junger), woodcut, 1917, signed in pencil and dated lower right margin. Reference: Dube 300, second state (of 2). On heavy Japan wove paper, in good condition with full margins (some unobtrusive creases generally confined to margins), 14 1/8 x 11 1/4, the sheet 20 1/4 x 16 7/8 inches, archival window matting.
A fine strong impression printed in black ink.
Dube dates this to 1915; Heckel has written the date 17 on this impression.
Heckel was categorized as unfit for active service during World War I, but he did volunteer for ambulance duty. While stationed in Ostend he was able to make a number of paintings, woodcuts, and drawings of colleagues or their wounded patients, some landscapes and seascapes, but never battle scenes. This moving portrait is probably of a colleague.
In 1937 Heckel’s work was labeled as degenerate, and 729 of his works were expelled from German museums; in January 1944 his Berlin studio, containing all his blocks and plates, was destroyed.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Tristes Presentimientos de lo que ha de Acontecer (Sad Forebodings of What is Going To Happen), etching, burin, drypoint, and burnisher, c. 1810. Plate 1 of the Disasters of War, First Edition (1863). Reference: Harris 121, Delteil 120. In very good condition, with wide margins (stains on bottom margin edge, slight stains on edges top and right but not near and not affecting image in any way), on heavy absorbent wove paper, the full sheet, 7 x 8 5/8, the sheet 9 1/8 x 12 15/16 inches, archival matting.
A fine clear early impression of this dramatic image, the frontispiece for the series. Goya apparently made this print without completely removing an earlier design, so the many shapes and images appearing through the shadowy surface do indeed suggest “forebodings.” It is clear that although the order of the plates of the Disaster were changed over the course of its evolution, this plate was always intended as the frontispiece, and of course its title, given by Goya, indicates this.
Made in the workshop of Laurenciano Potenciano for the Real Academia and completed in March 1863. There were 7 editions of the Disasters in all (6 after this, the First Edition), and of course most impressions extant are from the later editions.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), engraving, 1593 [with extensive inscription in the plate]. Reference: Bartsch 161, Hollstein 177, second state (of two). In very good condition (old hinges verso, horizontal centerfold visible verso), trimmed outside of the borderline, 10 7/16 x 7 5/16 inches, archival mounting.
A very good, balanced impression, with exquisite detailing.
This portrait of Bol was taken in the last year of his life, when he was 58. According to the inscription it is dedicated to Bol’s stepson Frans Bol. The skull with the upside-down torches indicatesthat this engraving was made by Goltzius after Bol died, and thus is based on a drawing.
$3500
Posted in Hendrik Goltzius |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617), The Banquet at the House of Tarquinius, or The Banquet of Turquinius Collatinus, engraving, c. 1578. References: Bartsch 104, Hirschmann 171, Strauss 17, only state. First of the series (of 4) The History of Lucretia. In very good condition (tiny printer’s creases at bottom edge away from image), with thread margins on old laid paper with part of a Gothic P watermark, 8 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this brilliant, complex masterpiece.
Art historian Carl Van Mander particularly admired this engraving, especially because Goltzius -contrary to custom – clothed his figures in modern (16th C) Netherlandish costume.
During the siege of the city of Ardea by the Roman king Lucius Tarquinius Superbus two of his sons and his nephew Collatinus, with some downtime to spare, returned to Rome with the idea of paying a surprise visit to their wives. They found the wives at a banquet but Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus was at home; later one of the men (Sextus) raped her.
$2200
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Etienne Delaune (1519-1583),Varied Subjects, engravings, circa 1560, the set of 12. Reference: Robert-Dumesnil 237-248, only states. The set includes 12 individual impressions on 12 sheets, each plate trimmed to the borderline and pressed on a backing sheet (engraved on 6 plates originally), 4 circular, 8 ovals, approximately 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 inches across.
Provenance:
ex Collection: Dr. Karl Herweg (Lugt 3974, with his stamp verso on each print). Dr. Herweg was advised on his acquisitions by Dr. Eduard Trautschold of C.G. Boerner, Dusseldorf. The prints remain in Herweg’s matting. They were purchased at Herweg’s sale at Sotheby’s London, 2003.
Fine clear impressions of these great rarities.
Impressions include (Robert-Dumesnil numbers)
237 – Roman soldiers before a prince seated on a throne
238 – Cincinnatus with Romans
239 – Women and a soldier hurry to help a young girl who has fainted in their arms.
240 – A man in a turban fights “un basilic”
241 – La jeune Atys
242 – An angry prince raises a young man in the air to throw him in the water
243 – Diane and nymphs
244 – Warrier climbs a rock full of beasts, perhaps Aeneas finding the road to Hell
245 – 2 women in a temple consecrated to Diana of the Hunt
246 – La Continence de Scipio
247 – A princess offers a sacrifice in presence of Neptune
248 – A queen totally nude falls before soldiers who came to murder an old man in his bed (!)
Delaune, trained as a goldsmith, was the pre-eminent master of the 16th Century French Renaissance school of ornamental and architectural engraving. His earliest work was done in metal as an employee of the mint; in his middle and later years he focused more on small format printmaking, especially on mythological or Old Testament subjects done in series, such as this one.
Here are enlarged illustrations of the last two prints listed above, i.e., 248 – A queen totally nude falls before soldiers who came to murder an old man in his bed, and 247, A princess offers a sacrifice in the presence of Neptune:
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Greenhouse in Jena, 1914, signed and dated (as 1914), and annotated “eigendruck” (handprinted); also at bottom margin signed “Botanischer Garten Jena 14, corrected to 15). Reference: Dube 291 (there dated 1916). In good condition apart from toning from mat in margins outside of the image, minor handling folds in margins, printed in black ink on a heavy ivory wove paper, with wide margins trimmed irregularly as typifies proof impressions, 15 1/4 x 11 3/4, the sheet 22 1/4 x 16 inches, archival matting.
A fine rich impression of this rare woodcut.
Provenance: Estate of the Artist (with the estate stamp verso).
This impression was printed personally by Kirschner, who rarely allowed others to print his work (and this helps account for the great rarity of his work).
The dating of Greenhouse in Jena is not entirely clear; the Dubes indicate 1916 but Kirschner (who was notoriously inaccurate at dating his work) dates it earlier. But in any case it was done shortly after he created his famous paintings of Berlin street scenes in the years 1913-14.
Jena is a city in central Germany; its Botanical Garden was created in 1580, and is one of the oldest in Europe. Kirschner’s view of the Garden is that of an overwhelming presence, a riot of threatening shapes and patterns dwarfing the man at its center. The astonishing imagery may well relate to the difficulties Kirchner experienced during this period – he was called to the army in early 1915 but after a breakdown was given a leave of absence later that year and spent time in asylums in Konigstein and Berlin; his recovery took a long while and perhaps was never quite complete.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Emil Nolde (1876-1956), etching and aquatint, 1911, signed in pencil lower right (titled lower margin edge). Reference: Schiefler and Mosel 168, fifth state (of 5). Printer: Sabo. In excellent condiion, the full sheet with wide margins, 11 3/4 x 9 3/4, the sheet 23 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches. Archival storage, between acid free board, unattached mylar hinging.
A superb impression, with the composition, figures and light quite vivid and clear, yet still atmospheric.
The essential design of this print was complete in the first state; in the subsequent states Nolde experimented with the shading and effects of aquatint. Here the figures are quite bright, with the light focused on them and contrasting strongly with the dark background at the top.
As was typical for Nolde in this early phase of his printmaking career, he here uses various techniques – including aquatint, spreading acid on the plate, and biting the plate with acid at different points in the printmaking process – to create tonal and speckling effects which contribute to the atmospheric and mystical quality of the final composition.
The themes of this print were never far from Nolde’s reality in the early 1900’s. His wife became a semi-invalid soon after their marriage in 1902, and Nolde himself recovered from a severe illness in 1909.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Emil Nolde (1867-1956), Doppelbildness (Double Portrait), woodcut, 1937, signed in pencil and numbered 97. From the edition of 150 impressions, published by Schweizerische Graphische Gesellschaft. Reference: Schiefler and Mosel 193II (second state of 2). In excellent condition, printed in black on a heavy ivory wove paper with full margins, 12 3/8 x 9, the sheet 16 1/4 x 11 5/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh and unusually strong impression of this iconic image.
This composition was essentially complete in the first state, but the hair of the man and woman were undifferentiated; in the second state Nolde cut a contour line between the two to clarify their separation, and also corrected some errant spotting in the face of the man.
Although Nolde made most of his woodcuts earlier in his career, he created this important image in a later period, just before his work was denounced by the Nazis as “entartete Kunst” – degenerate art.
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Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Conrad Felixmuller (1897-1977), Frau am Morgen (Woman in the Morning) or Hemd Anziehend (Putting on a Blouse), 1920, etching and aquatint on a cream wove paper, signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left (9/50),11 3/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 19 1/2 x 12 3/4 inches. Reference: Sohn 238, Plate 8 from the series Frau. Only 12 impressions were printed in the edition. In excellent condition, the matrix perfect, with wide margins (rippling, soft folds at bottom and top margin edges far from image), archival window matting.
A fine fresh impression of this great rarity (Sohn notes that this is one of only 12 impressions that were distributed, although more were apparently planned, thus accounting for the discrepancy between the edition size and the numbering).
Felixmuller was the leader of the Dresden Secessionist movement.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Martin Lewis, “Arc Welders”
1937, Drypoint and sand ground.
McCarron 124. Recorded impressions: 33 (including 5 trial proofs). Signed in pencil. With the stamp Lucile Deming Lewis Collection in the bottom left corner, verso.
Image size 10 x 7 15/16 inches (254 x 202 mm); sheet size 14 3/8 x 10 5/8 inches (365 x 270 mm).
A superb, rich impression of this rarely encountered print (due to the small number of impressions printed), on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 3/8 to 2 3/8 inches); original hinge remains on the left sheet edge, recto, well away from the image, in excellent condition.
McCarron points out that Lewis’s “use of the almost cubist device of overlapping, transparent planes of light, produced by the arc welder’s torch, is unique in his oeuvre.”
Collections: BPL, CU, DIA, FU, YU.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Lyonel Feininger, “Kreuzende Segelschiffe 2 (Cruising Sailing Ships 2)”
1919, Woodcut.
Prasse W175. Edition 275 unsigned for portfolio Die tunlte Jahresgabe des Kreises graphischer Kunstler und Sammier, 1925; 25 signed de luxe edition nos. I-XXV, on Japanese Milo paper; 150 signed edition nos. 1-150, on Zanders cream laid paper; 100 unsigned nos. 151-250. Signed and titled in pencil.Image size 6 x 8 7/8 inches (171 x 225 mm); sheet size 9 1/2 x 11 7/8 inches (241 x 302 mm).A superb, black, proof impression, apart from the published editions, on tissue-thin cream laid Japan, with full margins ( 7/8 to 1 5/8 inches), in excellent condition.
Feininger estate stamp in the bottom right sheet corner.
This print was also titled by the artist Segler, Segel-Schiffe, Kreuzende Schiffe (and that’s the title he used in this impression), and Ships.
Prasse notes that there were proofs made on carbon copy paper and Kozo and other Japanese laid paper (the latter two types were Feininger’s favorite papers).Collections: Altenburg, Braunschweig; Bremen; Cincinnati CIAM (proof); Cleveland CMA (proof); Darmstadt BA (proof); Dresden (185/250); Essen; Kaiserslautern (11/150); Karlsruhe (XIV/XXV0); Leipzig MdbK (24/150); Philadelphia PMA; Tel Aviv; Trenton (proof); Washington NGA; Zwickau.$11,000
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Lyonel Feininger, “Verfallenes Dorf (Desolated Village with Sunburst)”
1918, Woodcut
Prasse W31. Edition proofs only; Signed in pencil. Annotated 1820 b in the artist’s hand in pencil, bottom center sheet edge.
Image size 4 1/2 x 4 1/8 inches (114 x 105 mm); sheet size 6 1/16 x 5 inches (154 x 127 mm).
A fine, black impression, on tissue thin red Japan, with full margins (3/8 to 1 1/2 inches), in excellent condition.
Prasse, who devotes an entire red page in the catalogue to this rare print, notes that this was created in proofs only, “chiefly on tissue paper, one on Japanese laid paper [perhaps this impression]: on one, on white tissue paper, the artist has penciled “1820 a/Probedruck”; on others “1820b [as in this impression]”.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Louis Marcoussis (1883-1941), Un Reve, etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “2nd etat 1/2” lower left. Plate 1 of the portfolio Aurelia. Reference: Milet 55II, second state (of 4), before the edition (of 153 in the fourth state). In good condition, on a wove paper with full margins (a small area of discoloration below the border lower left, remains of prior glue right margin edge), 7 1/4 x 5 3/8, the sheet 15 5/8 x 9 3/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression of a rare proof, before the edition. This is one of the two proofs of the second state. After this state the plate was reduced in a third state (from 183 to 174 mm), and then steel faced for the edition.
Provenance: Libreria Prandi Reggio (blindstamp lower right corner)
Jean Cassou and Pierre Courthion asked Marcoussis to illustrate Aurelia, a novel by Gerard de Merval. This was the first album of their collection “Le Blanc et Le Noir,” edition chez Fourcade. Marcoussis was familiar with this novel, in which imagination and reality intermingle. In it de Merval wrote: “La Reve est une seconde vie.” (The Dream is a parallel life.) Marcoussis wrote of the print: “Il ressemblait a l’Ange de la Melancholie d’Albrecht Durer.” (It recalls the angel in Durer’s Melancholia.)
Posted in Louis Marcoussis |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Marguerite Zorach (1887-1968), A New England Family (The Father), linoleum cut, c. 1917, signed in pencil lower right margin. One of a small number of proofs; there was no edition. In excellent condition, on a very thin cream Japan paper, with margins, 12 7/8 x 8 3/4, the sheet 15 3/4 x 10 5/8 inches. Archival matting. .
A fine impression of this very rarely encountered American modernist/cubist print.
The Zorachs (William and Marguerite), who met in Paris, spent several summers in Provincetown (1915, 1916, 1921, 1922), with artist friends such as Max Weber and Marsden Hartley, and the summers of 1917 and 1918 at Echo Farm, New Hampshire, which probably provided the subject matter for A New England Family. Marguerite was used to farming during the summer, dating back to her early days in California, and at various times the Zorachs worked on farms that had sheep, horses, geese and, as pictured here, cows.
Given the disparity in size of the father and mother in A New England Family, and the children playing at the bottom right, it’s probable that the composition does not depict the Zorach family. The couple had a first child, a son, in 1915 (Tessim) and a daughter in 1917 (Dahlov), so conceivably one of them is pictured here with the huge Bunyanesque father figure, dressed in lumberman’s attire, carrying a child in his left hand and holding the much smaller woman’s hand in his right hand (lower left). The flat, cubist/modernist aesthetic reflects Marguerite’s exposure to emerging currents of modern art both in Europe and back in the US.
The linoleum cut technique was well suited to Zorach’s approach to printmaking at the time; she could carve the image herself, and print it herself by hand, often after returning to their Greenich Village apartment after a summer of art making. Zorach was focused on the artmaking, not marketing or distribution of prints, so she did not edition them, number them, sign them all, or keep careful records of the number of prints produced. Most of her prints, such as A New England Family, are little known and exceedingly rare, but are gaining an increasing appreciation among knowledgeable collectors.
Posted in Marguerite Zorach |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Lydia Looking Toward the Right, Trees Beyond, etching, c. 1881. Breeskin 52, only state. In generally good condition, with full margins, on Van Gelder paper. 7 3/4 x 4 5/8, the sheet 14 1/2 x 11 inches.
Provenance: Robert Hartshorne, NY, with his stamp verso (Lugt 2215b).
A fine impression of this great rarity.
Lydia was Mary Cassatt’s sister.
Posted in Mary Cassatt |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Lydia Looking Toward the Right, Trees Beyond, etching, c. 1881. Breeskin 52, only state. In generally good condition, with full margins, on Van Gelder paper. 7 3/4 x 4 5/8, the sheet 14 1/2 x 11 inches.
Provenance: Robert Hartshorne, NY, with his stamp verso (Lugt 2215b).
A fine impression of this great rarity.
Lydia was Mary Cassatt’s sister.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Mary Cassatt
(1844 Allegheny City, PA. – Château de Beaufresne, Mesnil-Theribus 1926)
Tea ca. 1890
etching on laid paper
7 1/8 x 6 1/8 inches (181 x 156 mm); sheet 13 7/8 x 8 3/8 inches (352 x 213 mm)
watermark: coat of arms
provenance
Robert Hartshorne, New York (Lugt 2215b)
thence by descent
Breeskin 133 fifth (final) state
A superb impression of the final state which was printed in an edition of 25. The drypoint effects in this impression are unusually rich; this must therefore clearly been one of the earliest pulls within the edition.
This is one of twelve drypoints (Breeskin 127-138) that were shown in Durand-Ruel’s Cassatt exhibition in 1893.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Capean Otro Encerrado (They Play Another With the Cape in an Enclosure), etching, burnished aquatint, drypoint and burin, 1814-16, Plate 4 of the Tauromaquia [with the number 4 upper right]. Reference: Harris 207, Delteil 227, First Edition (of 7). In very good condition apart from printer’s creases upper left and lower left, the full sheet with wide margins, 9 5/8 x 14, the sheet 12 1/2 x 17 1/4, archival window mounting.
A fine impression printed on the fine laid paper used for the First Edition impressions as indicated by Harris. The medium grain aquatint, in one tone, burnished on the left and in the middle around the figures contrasts well with the highlights of the figures. The scratch in the plate in an arc from the seated figure at the right to the bottom foreground occurred before the First Edition and is quite visible in fine impressions such as this example.
This edition is the only one in which the full qualities of the plates can be appreciated. The impressions are extremely fine and are all clean-wiped. (Only the First Edition impressions are lifetime; the six subsequent editions were posthumous).
This is the second of the Tauromaquia series in which Goya shows the Moors fighting. In the earlier print he noted that “The Moors settled in Spain, giving up the Koran, adopted this art of hunting.” Here, they “play” with a bull in an enclosure. Robert Hughes has noted that it’s historically untrue that the Moors were particularly interested in bullfighting, but suggests that Goya adopted this idea in order to portray bullfighters wearing the Mameluke uniforms he had seen Napoleon’s mercenaries wearing in Madrid – so these Moors were depicted as bullfighters because they were so colorful. Also, Hughes points out that the bulls in these aquatints were quite small, perhaps 400 pounds smaller than today’s huge bulls, which are specially bred for the ring.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Gerald Brockhurst (1890-1978), etching, 1924, signed in pencil lower right [also signed, in reverse, in the plate]. Reference: Fletcher 47, second state (of 2). In excellent condition, printed in black on cream wove paper, with wide margins, 5 7/8 x 4 3/8, the sheet 9 1/2 x 8 3/4 inches, archival windowmat mounting.
A fine impression with exquisite detailing.
At this point in his career Brockhurst focused his portraiture on women; Najeda is a fine example of this work.
Brockhurst created shading through a system of elaborate cross-hatching; he also evidently used an exceedingly subtle stipple or dot-printing technique, which involved punching the copper plate with a needle point, creating tiny indentations in the plate which would hold ink. In Najeda this dotted work is evident on Najeda’s arms, neck and face.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1891-1978), etching, 1944, signed and dated bottom right. Reference: Fletcher 81, third state (of 3). In good condition apart from remains of old hinges on margin edges, slight handling folds, unobtrusive scuff and pressure mark, no light staining apparent. Printed on a wove paper with the watermark SASPINA and Coat of Arms. Total edition of 75. 10 x 8, the sheet 12 1/4 x 9 1/2, archival mounting.
A fine impression, and superb example of Brockhurst’s exquisite etching technique.
Mrs. Paul Mellon was a founder of the Pantheon Press; her husband was a founder of the Washington’s National Gallery of Art
Brockhurst was one of the outstanding British artists of the early 20th Century, hugely popular in the ’20’s and early ’30’s. Today he is still renowned for his poignant images of young women and girls (including the famed Adolescence) and several portraits of contemporaries (Rushbury, McBey); to print lovers portraits such as this example show him at his best: a master etcher, and superb draftsman.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (1891-1978), La Tresse (Anais), etching, 1926, signed in pencil lower right [also signed and dated in reverse in the plate lower left]. Reference: Fletcher 56, seventh state (of 7). In very good condition apart from slight light toning, with wide margins, 8 3/8 x 6 3/4, the sheet 11 x 8 3/4 inches, archival window mat.
A fine impression, with a light veil of plate tone overall; printed on greyish/black ink on an ivory wove paper.
La Tresse refers to the long braid of hair held by Anais, Brockhurst’s first wife.
Gerald Leslie Brockhurst was one of the outstanding British artists of the early 20th Century, hugely popular in the ’20’s and early ’30’s. Today he is still renowned for his poignant images of young women and girls and several portraits of contemporaries (Rushbury, McBey); to print lovers portraits such as this example show him at his best: a master etcher, and superb draftsman.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
George Bellows (1882-1925), The Black Hat (Emma in a Black Hat), lithograph, 1921. Reference: Morse 113. From the edition of 55. Signed in pencil by the artist, and also inscribed in pencil by the printer “Bolton Brown imp”, lower margin. In good condition (tiny fox mark lower margin center, faintest pale time staining), on cream/tan thin Japan paper, with margins, 13 1/8 x 9 1/4, the sheet 14 1/4 x 10 3/8 inches.
Provenance: Estate of Ralph Spencer; Allison Gallery (H.V. Allison and Company, 11 East 57th Street, New York, NY was a noted gallery famed for handling Bellows prints. Their label is appended to this mat).
A fine atmospheric impression.
Bellows created a number of portraits of the women in his life wearing black hats, and several of Emma in various poses; she can also be seen wearing a black hat (surely this one) in the Tennis Tournament. Here, she has a plaintive expression, set off by the spectacular patterning of her garments. In our view, The Black Hat is Bellows’s finest portrait in lithography.
Posted in George Bellows |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Felix Buhot (1847-1898) Les Grandes Chaumieres, 1881, etching and drypoint, Bourcard/Goodfriend 150 (their fifth, and definitive, state of five, the plate was then cancelled), with Buhot’s red owl stamp (Lugt 977). Good condition, with margins (several nicks or tiny tears at outer margin edges, some spots in margins), plate mark reinforced verso, conservation matted, 5 1/2 x 10 7/8 (full sheet 7 1/2 x 12 1/4) inches.
