Harris Schrank Fine Prints

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

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.”

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.