Ecstasy (or, Leda) – Final State
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.