A fine, atmospheric impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
In this unique proof impression Buhot – one of the most inventive of printmakers – treated the paper with kerosene, gasoline or turpentine before printing (papier essencee), creating a striking “orange” quality which has the magical effect of bathing this farm scene in the subdued light of a sunset.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
Clement Haupers (1900-1982), Induction, aquatint and etching, 1945, signed, titled, dated and inscribed “ed 75”. In excellent condition, printed in black on a heavy ivory wove paper with full margins and deckle edges all around, presumably printed in an edition of 75, 10 5/8 x 6 3/4, the sheet 14 3/4 x 11 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh impression, with the various aquatint tonalities contrasting vividly.
This World War II scene portrays a doctor giving an inductee a physical exam, presumably checking on reflexes, as two other nude inductees are seen in the rear.
Haupers studied in Paris with the Cubist painter André Llote, who influenced his style and perspective. Upon completing his studies in France, Haupers returned to Minnesota where he became an influential teacher at the St. Paul School of Art. He rose to prominence in 1935 as the state and regional director of the New Deal’s Federal Art Project in Minnesota, which hired unemployed artists to decorate public buildings and parks. In 1981 Clement Bernard Haupers was the first recipient of the “Minnesotan of the Year” award. He was born and died in the same house in St. Paul.
Posted in Clement Haupers |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Edmund Blampied (1886-1966), Ostend Horse, drypoint, 1926, signed in pencil lower margin [also signed and dated in the plate lower left], from the edition of 100, printed on ivory laid paper with full margins with deckle edges, 7 x 9, the sheet 9 1/4 x 12 1/2 inches, still in the original SFA Museum mat with extensive annotations.
Provenance: Kennedy Galleries (with their stock number A49359)
Ex Collection: Albert M. Bender
Ex Collection: San Francisco Museum of Art
Christie’s New York
A fine fresh impression, with rich burr from the drypoint work and a subtle layering of plate tone.
One reason for Blampied’s continuing eminence as a printmaker is his ability to draw fresh imagery upon the copper plate using the drypoint needle. Describing his technique he noted: “In very few cases do I touch a plate after the first proof, so the majority have but one state. If I am dissatisfied with either the composition or details, I prefer to start afresh upon another plate rather than make radical alterations.” Ostend Horse exemplifies the best of Blampied’s prints – the composition works, the drawing is vivid and alive, and the printmaking technique is superb.
Posted in Edmund Blampied |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Edgar Chahine (1874-1947), Ada, 1901, drypoint, signed in pencil lower left also initials, dated and titled in the plate] Reference: Tabanelli 65, second state (of 2). In very good condition, with full margins, on cream wove paper, 7 1/4 x 13, the sheet 14 x 22 inches. Archival mounting with window mat.
A very fine impression of this important Fin de Siecle Belle Epoque masterpiece, surely Chahine’s greatest portrait. With a rich drypoint burr on Ada’s fur and hat, and a subtle layer of plate tone over her dress and divan; her face and parts of the hat have been wiped carefully to heighten her appearance.
Chahine, unlike his contemporary portrait specialists such as Zorn or Helleu, addressed social issues and people of varying social classes in his etchings. It is perhaps his greater depth, and his ability to portray a wide range of subject matter, that enables him to convey the intelligence and insight of Ada, as well as her beauty, in the apparent context of a traditional Belle Epoque drypoint.
Posted in Edgar Chahine |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Amber Garden (Hand Raised, Autumn Mist), soft ground etching and aquatint, 1919, signed in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Czestochowski 73, third state (of 4), from an edition of unspecified size but according to Czestochowski “total printing unknown but small.” In very good condition, the matrix pristine, some folds and creasing in the (wide) margins, printed on a cream wove paper with the watermark SPECIAL MBM, 11 3/4 x 7 13/16, the sheet 14 3/4 x 11 5/8 inches; archival mounting with acid free window mat.
A fine strong impression with the several layers of aquatint contrasting effectively.
At this stage of his printmaking career Davies had for the most part abandoned the cubist idiom he had experimented with after his involvement in the Armory Show of 1913, and reverted to the expressive symbolism and mysticism characteristic of much of his earlier work. Of this work artist Marsden Hartley wrote: “Often you have the sensation of looking through a Renaissance window upon a Greek world – a world of Platonic verities in calm relation….Arthur B. Davies is a lyric poet…He is mystic only in the sense that perhaps all lyrical poetry is mystic, since it strives for union with the universal soul in things.”
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Nemesis, engraving, 1502.
References: Bartsch 77, Meder 72 IIa (of f). In excellent condition. Watermark: High Crown (Meder watermark 20). 330 x 230 mm.
Very fine, with the exquisite detailing characteristic of only the earliest of the Meder IIa impressions.
Provenance:
private collection, Germany
Christie’s London June 24, 1986, lot 21
private collection USA
Panofsky identified the literary source for Nemesis as “a Latin poem of Politian which synthesizes the classical goddess of retribution with fickle Fortune: clad in a white mantle, she hovers in the void, tearing the air with strident wings, driven hither and thither by the gales, and always wielding the goblet and the bridle – symbols of favor and castigation – with a contemptuous smile.” The landscape has been identified as the Tyrolese town of Chiuso.
On reserve.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Madonna with the Pear, engraving, 1511, Bartsch 41, Meder 33, Holstein 33. A Meder a impression. With an Anchor in a Circle watermark (Meder watermark 171). In very good condition, with thread margins, 6 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
Provenance: estate of Dr. and Mrs David Alterman.
A superb, brilliant black impression printing especially strongly toward the tree trunk, as characteristic of the earliest impressions. The Anchor in Circle watermark 171 is specified by Meder as found in fine impressions of Madonna and Pear (and also Christ on the Cross); Briquet dates paper with this watermark to 1506-1516.
Fine lifetime impressions of Durer (1471-1528) engravings are of the utmost rarity today outside of great museum collections. Commentators have differed as to whether the Madonna with the Pear is the most beautiful of the Durer Madonnas (and this observer feels that it is), but there is no doubt that it is a tour de force demonstration of Durer’s mastery. The composition is classic, but the portrait is far from a quiet repose – there is a tension between the Virgin and the Child (whose hand is raised as if to make a benediction); some commentators have suggested that the pear is here being used as a pacifier (as opposed the “apple of discord” or temptation).
In the best early impressions, such as ours, the tree is engraved and printed strongly – there even remains some burr from the burin work which was ordinarily burnished clean. So the tree takes on an animated dimension of its own – it creates a dramatic pull towards the right and the sky.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (1889-1946), From Waterloo Bridge, drypoint, aquatint, plate tone, 1925, signed in pencil lower right, from the edition of 40. In very good condition (very slight tone); on cream wove with margins, 11 x 6 15/16, the sheet 14 3/8 x 9 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine atmospheric impression.
Nevinson apparently achieved the brilliant effect of moonlight on the Thames through the use of aquatint and careful wiping of the plate, as well as drypoint.
Traditionally it’s thought that Nevinson became disillusioned with modernist movements after the War, and renounced the futurism and cubism which illuminated his pre-War work. But his evolution is far more complex than that. In From Waterloo Bridge there is the immediate sense that Nevinson is reverting to the pictorial framework set out by Whistler, and also appears to be revisiting an enduring Whistlerian theme: the night subjects, especially the lithotints of the Thames. But he does that and more: his dynamic patterning of the glow of the moonlight on the water, and the brilliance of his overall composition could only have achieved after his working through earlier stages of cubism, abstraction, and futurism.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Cornelis Bega (1631/2-64), The Inn, etching, c. 1660-64. Reference: Hollstein 35. First state of three. With the Foolscap watermark. In good condition, with some (flattened) printing creases, a few unobtrusive (printer’s oil?) stains, archival mounting. With margins, 8 3/4 x 6 3/4, the sheet 9 5/8 x 7 1/2 inches.
A fine impression of this very early state, before the address was added (“J Covene et C. Mortier excudit” was added in the second state).
Hollstein notes several other first state impressions with the Foolscap watermark.
Provenance: ex. Collection: Dr. Karl Herweg, and with his stamp (not in Lugt) verso. The Herweg collection was distinguished for its collection of Van Ostade and Bega prints.
Cornelis Bega was born in Haarlem, the son of Pieter Bega, a wood carver and silversmith, and Maria Cornelisdr, daughter of the Mannerist painter Cornelis van Haarlem. He is known as a pupil of Adriaen Van Ostade, and of course his work bears a resemblance to Van Ostade’s. He was admitted to the Haarlem artists’ guild in 1654.
Bega’s few later etchings are his most complex, and – as is especially evident in The Inn – they have a dark, cold sense to them – not the warm hominess of some of the other 17th Century etchings of Van Ostade, Van Vliet or Dusart. Here, the two men talk with the girl in an accusatory or threatening manner, and she appears contrite. The scene is dark, two other men talk in the background. Food and a jug are on an overturned half barrel at the right, shoes and hat and a broom on the ground at the left. The composition is triangular, tight and structured, and the lighting focuses on it effectively.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Cornelis Bega (1631/2-1664), The Mother Seated in an Inn, etching, circa 1660-64. Reference: Hollstein 31, first state of two. In good condition, trimmed outside of the plate mark top and sides, on the plate mark bottom; 6 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches, archival mounting.
Cornelis Bega was born in Haarlem, the son of Pieter Bega, a wood carver and silversmith, and Maria Cornelis, daughter of the Mannerist painter Cornelis van Haarlem. He is known as a pupil of Adriaen Van Ostade, and of course his work bears a resemblance to Van Ostade’s. He was admitted to the Haarlem artists’ guild in 1654.
A fine early impression, berfore the additional work on the head and hair of the child, and before the removal of the spots on the left leg of the seated man.
Provenance: ex Collection: Thomas Graff (Lugt 1092) with his mark verso; ex. Collection: Dr. Karl Herweg, and with his stamp (Lugt 3974) verso. The Herweg collection was distinguished for its collection of Van Ostade and Bega prints.
In this state the head of the child is unfinished, as is much of the bottom of the print. In a later state additional work was done (on the head of the child, for example), but the print was left substantially unfinished, in outline in the bottom of the composition. This may have been what Bega desired (and of course, as the Unfinished Print exhibit at the Frick Museum in New York recently documented, many great artists through the ages including Rembrandt, whose prints Bega surely knew, sometimes left their prints “unfinished” when they were satisfied with what they had done). Alternatively, Bega may simply have turned to other work (or this may have been his last). But the outline of the bottom of the composition is clearly delineated in this impression.
Posted in Cornelis Bega |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Cornelis Bega (1631/32-64), Man Caressing the Young Hostess, ca. 1660-64, etching. Reference: Hollstein, Bartsch 34, first state of two, with the name of the artist showing in the lower left corner through the crosshatching. Printed on old laid paper with a dark brown ink, a partial crest watermark. In very good condition, borders inked in, trimmed on or outside of the platemark, 8 3/4 x 6 7/8.
A fine delicately printed early impression of this 17th Century Dutch masterpiece.
Provenance: ex Collection Dr. Karl Herweg, with his stamp verso (not in Lugt), and Coenrad Willem Antoine Buma (Lugt 494a, his initials in pencil verso). Dr. Herweg was a noted collector of 17th Century Dutch prints, especially those of Van Ostade and Bega; Buma was also noted for his collection of 17th C. Dutch prints.
Dr. Herweg purchased most of his old master print from CG Boerner in Dusseldorf, where he was advised by legendary connoisseur and scholar-dealer Eduard Trautscholdt whose real passion was the etchings of the Haarlem genre painter-etchers: Cornelis Bega, Adriaen van Ostade, and the latter’s pupil Cornelis Dusart. Working with Trautscholdt, Dr. Herweg collected meticulously and with great discernment, selecting the best impressions of diverse states, often buying a further impression of a print already acquired.
In this late stage of Bega’s career he typically grouped his figures tightly in a pyramidal cluster. Here the setting is rather austere, with various elements extending the middle grouping. The light comes from an undisclosed source, although some light may be coming from the lamp (above the cabinet) which serves as the apex of the composition.
The depiction of sex, drinking, smoking and gambling is both direct and symbolic. Obviously the two men are leering at and embracing the young barmaid – the one at the right is holding her hand; the one at the left is rocking toward her, and it’s not clear where his right hand is going. Cards are on the floor; the ace of spades could symbolize death, but the other cards have no special meaning. The pipe was typically shared in 17th C. Holland, and perhaps the bottle was too. The hat on the floor (which is superfluous since both men have hats) denoted irresponsibility; and the open cabinet with its wrinkled linens, and the empty shoes may refer to the sexual favor which is being arranged. But no great moralizing seems to be operative; the margin below the picture was not used for any message, at least among the known impressions.
(Note: for an interesting and detailed discussion of the iconography of this print see the catalogue Dutch Prints of Daily Life by Linda A. Stone-Ferrier, published by the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas.)
Posted in Uncategorized |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
George Biddle (1885-1973), Hombre! Que Sin Vergeunza!, 1928, lithograph, signed and dated in pencil lower right, titled and numbered lower left [also signed in plate lower left “Biddle/1928/44]. References: Pennigar 78, Trotter 44. Edition 100. In excellent condition (never framed, without light or time staining), with wide margins, the full sheet, 9 3/4 x 13 3/4, the sheet 15 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches. Printed by George C. Miller. On cream wove paper with the FRANCE watermark. Archival mounting (mylar unattached mounting between acid-free board).
A fine, fresh impression, in pristine condition.
According to Pennigar the title translates roughly to “Buddy! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself!” The title refers to the composition: the well-groomed man with his foot up in the carriage passes a group of naked little boys. In 1928 Biddle was immersed in issues of social class and equality (as he was for much of his life); he visited Mexico with Diego Rivera in this year, and made a number of lithographs with Mexican and Haitian subjects.
The composition of Hombre! reflects the experience Biddle had working with Jules Pascin, who became his friend and colleague when Biddle was in Paris from 1924-6. The composition is modernist – it’s flat, without rigid adherence to conventional positioning and depth, and it’s witty too.
Posted in George Biddle |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
George Biddle (1885-1973), Banana Grove, lithograph, 1928. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil [also annotated in the plate “Biddle/1928, lower right “47). References: Pennigar 81, Trotter 47. In excellent condition, the full sheet, on cream wove BFK RIVES paper, with their (partial) watermark. 12 1/2 x 9, the sheet 20 x 16, archival mounting (non attached mylar hinging between acid free board, glassine cover).
A fine fresh rich impression in pristine condition.
After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle decided that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art).
After his service in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-20’s). Banana Grove reflects the time he spent with Pascin, in terms of the freedom of the composition, and the suspension of the figures on a flat surface. It was made in 1928, the year Biddle traveled to Haiti with Diego Rivera.
Posted in George Biddle |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
George Biddle (1885-1973), Cows and Sugar Cane, 1928, lithograph, signed in pencil bottom right margin, titled and numbered bottom left margin [also signed and dated in the plate bottom left]. Reference: Pennigar 79, Trotter 45. From the edition of 55, on BFK RIVES wove paper (with their partial watermark), printed by George C. Miller. In excellent condition, the full sheet with wide margins (remains of old hinging margin corners verso), 11 9/16 x 7 3/4, the sheet 15 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches. Archival mounting (mylar corners on acid free board, glassine cover).
A fine black impression.
After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle decided that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art).
After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-20’s).
Cows and Sugar Cane, like many of the Mexican and Haitian prints of the late ’20’s, seems to reflect Pascin’s influence, particularly in the modernistic flattening of the perspective and free placement of the animals, and also in the exacting lithographic lines more characteristic of drypoint (a favorite medium for Pascin) than lithography. Indeed, the black areas of the print have the character of drypoint burr.
Posted in George Biddle |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
John Marin (1870-1953), Meaux Cathedral, etching, 1907, signed in pencil lower right (also titled and numbered 25/26) [also signed and dated in the plate lower right]. Reference: Zigrosser 75, second state (of 2). From the edition of about 25 impressions. In good condition, a tiny rubbed area near plate mark left, with wide margins, on an ivory wove paper, 9 x 6 5/8, the sheet 14 3/4 x 6 5/8 inches, archival matting with window mat.
A fine atmospheric impression, with substantial plate tone, carefully wiped to highlight the glass windows of the church and the courtyard in the foreground; the building at the right, for example, has been covered with a delicate veil of plate tone.
The composition was essentially complete in the first state; in the second state Marin added some work on the chimney and building on the right.
The success of this composition apparently led the Gazette des Beaux Arts to commission Marin to create another print of the same subject for a large unsigned edition pulled from a steel faced plate; the Gazette print (Zigrosser 76) is an entirely new version, not to be confused with the small edition of fine hand pulled, carefully wiped, and pencil signed impressions as represented by our print.
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Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Jerome Myers (1867-1940), Morning on the East Side, c. 1910, colored etching, signed in pencil lower right and annotated “imp.”; numbered and titled (twice) lower left. In very good condition, with full margins, 7 5/8 x 6 3/8, the sheet 11 1/2 x 8 7/8 inches, printed on a cream wove paper, archival matting.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered print, with the colors fresh, printed in brown, yellow, pink, blue.
This print is numbered 100/14, suggesting there was an edition of 100. Since we have not encountered another impression of this print, we doubt that this print was editioned at all, and suggest that – as was often the case – the numbering on this print is an expression of hoped for sales rather than an actual edition.
This print was printed by Myers personally (hence the imp annotation, Latin for impressit), using different plates for the coloring. Myers’s artistry, and printing skill, are apparent here – one can discern that the various plates used for the coloring were not registered perfectly. This gives the print a hand-crafted, unique quality all too absent in contemporary printmaking.
Myers was an actor and artist, a specialist in the American turn of the century immigrant experience, particularly those immigrants in the Lower East Side of Manhattan; and those immigrants are the subject matter of this work.
Active in the art life of the times, he was a prime mover behind the Armory Show of 1913, working with Walt Kuhn to get the (then) highly esteemed Arthur B. Davies to help arrange the show. Myer’s paintings are an important part of America’s aesthetic and historical heritage; they can be found, for example, in the National Gallery in Washington alongside those of Bellows and the members of the Ashcan school. Although his paintings show that he was a talented colorist, his etchings prove that he was (unlike several of his colleagues) also a master draughtsman, able to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the times with an impressionistic approach to printmaking.
Posted in Jerome Myers |
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Jerome Myers (1867-1940), At the Show, etching and drypoint, c. 1920, signed in pencil lower right. In good condition, with margins (paper losses upper corners), faint ink marks and fingerprints in margins and matrix. 5 3/4 x 8 3/4, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine strong impression, printed on a tan wove paper, with the burr from the drypoint work printing effectively, and a light veil of plate tone, wiped selectively to frame the faces of the viewers.
This proof, surely printed by the artist, is probably quite rare since we know of no edition or other impressions that have appeared on the market.
Myers was an actor and artist, a specialist in the American turn of the century immigrant experience, particularly those immigrants in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Active in the art life of the times, he was a prime mover behind the Armory Show of 1913, working with Walt Kuhn to get the (then) highly esteemed Arthur B. Davies to help arrange the show. Myer’s paintings are an important part of America’s aesthetic and historical heritage; they can be found, for example, in the National Gallery in Washington alongside those of Bellows and the other members of the Ashcan school. Although his paintings show that he was a talented colorist, his etchings prove that he was (unlike several of his colleagues) also a master draughtsman, able to capture the spirit and atmosphere of the times.
Posted in Jerome Myers |
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
George Bellows ((1882-1925), Preliminaries (or, Preliminaries to the Big Bout), 1916, lithograph, signed, titled (in full: “Preliminaries to the Big Bout), and numbered (No. 26) in pencil, bottom margin. Reference: Mason 24, edition 67. In very good condition, with margins (some very slight thinning toward margin edges verso), the matrix pristine. 15 3/4 x 19 1/2, the sheet 19 3/4 x 23 1/4 inches. On a very thin Japan paper, archival mounting.
Provenance: The Greentree Foundation (Whitney Estate)
A superb, glowing impression.
Preliminaries has always been considered one of the Bellows Boxing Series prints, but it is of course quite different from the others: the fighting action is in the background, but the real action is the fashionable tuxedo and gown clad group in the foreground making their way into their box. The composition is sophisticated; and the atmosphere is palpable.
Bellows noted of this print: “Society attends a big fight at Madison Square Garden, New York.” Preliminaries is the only one of the Bellows fight lithographs in which women are present. At the center of the composition a woman (Emma Bellows?) turns toward us. Emma commented in her catalogue of the Bellows lithographs: “For the first time in New York prize-fight history, many fashionable women appeared in the audience.”
There is no major painting associated with Preliminaries, but there is a large related drawing in crayon and India ink at the Wiggin Collection in the Boston Public Library).
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
George Bellows (1882-1925), Lady with a Fan (or, Emma in a Chair), 1921, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right and also signed and annotated “imp” by the printer Bolton Brown, lower left. Reference: Mason 111. From the edition of 63. In very good condition, on Chine laid paper with wide margins (slight rippling at corners from printing, remains of prior hinging corners), 11 1/2 x 8 1/2, the sheet 14 1/8 x 10 5/8 inches, archival mounting (mylar hinging, between acid-free boards, glassine cover).
A fine clear black impression.
This is a study of Emma Bellows, George’s wife. At this time she was 37, the mother of two daughters. Emma Story and George Bellows met in 1905, in Montclair New Jersey. The setting for this portrait, done 16 years later, is probably their home at 146 East 19th Street, New York City.
This study is not a sedate formal portrait with all the details tightly drawn; rather, it’s a spirited rendering capturing the feeling of the moment – far more successful, in this observer’s view, than many of the more “finished” portraits.
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Felix Vallotton woodcut Manifestation, signed in crayon lower right, and numbered 50. Reference: Vallotton and Georg 110, state a (of d). From the edition of 100 printed in the first printing of L’Estampe Originale, January-March 1893 (which also contained prints by Bonnard, Denis, Ibels, Maurin, Ranson, Roussel, Toulous-Lautrec and Vuillard). On brown wove paper. In good condition, with small margins (some nicks at edges well repaired), the block is 8 x 12 5/8, the sheet 9 1/8 x 13 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A very good impression.
Vallotton (1865-1925) made drypoints and etchings early in his career, and began making woodcuts in 1891. By the next year he had achieved some measure of fame in this medium, with the publication of an article on his breakthrough approach by Octave Uzanne in the Paris journal “L’Art et L’Idee.” By 1893 he had obviously hit his stride, and Manifestation represents one of the great examples of woodblock printmaking.
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), Rue Transnonain, lithograph, 1834, Reference: Delteil 135, Daumier Register 135, only state. With full margins, 13 x 18 1/8, the sheet 14 3/8 x 21 inches. On wove paper, in very good condition apart from several nicks and two (repaired) tears bottom margin edge, a soft fold lower left margin corner, another fold (flattened) visible verso only. [With initials, addresses, title in the plate]
Provenance:
ex Collection: Ruth Benedict (Ms. Benedict served as a guest curator at the National Gallery, Washington, DC, and was honored by the Gallery with the show A Discerning Eye: Prints and Drawings Given by Ruth B. Benedict)
ex Collection: James H. Lockhart (with mark verso, after Lugt)
ex Collection: Dieter and Lilian Noack (with mark verso, after Lugt)
A brilliant impression of this great rarity, among the most treasured of Daumier prints and indeed, of fine prints generally.
Rue Transnonain was created in response to the massacre of 19 people – including women and children – by the French National Guard in response to the strike of silk weavers in Lyon, on April 14, 1834.
Daumier created this large scale lithograph for inclusion in the L’Association Mensuelle, a publication for subscribers whose purposes was to collect funds to further freedom of the press, and pay for lawsuits brought against Charivari. Association lithographs were larger scale than the usual Charivari publications, and their distribution was to a very small group – the subscribers of this special publication. When the printseller Aubert showed the lithograph in his shop window the authorities were so incensed that all impressions were ordered found and confiscated (as well as the lithographic stone). Outstanding impressions were hidden (usually after extensive folding!).
ON RESERVE
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Honore Daumier (1808-1879), TRS HAUTS ET TRS PUISSANS MOUTARDS ET MOUTARDES LGITIMES, lithograph, 1834. References: Daumier Register 132, Delteil 132. Only state. Published by L’Association Mensuelle. [With extensive annotation including Daumier’s initials in the plate; see below] With margins, 13 5/8 x 19 1/2, the sheet 14 1/8 x 21 inches. Now restored,with numerous (flattened) folds, repaired tears and nicksin the margins mostly where previously folded, evidence of prior foxing verso (now de-acidified); archival mounting with window mat.
A very good impression of this extremely rare, early, andpolitically important lithograph.
This lithograph was published as part of the special L’Association Mensuelle series, to provide fundsto pay for legalexpenses incurred by the journal Caricaturein its battles with the French government. Many of Daumier’s most famous and rarest lithographs were published within this series. The prints are larger than those in the journals, and are apt to have been folded (as is this one) since they were large, and typically hidden by the recipients.
Tre Haut et Tre Puissans is thought to depict the children of Louis-Phillipe, although the commentator Provost felt it illustrated the future leaders of Austria, France and Greece as well as the young Queen Victoria. The indispensable Daumier Register gives us a substantial amount of background on this print, and also provides thistranslation of the text at the bottom of the print:
TRS HAUTS ET TRS PUISSANS MOUTARDS ET MOUTARDES LGITIMES.
Peuples, battez vous, dchirez vous, gorgez vous, pour ces Augustes personnages, vous leur appartenez imbcilles.
Translation:
Peoples, defend yourselves, tear yourselves to pieces, sacrifice yourselves for these royals, you belong to them, imbeciles.
$3000
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Cyril Power (1872-1951) color linoleum cut, Monseignor St. Thomas, circa 1931, signed and titled in pencil at the lower right, apart from the edition of 60. Reference: Redfern 24. In very good condition, on buff oriental laid tissue, conservation matted, with margins, 13 7/8 x 11 1/8, the sheet 15 x 12 5/8 inches.
A fine impression, with the colors fresh and vivid. Printed in four colors (yellow, red, blue and dark blue).
The prints of the Grosvenor School artists were created by applying colors with successive blocks. The margins show the colors of each of these blocks (see illustration of the margin).
The subject matter of this print relates to TS Eliot’s play “Murder in the Cathedral”; it depicts the murder itself.
Power, an architect, painter, etcher and color linocut artist, was to achieve fame as the most important of the Grosvenor School artists. These artists, including Sybil Andrews, who worked closely with Power, were essentially applying the technique of the color linocut to the Futurist idiom – a movement brought to Britain via Italy by linocut adherent Claude Flight. Power was teaching architecture at the school in the 1920’s when the linocut movement hit. In 1912 he had published a three volume History of English Mediaeval Architecture illustrated with his own drawings.
Posted in Cyril Power |
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Lovis Corinth, , drypoint, 1920, signed, titled, dated in pencil lower margin. Reference: Schwarz 394, second state of two, edition of 30, on Japan paper, with margins, 13 1/2 x 10 3/8 (the sheet 19 x 12 7/8 inches). Published by Wohlgemuth and Libner, Berlin. In generally good condition apart from printer’s creases at bottom and top margins, a thin spot at top margin, archival mounting.
A superb, richly printed and inked impression.
By the late 1890’s Corinth (1858-1925) had achieved major stature in Germany as a modernist artist; he took part in the first Berlin Secession exhibit in 1899, and in 1901 had a one man show with the eminent dealer Cassirer. In the first decade of the 20th Century he was known as the foremost German “Impressionist” after Lieberman. After a stroke in 1911 he became more “Expressionist” in his manner of painting and printmaking. The work of his last 6 years (during which he made The Three Graces) was a climactic period for him, earning the brilliant portraits and landscapes of this period branding as “degenerate” by the Nazis.
The Three Graces were mythological goddesses – Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia – presiding over dining, dance, and entertainment.
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Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Childe Hassam (1859-1935), The Writing Desk, 1915, etching, signed in pencil with the monogram and annotated “imp” (indicating that Hassam pulled this impression himself) [also initialed, dated and the words “Cos Cob” in the plate upper right]. Reference: Cortissoz and Clayton 56, only state, edition size not specified. In very good condition, on an ivory wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges (the usual drying holes at the edges all around with associated small tears and losses), 10 x 7, the sheet 12 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, archival mounting (acid free window mat with mylar unattached mounting corners).
Ex. collection: Sylvan Cole, New York. Cole was the director of Associated American Artists, and founder of the IFPDA (International Fine Print Dealers Association).
A fine, light filled delicately printed impression.
This is a portrait of Mrs. Hassam at Holley House, Cos Cob Connecticut.
Hassam worked as a wood engraver early in his career, before his critical second trip to Europe in 1885. But it was well after establishing himself as America’s pre-eminent Impressionist painter that he turned to etching, in 1915 at the age of 56. This was the year he created The Writing Desk.
This impression of The Writing Desk has a light airy quality. The movement provided by the flowery surroundings and fine strokes of etching provides a fascinating counterpoint to Mrs. Hassam’s thoughtfull, contemplative mood.
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Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Rue du Gros Horloge a Rouen, etching and aquatint, 1883-4, signed and inscribed “3 etat” and numbered “no. 7”. Reference: Delteil 54. Third state of three. From the “edition” of 12 in this state; there were also 2 proofs taken of the first state, and five of the second. (There were also 15 posthumous impressions taken, but of course they are not aesthetically comparable to the lifetime impressions.) In very good condition, with wide margins, 7 1/2 x 5 11/16, the sheet 11 13/16 x 9 7/16 inches. On laid paper, with the watermark Glaslan.
A fine impression of this great rarity.
Pissarro was perhaps the most active printmaker of the Impressionists; printmaking was an essential component of his career, and he was deeply involved in the process of creating and printing his prints. By mid-career Pissarro had made many etchings, using fairly conventional techniques (although of course aesthetically his work was hardly conventional), but it was Degas who introduced Pissarro to a range of unusual ways of working with the etching plate – especially the use of aquatint. At this point Pissarro was about 50. He worked closely with Degas for several years; they both enjoyed working carefully and painstakingly to refine an image or composition, and often incorporating accidents or unanticipated results in the print.
Rue du Gros Horloge was made about 5 years after Pissarro first began working on the refinements of printmaking with Degas. Among other innovations, they developed a variant of the aquatint technique called “maniere grise”, in which they scraped the plate with an emery point; that technique appears to have been used in this print. As noted, Pissarro and Degas both loved to re-work their plates through a number of states, carefully giving the plates different shadings and nuances, e.g., there are at least two layers of aquatint in this impression, as well as some carefully wiped plate tone. Of course this meant that the plates could withstand only very limited printings, and today these prints are of the utmost rarity.
Pissarro did not like professional printing of his etchings, and so he printed his plates himself (also Degas apparently printed many Pissarro proofs). The concept was not to produce a large edition of prints similar in appearance (only about 5 of Pissarro’s prints were in fact editioned during his lifetime); printmaking for Pissarro was a way of experimenting, achieving variations in light, mood, sensibility, with each proof. He did not intend to earn much money through printmaking (and he never did).
In 1883 Pissarro was painting at Rouen, and returned to Paris with a number of sketches and full of recollections, which he used in developing the Rouen prints, which were probably completed in early 1884; Pissarro did not yet have a printing press of his own, so he used printing facilities in Paris. These are among his most engaging prints, and Rue du Gros Horloge is among the most successful of this group.
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Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Rue Damiette, a Rouen; etching, drypoint and aquatint, 1884, signed bottom right [also dated and titled in the plate lower right]. Reference: Delteil 52, second state (of 2). Delteil notes that 9 proofs were pulled before steelfacing, and another 8 or 9 after (among the lifetime impressions); the earlier group was numbered according to Delteil, and so this impression may have been in the second group. In very good condition with full margins, slightest rubbing in margin to left of signature (visible only in a raking light, not near image); thin areas in margins verso inherent in handmade paper. On a hand made laid paper, without watermark, 7 7/8 x 5 7/8, the sheet 13 3/4 x 10 1/4 inches, archival mounting with silk window mat.
A fine atmospheric impression of one of the most successful of the Rouen cityscapes, in which Pissarro employs the “manier grise” aquatint technique (discussed below) effectively. A great rarity, we know of only one lifetime signed impression to come on the market in the past 15 years.
Pissarro was perhaps the most active printmaker of the Impressionists; printmaking was an essential component of his career, and he was deeply involved in the process of creating and printing his prints. By mid-career Pissarro had made many etchings, using fairly conventional techniques (although of course aesthetically his work was hardly conventional), but it was Degas who introduced Pissarro to a range of unusual ways of working with the etching plate – especially the use of aquatint. At this point Pissarro was about 50. He worked closely with Degas for several years; they both enjoyed working carefully and painstakingly to refine an image or composition, and often incorporating accidents or unanticipated results in the print.
Rue Damiette a Rouen was made about 5 years after Pissarro first began working on the refinements of printmaking with Degas. Among other innovations, they developed a variant of the aquatint technique called “maniere grise”, in which they scraped the plate with an emery point; that technique appears to have been used extensively in this print. As noted, Pissarro and Degas both loved to re-work their plates through a number of states, carefully giving the plates different shadings and nuances, e.g., there are at least two layers of aquatint in this impression, as well as some carefully wiped plate tone. Of course this meant that the plates could withstand only very limited printings, and today these prints are of the utmost rarity.
Pissarro did not like professional printing of his etchings, and so he printed his plates himself (also Degas apparently printed many Pissarro proofs). The concept was not to produce a large edition of prints similar in appearance (only about 5 of Pissarro’s prints were in fact editioned during his lifetime); printmaking for Pissarro was a way of experimenting, achieving variations in light, mood, sensibility, with each proof. He did not intend to earn much money through printmaking (and he never did). In 1883 Pissarro was painting at Rouen, and returned to Paris with a number of sketches and full of recollections, which he used in developing the Rouen prints, which were probably completed in early 1884; Pissarro did not yet have a printing press of his own, so he used printing facilities in Paris. These are among his most engaging prints, and Rue Damiette a Rouen is among the most successful of this group.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Paysage a Osny, 1887, etching and drypoint, signed in pencil and numbered “20”. Reference: Delteil 70, first state of two. In very good condition, on heavy cream laid paper, the full sheet with very wide margins, 4 1/2 x 6 1/8, the sheet 16 3/4 x 23 1/16 inches. As published by L’Etampe Original, and with its blindstamp (Lugt 819) lower left margin. From the edition of 100.
A fine impression, with excellent contrasts, and the drypoint burr effective.
Paysage a Osny was published in its original edition in the first state; additional proofs were taken in a second state, and then in a posthumous edition. The second state posthumous prints are not comparable to our impression: they’ve lost their richness, many of the delicate drypoint lines have worn out; the print has a grey quality.
By the late 1880’s Pissarro had been making prints for many years, and printmaking was a critical part of his work (among the Impressionists Pissarro and Degas were exceptional in their involvement with printmaking). After an early period of learning about the rudiments of printmaking, and then an extended time of experimentation, working closely with Degas, he continued printmaking as a mature artist; Paysage a Osny was done in this latter phase of his career. But his work was always aesthetically ahead of his time. He noted in a letter to his son Lucien in 1891: “As for the collectors, I’ll tell you what they really admire – Charles Jacque, Buhot, Bracquemond, or Legros when he’s in his Rembrandt mood, and the same goes for Seymour Haden. But not printmaking dealing with sensations. And that’s what I’m trying to do with my feelings.”
His comments about printmakers in a “Rembrandt mood” notwithstanding, Pissarro was (of course) an admirer of Rembrandt, and Paysage a Osny bears a curious resemblance to one of Rembrandt’s most famous prints, The Three Trees, with the trees on a dark hill at the right of the composition, and a rather complex set of hills and patterns (although, in both prints, the composition seems at first innocent glance rather straightforward).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1831-1903), etching, 1889, signed, titled and inscribed “No. 6 Epreuve de Artiste.” Reference: Delteil 89, third state (of 3). On tan laid paper. In good condition (slight time staining and spotting), with margins and archival mounting.
A fine impression of this charming composition, a great rarity.
Only 7 or 8 impressions of this state of the print were made (and only 10 or 11 in all, each personally printed by Pissarro), each signed, numbered and annotated. (Another 12 impressions were taken posthumously, but of course they lack the character, atmosphere and quality of the lifetime impressions; these were stamped and numbered.)
Few changes were made in Enfants Causant from state to state. In the third state Pissarro added a small tree trunk in the background, and extended the hair of the girl standing at the right down over her shoulders.
Pissarro did not like professional printing of his etchings, and so he printed most of his plates himself (Degas apparently printed many Pissarro proofs). The concept was not to produce a large edition of prints similar in appearance (only about 5 of Pissarro’s prints were in fact editioned during his lifetime); printmaking for Pissarro was a way of experimenting, achieving variations in light, mood, sensibility, with each proof. He did not intend to earn much money through printmaking (and he never did).
Posted in Camille Pissarro |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Baigneuses a L’Ombre des Berges Boisees (Women Bathing in the Shade of Wooded Banks), 1894, lithograph, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Delteil 142, second state (of two). As published in L’Estampe Originale, with their blind stamp lower right (Lugt 819), edition of 100. On chine applique, in very good condition, with very wide margins (the full sheet, slight browning toward sheet edges, a few grease spots on margins far from image; prior hinging verso), 6 1/8 x 8 1/2, the sheet 16 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches, archival mounting (acid free unattached mounts, acid free matting).
A fine impression.
Pissarro made several etchings of nudes bathing in 1894, a year he returned to lithography after a long absence. Baigneuses a L’Ombre is a wonderful example of his ability to create new techniques in printmaking; here he uses tusche (lithographic ink) diluted in benzine or ether, on a zinc plate; he also probably used a greasy crayon (the more traditional lithographic method) as well. The use of tusche is difficult – it’s hard to control. But Pissarro successfully captures the figures playing, and envelopes them in a range of light – from light grays to dark blacks. He wrote: “I have done a whole series of printed lithographic drawings in a romantic style… which seemed to me to have a rather amusing side: Baigneuses, plenty of them, in all sorts of places, in all sorts of paradises.”
In the first state the arm of the woman at the right extended rather vaguely into space; in the second state Pissarro corrected this tendency, and he also selectively lightened the plate, creating more intermediate greys, giving the composition greater structure and movement.
Posted in Camille Pissarro |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), The New Testament (Le Nouveau Testament), etchings, 1635; complete set of 11 including the frontispiece. Reference: Lieure 1418-1427, the frontispiece by Bosse Meaume 37 (only state). Five of the plates are trimmed of the (blank) lower margin, and therefore of uncertain state. The remaining five plates are all first states; Lieure 1418 the very rare first state of 5, and 1419, 1420, 1423, and 1426 each first states of 2. About 2 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches. In generally very good condition, trimmed on or near the platemarks, a few stains and nicks, each archivally matted, and held in a fine custom made marble covered box.
Provenance:
GFK Parthey (Lugt 1189)
H. Haendcke (Lugt 1228a)
A very fine set of these exceedingly detailed and finely wrought compositions.
This is the last set Callot did. He surely contemplated a larger series; at his death Abraham Bosse engraved a frontispiece for ten completed etchings of the set. Additional pictures and details are of course available on request.
The titles (starting with Lieure 1418) include: Jesus Among the Doctors, Jesus Preaching on the Shore; Jesus with the Pharisees; The Sermon on the Mount; Jesus and the Adulteress; Jesus Stoned; Resurrection of Lazarus; Entry into Jerusalem; Le Dernier de Cesar; The Conversion of St. Paul.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Jacques Callot (1592-1635), Mysteries of the Passion (Variae Tum Passionis Christi, Tum Vitiae Beatae Mariae Virginis), complete set of 20 etchings plus the frontispiece by Abraham Bosse (Reference Meaume 31). c. 1631. Reference: Lieure 679-698, second state (of 2). In very good condition, archival mounting.
A fine set of these small etchings, printed on 5 plates/sheets of laid paper, with margins, 3 of the plates with partial Crown watermarks (possibly Lieure 45).
The set of 20 etchings includes 7 in circular format, with a diameter of 1 1/4 inches; 7 larger ovals with a length of 1 7/8 inches, and 6 smaller ovals with a length of 1 1/2 inches. These are on 5 plates, with margins outside of the etchings of about 5/8 inches. The frontispiece is 3 1/2 x 3, the sheet 4 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches.
The 20 etchings of the series include:
Plate with 6 Scenes (Lieure 685-690): Ovals: Adoration of the Shepherds, Visitation, Adoration of the Magi; Circles: Descent into Limbo, Descent of the Holy Spirit, Entombment
2 Plate with 4 Scenes Each (Lieure 691-698): Ovals: Annunciation, Christ Among Teachers, Circumcision, Presentation; Circles: Resurrection, Crucifixion, Descent from the Cross, Transfiguration
2 Plates with 3 Oval Scenes Each (Lieure 679-684): Carrying of the Cross, Presentation to the People, Crowning with Thorns, Flagellation, Christ Before Pilate, Christ Delivered to the Jews.
These tiny etchings were originally made on 3 plates; later Israel Henriet cut two of the plates in half, issuing the set with the additional frontispiece made by Bosse, adding his “excudit” and Callot’s name to each plate.
The etchings were designed to be cut out and mounted as medallions to be worn around the neck as protection against the Black Plague, which was ravaging the Lorraine area in 1631. The details are so small that they are best seen under a magnifying glass (or perhaps by vulnerable microbes). As in all the best Callot prints, the compositions would appear to “work” even in formats many times their size.
Six of the 20 plates are illustrated; additional illustrations are of course available on request.
Posted in Jacques Callot |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569), engraving. Reference: Bastelaer, Hollstein 146. Lebeer 54, Orenstein 115. c. 1563. First state of two (see discussion below). Engraved by P. Van der Heyden. On paper with a Double Headed Eagle watermark. With thread margins below, trimmed to the subject but outside of the borderlines at the sides, trimmed irregularly at the top within the platemark particularly toward the upper right, some minute worm holes repaired, very light paper discoloration, other minor defects, 9 3/8 x 12 1/8 inches.
A fine clear impression of this well-known print, rarely found, especially in an early impression.
This is LeBeer’s, Hollstein’s, and Lari’s first state, and Bastelaer’s A state (of D), with the monogram of Pieter van der Heyden in the center and the signature P. Bruegel Inuet in the lower right corner, and between the two the address of the publisher Aux quatre Vents. Nadine Orenstein of the Metropolitan Museum recently discovered an impression in the Albertina in Vienna which had some slight variations in the writing at the bottom; assuming that impression was a first state, this print, traditionally the first state, would be a second state (of four; Orenstein also determined that Bastelaer’s State B does not exist!).
This is a difficult composition; one can stare at it for long periods without figuring out precisely who’s attacking whom. Although titled the battle of the moneybags and strongboxes, the battle is more complex than that – there are strongboxes and money bags to be sure, but also barrels of coins, piggy banks, and warriors emerging from all these structures attacking each other. The battle is of course about money, and the inscriptions, in Latin and Flemish, discuss the issues. To quote a few lines: “It’s all about the gold and goods, this fighting and quarreling. Even if somebody tells you otherwise, don’t believe it.”
$12,500
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Andre Derain (1880-1954), Couple au Bord du Torrent, drypoint, c. 1912-14, signed in pencil lower right margin and numbered 36 lower left. Reference: Adhemar 41, from an edition estimated at 50, in very good condition, the full sheet, printed on an ivory wove paper, 4 5/8 x 4 1/4, the sheet 12 3/4 x 9 3/4 inches, archival mounting with window mat.
A fine impression printed with plate tone.
It appears that this plate was owned by Derain’s eminent dealer Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, and was editioned and exhibited by Kahnweiler’s partner Simon at the Galerie Flechtheim in Dusseldorf in 1920.
Couple au Bord du Torrent was most likely created after Derain’s proto-cubist period (after 1907). but before his period of creating fully formed classical nudes during the 1920’s. It may be related to the several paintings he did during this wartime period, which showed rather mannerist nudes based on archaic or classical models such those on Grecian urns with a rather sparse somewhat artificial background.
Jane Lee, in her article The Prints of Andre Derain (The Print Quarterly, March, 1990, p. 45) dates Couple au Bord du Torrent as made during the War, a time when Derain was experimenting with various idioms in his work with nudes.
$1400
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Andre Derain (1880-1954), Baigneuse Nue aux Arbres (Nude Bather amidst Trees), etching and drypoint, c. 1909, signed in pencil and numbered 27/100. Reference: Adhemar 50. In very good condition, on ARCHES cream laid paper, with their watermark, with full margins, 7 x 3 3/4, the sheet 22 1/4 x 17 1/2 inches, archivally matted.
A fine impression, with a subtle layering of plate tone.
Derain clearly based the face in this print on the famous African Fang mask which he owned (and which influenced others who saw it in his apartment such as Picasso, e.g., in his Demoiselles d’Avignon). It is also related to a sculpture he owned, a late medieval Virgin and Child. In fact, as is argued by Jane Lee in her landmark article on Derain’s Prints (Print Quarterly, March, 1990), Derain was surely affected by late 16th Century Italian woodcuts in casting the “pose of the model, the curves of the trailing drapery repeating those oof her arm and hand.”
The landscape – the rolling hills – is probably based on the area of France between Collioure and Ceret, which was later to become known, according to Apollinaire’s phrase, as the “Mecca of Cubism.” Derain used a similar landscape in his print Paysage (Le Morin) and also in several paintings made at this time.
Andre Derain was born in Chatou, near Paris in 1880. He worked with Henri Matisse in 1905 at Collioure, and participated in the 1905 Salon d’Automne with Matisse, Vlaminck, and Braque, the exhibition in which this group was labeled as Fauves, or Wild Beasts. Derain moved to the Montmartre section of Paris in 1907 where he met Picasso. He had his first one-person exhibition in Paris in 1916, and received many honors and exhibitions until his death in 1954.
Posted in Andre Derain |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Anders Zorn (1860-1920), Gopsmor Cottage, 1917, etching, signed in pencil lower right [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Asplund 275, Hjert and Hjert 210. In very good condition, with full margins, 11 3/8 x 7 1/8, the sheet 16 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches, printed in black ink on a laid cream Van Gelder Zonen paper (with their watermark). Archival storage (non-attached mylar hinging between acid free boards).
A fine fresh impression.
Gopsmor Cottage demonstrates Zorn’s facility at creating movement in etching, within the context of his impressionist approach.
This is a barn dance, at night; we are in the middle of things, vigourous dancing all around. The beams at the top of the barn – done in Zorn’s strong etching strokes – are remindful of Piranesi’s imaginary structures, the Carceri. A couple facing each other dances at the left, a girl at the right, and other swirling figures can be made out in the distant light.
$2250
Posted in Uncategorized |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Hans Burgkmair (1459-1519), King Philip Received at Castile and Sworn to Loyalty, woodcut, 1514-1516. Reference: Bartsch 80-(224) 218 [by Leonhard Beck], from the History of Emperor Maximilian I. In very good condition (with margins; some very old script in ink bottom margin, some slight staining), on old laid paper, 8 5/8 x 7 5/8, the sheet 10 1/4 x 8 1/2 inches.
Provenance: Karl Edward von Liphart (1808-1891, Dorpat, Bonn and Florence), with his graphite mark verso (Lugt 1651, see also Lugt 1687, 1688). Lugt notes of Liphart, a distinguished collector of old master prints, “il commence par l’oeuvre de Ridinger et par un achat considerable GG. Boerner in Leipsig en 1836.”
A very good impression.
The History of the Weisskunig (White King) is an autobiography in the style of an illustrated novel without words. Although it is the story of Emperor Maximilian I all the characters have symbolic names. The White King is the name Maximilian chose for himself, as it both stands for whiteness (purity) and is associated with the word for wisdom (Weisheit).
Hans Burgkmair, the eminent Augsburg painter and printmaker was in effect Maximilian’s official court artist. He worked with other artists, including Leonhard Beck, in developing the plates for the Maximilian series. At the time of the original cataloguing this block was given to Beck; in the more recent edition of Bartsch it is given to Beck but the decision was made to continue its cataloguing under Burgkmair, to avoid confusion and keep the ordering and placement of all the blocks of the series intact.
This is one of a bound group of old master prints, including other woodcuts by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein and others. Many of these prints have the mark of the eminent collector Karl Edward von Liphart (Lugt 1651) verso. We are currently doing research on the collection so it is not on the market as yet.
Posted in Hans Burgkmair |
Sunday, June 21st, 2009
Anders Zorn (1860-1920), Henry Marquand, etching, 1893, signed in pencil lower right [also with initials and date in the plate]. References: Delteil 81, Asplund 81, Hjert/Hjert 58, only state. From the edition of about 35. In very good condition, with margins (a small hole in right margin away from platemark, slight toning), on a thin fine laid paper with the watermark M, 11 x 7 3/4, the sheet 12 5/8 x 9 1/8 inches, archival mounting.
A fine strong impression printed in black ink.
Henry G. Marquand (1819-1902) was an eminent American businessman and philanthropist. He began his career in the family jewelry business, then went on to invest in real estate, banking, and railroads. In the early 1880’s he withdrew from business and focused on the arts, eventually becoming the second president of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and donating items across a wide range of categories (some of which, e.g., porcelains and paintings, are shown alongside of this portrait of him).
Zorn’s lithograph of Marquand was recently on exhibit at the Met as part of its Age of Rembrandt exhibit.
Zorn specialized in portraits of the famous and rich, and his depiction of Marquand is surely one of his most dramatic and effective. He apparently created the etching on his first visit to the US, in 1893.
$2250
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
John Marin (1870-1953) etching St. Pauls Against the El, 1930, signed in pencil, from the edition of only about 20 (Zigrosser 146). [also signed and dated in the plate] . In very good condition, with margins (tiny skinned spots upper corners, a fox mark upper margin verso, archival mounting, 9 5/8 x 6 7/8 inches.
A fine, fresh impression with considerable plate tone, giving an unusual atmospheric quality to this cubist/modernist image. Published by Alfred Stieglitz.
St. Paul’s church and the surrounding downtown structures were favorite Marin etching subjects: he made several Whistlerian-style etchings of St. Paul’s around 1914, and returned to the subject in the mid-Twenties, but now in a modernist idiom. St. Paul’s Against the El represents an ambitious culmination of these efforts, and is surely one of his most successful modernist etchings.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), Baby and Nurse Reclining, drypoint, c. 1886, signed in pencil with initials lower right. Reference: Breeskin 91, only state. On Britannia Lifeline paper, in very good condition, with irregular margins, a few tiny foxmarks, some nicks and small tears left margin edge, remains of prior hinging right edge verso, 7 3/4 x 5 7/8 inches, the sheet 13 x 8 inches.
Provenance: Robert Hartshorne, New York (Lugt 2215b).
A fine atmospheric impression, printed with a substantial layering of plate tone.
Impressions of Baby and Nurse Reclining are rare; indeed we know of no other impressions to appear on the art market over the past 25 years.
Mary Cassatt regarded printmaking as a developmental activity, a way to grow as an artist, much in line with her colleague Edgar Degas. On the medium of drypoint, she said: “That is what teaches one to draw.” Prints such as Baby and Nurse Reclining – made a few years before the color aquatints that have become so popular – were not editioned but created in only a few impressions, and printed personally by Cassatt.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Adolphe Beaufrere (1876-1960), Femmes au Tub (Women Bathing), c. 1902, colored woodcut, signed in pencil, also with the artist’s red monogram stamp. Reference: Morane B-1; Musee des Beaux Arts de Renne 1. On brown Japon paper. Printed in dark brown, orange, tan and light blue. 13 1/2 x 8 7/8 inches. Trimmed just outside of the borderline. Soft creases upper left and associated slight rubbing, 2 soft folds upper right corner, soft creases lower left, soft fold near left border, a few rubbed or lightly printed areas in image.
Provenance: acquired directly from Jean-Noel Beaufrere, the artist’s son.
A fine impression of this great rarity, Beaufrere’s first woodcut and arguably his greatest work in printmaking.
We know of no other impressions of Femmes au Tub appearing on the market in recent history; the impression in the Musee des Beaux Arts de Rennes is presumably the impression appearing in Morane’s catalog raisonne (it appears to have condition problems, including scattered ink markings and creases, far exceeding those of the present impression). Morane does not call for any proposed edition. One surmises that Beaufrere had problems printing this print which prevented him from making more than a few proofs, but aesthetically it was a great success.
Beaufrere was born at Quimperle, in Brittany, and though he traveled widely he re-connected with this area throughout his life. As a teenager he decided that he wanted to become an artist and he traveled to Paris where, shortly after his arrival, he encountered the eminent Gustave Moreau, who took him on as a student. Moreau encouraged him to study old master prints, especially the prints of Rembrandt and Durer, which were available in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris – this was to be critical in his development. He was also influenced by the stirrings of modernism in Paris at the time, as well as the Japanese woodcut tradition and the French frenzy with Japonisme, of course evident in Femmes au Tub.
Beaufrere began printmaking near the end of his formal training, and Morane indicates that Femmes was made at this time, in 1902; he made a number of other woodcuts, but soon focused more on etching and engraving, as well as painting (curiously, one of his printmaking teachers at that time was the Canadian etcher Donald Shaw MacLaughlan). He began showing his prints, with some success, but after his marriage in 1905 his new wife convinced him to move out of Paris and back to Brittany, a move having a mixed effect on his career – contacts with other artists became fewer, but he did maintain gallery relationships, and the French countryside and it’s inhabitants would provide a continuing source of inspiration.
Posted in Adolph Beaufrere |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Paysanne au Puits (Peasant Woman at the Well), etching and aquatint, 1891, signed, titled and numbered (3 etat no 2). Reference: Delteil 101, third state (of 3). In excellent condition, on an ivory laid paper, no watermark discernible, with margins (remains of prior hinging verso). 9 1/4 x 7 5/8, the sheet 12 1/4 x 9 7/8 inches, archival mounting with non-attached mylar hinges, window mat.
A superb, atmospheric impression of this great rarity, printed with a veil of plate tone overall.
The composition of Paysanne au Puits was essentially complete in the first state of the print (known in one impression); in the second Pissarro scratched the plate (seemingly burnishing areas of aquatint) to clarify and lighten areas of the womans dress and face, and further lightening was done for the third state. In this impression Pissarro left substantial overall platetone which tends to mitigate in part the lightening effects of the work done in the third state; the mood created is thus relatively dark, and the prints profound aesthetic effects are achieved through the etching and plate work rather than selective plate wiping.
Pissarro personally printed only 9 impressions of Paysanne au Puits, and these are the only lifetime impressions. There was one of the first state, 3 of the second, and 5 of the third. This impression is numbered 2 (of the 3 state). The impression numbered 4 is in the Musee du Luxembourg; the impression numbered 1 is at the Ashmolean at Oxford.
Pissarro was perhaps the most active printmaker of the Impressionists; printmaking was an essential component of his career, and he was deeply involved in the process of creating and printing his prints. By mid-career Pissarro had made many etchings, using fairly conventional techniques (although of course aesthetically his work was hardly conventional), but it was Degas who introduced Pissarro to a range of unusual ways of working with the etching plate especially the use of aquatint. At this point Pissarro was about 50. He worked closely with Degas for several years; they both enjoyed making prints in many successive states, working to refine an image or composition, and often incorporating accidents or unanticipated results in the print.
By the early 1890s Pissarro was having some eye problems which prevented his working out of doors. He re-focused on printmaking, eventually (in 1891, the year Paysanne au Puits was made) buying a press so he could print them himself conveniently. Pissarro apparently saw printmaking as a way of evolving an image, experimenting with variations on a theme. He was not concerned with making exactly repeatable impressions, or making a lot of impressions; for him printmaking was an adventure.
Today the vast majority of Pissarro prints on the market are posthumous impressions (there were 50 posthumous impressions of Paysanne au Puits), and it is unfortunate that many know his work only through these inferior impressions; it is only through his lifetime impressions that one can appreciate Pissarro as one of the great masters of printmaking.
Posted in Camille Pissarro |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Bernard Kretzschmar (1889-1972), Auction, etching, drypoint, and burnished aquatint, 1921, signed and dated (’20) in pencil lower right [also initialed in the plate lower left] Reference: Diether Schmidt 80. In very good condition, the full sheet with wide margins, 13 1/2 x 15 1/2, the sheet 18 x 22 inches, archival window mat.
Published by the Marées-Gesellschaft, with their blindstamp lower right.
A fine impression. This impression may be a second state, after burnishing of the plate. Burnishing marks are evident especially in the lower section, the lower left corner, the area surrounding the head of the auctioneer, the face of the man at the desk recording the auction, and elsewhere.
Kretzschmar is one of the great, but underappreciated German Expressionists. Originally a decorative painter, he saved enough money to enroll at the Kunstgewerbeschule, then the Kunstacademie (art school) in Dresden. In 1920, at the age of 31, he destroyed all his work and started anew, focusing on the life of the townspeople of Dresden and surrounding towns.
In Auction, done in this period, he does not portray the auction attendees or staff lovingly, but rather as a somewhat grubby lot, staring at what appears to be a woman’s undergarment (or some such thing) being brought up for sale
Posted in Bernard Kretzschmar |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), The Holy Kinship with Lute Playing Angels, woodcut, 1511. References: Bartsch 97, Meder, Hollstein 216. In generally good condition, trimmed to the border, a horizontal fold, small made up repair lower center, other slight repaired breaks near left margin, scattered thin areas verso, 208 x 210 mm, 8 1/8 x 8 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine strong Meder A/B (of D) impression, with clear black detailing and considerable gauffrage. Before the break and displacement of the numeral 1 of the date (which Meder notes is characteristic of the B impressions) but without any discernible watermark (B impressions characteristically have no watermark).
Provenance: unidentified collector’s mark (brown cross on circle stamp) verso (not in Lugt).
The Holy Kinship depicts the complex relationships of the family of Saint Anne, the mother of Mary and wife of Joachim. Joseph, Mary and Saint Anne’s three husbands (in the late medieval period she was thought to have had three) are pictured, as well as Anne’s two other daughters. Saint Anne is typically shown as here, holding a book.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Christ Among the Doctors, from the Life of the Virgin, woodcut, c. 1503. References: Bartsch 91, Hollstein 203. Watermark: High Crown (Meder watermark number 20). A proof before the 1511 Latin Text. In good condition overall apart from thin spots on verso, 2 pinholes bottom right, loss (repaired) upper left corner, small abrasion above head of man lower right, trimmed to the platemark, archival mounting.
A brilliant Meder a impression.
Provenance: ex Collection G. Von Rath (Lugt 2772).
Meder a impressions of Christ Among the Doctors are characterized by clear strong printing, a gap in the upper left border line, and a 75 mm. break bottom center under the feet of the standing figure. The High Crown watermark (as here) or the Bull’s Head watermark are found in these early impressions.
The scene is based on Luke 2:42-50. Christ, only 12, had stayed in the Temple in Jerusalem after his parents had left “sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.” But after awhile, his parents came back to find him.
Here, Mary has just entered the temple (at the left, followed by Joseph), not yet realizing that her search for the young Jesus – who is seated on the stage in back possibly reading from the scroll – has ended. Durer creates a fascinating composition, with the immediate discussion between Christ and the doctors taking place in the far background, contrasting with the large figures in the foreground who seem to be expressing astonishment among themselves at the talent of the young scholar.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Sudarium Held by Two Angels, engraving, 1513 [with the monogram and date on the tablet]. References: Bartsch 25, Meder, Hollstein 26. In excellent condition, 4 x 5 1/2 inches.
A superb, very early impression, with small margins.
PROVENANCE:
F.B. 1602 (Lugt 365, 369, identified in the Fisher sale catalogue as Borduge 23-27 May, 1892, lot 197)
Dr. W. Krieg (Lugt 799b)
Pierre Mariette (tracing of signature verso)
R. Fisher (L. 2204)
Dr. and Mrs. Edgar F. Paltzer-Boker (stamp verso, not in Lugt)
Dr. Edward H. Paltzer and Gabriele Paltzer-Lang (stamp verso, not in Lugt) .
This engraving is derived from the legend of St. Veronica. The earliest version, recorded in the 6th C., speaks of the cloth merely as a commemorative image of Christ commissioned by the saint. By 1300, in the influential Bible of Roger d’Argenteuil, the saint, taking pity on Jesus on his way to Calvary, hands him the kerchief to wipe his face, and miraculously his features are imprinted upon it.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Wenzel Hollar (1607-77), View of London from Whitehall Stairs, etching, c. 1647. Reference: Pennington 912, only state. In very good condition, with small margins, soft folds upper right corner, printed on an old laid paper with a Fleur de Lis and Crown watermark. 3 3/4 x 7 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression with superb detailing (e.g., the letters ‘Thames flu’ can be clearly read in the river, but some magnification is useful for reading this and other details).
Provenance: ex Collection, Francis Leventritt (Leventritt’s advisor regarding Old Master prints was the eminent art critic Leo Steinberg)
Pennington’s description of this image is worth some repeating: “A view of the muddy shore of the Thames, lettered ‘Thames flu’, at low water across to Lambeth Place…Across the mud a plank walk – Whitehall Stairs – slopes down to low water level to end in a post to which a dozen ferry boats are made fast…Whitehall Stairs was a public landing place as opposed to the Privy Stairs a little farther up river. They led to a narrow passage,with the quarters for the royal pages and the royal cooks on the left, which led into an open space behind the Banqueting House. Whtehall Court now stands on the site.”
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Marc Chagall (1887-1985), La Tour Eiffel (The Eiffel Tower), etching, 1943, signed in pencil lower right and annotated “epreuve d’artist” lower left. Reference: Kornfeld 85c. From the edition of 14, each an artist’s proof, printed in 1957 (there was an earlier edition of 50 in 1943, as included in the portfolio of original works by artists including Breton, Calder, Ernst, Tanguy, Motherwell). In very good condition, on laid paper with the FRANCE-PAPIER watermark, with full margins, 11 x 8, the sheet 19 1/4 x 13 inches; archival window matting.
A fine strong impression of this moving image.
Paris, and the Eiffel Tower, were of course critical to Chagall’s career. He moved to Paris from Russia in 1910, and lived and worked there intermittently during the course of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1937. But with the Nazi occupation of France during World War II, and the deportation of Jews and the Holocaust, the Chagalls fled Paris, first hiding in Marseille, and then escaping from France through Spain and Portugal, settling in the United States in 1941.
Chagall created many images of the Eiffel Tower during his career; in fact observers have frequently suggested that the Tower represented freedom or being up in the sky, in his paintings. But in this representation, created in 1943 in the midst of the War, Chagall depicts the tower as a woman, shedding a tear.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmenz Van Rijn (1606-1669), Death Appearing to a Wedded Couple from an Open Grave, etching and touches of drypoint, 1639 [signed and dated, Rembrandt f. 1639 in the plate]. References: Bartsch, Hollstein 109, Hind 165. Only state. Watermark: part of a Strasbourg Lily with Pendant PR (Ash and Fletcher E.a). In generally adequate condition, trimmed on or just inside of the platemark, various soft folds (one vertical, bottom diagonal), tip of upper right corner missing, some tiny nicks at edges. 4 3/8 x 3 1/16 inches, archival mounting with non-attached mylar hinging.
A fair/good impression lifetime impression of this very lightly and delicately printed print. A rarely encountered Rembrandt print (rated RR, “rare”, by Nowell-Usticke)
Provenance: H. Marx (with stamp verso) (Lugt 2816a); also with the initials VC written in brown ink bottom right recto.
The plate of this print is not known, and (therefore) posthumous impressions printed by the succession of engravers who possessed Rembrandt prints are not recorded.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmenz. Van Rijn (1606-1669), A Canal with a Large Boat and Bridge, etching and drypoint, 1650. References: Bartsch, Hollstein 236, Hind 239. Second state (of two). On old laid paper with thread margins or trimmed to the platemark, short tear (5mm) at left edge, tip of lower right corner missing, an inscription in brown ink verso showing through lower left, otherwise in good condition. 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inches; 83 x 108 mm.
A very fine early impression, with substantial burr from the drypoint work, especially in the tree at the right but also in the boat, shoreline and ground toward the left.
Provenance: Collection of Otto Schaefer, sold in his sale of Rembrandt prints at Sothebys New York May 13 1993, lot 71. The sale of Dr. Schaefer’s collection was a landmark event in the history of great collections of Rembrandt prints coming onto the market, perhaps never to be equaled again as such high quality prints become increasingly unobtainable.
Nowell-Eusticke notes that this is “A scarce little landscape”; rating it “R+” (“R” is “scarce or very uncommon”). Impressions with much burr such as this one are quite early, since the burr is known to wear off after a few dozen impressions are made.
Rembrandt appears to have made only the basic structure of the print, with some details (such as a series of compartments in the boat) in etching; then he worked the plate with the drypoint needle to give this appealing composition rich complexity and atmosphere – its shadows, the rich foliage in the tree, the cross hatching in the field, the dark and light patches of grass along the river bed.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Simone Cantarini (1612-1648), St. Anthony of Padua Adoring the Christ Child, c. 1640, etching. References: Bartsch 25, Bellini 26, first state (of 3). In good condition with thread margins apart from small stain middle left and backed to a tissue, (possible) repaired tear bottom right corner, on laid paper with an unidentifiable watermark, 10 1/4 x 7 inches, archival mounting (acid free hinging and backing mat, window mat).
A fine clear and strong early impression.
Provenance: ex Collection Emiliano Sorini, with stamp verso (not in Lugt).
In our early lifetime impression the bottom margin is still blank; in the second state the name of the artist is added (Simone Cantarini Fe originale); in the third state the name of the publisher is added (Gio Giacomo Rossi formis Romae alle Pace).
Simone Cantarini was strongly influenced by Guido Reni, whose large painting of the Madonna and Child was installed in a church in Cantarini’s home town when Cantarini was a teenager. A few years later in about 1635 Cantarini traveled to Bologna where he became part of the Reni’s studio, working closely for a few years with Reni. But Cantarini was bad tempered, and resented Reni’s attempts to exploit him to make etchings after Reni paintings; in addition, he hated having his work passed off as Reni’s. After a violent break with Reni in 1637 he went out on his own.
Cantarini died at the early age of 36, after having made some 37 etchings. Unlike other artists of the time better known for their paintings than their graphic work, Cantarini is known today as a masterful etcher; he has received great praise from art critics of the period for his bold, free-spirited touch.
$1400
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmensz Van Rijn (1606-1669), The Circumcision in the Stable, etching, 1654. References: Bartsch, Hollstein 47, White and Boon 47 I (of II), Hind 74. First state (of 3) (see discussion below), [signed and dated twice in the plate] On laid paper with the Foolscap with seven pointed collar watermark (cf. Ash and Fletcher Foolscap with Seven-Pointed Collar C.b., page 117); Hinterding C-b. 3 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches.
Provenance:
Georg Rath (Lugt 1206)
Weber (Lugt 1383)
G. Bjorklund (Lugt 1138c)
A fine, strong sharp and clear impression.
Cataloguers White and Boon, Hind and Nowell Eusticke refer to square corners (as found in this impression) as characterizing the early first state impressions. But in the recent (2000) volume Rembrandt the Printmaker Hinterding et al identify a new first state (cf. catalogue number 74) in which dots appear above the child, to be burnished in the next state, and the man at the right turning has yet to have his rounded shoulder straightened. And in their (Amsterdam) impression this new first state also has rounded corners. In the present impression the dots above the child have been mostly burnished, the shoulder appears to be straightened, there is evidence of burnishing next to the “turning man,” and the corners are square. (The rounded corners issue is not referred to in the Hinterding volume.) So given the latest research, this impression would be a second state after the newly discovered first. It has yet to be shown how this new first state can have rounded corners, which become square in the second state, then rounded again in the last state.
Hinterding identifies several impressions of B 47 with this or a similar Foolscap with Seven-Pointed Collar watermarks: at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and at the Former Ritman Collection, London; also two coming from the Clement de Jonghe stock, one now at the Morgan Museum, the other in the Rijksprentenkabinet, Amsterdam. He indicates that the impressions in the de Jonghe stock are “good, crisp and full of contrast, but will not have been printed before 1658.”
In White and Boon’s final (second) state the blank spaces in the upper middle and the upper far left were filled in; Hinterding et al note that that is probably a posthumous state, and that all the watermarks found in the White and Boon second state impressions have been posthumous.
The iconography for this print is a bit unusual, for generally the circumcision of Christ was depicted in a Temple, and indeed Rembrandt showed the circumcision in a Temple in an earlier etching, and in a drawing and a (now lost) painting. But theologians have pointed out that it was forbidden for a newborn’s mother to enter a Temple for 40 days after giving birth.
The strong shadowing lines at the right recall the dramatic lines of Rembrandt’s drypoint the Three Crosses, done the prior year.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Sir Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910), Kensington Gardens (The Small Plate), drypoint, 1859, signed in pencil lower right. References: Harrington 12, Schneiderman 15, third/fourth state (of 10). In very good condition, on a thin Japan paper, with margins, 6 1/4 x 4 1/2, the sheet 8 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches, archival mounting (window mat, unattached mylar hinging).
A very fine impression, carefully wiped above the chimneys in the background, with blacks of the trees and shadows in the foreground contrasting effectively with the greys of the mansion to create a marvelous sense of depth.
We believe this is the third state, before the inscription by Whistler (the name Seymour Haden at the bottom) is completely removed, but it may be the fourth state or an intermediate state between the two – the name Kensington appears twice, once at the left and again is visible at the right.
At this time Whistler, Haden’s brother in law, was learning printmaking and working closely with Haden. Haden was a surgeon, but had a long and distinguished career as one of the leading British etchers.
Posted in Seymour Haden |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Seymour Haden (1818-1910), Combe Bottom, etching and drypoint, 1860, signed in pencil lower right margin [also signed in the plate lower left and annotated “Shere”]. Reference: Schneiderman 32, tenth state (of 16). In very good condition, printed in black ink on ivory laid paper, with margins, 4 1/2 x 5 15/16, the sheet 6 x 8 inches, window mat.
Provenance: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Crossett, with their stamp verso (not yet in Lugt). A substantial part of Crossett’s distinguished and large print collection is now part of the Mead Museum collection at Amherst College.
A fine fresh impression. In this state Haden has added the wonderful light touch of long shadows to the left of the rabbits.
Combe Bottom is in Shere, Surrey; this is still a scenic area of great recreational and scientific interest.
Sir Seymour Haden was a surgeon who became one of the leading printmakers of the 19th Century. Combe Bottom was created during his best creative period, shortly after he began working with his brother-in-law James Whistler.
The New York Times notes, in an article on a 1911 sale of Haden prints, that Combe Bottom sold for $220.
$750
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Sir Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910), A Sunset in Ireland, 1863, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right margin [also signed in the plate lower left]. Reference: Schneiderman 47, Harrington 51. Schneiderman state xiii/xiv; Harrington ii/ii. On laid paper, in very good condition (very slight light or mat stain visible well outside of platemark), with wide margins, 5 1/4 x 8 1/2, the sheet 9 x 12 1/2 inches, archival mounting with window mat.
A superb impression of this famed image, with extensive burr, in black ink.
A Sunset in Ireland is surely Haden’s greatest masterpiece, and in this impression it’s clear why: the composition works superbly, and the drypoint burr achieves an astonishing velvet, atmospheric, quality. In this state, before some added drypoint at the left bank and before the cancellation of the plate, we see the definitive structure and composition of the print.
Haden depicts a scene of tranquillity and calm in the estate of Viscount Hawarden, in Tipperary. Dr. Haden was a fisherman as well as a surgeon and artist, and so this was surely a river scene (the river is the Dundrum or Malteen) with special meaning to him.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Stefano Della Bella (1610-1664), Il Mondo Festeggiante (The Celebrating World), the set of 3 etchings, 1661. Reference: DeVesme 70-72, only state. On heavy laid paper, with thread margins, in very good condition (one with reinforcements verso; some misprinting at top/center of another); one with a star and countermark letter R watermark, approximate size 11 3/4 x 17 1/8 inches, archival matting.
Superb impressions of these large rarities; with the guidelines for the lettering at the bottom margins still printing.
These illustrations record the festival staged in 1661 in honor of the marriage of Cosimo de Medici and Marguerite-Louise d’Orleans. The festival takes place in the Pitti Palace amphitheater, in Florence. Two of the illustrations are remarkably complex, the third appears to be a bird’s eye view of marching formations and choreography.
In one scene Atlas, a huge giant constructed for the occasion holds a huge globe, from which 4 women singers will emerge; hundreds of marchers, many on horseback, surround this spectacle. Prince Cosimo rides past below, left of center. In the next composition Atlas – thanks to a spectacular engineering feat -ihas transformed into a mountain at the center, standing between chariots representing the sun and the moon. Four groups of cavaliers surround him, costumed to symbolize Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. Huge pyramidal wax torch structures on the periphery light up the scene.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), Catherine Prepare le Tub et Lois Nue se Coiiffre, 1895, drypoint and etching with plate tone, signed in pencil lower right [also signed and dated in the plate, in reverse]. Reference: Petrides E 7. From an edition of unstated size, probably printed well after its creation. In very good condition with full margins (some spots of mat stain (?) in the margin outside of the platemark, stains from prior hinging margin edges), printed on BFK Rives cream wove paper, the full sheet, 8 7/8 x 8 7/8, the sheet 18 3/8 x 14 1/2 inches, archival mounting (2750).
A fine fresh atmospheric impression, printed with plate tone and a smattering of acid or phosphorous.
Shortly before this early drypoint was made, in 1893, Valadon, at the suggestion of Toulouse Lautrec succeeded in meeting and impressing Degas. It is said that Degas took one look at her drawings of little Maurice (her son, later to become well-known as the artist Maurice Utrillo) and said, “you are one of us!” He then bought 17 of these drawings and hung them among his Cézannes, Gauguins and Van Goghs.
$2750
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Wenzel Hollar (1606-1677), Air, 1647, after Petrus van Avont, from the Four Elements. [signed and dated W. Hollar 1647 lower right and inscribed P. van Avont inu lower left in the plate] Reference: Pennington 522, third state (of 3). In good condition (a thin spot upper left verso), on laid paper, trimmed outside of the borderline all around, 5 1/2 x 8 1/8 inches.
Provenance: the London firm of Craddock and Barnard, still in their mat, with the Barnard annotations.
A fine strong impression of this whimsical representation of the element Air.
Hollar (1607-1677) had learned etching as a gentlemanly pursuit before, as a Protestant, having to leave Catholic Prague when he was 20. For nine years he worked in various German towns, mostly producing topographical prints and drawings. In 1636 while in Cologne he joined the entourage of the Earl of Arundel, with whom he returned to England. After the Earl’s death in 1646 Hollar went to Antwerp, where he made the etchings after Avont’s Four Elements.
Posted in Wenzel Hollar |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), [Reclining Nude], c. 1920, etching, signed in pencil lower margin. In pristine condition, soft fold upper right, with no sign of prior framing or exposure, the full sheet on yellow/cream laid paper, 6 x 7 3/4, the sheet 9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression.
Walt Kuhn was born in Brooklyn, and after a period of study art in Europe, he returned to the US to work as a cartoonist; illustrator, and developing artist. Aware of the great surge of modernist artistic activity in Europe, he joined with others to encourage Arthur B. Davies to get behind the idea of bringing a great European modernist art show to the US, and traveled with Davies to Europe to select art for the occasion (which became the 1913 Armory Show).
Reclining Nude was probably done c. 1920 when Kuhn, Davies, and a few others in the US were experimenting with modernism as they developed their printmaking skills. Kuhn successfully continued printmaking and painting in a modernist mode for the next 30 or so years.
Posted in Walt Kuhn |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), [Nude on Chaise], c. 1920, etching, signed in pencil lower margin. In very good condition, no sign of prior framing, with margins (slight discoloration in margins), the full sheet on yellow/cream laid paper, 6 x 7 3/4, the sheet 9 3/8 x 11 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression, printed with a light veil of plate tone.
Walt Kuhn was born in Brooklyn, and after a period of study art in Europe, he returned to the US to work as a cartoonist, illustrator, and developing artist. Aware of the great surge of modernist artistic activity in Europe, he joined with others to encourage Arthur B. Davies to get behind the idea of bringing a great European modernist art show to the US, and traveled with Davies to Europe to select art for the occasion (which became the 1913 Armory Show). [Nude on Chaise] was probably done c. 1920 when Kuhn, Davies, and a few others in the US were experimenting with modernism as they developed their printmaking skills. A debt to Matisse is evident. Kuhn successfully continued printmaking and painting in a modernist mode for the next 30 or so years.
Posted in Walt Kuhn |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Walt Kuhn (1877-1949), Negligee, c. 1920, etching, signed and titled in pencil lower margin. In good condition, on cream wove paper, printed with a light veil of plate tone, with wide margins, 6 x 8, the sheet 8 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this great rarity; it is listed as number 39 in the Kennedy Galleries Walt Kuhn Checklist, made for an exhibit of his prints in 1967; it is cited as a print where no more than 6 impressions are known to exist.
Walt Kuhn was born in Brooklyn, and after a period of study art in Europe, he returned to the US to work as a cartoonist; illustrator, and developing artist. Aware of the great surge of modernist artistic activity in Europe, he joined with others to encourage Arthur B. Davies to get behind the idea of bringing a great European modernist art show to the US, and traveled with Davies to Europe to select art for the occasion (which became the 1913 Armory Show).
Negligee was probably done c. 1920 when Kuhn, Davies, and a few others in the US were experimenting with modernism as they developed their printmaking skills. Kuhn successfully continued printmaking and painting in a modernist mode for the next 30 or so years.
Posted in Walt Kuhn |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Theophile Steinlen (1859-1923), Interior of Tramway, lithograph, 1896, signed lower right in red pencil. Reference: Crauzat 173. In good condition, on Chine Volant with wide (full) margins, 10 5/8 x 13 5/8, the sheet 16 1/2 x 20. A proof impression apart from the edition of 50.
A fine proof impression of this well known masterpiece.
Theophile Alexandre Steinlen began his career as an illustrator for Paris journals (Le Chat Noir, Gil Blas), and was naturally attracted to printmaking presumably because he was such an excellent draughtsman. His lithographic work, such as Interior of Tramway, was of course informed by the marvelous draughtsmanship of his fellow-countryman and predecessor Honore Daumier. Indeed, Daumier made several at least superficially similar images of people on trains, and this theme has of course been repeated by others including Hopper, Marsh, and Bishop in the US.
Although he is famed for his fin de siecle posters (and for his cats!), Steinlen’s work throughout his career was marked by strong social consciousness. From early on, he created images of French life – prostitutes and pimps, construction workers and miners, ragpickers and soldiers, workers, city people. Here we find group of Parisiens, some rather well dressed in fact, bundled up against the cold and although sitting close to each other, each in a world of their own.
Posted in Théophile Steinlen |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), Profile of a Woman, drypoint, c. 1900-1905, signed in pcncil on the tab and annotated “imp” [also signed in the plate lower left]. Reference: Hausberg 60, only state, from the edition of about 30 impressions. In very good condition, trimmed somewhat irregularly by the artist along the platemark except for the tab, 6 5/16 x 4 5/8 inches.
A fine impression with exquisite detailing, printed with considerable plate tone in the background and wiped carefully about the head and shoulders.
Hausberg notes that this print was printed two ways, either wiped fairly clean, or, as in this impression, with a dark covering of plate tone left in the background.
In accord with the custom of his mentor James Whistler, Roussel trimmed the print on the platemark except for the small tab at the bottom where he signed his name and wrote the letters imp, standing for the Latin impressit (indicating that he printed the impression personally).
The model for this print is Hettie Pettigrew (1867-1953). Ms. Pettigrew, a model for Whistler as well as Roussel, was also Roussel’s student, and had, according to Hausberg, a personal relationship with Roussel as well as a professional one.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
William Zorach (1887-1966), Sailing (Provincetown), 1916, linocut, signed and titled (as Provincetown). In generally good condition, on tan Japan paper, with margins (staining and thin spots from prior hinging at top margin edge, away from image). 10 11/16 x 8 9/16, the sheet 12 1/5 x 10 1/8 inches, archival mounting (non-attached mylar hinging, acid free window mat).
A fine proof impression of this rarity, hand rubbed by the artist in an oily black ink.
In his landmark article “The Prints of William Zorach” (Print Quarterly, Vol. XIX, December, 2002) Efram Burke accounts for only 6 impressions (all in black and white) of Sailing (Provincetown) in public institutions: Brooklyn Museum, NY Public Library, Boston MFA, Ackland Art Museum (UNC at Chapel Hill), Philadelphia MFA, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Burke notes that the sails of the boat (holding a family which could be Zorach’s) are left mostly transparent, enabling the viewer to see more of the coastline. Provincetown landmarks are visible, including the uniform wharves of the city along the water, and at the center, the tower known as the Pilgrim Monument.
William Zorach was a pioneering American modernist. Born in Lithuania, his parents migrated to Cleveland when he was four. After working as an apprentice commercial lithographer he studied art in Cleveland and New York, then in Paris from 1909 to 1911. He eventually became best known as a modernist American sculptor, but before that he and his wife Marguerite spent a number of summers in New England, including four in Provincetown where they made prints inspired by the New England countryside and coast.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1964), Klein Welten (Small Worlds) IX, drypoint, 1922, signed lower right in pencil [also monogrammed in the plate]. Reference: Roethel 172, only state. From the edition of 200; from the portfolio Klein Welten. In good condition, tiny loss upper right margin corner, old glue verso upper margin corners. On a heavy wove paper, with full margins, 9 3/8 x 7 3/4, the sheet 11 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches. Archival mounting.
A fine clear impression.
Kandinsky joined the Bauhaus in 1922, the same year he published the Klein Welten portfolio, which was a survey of his progression from abstraction after nature, which he began shortly after the turn of the century, to more structured and constructivist abstraction. Klein Welten IX is a superb example of Kandinsky’s abstract constructivism, using the print medium. Planes intersect, rectangles and complex triangles move through space and through each other, things fall apart and cohere, and in the end the overall composition “works.”
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Etching for Stephen Spender “Fraternity”, etching and drypoint, 1939, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Roethel 202, only state. From the edition of 113 (of which not all were signed). In very good condition, on Montvale ivory laid paper, with a partial “woman bathing” watermark, the full sheet, 5 1/16 x 3 1/4, the sheet 9 x 6 3/8 inches. Published by Atelier 17, Paris.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered print.
After the Bauhaus closed, in 1933, Kandinsky moved to Paris where he made only a small number (6) of prints. Etching for Stephen Spender is from this period, made at the famed Atelier 17. It recalls his earlier tiny drypoints in its small scale and its extraordinarily exquisite detailing of lines and patterns.
Stephen Spender (1909-1995) was the famed writer and poet; this etching was published by Atelier 17 in a portfolio which included engravings by eight artists including Joan Miro, John Buckland-Wright, Joseph Hecht, and others.
Posted in Wassily Kandinsky |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Etching for Stephen Spender “Fraternity”, etching and drypoint, 1939, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Roethel 202, only state. From the edition of 113 (of which not all were signed). In very good condition, on Montvale ivory laid paper, with a partial “woman bathing” watermark, the full sheet, 5 1/16 x 3 1/4, the sheet 9 x 6 3/8 inches. Published by Atelier 17, Paris.
A fine impression of this rarely encountered print.
After the Bauhaus closed, in 1933, Kandinsky moved to Paris where he made only a small number (6) of prints. Etching for Stephen Spender is from this period, made at the famed Atelier 17. It recalls his earlier tiny drypoints in its small scale and its extraordinarily exquisite detailing of lines and patterns.
Stephen Spender (1909-1995) was the famed writer and poet; this etching was published by Atelier 17 in a portfolio which included engravings by eight artists including Joan Miro, John Buckland-Wright, Joseph Hecht, and others.
Posted in Wassily Kandinsky |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), Etching 1916 Number II, drypoint, signed in pencil lower right, titled, numbered (No. 9) and dated lower left [also with initials and date in the plate lower right]. Reference: Roethel 154, only state, edition of 10. In excellent condition (the barest handling fold at sheet edge), printed on a heavy ivory wove paper, the full sheet with full margins, 4 7/8 x 3 1/4, the sheet 17 1/2 x 13 inches, archival mount with window mat.
A fine fresh impression of this great rarity, printed in a dark brown ink.
Kandinsky created this drypoint (erroneously named Etching 1916) in early 1916 while staying with Gabriel Munter in Stockholm during the winter of 1915-16. This is from the second series of drypoints he made; the first was in the year 1913-14.
The tiny size of this edition (10) makes this print a great rarity within the Kandinsky’s printed oeuvre (for comparison, his Kleine Welten series, issued later, in 1922, was published in an edition of 230).
Kandinsky had already moved decisively toward an abstract idiom all his own, and had established his reputation internationally by the time he created this drypoint. Before this his involvement with printmaking was mostly in woodcuts; much of this work had clearly identifiable imagery. But by 1911 he had (with Franz Marc) founded the Blaue Reiter group, and had written (although not published) his famed On the Spiritual in Art, a treatise which helps explain the meaning and force of the shapes and lines found in this fascinating and complex drypoint.
POR
Posted in Wassily Kandinsky |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1954) Barbershop, 1915, etching and aquatint, signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil; also signed and inscribed “imp” by the printer Peter Platt [also signed and dated in the plate]. Reference: Morse 173, third state of three. On cream wove paper, in very good condition (with the drying holes in outer margins top and bottom that characterize the impressions printed by Platt), with wide margins, traces of pale time stain, 9 7/8 x 12, the sheet 12 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches, archival mounting. From the total printing of only 35.
A fine impression, in a dark brownish/black ink.
Although Sloan routinely wrote an edition size of 100 on his prints, many were printed in small numbers; the total printing of Barbershop was only 35.
Peter Platt was one of the most eminent of the printers who printed for Sloan, and one of Sloan’s favorite printers. After printing a proof he tacked it up to dry, and did not later trim the print so that the holes would not be evident; hence the tacking holes which characterize the Platt proofs. Cream wove paper was a favored Platt paper.
This is not only one of Sloan’s most successful compositions, it is also one of his most ambitious efforts in printmaking. In later years Sloan wrote these technical notes about this print: “Done on a zinc plate, which is not susceptible to delicate biting. The linework was etched first, then the plate coated with powdered resin and prepared for aquatint in the usual manner. The lightest areas were blocked out first with stopping-out varnish, then the medium darks while the darkest darks were exposed the longest to the acid bath. I don’t remember making any previous experiment with aquatint.”
Sloan’s success in capturing this scene – and an era as well – is obvious. Less obvious are little touches throughout the composition, e.g., the sign upper left (“Turpitude the Great Hair Raiser”), the typical barbershop calendar at the left, the issues of The Masses on the table at right (though the waiting customer is reading Puck).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
James Ensor (1860-1949), La Mare aux Peupliers (The Pond at the Poplars), drypoint and etching, 1889, signed, titled and dated lower margin, also countersigned verso [also signed and dated Ensor 1889 in the plate]. References: Delteil 74, Elesh 74, first state (of two). In very good condition, with full margins, on Simili Japon paper, 6 1/4 x 9 3/8, the sheet 13 7/8 x 18 3/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine delicately printed impression of the rare first state, before the additional darkening lines to the bank at the right, before additional such lines throughout the foreground and in the background foliage.
The print is rarely seen on the market, particularly in a fine example in the first state.
In a tradition reminiscent of Breughel Ensor created landscapes with only a few or no figures (there is a man lurking in the reeds in the lower left of this example) while over-populating other works with various sorts of people, insects and other creatures. Perhaps the serenity of the scenes from nature were a useful antidote to the busy highly populated works, for both artists. La Mare aux Peupliers is one of Ensor’s larger, more ambitious (though no less serene) landscapes; it is impressionist in mood.
$8750
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
James McBey (1883-1959), The Ebb Tide, or, Brightling Sea, etching, 1922-3, signed in ink bottom right margin and numbered in ink bottom left margin (IV/L) [also signed, dated and titled in the plate]. Reference: Hardie and Carter 216. From the British Edition (as numbered in Roman Numerals from I to L); the total edition was 76. In very good condition (some glue on verso, small loss lower margin edge far from image, on old laid paper with a Four Balls watermark, with margins, 8 3/8 x 13 3/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches. Archivally matted, with acid free window mat, non-attached mylar hinging.
Provenance: The Montclair (New Jersey) Museum, with their catalogue numbering verso.
A fine impression, printed on a tan paper in black ink, with a light veil of plate tone overall, slightly accentuated in the watery area towards the bottom.
The print portrays daybreak on Brightlingsea Creek. In the morning mist the Thames barges appear on the left, and the oyster boats moving toward the sea at the right.
Although this is a Thames print, it presages in mood and composition the Venice prints McBey created a few years later.
Hardie wrote that “there is a brilliant outflash, a lighthouse radiance about The Ebb Tide. The Ebb Tide, a peaceful rendering of light and air and boats on an oily sea, possesses as its secret what the early Christian described to the Roman magistrate as the secret of his faith – it has the “mysterium simplicitatis”. It has, at any rate, the appearance of it and yet to those of us who are interested in technical matters, it is intriguing to note how cunningly all the lines across the boats and their sails radiate from where the unseen sun is rising in the mist. And I gladly follow Mr. Malcolm Salaman, who, speaking of The Ebb Tide in “Fine Prints of the Year”, puts it to the test of those four qualities which Sir Charles Holmes says all fine pictures must possess: “Unity, Vitality, Infinity, Repose – is any of these lacking?”
Posted in James McBey |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Second Avenue El, etching, 1930, signed in pencil lower right margin and numbered (13) lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 93, Fourth state (of 4). From a total printed of about 19. In generally good condition apart from some ink marks in the margins (typical for proofs printed by Marsh himself), hinged with tape at upper corners, on a cream laid paper with slightly irregularly cut margins, 6 7/8 x 8 7/8, the sheet 8 5/8 x 10 3/4 inches.
A fine rich impression printed in black ink. This impression was printed by Marsh; it is among those Sasowsky notes as being numbered by Marsh, and of course the ink spots in the margins, as well as the slightly irregularly cut margins, also attest to a Marsh printing.
This is one of the Marsh prints that was chosen to be printed posthumously by the Whitney Museum in 1969 in an edition of 100 as a fund-raising venture. Of course the posthumous impressions are mere shadowy reminders of rich lifetime impressions such as this example.
The Second Avenue El refers to an elevated train going along Second Avenue in New York City, which was taken down in 1942 to make way for a Second Avenue Subway, which has been in the planning stages for nearly 80 years
The two riders portrayed are bundled up; this etching was made in late winter of 1930. The Great Depression began its long course (with the stock market crash of ’29) only several months before (one wonders whether these riders – as well as Marsh – might now be contemplating its consequences).
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Pablo Picasso (Spanish 1881 – 1973), Femme Nue a la Jambe Pliee, etching, 1931, signed in pencil; from the Suite Vollard (Bloch 141, Geiser 208), from the edition of 300. Printed by Lacouriere, Paris; published by Vollard, Paris, with the Picasso watermark. In excellent condition, with full margins, 12 3/8 x 8 3/4, the sheet 17 7/8 x 13 1/2 inches.
A fine, clear impression.
Although the nude is of course featured, a close inspection reveals another face, just to her right (see detailed photos). Femme Nue is one of the earliest of the Suite Vollard etchings, done in a pure etching line, and having classical elements, but also perhaps some cubist aspects as well. Of course we don’t know precisely what Picasso was thinking when making these early Vollard etchings, but it’s been generally thought that they represented a sort of pictorial diary, his musings about women, models, and their relationship to the artist (himself), at the beginning of the decade of the ’30’s.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Sculpteurs, Model et Sculpture, etching, signed in pencil, 1933, from the Suite Vollard (Bloch 149, Baer 300), total edition of 310. In excellent condition, archival matting. With wide margins, 7 1/2 x 10 3/8, the sheet 13 3/8 x 17 5/8 inches.
A fine, delicately printed, clear impression, on laid paper with the Vollard watermark.
About half of the 100 prints in the Vollard Suite series – 46- are focused on the artist and his studio. Perhaps the most fascinating are those in which Picasso uses a spare, neo-classical idiom to portray models and the artist, together with the modernist sculpture that the artist has created – as in this etching.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Pablo Picasso, Model Contemplating Sculpture, etching, signed in pencil, 1933, a fine impression, published by Vollard, from the Vollard Suite, edition of 310, Bloch 175, Geiser 328, printed by Lacouriere, with the Picasso watermark. In pristine condition, with small margins, 11 7/8 x 14 1/2 inches.
A fine, delicately printed, clear impression of this fascinating composition. The model at left (looking rather sculpted herself) contemplates a sculpted group – a horse with attending figures – as well as the sculpteur. Small faces below the sculpture view the scene, or perhaps the viewer. This is one of the more complex compositions among the artist and model group of the Vollard Suite etchings, generally as here drawn in a neoclassic idiom.
Posted in Pablo Picasso |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Russian Ballet, etching and aquatint, 1912, signed and dated lower right, numbered (24) lower left in pencil. Reference: Krüger, R 71. From the first edition, of 100, to be published by Jahresmappe der Brücke (#7) in 1912 (see note below). In very good condition (slightest traces of soiling in margins), with full margins, 11 3/4 x 9 7/8, the sheet 17 5/8 x 13 1/4, archival mounting.
A fine fresh impression, printed in black ink with aquatint layering on ivory wove paper. In addition to etching and aquatint Pechstein used burnishing and scraping to achieve various tonal effects.
This print, from the original intended edition of 100, is rarely encountered. Although the intended edition of 100 impressions is thought to have been printed, this Brücke portfolio was never distributed because of Pechstein’s expulsion from Brücke in the summer of 1912 (after he had broken with the Brücke policy of exhibiting only with the group by exhibiting his work individually at the Berlin Secession). This portfolio was to have been devoted to Pechstein’s work.
The only apparent dancers in this Russian ballet are two figures in the background; the other characters appear to be otherwise engaged.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Max Beckmann (1884-1950), The Merry Ones (Die Vergnugten; Red Light District), drypoint, 1912, signed and numbered in pencil (25/30). Reference: Hofmaier 53 BB. Published by I.B. Neumann, Berlin. In very good condition, on Strathore Japan paper (with the Strathmore Japan watermark), with margins, 4 5/8 x 7, the sheet 9 3/4 x 12 3/8 inches, archival mounting (non attached mylar hinging between acid free mat board, window mat).
A fine clear impression of this rarely encounterd early drypoint, with substantial burr from the drypoint work.
There were three trial proofs, then an edition of 10 proofs on Japan and 30 on imitation Japan numbered and signed.
Die Vergnugten is one of Beckmann’s first drypoints; before 1912 Beckmann’s prints were all lithographs, but in that year he began making drypoints and virtually abandoned lithography until 1919. This is one of the very few prints made before World War I, presaging the “Faces” series of the post-War period. The subject matter for these prints is street life, a departure from his previous focus on Biblical themes.
$4750
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Max Beckmann (1884-1950), Kinder am Fenster (Children at the Window), drypoint, 1922, signed and numbered (18/35) in pencil. Reference: Hofmaier 237, second state (of 2).
In excellent condition, on a cream wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, 12 1/2 x 8 3/4, the sheet 20 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh impression of this relatively rare print, made in an edition of only 35. The effect of the drypoint burr is striking.
This penetrating portrait of two boys talking with each other in front of a window is seemingly fraught with meaning, yet it remains mysterious to this viewer. The boy at the right, kneeling on a chair, appears to hold the “cross” of the window; his comrade has his hands in his pockets. The buildings outside may be churches, or perhaps not, but neither boy is looking outside. What is clear is Beckmann’s classic composition: two figures focused and framed – at a slight angle – within the curtained window.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Max Beckmann (1884-1950), Landscape with Balloon (Landschaft mit Ballon), drypoint, 1918, signed in pencil lower right. Reference: Hofmaier 134, second state (of 2), from the total edition of 100, printed on cream laid paper. From the portfolio Gesichter (Faces) published by the Marees Gesellschaft, with their watermark lower right. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 9 1/4 x 11 1/2, the sheet 11 3/4 x 14 1/2 inches, archival matting.
A fine fresh impression, printed in black ink on cream laid paper.
The Gesichter portfolio was a collection of mostly unrelated prints which Beckmann made over the course of WWI, from 1914 to 1918, published in 1919.
The composition was basically complete in the first state; in the second state Beckmann added the flagpoles in the windows, and the sun (or moon) in the sky.
This scene is of the Darmstadter Landstrasse in the suburbs of Frankfort. Balloons were not infrequently seen at this time, and were of special significance to Beckmann; one appeared in a painting he made in 1908, and in a painting in reverse of this composition (now in the Museum Ludwig, Cologne) dated 1917.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Max Beckmann, Spring (Fruling) (also known as Street in Frankfort), etching and drypoint, 1918, signed lower right. Reference: Hofmaier 133IIb, from the edition of 60 on laid paper; another 40 were on Japan. Plate 13 of Gesichter (Faces), as published byR. Piper, Marees-Gesellschaft, and with their stamp bottom right hand corner. In very good condition, on an ivory laid paper, the full sheet, 11 3/4 x 7 3/4, the sheet 14 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches. Printed by Franz Hanfstaengel, Munich, archival window matting.
A fine fresh impression. This is an impression of the second state (of two); only one proof of the first state is known.
The portfolio Gesichter was a selection of prints done by Beckmann on a variety of subjects over the period of the War, 1914-18; the prints were not made with the portfolio or other compilation in view. But they all do seem to be autobiographical. Beckmann had volunteered as a medical orderly during the War, but after a nervous breakdown in 1915 was given leave.
Here, Beckmann and his wife lean out of their Frankfort apartment window to welcome Spring; the ending of the War may infuse the spirit of the print, but of course that is pure conjecture.
Posted in Max Beckmann |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Jan Matulka (1890-1972), Four Nudes in a Landscape, drypoint, c. 1923, signed in pencil lower right margin [also with initials in the plate lower left]. Reference: Flint 4, only state. Edition: no edition, only several proofs were made. In very good condition, with margins, 10 11/16 x 13 15/16, the sheet 12 1/2 x 17 inches. On laid Strathmore Japan paper, with their watermark, deckle edges top and bottom, archival mount with window mat.
A fine fresh impression, a rare proof (no edition is known), with extensive burr from the drypoint work, and a substantial layering of plate tone.
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1890, Jan Matulka became a leading American modernist working at the same time as Lozowick to develop the earliest American Precisionist work, and with Stuart Davis to evolve a new form of Americanized Cubism.
In 1907, he came to the Bronx, New York where he had a poverty-ridden childhood with a mother who tried to raise a family by herself. From 1908 to 1917, he studied at the National Academy of Design, and in 1917, received the first Pulitzer traveling scholarship with which he traveled and painted in the Southwest and Florida.
In 1919, he first went to Paris, where he was exposed to European modernism, (especially Cubism). Four Nudes reflects both the realism that was always a theme in Matulka’s work and also a Cubist idiom that he was to work with through the years. Matulka often varied his approach from rather conventional realism to cutting edge modernism, even during the same periods.
Matulka had his first one-man exhibit in New York City in 1925. His reputation as an iconoclast and loner, oblivious to the workings of the art world, prevented him from achieving the fame that was his due during his lifetime, but he has substantial and increasing recognition, especially among artists and curators, in recent years. He continued to paint until he died, in New York City, in 1972.
Posted in Jan Matulka |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Monsieur D. Lisant (Portrait of the Artist’s Father, Reading), drypoint, 1913, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “ep. d’artiste” lower left margins [initaled in the plate lower left JV]. Ginestet and Poullion E284. An artist’s proof; the edition size was 32. On Rives laid paper, with the watermark Eug. Delatre. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 19 1/2 x 14 3/8, the sheet 21 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches.
A fine proof impression, with rich burr. (the edition was 32).
The rich burr in this impression is blacker and more velvety than the numbered impressions from the edition we have seen; this is an earlier impression. The burr is comparable to the trial proof impression at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; that impression is, however, less cleanly wiped.
Monsieur D. Lisant represents a culmination of Villon’s efforts in cubist portraiture, and it was the last of the great cubist prints of 1913. The composition is abstract, but not entirely so (e.g., the details of the face are clearly legible, the hands and book at the lower right somewhat less so). The brilliant crystalline structure of converging planes gives the composition a striking sense of movement.
Villon began his career as a printmaker, and this perhaps explains his lifelong focus on printmaking. Monsieur D. Lisant demonstrates how printmaking – especially drypoint – was an ideal medium for Villon’s cubist prints. Planes, angles, regularized shading, screening, all work spendidly. Even a century after the invention of cubism Monsieur D. Lisant continues to strike the viewer as a bit shocking, and invites one to look long and hard at what the future might bring.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Jacques Villon (1875-1963), Monsieur D. Lisant (Portrait of the Artist’s Father, Reading), drypoint, 1913, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed “ep. d’artiste” lower left margins [initaled in the plate lower left JV]. Ginestet and Poullion E284. An artist’s proof; the edition size was 32. On Rives laid paper, with the watermark Eug. Delatre. In excellent condition, the full sheet with deckle edges, 19 1/2 x 14 3/8, the sheet 21 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches.
A fine proof impression, with rich burr. (the edition was 32).
Provenance: Collection of Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht. (Shown at the Exhibit “Graphic Modernism: Selections from The Collection of Francey and Dr. Martin L. Gecht at the Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 15 2003-Jan. 11, 2004)
The rich burr in this impression is blacker and more velvety than the numbered impressions from the edition we have seen; this is an earlier impression. The burr is comparable to the trial proof impression at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; that impression is, however, less cleanly wiped.
Monsieur D. Lisant represents a culmination of Villon’s efforts in cubist portraiture, and it was the last of the great cubist prints of 1913. The composition is abstract, but not entirely so (e.g., the details of the face are clearly legible, the hands and book at the lower right somewhat less so). The brilliant crystalline structure of converging planes gives the composition a striking sense of movement.
Villon began his career as a printmaker, and this perhaps explains his lifelong focus on printmaking. Monsieur D. Lisant demonstrates how printmaking – especially drypoint – was an ideal medium for Villon’s cubist prints. Planes, angles, regularized shading, screening, all work spendidly. Even a century after the invention of cubism Monsieur D. Lisant continues to strike the viewer as a bit shocking, and invites one to look long and hard at what the future might bring.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Dos a Uno, Meten La Paja en el Culo (If Two to One Stuff Your Arse with Straw), also titled Disparate Conocido (The Well-Known Folly), etching and burnished aquatint, c. 1816. Reference: Tomas Harris 266. A proof before letters, before the First Edition impressions made by Francois Lienard for L’Art, published in 1877. On a fine laid Japan paper, in very good condition, with margins, 9 3/4 x 13 1/2, the sheet 10 15/16 by 15 inches. Archival mounting (with mylar non-attached hinging, window mat.
Provenance: ex Collection: Tomas Harris, with his ink stamp lower margin right verso (visible recto, not in Lugt). (Harris was, of course, the well known collector, Goya scholar and author of, among other things, the definitive Goya catalogue raisonne.)
This is before First Edition impressions, in which the letters were added (they had the title “Que Guerrero”, and below “Quel Guerrier!”, with “Goya inv. et sc.” and “L’Art” to the left and “F. Lienard Imp. Paris” to the right).
A fine impression of this great rarity, printed in a dark brownish/black ink.
Only one contemporary proof is known, in Madrid. This is one of the trial proofs made before 1877, on very thin Japan, more lightly inked than the first edition (1877) impressions and, according to Tomas Harris, almost identical to the working proof. The edition impressions are generally well printed but lack the fine clarity and aquatint contrasts of this proof.
The man at the left is running from the two scarecrow figures, and holds his hand in mock terror as if intended to amuse the crowd of dark figures behind him.
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
John Sloan (1871-1951), Memory, etching, 1906, signed, titled, dated and annotated in pencil by Sloan. Reference: Morse 136, sixth state (of 6). From the edition of 100 (110 were printed). In generally good condition apart from slight light stain, the usual drying holes around edges as characteristic of a Peter Platt printing, repaired tear near bottom right margin. The full sheet with wide margins, 7 1/4 x 8 3/4, the sheet 11 5/8 x 16 1/4 inches. Archival mounting.
A fine impression.
This impression is titled (by Sloan) Memory of 1905; Sloan has also written the initials of the three figures (other than himself, at the right): from left: the artist Robert Henri (RH); Henri’s wife Linda (LH), and Sloan’s wife Dolly (DS). Well below the platemark are the words 100 proofs.
Peter Platt was one of Sloan’s favorite printers, and Platt impressions are most desirable.
Sloan wrote of this etching: “an intimate print which has become one of the most popular of my etchings.” Further: “Henri was always amazed that I had remembered her [Linda’s] gesture: her hand rolling her fingers as she read aloud.”
Memory was made by Sloan in 1906, recording the group a year earlier (this accounts for the difference in Morse’s date, and the title (Memory of 1905) shown on this impression). Sloan wrote: “Started sketch for etching – memory of the last year at Henri’s, when about the old table from the Charcoal Club and 806 Walnut Street, would gather Mrs. Henri (just died from us), Henri, Dolly (my wife) and myself. Mrs. Henri reading aloud.”
We maintain a large inventory of Sloan prints, and always welcome inquiries about these and other fine prints.
$4500
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Lecture Interrompue (also La Liseuse), 1912, woodcut, signed and annotated “ep. d’artiste du 3 etat”. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 674. In excellent condition (tiny fleck upper right, paper imperfection), on hand made cream wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, 9 7/8 x 6 7/8, the sheet 15 x 11 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of one of Laboureur’s great images; a rarity – only 11 lifetime impressions were printed.
Jean-Emile Laboureur traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene. The great wood engraver Auguste Lepere taught him woodcutting, which initiated Laboureur in an involvement in printmaking that would extend through his career. In 1886 he met Toulouse Lautrec, who influenced Laboureur’s emerging aesthetic style, as did the work of Odilon Redon, Bonnard, and perhaps most notably Felix Vallotton, who became a close colleague, and whose woodcut work often bears a close relationship to Laboureur’s. La Lecture Interrompue demonstrates the close relationship between the two artists, and is among those major achievements which created an aesthetic tradition in woodcutting that has been followed – although rarely as effectively as by these originators – by modernist artists for over a century.
We maintain an inventory of well over 100 Laboureur prints, and always welcome inquiries regarding Laboureur.
$3250
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Opera Box, 1936, engraving, signed, numbered and annotated in pencil (State II 4/5, “to Dolsy and Eddie”); one of only 11 proofs. Reference: Sasowsky 162, second state of three. In very good condition, with wide margins (not shown in the illustration, and also somewhat uneven, as trimmed by the artist), 7 x 5, the sheet 9 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A superb black impression of this very rare print.
Only five impressions were made of this print in this state (one of the first state, and five of the third; eleven altogether). The design was basically complete in the first state, some shadows behind the men’s heads added in the second state, and only minor additions made for the third state.
Marsh may have intended a larger edition (of 40 according to his notebook), but as with virtually all of his prints, the actual number printed – by Marsh personally – was far smaller than the intended edition. This impression was printed by Marsh after the impression now in the New York Public Library, which is the repository of his wife’s collection.
Opera Box was made at the height of the Great Depression; one suspects that Marsh – Yale graduate though he was – was making a statement about the distribution of suffering at the time. And of course the serious artist comes through too; Marsh had studied not only The Eight – the Americans Henri, Sloan, Glackens et al – but also had great reverence for, and familiarity with the work of the European masters of the Renaissance and Baroque, as well as printmakers such as Daumier and Hogarth. The incisiveness of these portraits is accentuated by the incisiveness of the method he employs in this print – engraving – a difficult technique, but one which works perfectly to model this group portrait.
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Irving Place Burlesk, etching, 1929, signed in pencil lower right and numbered (18) lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 75, third state (of 3). In very good condition, with margins (trimmed by Marsh in his usual fashion, i.e., slightly unevenly), on an ivory laid paper; 7 1/8 x 9 3/4, the sheet 8 5/8 x 10 3/4 inches. Archival mounting with window mat, unattached mylar hinging.
A suberb impression, printed by the artist in black ink on an ivory paper.
In contrast to many of his famed burlesque prints Marsh here focuses almost entirely on the audience – men smiling and frowning, smoking cigars and pipes, talking or concentrating – and on the theatre itself – the elaborate stage boxes and curtains. These features are etched in strong black ink; the etching of the dancer at the far left is as light, and as ephemeral, as her outfit.
This impression was printed personally by Marsh. In Thomas Craven’s Treasury of American Prints (1939), Marsh is quoted as saying in response to a question about the size of his editions: “Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition – he rarely buys, I rarely print. I usually print fifteen or twenty and sell one or two in the next five years – so why limit the edition?” (That was in 1939; today of course Marsh’s etchings are treasured as icons of American printmaking in the ’20’s and 30’s.)
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Flying Concellos, etching, 1936, signed in pencil lower right and annotated “40 Proofs” lower left. Reference: Sasowsky 163, fourth state (of 4). In excellent condition, on a RIVES wove paper, the full sheet with deckle edges, with full margins (tiny hinges upper corners from prior hinging), 8 x 10, the sheet 11 3/8 x 15 3/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine impression.
Flying Concellos was printed in a 11 or so proofs, then 15 impressions by Marsh in July of 1936 and another 10 in October ’36 by Charles White. Since this impression is in such fine condition we surmise that this is one of the White impressions. The annotation “40 proofs” by Marsh is typical for him, suggesting his hope rather than the reality – Sasowsky indicates that only 25 impressions were printed of the final state.
Arthur Concello’s act made circus history when his wife Antoinette joined him in performing the triple somersault in the late ’30’s at Madison Square Garden, New York, the two performers both attaining the triple to display the highest peak of team flying ever witnessed at that time.
Marsh brings us up to eye level with the other performers in this daring composition.
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Saturday, June 20th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Tattoo-Shave-Haircut, etching, 1932. Signed, titled (Tattoo-Haircut-Shave), dedicated (for Arnold Newman), and annotated (Fourth State. First of Two Prints). Reference: Sasowsky 140. On cream wove paper. In very good condition, with small margins (as trimmed, slightly irregularly, by the artist) (slight foxing in margins), remains of prior hinging verso; 9 7/8 x 9 3/4, the sheet 10 15/16 x 10 5/8 inches; archival matting.
A very fine rich black impression.
Provenance: Estate of Arnold Newman. Arnold Newman (1918-2006) was one of the great 20th Century masters of photography, and a friend of many leading artists; it is appears that Marsh took special care in printing this impression for Newman.
Sasowsky calls for 10 states of Tattoo-Shave, based largely on Marsh’s notes. But the states are not clearly delineated (e.g., his States 3 and 4, one proof each, are characterized by Marsh as Engraving added; no information is given for State 5). The design for the print was complete in the first state, and subsequent state changes were not, apparently, major.
This impression does not appear to differ in etching lines from the final state impression shown in Sasowsky. Its inscription (as a Fourth State, by Marsh), as well as its rich inking and quality, attest to its being a proof before the edition (of about 34 impressions), but the state of this print (and, presumably of many of the other several proof impressions) cannot at this time be stated with confidence.
Marsh printed this impression personally (we recall his famous answer to a question about the size of his editions: Since I do practically all my own printing, I do not limit the edition. The buyer limits the edition he rarely buys, I rarely print).
Tattoo-Shave-Haircut depicts a scene in the Bowery, a section of New Yorks Lower East Side, during the Great Depression. The building and train structures in the top half of the print recall Piranesis Carceri the imaginary prisons; the bottom half portrays some of the denizons of the neighborhood. The print famously captured the spirit of the city, and the country, during this difficult period.
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn (1606-1669), The Artist’s Mother Seated at a Table Looking Right: Three-Quarters-Length, etching, c. 1631 [signed in the plate left]. References: Bartsch, Hollstein 343, Hind 52. White Boon II (of III), before the plate was cut down to an oval. In very good condition, with thread margins; faint stain upper edge, minor thin spot lower left corner reverse, 150 x 133 mm; 5 15/16 x 5 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine early example, with the exquisite detailing of the face and hands especially distinct, and the extensive etching and cross-hatching lines on her fur-trimmed coat, headscarf and chair black and clear.
Provenance: Kupferstichkabinett det Staatliche Museen, Berlin (L. 1633), with sale stamp (L. 2482)
ex Collection: Adam Gottlieb Thiermann, Berlin (Lugt 2434)
The first state of this print is known in only one impression, in Amsterdam. In the second state Rembrandt added lines strengthening the shadows to the left and under the chair.
Erik Hinterding (Rembrandt The Printmaker) has illuminated the stages Rembrandt traversed in creating this print. He must have started with the head, creating the details from life directly onto the plate; then added the rest of the figure later. It is apparent that the scarf, for example, is more deeply bitten than the face, and appears darker. After completing the scarf, coat, skirt and chair he bit the plate in acid; later he added the table at the right. One can see that the table was added later because the figure of the skirt is still evident on the face of the table, but of course the table would hide the skirt if it were made at the same time. Rembrandt must have felt that the first state of the print was a bit unbalanced, however, with the dark table forcing the eye to the bottom right. So he added some lines darkening the shadows below and to the left of the chair; he did these in burin so he would not need to re-etch the plate. All this elaborate layering and detail is quite clear in an examination of this splendid impression.
Posted in Rembrandt van Rijn |
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn (1606-1669), The Artist’s Mother Seated at a Table Looking Right: Three-Quarters-Length, etching, c. 1631 [signed in the plate left]. References: Bartsch, Hollstein 343, Hind 52. White Boon II (of III), before the plate was cut down to an oval. In very good condition, with thread margins; faint stain upper edge, minor thin spot lower left corner reverse, 150 x 133 mm; 5 15/16 x 5 1/4 inches, archival matting.
A fine early example, with the exquisite detailing of the face and hands especially distinct, and the extensive etching and cross-hatching lines on her fur-trimmed coat, headscarf and chair black and clear.
Provenance: Kupferstichkabinett det Staatliche Museen, Berlin (L. 1633), with sale stamp (L. 2482)
ex Collection: Adam Gottlieb Thiermann, Berlin (Lugt 2434)
The first state of this print is known in only one impression, in Amsterdam. In the second state Rembrandt added lines strengthening the shadows to the left and under the chair.
Erik Hinterding (Rembrandt The Printmaker) has illuminated the stages Rembrandt traversed in creating this print. He must have started with the head, creating the details from life directly onto the plate; then added the rest of the figure later. It is apparent that the scarf, for example, is more deeply bitten than the face, and appears darker. After completing the scarf, coat, skirt and chair he bit the plate in acid; later he added the table at the right. One can see that the table was added later because the figure of the skirt is still evident on the face of the table, but of course the table would hide the skirt if it were made at the same time. Rembrandt must have felt that the first state of the print was a bit unbalanced, however, with the dark table forcing the eye to the bottom right. So he added some lines darkening the shadows below and to the left of the chair; he did these in burin so he would not need to re-etch the plate. All this elaborate layering and detail is quite clear in an examination of this splendid impression.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Rembrandt Harmenz. Van Rijn (1606-1669), Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple, etching and drypoint, 1635 [signed and dated in the plate]. References: Bartsch 69, White/Boon first state (of 2); Nowell-Usticke first state (of 7). In excellent condition, trimmed outside of the borderline inside the platemark all around, 5 7/16 x 6 3/4 inches, archival mounting.
A superb black impression, with exquisite detailing. Although common in worn, clotted late impressions, lifetime impressions of this quality (as attested to by the distinguished provenance shown below) are of the utmost rarity.
Printed on old laid paper with a Strasbourg Bend variant A.c. watermark; this watermark is also found in the fine impression of the same print in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston collection (#151, the show Rembrandt’s Journey, MFA, Boston).
Provenance:
Johann Andreas Boerner, Nuremberg (Lugt 269) with an inscribed date of 1815
Wilhelm Edouard Drugulin, Leipsiz (Lugt 2612)
Dr. August Strater, Aachen (Lugt 787)
P. von Baldinger-Seidenberg, Stuttgart (Lugt 212)
Frederick Keppel and Co., New York
The etching shows the state of pandemonium in the Temple as Christ, in a scene described by all four evangelists, drives out the moneychangers, wielding a “scourge of small cords” (John 2: 15). In the Temple Christ had found “money changers sitting” as well as those who sold “oxen and sheep and doves”; in the print we can see a man being dragged across the floor by an ox at the right, another diving after a dove (lower right). As his bench falls over a man grasping a bag of money looks up at Christ; at the end of the table change falls to the floor. At the left men finish up their trading, one carries a basket of doves on his head as he and others rush out. In the background, in peaceful contrast to the foreground riot, a religious service – perhaps a Bar Mitzvah (a small boy prays before a group of men) – continues unabated.
Rembrandt borrowed the figure of Christ from Durer’s engraving of the same subject (in the Small Passion); it is a close reverse copy. In the engraving light emanates from a candle; in Rembrandt’s etching the light comes from Christ’s raised hand.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Sente des Pouilleux, a Pontoise (Path at Pontoise), grande planche, drypoint and aquatint, 1880, signed in pencil and inscribed “Ep d’essai no. 1” in pencil lower margin. Reference: Delteil 32, second state (of 2). In good condition, with margins (some creases, soft folds mostly in margins, a tiny repaired tear left margin edge not near image). Printed on heavy tan wove paper. 10 1/2 x 8 5/8, the sheet 14 1/4 x 10 1/8 inches, archival matting.
A fine atmospheric impression, printed in a brownish/black ink with a very light veil of aquatint (see discussion below). This impression was inked and wiped so as to convey a mood of impending darkness; another impression illustrated in Delteil is lighter.
Only a few proofs of this state were made; Pissarro’s inscription on this one suggests that this was the first proof made of the state, but of course Pissarro’s state descriptions are often incorrect. We do know that no lifetime edition was made (an inferior posthumous edition of 30 was made).
In the first state of this print a woman stood just to our right of the large tree; in the second state she was burnished out (some of her remains are still visible) and two figures in furtive conversation were added. Perhaps more important, the entire plate was extensively re-worked so that a lightly sketched first draft was transformed into an imposing, strong composition; a quite different print.
At this time Pissarro was working closely with Degas, who had just introduced him to a range of inventive printmaking techniques. Here, Pissarro demonstrates his facility with aquatint as well as drypoint. The drypoint lines appear to be set against a very fine-grained aquatint layer (or perhaps “grey manner” aquatint, a process Degas and Pissarro invented utilizing scraping of the plate).
Pissarro did not like professional printing of his etchings, and so he printed his plates himself (also Degas apparently printed many Pissarro proofs). The concept was not to produce a large edition of prints each similar in appearance (only about 5 of Pissarro’s prints were in fact editioned during his lifetime); printmaking for Pissarro was a way of experimenting, achieving variations in light, mood, sensibility, with each proof. He did not intend to earn much money through printmaking (and he never did). But of course one implication of this approach is that Pissarro prints (the lifetime impressions such as this) are exceedingly rare.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Abraham Bloemart (1564-1651), The Five Senses, the set of 5 engravings (4 illustrated), circa 1645, engraved by his son Frederick Bloemart (1610-1669) (after paintings); References: Hollstein 244-248; LeBlanc 211-215. Second state of two, with the titles, names of the artist and engraver, and the numbers. On old laid paper, with the Foolscap with Seven Pointed Hat watermark. In good condition, generally trimmed slightly outside of the platemark (plate 5 trimmed on or just within the platemark in places and with a small repaired spot bottom right near the border). Each plate about 4 1/4 x 6 3/8 inches.
Provenance: Christopher Mendez (58 Jermyn Street, London, noted as incorporating Craddock and Barnard), with his label still attached to the mat.
A fine delicately printed set.
This set portrays the five senses in rather somber fashion, e.g., touch is suggested by an attack of bears, taste by breastfeeding and a child drinking, sound by a young man playing the flute for a girl, sight by an owl on a perch. Smell is portrayed curiously: an older women lectures a young girl; we can identify a garlic clove on the ground.
The Foolscap with Seven Pointed Collar (with the numeral 4 and 3 balls) watermark appears to be the same as Ash and Fletcher’s watermark number 20 (cf. Ash and Fletcher, Watermarks in Rembrandt Prints, 1998). Ash and Fletcher trace this watermark to many of the great lifetime impressions of Rembrant’s middle and later years, leading to the strong suggestion that these prints were done near the middle of the 17th Century. Frederick Bloemart life and career span closely parallels that of Rembrandt.
Abraham Bloemaert worked in Utrecht and taught many of the leading artists of that city during the course of his long career. There is a drawing of Visus (Sight) by Bloemart in Amsterdam, and one of Tactus (Touch) in London.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 19th, 2009
Pierrot, 1889, etching, printed in brown on fine laid paper; trimmed to the platemark by the artist, signed with the butterfly and inscribed
imp on the tab; Kennedy 407, fourth state (of five); Glasgow 450, sixth state (of eight) (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011); Lochnan 408, 9 x 6 1/4 inches.
Provenance:
Royal Library, Windsor Castle
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London (their stock no. verso C.21356)
A very fine, evenly balanced impression, printing with subtle plate tone. This state is before the left to right diagonal lines were added to the lower beam above the right window, in addition to a few other minor changes.
The Colnaghi label (appended to the mat) is annotated in pen and ink as follows: “From the Royal Library, Windsor Castle. Proof given by the artist to Queen Victoria + specially marked on the back by him o.o.” The mark refers to two pencil circles on the verso of the sheet, a sign that has often been interpreted as Whistler’s method of marking a choice impression. However, as Ruth Fine has pointed out, “no document has been located which verifies this. .. If these annotations were a Whistlerian designation of quality, they were probably one more aspect of the artist’spublic relations campaign, allowing certain buyers to think they were getting something extraordinary.”
Whistler had a high opinion of his own work, and to make certain that it found a proper home, he sent particularly fine proofs to the Royal Librarian at Windsor Castle, Richard H. Holmes, who in turn purchased them for Queen Victoria. This collection was sold in 1906.
Apparently Whistler regarded Pierrot as his favorite among the Amsterdam plates. In a letter to Whistler Howard Mansfield, the famed collector, wrote: “The impression you showed me of “Pierrot” is so fine – finer decidedly than the one I have – that I feel that I must have it. The fact that it is your favorite among the Amsterdam plates makes me wish to possess it in its greatest beauty.”
The scene shows dyers on the Oudezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam and was, according to Mansfield, Whistler’s favorite among
the Amsterdam plates. The clearly defined face of the single sitter is derived from the early realism of Tbe Lime-
Burner. As in the other Amsterdam views, the dark, tonal areas are no longer created by selective wiping but rather by dense networks of overlapping lines.
POR
Posted in Uncategorized |
Friday, June 12th, 2009
Reginald Marsh (1898-1954), Irving Place Burlesque, lithograph, 1928, signed in pencil lower right and inscribed 25 proofs lower left margin [also signed and dated in the plate upper left]. Reference: Sasowsky 15, only state. Chine colle on a thick cream wove paper, the matrix in adequate condition but the backing sheet with multiple (repaired) tears, some going just up to the image. Although these tears do not materially interfere with the matrix this print should not be considered by anyone at all fussy about condition. 10 x 11 5/8, the sheet 11 7/8 x 13 1/4 inches, archival matting.
Provenance: Estate of Fred Shapiro
A good impression.
Marsh made a number of prints of the Irving Place Burlesque, including at least three etchings, as well as drawings and paintings of this subject; this is his only lithograph of this subject.
This print was illustrated in Vanity Fair (December, 1928), p. 90.
Posted in Reginald Marsh |
Monday, June 8th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), Annunciation, chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783. In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline, affixed to a laid folio sheet, on laid paper, 9 1/2 x 8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in three blocks (olive, ochre, yellow).
Dedicated (in Latin, in the block) to John Collins, presumably a friend of the artist.
Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons.
Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing. His prints were a great success, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues. He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Monday, June 1st, 2009
Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550), The Little Buffoon, engraving, 1542 [with initials, verse and date in the plate]. References: Bartsch 230, Hollstein 234, Pauli 234, second state (of 2). In good condition, areas of thinning verso, with a thread margin all around, 1 7/8 x 3 1/8 inches.
Provenance: Dr. Karl Herweg (not in Lugt, stamp on verso)
A fair later impression of this popular (and hence hard to find) image, for those focusing on the subject matter rather than print quality.
Beham was one of the Northern Renaissance Little Masters, so called because of their eminence in producing small-scale engravings such as Ornament with Two Genii Riding on Two Chimeras. Beham was born in Nuremberg in 1500, and may have trained under Durer, though his training is no more certain than that of his younger brother Barthel. He made his first engraving in 1518, and later became known for producing woodcuts, as well as engravings.
The verse reads: ON DIR HAB ICH GERISEN DAS ICH MICH HAB BESCHISEN (I have written on you that I have beshit myself). The figure identifies himself as a fool by the donkey ears and bells on his helmet, and the bauble/noisemaker he carries; he’s entangled in the banderole, and in two places he’s broken through it. This well-known composition has been the subject of many interpretations through the years but one thing is certain: fools such as this continue to be with us today.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), St. Anne’s, Soho, lithograph, 1896, [signed with the butterfly in the plate], Reference: Chicago (Spink et al) 162. Inscribed in pencil recto: F Goulding from R. Birnie Philip. In very good condition, the full sheet, 5 1/8 x 7 1/2, the sheet 14 3/4 x 10 inches.
A fine impression, printed on a cream laid paper with the watermark OWP & AOL, Fink watermark 219, listed as characteristic of the posthumous edition printed by Goulding in 1904 (edition of 48; lifetime edition of 23).
The inscription F. Goulding from R. Birnie Philip is somewhat curious: Frederick Goulding was the master printer asked by R. Birnie Philip (Whistler’s sister-in-law) to print small editions of the lithographs in 1904. This print also has the initials in pencil FG in a circular design, which we believe is Goulding’s mark (not located in Lugt).
This impression is in a Childs Gallery (Boston) mat; the print is stamped Childs Gallery verso, as well as on the mat (the mat also contains their cataloguing notes).
Whistler was working on views of the Thames in 1896; he planned a series of lithographic subjects, but completed only two, of which St. Anne’s was the first. St. Anne’s was bombed in WWII, and today only it’s yellow brick tower, outer walls, and garden survive. TR Way described the building as “one of the most unattractive buildings in London” in his early catalogue. But Elizabeth Pennell described the setting as a quiet and quaint place for the tired population of Soho to relax, in benches under the trees – as depicted by Whistler in the lithograph.
$2500
St. Anne’s – Soho – Detail
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Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), Figure in Glass, drypoint on zinc, 1916-7, printed in 1929 by the printer and artist Frank Nankivell, signed by the printer lower left with the annotation “printer”. Reference: Czestochowski 38, only state. In very good condition, on a blue green laid paper, 6 1/8 x 5 1/2, the sheet 9 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches, archival mounting.
A fine impression of this American cubist rarity.
This is from the group (small, but of unknown size) of posthumous impressions printed by Frank Nankivell in 1929, the year after Davies died. Czestochoski notes that the total number of impressions printed was small but not known. Although the Nankivell posthumous impressions lack the richness of the lifetime impressions – they are more spare – they still have substantial appeal, especially to lovers of American modernist imagery.
At the time of the 1913 Armory Show, which introduced modern art to America, Davies was generally regarded as the foremost American artist – it was for this reason that the organizers of the Show asked him to endorse it, and he did. Davies became interested in Cubism for a number of years after this period, creating paintings and prints in a Cubist manner. In our opinion Figure in Glass represents his most successful Cubist print.
Posted in Arthur B. Davies |
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), La Tour de L’Horloge (The Clock Tower, Paris), 1852, etching with engraving. Reference: Schneiderman 23, Delteil 28. Third state (of 10). On very thin Japan paper. 10 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches. Archival mounting (non-attached mylar hinging between acid free board, glassine cover).
In very good condition.
Provenance: Colnaghi, London (with their notation verso).
A fine early atmospheric impression, printed in dark brownish/black ink.
In this state the borderline at both sides has yet to be reinforced. There is still a thin horizontal line across the lower margin above the bottom platemark, which is removed in the fifth state. The margin below is blank, and several changes are made in successive states before the letters (the title, the publisher, the printer) are added in the sixth state.
Meryon probably printed this state, and the proofs of the next two states, personally; then a large edition of 600 was made for L’Artiste, printed by Delatre.
La Tour depicts the Clock Tower, restored in 1852, still partly covered with scaffolding, standing at the point where the Pont-au-Change meets the Ile de la Cite. The Pont is full of activity. The composition is actually a composite of two different views, not precisely what one would see from any angle, but aesthetically more satisfying to Meryon than the “real” views he had made in preparation for the print.
Posted in Charles Meryon |
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Charles Meryon (1821-1868), La Tour de L’Horloge (The Clock Tower, Paris), 1852, etching with engraving. Reference: Schneiderman 23, Delteil 28. Third state (of 10). On very thin Japan paper. 10 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches. Archival mounting (non-attached mylar hinging between acid free board, glassine cover).
In very good condition.
Provenance: Colnaghi, London (with their notation verso).
A fine early atmospheric impression, printed in dark brownish/black ink.
In this state the borderline at both sides has yet to be reinforced. There is still a thin horizontal line across the lower margin above the bottom platemark, which is removed in the fifth state. The margin below is blank, and several changes are made in successive states before the letters (the title, the publisher, the printer) are added in the sixth state.
Meryon printed this state, and probably the proofs of the next two states, personally; then a large edition of 600 was made for L’Artiste, printed by Delatre.
La Tour depicts the Clock Tower, restored in 1852, still partly covered with scaffolding, standing at the point where the Pont-au-Change meets the Ile de la Cite. The Pont is full of activity. The composition is actually a composite of two different views, not precisely what one would see from any angle, but aesthetically more satisfying to Meryon than the “real” views he had made in preparation for the print.
Posted in Charles Meryon |
Friday, May 8th, 2009
John Skippe (1742-1811), [Moses with Tablets, on an Eagle], chiaroscuro woodcut, c. 1783. In good condition, trimmed just at or within the printed borderline, mounted to old watermarked laid album paper, 8 x 6 inches. With an added inscription below in Latin, a dedication to John Symonds, professor of modern history at Cambridge, with Skippe’s printed signature.
A fine impression, printed in four blocks, variations of brown and ochre.
Provenance: ex Collection Mr. and Mrs. Percy Simmons
Skippe was a “gentleman antiquarian” who traveled widely, collecting drawings which he later used as the basis for his chiaroscuro woodcuts. His intent was to replicate the Italian manner of Ugo da Carpi, and perhaps even encourage a re-birth of chiaroscuro woodcut printing. His prints were superb examples, but the re-birth of the medium was not forthcoming. Skippe was not focused on the commercial possibilities of the medium, sharing his prints only with appreciative connoisseurs and colleagues. He created a number of folios of prints; the number is unknown but they are rare, and were of varying sizes. In the United States there are two folios at the Yale Center for British Art (one of 31 prints, the other containing 20); another folio of 42 is at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and finally a folio of 28 is at the University of Chicago.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Théophile Steinlen (1859-1923), Veuves d’un Louis, lithograph in two colors (brown and black), 1915, numbered (326/400 but not signed [signed, titled and dated in the plate], from the edition of 400. Not in Crauzat (Crauzat was published in 1913, and so did not include works after that date). In very good condition, the full sheet, on a cream wove paper, 16 x 12 1/4, the sheet 22 x 15 inches.
A fine impression.
Although he is famed for his fin de siecle posters (and for his cats!), Steinlen’s work throughout his career was marked by strong social consciousness. From early on, he created images of French life – prostitutes and pimps, construction workers and miners, ragpickers and soldiers, workers, city people. Veuves (widows) is a night scene, a portrait of three young Parisien women – and another shadowy figure off to the right – standing on a street corner.
Posted in Théophile Steinlen |
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
Théophile Steinlen (1859-1923), Veuves d’un Louis, lithograph in two colors (brown and black), 1915, numbered (326/400 but not signed [signed, titled and dated in the plate], from the edition of 400. Not in Crauzat (Crauzat was published in 1913, and so did not include works after that date). In very good condition, the full sheet, on a cream wove paper, 16 x 12 1/4, the sheet 22 x 15 inches.
A fine impression.
Although he is famed for his fin de siecle posters (and for his cats!), Steinlen’s work throughout his career was marked by strong social consciousness. From early on, he created images of French life – prostitutes and pimps, construction workers and miners, ragpickers and soldiers, workers, city people. Veuves (widows) is a night scene, a portrait of three young Parisien women – and another shadowy figure off to the right – standing on a street corner.
Posted in Théophile Steinlen |
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur, Le Petit Metropolitan Life Building, etching, 1909, signed and dated in pen lower left, numbered in pencil (1/2) lower right. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 88, only state, one of the two proofs of this print, no edition. In very good condition, on a cream laid Arches paper (with a partial watermark), the full sheet, 6 3/4 x 4, the sheet 12 x 8 1/2 inches.
A fine impression of this great rarity, printed with platetone.
Laboureur made only two impressions of Le Petit Metropolitan Life Building; he later made another stab at this subject, larger size and in reverse (Skyscraper en Construction, New York, L. 93) but abandoned this plate after making only several impressions.
The Metropolitan Life Building tower, at Madison Square Park in New York City, was the tallest building in the world for about 3 years until it was surpassed by the Woolworth Building. The tower was completed in 1909; here Laboureur captures it mid-construction, probably in 1907-8 during one of his visits to New York City (he first visited America in 1903, seeing New York City and a number of other U.S. cities, as well as Toronto and Montreal. He returned to France in 1907 but came back to New York in the fall of 1907, and it was in this period that he created the Metropolitan Life Building drawing in his notebook; he later made a painting of the subject, and also this etching; he returned to London in 1908).
$2750
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Cahier de Six Paysages, etchings, 1928, each signed in pencil and inscribed “ep d’artiste”. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 386-391, the artist’s proofs of the third state (of 3). The total printing in all states was 150. Contained in green hardcover boards, with a title cover. The green board covers and the prints themselves are in excellent condition (the outer cover is torn extensively). Printed on a cream/tan Japan paper, with full margins, 3 5/8 x 5 3/8, the sheets 10 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches.
Ex collection: John Gribbel (with his pencil inscription on cover)
Fine clear delicately printed impressions.
This is a curiously subdued set of etchings, each portraying farm or country life in exquisite detail. Three of the six scenes are shown here; of course the others, and further details, are available on request.
$3000
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Monday, February 23rd, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Sur la Tamise, woodcut, 1914, signed in pencil lower left margins and numbered (3/35) lower right margin. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 696, only state. In generally good condition apart from mat stain outside of the image, slight toning, on Arches laid paper, with margins, 11 3/8 c 14 3/8, the sheet 13 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches.
A good impression of this early cubist-influenced woodcut.
Laboureur was of course close to Felix Vallotton, even before the turn of the century, and this woodcut shows the continuing influence of Vallotton as Laboureur was beginning to bring cubism into his aesthetic framework.
This large woodcut was intended to be accompanied in a text of a novel by Abel Hermant (La Petite Femme), describing a character traveling in a flat boat down the Thames with a woman at his side.
$2400
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Paysage au Tunnel, etching, 1920, signed in pencil lower left, numbered (19/55 ep) lower right and also titled lower left edge. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 195, second state (of 2), from the edition of 55. In very good condition, printed on a cream wove paper with deckle edges, the full sheet with wide margins, 7 7/8 x 9, the sheet 11 x 16 1/8 inches.
A fine impression, printed in a dark brownish/black ink.
This is similar to the composition of Paysage au Butte Chaumont (L 205) but it a more dramatic etching (here along the Loire, near Oudon).
Contemporary commentators noted that in etchings such as Paysage au Tunnel Laboureur takes an aesthetic position rather opposite to Whistler and the swarm of acolytes attempting to replicate Whistler’s impressionistic approach, using either plate tones or many detailed lines to achieve shading and nuance – here the lines are well defined, vigourous, dramatic, and the composition and figures have a modernist/cubist quality.
$2000
Paysage au Tunnel - Detail
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur etching and roulette, Chaumieres Dans Les Marais, 1930, signed lower left and numbered 12/80, Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 422, Godefry 422. Third state of three. From the total printing of 108, 85 in this state. With the blindstamp of Jacquart lower right margin. In very good condition, on medium wove paper with full margins, 7 3/4 x 8 3/4, the sheet 11 1/2 x 14 1/4 inches.
A fine, vivid impression.
Jean-Emile Laboureur was born in Nantes in 1877. He traveled to Paris in 1895 intending to study law at the Sorbonne, but found himself drawn to the nearby famed Academie Julian, and although he never officially matriculated there, he became immersed in the Parisian art scene, after which he traveled widely, staying for periods in the US and London, and studying classic art and printmaking in Italy and Germany.
In this context it’s worth noting that the three houses at the right in this etching bear a remarkable affinity to those in Rembrandt’s etching Three Gabled Cottages (Hind 246), a print surely familiar to Laboureur.
Although he had moved back to Paris by 1910, a time when analytical cubism was emerging in the work of Picasso and Braque, he continued working in an abstract, modernist mode, waiting until about 1913 or shortly thereafter to invent a cubist idiom all his own. Cubism remained an important theme for Laboureur, a theme he varied, sometimes using it as a strong design or compositional component, sometimes only as a subtle background element, as in Chaumieres, where he uses etching (not engraving, a more usual method) to achieve a warm atmospheric portrait of this farm scene.
$700
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Faubourg, soft ground etching in two plates (black and sanguine), 1930, signed in pencil lower left and inscribed “imp d’essai” lower right. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 413, a trial proof of the first state (of 2); there were 20 impressions of the first state, and 170 of the second state which was issued in conjunction with the publication of L’Eloge de J.-E. Laboureur by Dr. Lucien-Graux. In very good condition, with wide (full?) margins, 7 3/4 x 5 3/4, the sheet 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches.
A fine proof impression of the first state. In the second state lines of shading were added to the building wall above the child, to the buildings at the left, and in a few other places.
$1250
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur lithograph La Depart Pour La Chasse, in five colors, 1927, signed and numbered (35/150) in pencil (Sylvain Laboureur, Godefry 780), from the edition of 150 plus 20 hors tirage. 9 x 8 1/4 (sheet: 19 1/2 x 13 1/4) inches; 229 x 210 (sheet 495 x 337) mm, acid-free mounting. Good condition, on a heavy wove paper with wide (full) margins and deckle edges (a fox spot in right margin away from image, scattered foxing at extreme margin edges, 2 pinholes in margins)
A fine impression in vivid colors.
The edition was published by the review Le Chien de Pique, and the impressions (including this one) have its stamp, on heavy white wove with full margins.
Only a relatively small portion of Laboureur’s printed work was done in lithography, and of this group, only a few examples were made in color.
$950
Posted in Jean-Emile Laboureur |
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Bal Bullier, woodcut, 1898, not signed [monogram initials el in the plate]. Reference: Laboureur 579, only state. Apart from the numbered edition of about 61. Printed in black on a laid Arches paper, with their watermark, with margins. In very good condition, slight toning verso, 8 3/4 x 11 1/2, the sheet 11 x 14 1/4 inches, archival mounting.
A very good impression of this iconic Laboureur image.
The plate for this print has been destroyed.
In a sale in 1984 Marcel LeComte described a trial proof of this print, before the initials monogram bottom left. He did not show a picture of this proof, and so it was never seen by Sylvain Laboureur, the cataloguer of the most recent Laboureur catalogue raisonne. If such a first state proof exists, this impression (and all the impressions from the edition) would technically be second state impressions.
Le Bal Bullier was a celebrated student dance hall at 31 Avenue de l’Observatoire.
Although Le Bal Bullier was exhibited as evidence of Laboureur working under the influence of Japonisme, Laboureur himself tended to minimize the effect on him of Japanese art; but of course he was taught woodcutting by Lepere, and worked closely with Vallotton, both of whom were influenced by the art of Japan. Indeed, Japonisme was an important element in the aesthetic atmosphere of France at this time.
Posted in Uncategorized |
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
I get many questions about Goya prints, so thought it might be useful to sketch an overview of some of his most famous and common prints: the aquatint sets. Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was of course one of the greatest of Western artists, and printmaking was central to his career. He created four major series of prints, and many other prints including a series of lithographs late in his career. Due to the way most of his prints were created and published, there is much confusion today about their dating, their rarity, their appearance and their value. In this guide I want to clarify some of the connoisseurship issues (ignoring for the moment the art historical and aesthetic issues) regarding the four major Goya print series: the Caprichos, Disasters of War, La Tauromaquia, and Los Proverbs (or Disparates). I’ll begin with a few notes on his basic printmaking method, then discuss the four series in turn.
Goya’s Printmaking Methods
Goya’s four major print series were each done in engraving. He worked, generally after making a preliminary drawing for guidance, on a copper plate. After damping the paper and putting a wax-like ground on the plate he would put the drawing face down on the plate, and run the paper and plate through a press. A copy of the drawing would transfer to the ground. He would then work over the lines on this ground with an etching needle; when put in acid the plate would be protected except where lines were drawn, and furrows would be eaten away by the acid. When the ground was taken off the plate, the plate would be inked and these furrows would hold ink even after the plate was wiped; a sheet of damp paper pressed over the inked plate would then pick up the lines of ink. This is the basic etching process.
The etching process creates lines on the plate; to get areas of shading, Goya used the method of aquatint. Here areas of the plate are grained and bitten with acid to roughen the plate surface so it will hold ink and print as tone. He probably applied resin to the plate after putting resin in a muslin bag, then shook it onto the plate. The plate would then have lots of tiny grains. Then the plate was warmed so that the resin
melted to the plate and stuck. When acid is then applied to the plate, it works around these grains, eating into the plate and creating areas of lots of tiny holes. If the acid is applied to an area twice or bathed in acid for a longer time, the holes would be deeper, and hold more ink – this area would print darker than the more lightly bathed area.
Goya worked on the plates in other ways to strengthen lines, to burnish away areas of aquatint or soften lines; he sometime also worked with a drypoint needle directly on the plate to get details right. So although his central method was aquatint, he worked over the plates in many ways to get the image and effects he wanted. But the pressure of the printing process takes its toll on copper plates, and these subtle effects – especially those in aquatint, which creates rather shallow pits in the plate – are lost after a large number of printings. My major point: all the work Goya did gets worn down as the plates wear over time, and tired, hazy impressions without contrast are the result. Now let’s look at the prints.
Los Caprichos
Los Caprichos, the earliest of the major Goya series, is a series of 80 engravings, published initially in 1799 by Goya himself. Goya produced a number of working proofs for these engravings, without the letters found on the bottom margin or the numbers at the top. Only two are known before aquatint. Then letters were added; more trial proofs taken and the letters on a number of these proofs corrected. These early proofs, and a few complete early sets, are fairly well documented; their location is known. In 1799 the prints were published in an edition of about 300, on fine quality strong laid paper, the sheets measure about 320 by 220 mm, in a warm sepia ink. These prints, in the First Edition, are each (of course) lifetime impressions. They vary a bit in quality, for as the run went into the hundreds the aquatint began to wear out, the different layers of shading became less distinct. But in general these prints are fine impressions.
In 1855, long after Goya’s death, the Calcografia in Madrid issued another set of Los Caprichos, now on wove paper. This edition was small, and the quality was generally good although variable. But the prints are not comparable to those of the First Edition. The Calcografia produced another edition (the Third Edition), also on wove paper, in 1868. Further editions were done in the late 1800’s, with various inks, still on wove paper, and the plates continued to deteriorate. The plates were then steelfaced (a tiny layer of steel applied to them, to halt the deterioration). More additions were produced by the Calcografia, with various papers, watermarks, sizes and inks, up through the 12th Edition, issued in 1937.
All of these posthumous edition impressions are in some sense “original Goya prints,” i.e., they were taken off of the original plates. The editions, almost all originally in bound volumes of 80, have been broken up and impressions are sold singly. Connoisseurs of course prefer the impressions from the First Edition, and the earlier impressions from that edition if possible.
The Disasters of War
This second series of Goya prints has a quite different history from the Caprichos. Again, it is a series of 80 prints, but produced over a longer period, from about 1808 to 1814, the period of the Napoleonic Wars and the Great Famine in Madrid in 1811-12. Working materials were scarce, and Goya worked on used plates, often cutting them in half or working on the back of worn or defective plates. This shows in the results; even the earliest impressions generally lack the incisiveness, and clarity of aquatint shading, of the Caprichos plates. But given the subject matter and the nature of the materials Goya worked with this series remains one of the great artistic and printmaking achievements.
Goya produced trial proofs, and even some complete proof sets of the Disasters after all the plates were completed. But he did not have an edition published at that point, or later during his lifetime. He left for France in about 1820, and had the plates stored in safes by his son, Javier. After Javier’s death in 1854 the plates were acquired by the Academia de San Fernando. At this point the plates were washed and proofs taken in preparation for an edition. Trial proof sets were made for the edition (a small number are documented), before the letters in the bottom margin were added. Then First Edition sets were printed (in 1862-3); some sets made before corrections in the lettering of some of the plates, a later group after the corrections. The size of these first two editions is about 500. These were done on wove paper, many with JGO and palmette watermarks, in a sepia ink.
After the First Edition six more editions were published, of varying quality on a variety of papers, through the Seventh Edition in 1937. The editions did not get worse uniformly after the First, but, as in the case of the Caprichos, the First is by far more desirable (and of course the lifetime proofs are most desirable of all).
La Tauromaquia
The 33 original plates of this series were created in about 1815-1816, and were printed in an edition by Goya at that time (he produced a number of additional plates but rejected them), after a number of proof impressions were made. The set is on fine laid paper, with certain watermarks, printed in sepia ink. The edition was very small, perhaps much smaller than the Los Caprichos edition of 300. As with the other series, the Calcographia produced additional editions, starting with a small one in 1855 (on wove), a Third in 1876 (on laid), up to a Seventh in 1937. For the printing of the Third Edition the printer got ahold of seven of the previously rejected plates (actually printed on the back of seven of the original plates) and printed them (lettering them A-G) as part of a set, making the total 40. These latter plates were not, then, editioned during Goya’s lifetime.
Los Proverbios
The eighteen Proverbios prints were made at various times from about 1815-1824. Like the Disasters series prints, a few proofs were made of these prints by Goya, but no edition produced. The plates were then stored, with the plates of the Disasters, by his son Javier, and re-discovered after Javier’s death. It’s a mystery why a lifetime edition was not produced. Trial proofs were printed prior to the publication of the First Edition in 1864. After publication of the First Edition (in an edition of 300) an additional four plates were discovered in the possession of an artist, and these were published in L’Art in 1877, for the first time.
The plates of the Proverbios were re-editioned 8 times after the First Edition, the last edition in 1937, on various papers, different inks, and with widely varying results. As with each of the Goya sets, the deterioration after the initial printing – and even through the initial printing – was considerable.
I get more questions about Goya prints than almost any other artist. People typically have a print or two and wonder whether it’s lifetime or posthumous, valuable, a good example, a reproduction. This overview may provide some sense of the issues and complexities entailed in answering these questions. And if it leads you to contact me for further discussion – that’s fine! Harris Schrank
Posted in Francisco Goya |
Thursday, January 29th, 2009
Many aspiring print collectors are initially interested in collecting Rembrandt prints; this is understandable since Rembrandt is well known, and of course fine examples of Rembrandt prints are extraordinarily beautiful and justifiably sought after. But a high level of Rembrandt print connoisseurship can be gained only through study, or the guidance of a reputable and knowledgeable dealer, or preferably both. This note is an introduction to some of the issues.
Rembrandt made etchings and drypoints, working on copper plates, creating ink-holding furrows in these plates either directly (using a drypoint needle) or with etching (drawing through a wax-like substance covering a plate, then bathing the plate in acid to create furrows). At some point in this process he might take an impression to see what his print looks like; he might then change the plate adding some lines or burnishing out lines, check it again (thus creating a new state of the print), do this until he was satisfied with the plate, then print impressions as he cared to, sometimes over a period of years.
Each time a print is made, the copper plate wears down a bit. A shallow drypoint line would wear down quickly; the burr created when the drypoint line was drawn would wear off particularly quickly, losing its capacity to hold ink after perhaps 20 or 30 impressions. Etched lines wear down too. Worn plates make worn impressions.
When Rembrandt died (in 1669), many of his plates had been cancelled or destroyed, but about 100 were intact. These generally worn plates were then used by others to make more prints, and as the plates became more worn, they were reworked, by successive re-touchers and restorers (their names include Watelet, then Basan, Jean, Bernard, Beaumont (were now into the 20th Century!). The evolution of the plates, changes in the lines, reworkings, etc., are fairly well documented. Thousands of these prints (sometimes called re-strikes) are now on the market. Some are still being produced! In many cases they only vaguely resemble the compositions or details that Rembrandt had in mind. They never have the richness, or details, or subtleties of the lifetime impressions.
Traditionally (and still) considered nearly valueless by reputable dealers, Rembrandt restrikes now enjoy a new life on the market, largely due to the presence of huge numbers of internet buyers eager to obtain a real Rembrandt print. Some auction houses sell hundreds of these prints at a time; its possible to sit through hours of Rembrandt lots, all with four or five figure sales (i.e, from about $1000 to 10,000 or sometimes more), without encountering a single lifetime impression in the sale.
Because Rembrandt is so well known, many collectors want to start their print collecting career by owning a Rembrandt. But, as noted above, Rembrandt print connoisseurship is particularly involved and complex. Even among the lifetime impressions, some are especially beautiful or striking, some less so. He printed impressions personally, often varying the inks, the paper, the wiping (how much and how selectively he wiped the ink off the plate before printing), and of course made different states. Some great Rembrandt prints are sold for over a million dollars, and all lifetime impressions do and should have a substantial value. In some cases the early states of the prints are well documented, so if its clear that Rembrandt himself made changes to a plate, an early state would definitely be a lifetime impression. But sometimes cataloguers include states made after Rembrandts death, and if Rembrandt only made one state and never changed the plate, a print called a first state of two or three could be either lifetime or posthumous this can become a matter of judgement and connoisseurship .
Often people mistakenly pay too much for a common Rembrandt restrike (perhaps misleadingly sold nicely framed of course as a lifetime impression), and when they learn about what theyve done become soured on print collecting. But some go from this early misstep to develop their print knowledge and connoisseurship.
An aspiring connoisseur should see lots of impressions (in the great museum collections) before buying one; should consult with trusted dealers and scholars about any prospective print; should read a number of the catalogues on Rembrandt to get a sense of the evolution of the plate over time. Watermarks may give a sense of when a print was made during Rembrandtss lifetime, and there are books and articles on Rembrandt watermarks.
The recently published (2014) Hollstein catalog set by Eric Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers is absolutely essential as a reference for anyone looking into a Rembrandt print, and the set references volumes on watermarks done earlier, so those volumes are necessary for reference as well. These are available at the better museum print rooms; dealers in fine Rembrandt prints should of course also have and be familiar with these references.
But even if one is willing to get into this depth, and then willing to spend large sums, my advice to the beginning collector is to study Rembrandt, but learn about other artists too there are many ways to get into print collecting and many wonderful artist/printmakiners and prints to choose from. For example, wonderful lifetime impressions of prints by Rembrandts 17th Century Dutch contemporaries, such as Adriaen Van Ostade, or Cornelis Bega, are available at a fraction of the cost of many Rembrandt re-strikes on the market.
I am happy to discuss these issues, as well as any other matters pertaining to fine prints; feel free to contact by e mail or phone (see my home page) Harris Schrank
Posted in Rembrandt van Rijn |
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Hans Burgkmair (1459-1519), The Alliance of the White King, The Pope, Spain and Hungary, woodcut, 1514-1516. Reference: Bartsch 80-(224) 182 [by Leonhard Beck], from the History of Emperor Maximilian I. In very good condition (with margins; some very old script in ink at bottom margin, some slight staining, foxing), on old laid paper, 8 3/8 x 7 5/8, the sheet 10 1/8 x 8 1/2 inches.
Provenance: Karl Edward von Liphart (1808-1891, Dorpat, Bonn and Florence), with his graphite mark verso (Lugt 1651, see also Lugt 1687, 1688). Lugt notes of Liphart, a distinguished collector of old master prints, “il commence par l’oeuvre de Ridinger et par un achat considerable GG. Boerner in Leipsig en 1836.”
A very good impression.
The History of the Weisskunig (White King) is an autobiography in the style of an illustrated novel without words. Although it is the story of Emperor Maximilian I all the characters have symbolic names. The White King is the name Maximilian chose for himself, as it both stands for whiteness (purity) and is associated with the word for wisdom (Weisheit).
Hans Burgkmair, the eminent Augsburg painter and printmaker was in effect Maximilian’s official court artist. He worked with other artists, including Leonhard Beck (Germany, Augsburg, 1480 – 1542), in developing the plates for the Maximilian series. At the time of the original cataloguing this block was given to Beck; in the more recent edition of Bartsch it is given to Beck but the decision was made to continue its cataloguing under Burgkmair, to avoid confusion and keep the ordering and placement of all the blocks of the series intact.
This is one of a bound group of old master prints, including other woodcuts by Burgkmair, Hans Weiditz, Hans Schaufelein and others. Many of these prints have the mark of the eminent collector Karl Edward von Liphart (Lugt 1651) verso. We are currently doing research on the collection so it is not on the market as yet.
Posted in Hans Burgkmair |
Martin Lewis (1881-1962), Little Penthouse, drypoint, 1931, signed in pencil lower right [signed in the plate in a rectangle lower left]. Reference: McCarron 91, only state. Printed for inclusion in the Deluxe Edition of American Etchers Volume XI (Martin Lewis) by the Crafton Collection, NY, and distributed by P&D Colnaghi in London in 1931. The total number of recorded impressions is 84. In fine condition, withfull margins, 9 7/8 x 6 13/16 inches, the sheet 11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches.
Emil Nolde (1867-1956), Unterhaltung (Conversation), etching, 1906, signed and dated in pencil lower right and also signed by the printer Otto Felsing lower left. Reference: Gustav Schiefler 37, fourth state (of 4). A proof apart from the edition of only 20 and “some proofs” (Schiefler says: “einige probedrucke”) of this state. In excellent condition, on a heavy laid handmade paper with the (partial) watermark “V”, the full sheet with deckle edges, 6 x 7 1/2, the sheet 21 1/2 x 15 inches.
