Edward Hopper & His Contemporaries: Making a Modern Art
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1900 - 1910
At the turn of the twentieth century, artists began to confront the dominance of European academic influences within the American art sphere. In search of a new status quo, leading American artists began to challenge these systems—such as the National Academy of Design and the American Impressionists—in hopes to create and define an American artistic identity. As artists became aligned with the Ashcan School and began depicting New York in a Realist style, they found themselves not only transforming the status quo, but leading an emergent avant-garde movement.
A group of artists known as The Eight were the most definitive pushback against the traditional academic system. They included Robert Henri (the leader), as well as Everett Shinn, John Sloan, Arthur B. Davies, Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, George Luks and William J. Glackens. Together they exhibited their work at the Macbeth Galleries in 1908 in an exhibition outside the system that was meant to challenge it. They wanted to create an American aesthetic and while they painted in different styles, most — including Henri and Sloan — embraced a Realist manner showing the struggles of life for the working class in New York City.
Five of the members of The Eight became associated with The Aschan School, a loose group of artists that followed Henri’s mantra of “art for life’s sake”. They strove to depict a New York City that included working class people and immigrants. Immigration surged in the late nineteenth century and first decade of the twentieth century. A second generation consisted of Robert Henri’s New York students, of whom George Bellows was the most devoted.
Around this time, Edward Hopper was living in New York. As a student, his parents pushed him to study illustration and pursue classes at both the Correspondence School of Illustrating and at the New York School of Art. He studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller and Robert Henri (John Sloan was also an early influence). Hopper worked in illustration for about 20 years, starting in 1906 as a part-time illustrator for various advertising agencies in New York. He illustrated for magazines such as Scribner’s Magazine, Everybody’s and Country Gentleman as well as for specialty magazines, including Hotel Management, The Morse Dial and Wells Fargo Messenger. Illustration was an important way for artists to support themselves, and Henri, Sloan, Luks and other significant artists of the time worked as illustrators to provide secure earnings. Towards the end of the decade, Hopper traveled to Europe, and spent two long sojourns in Paris, where he overlapped with many of his contemporaries, and admired the work of the Old Masters as well as, Manet and Degas for their depictions of modern life.
The Ashcan artists were seen as the avant-garde in American art, but the European modernists were on the cusp of being introduced. An early supporter of European modern art in New York was Alfred Stieglitz who opened a gallery in 1905 called the 291 Gallery. He began to exhibit cutting-edge European art in 1908. Stieglitz also despised the gatekeeping incited by The National Academy of the Arts. In response, he showcased European contemporaries with drawings by Auguste Rodin, and artists less known in America, including Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso. The first exhibition of Matisse’s work ever held in the United States, which included Nude in the Forest (1906), exhibited at 291 Gallery. These exhibitions set the stage for a defining moment in art of the twentieth century: the 1913 Armory Show, which opened in its first iteration at the 69th Regiment Armory on Park Avenue and 25th Street, New York, across the street from Swann Auction Galleries’ current location.
Edward hopper
Landscape with Farm Houses.
Watercolor and pencil on tan wove paper mounted on card stock, circa 1895. 263x330 mm; 10½x13¼ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 2005.
Early watercolors like this work by Hopper (1882-1967), made during his mid-teens and as he aspired to become an artist, are exceedingly scarce. There are only several contemporaneous early watercolors, mostly studies of ships and figures, now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest), and not another landscape watercolor from this early period with as complete a composition as the current work.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Edward hopper
The Creek at Hogencamps.
Pen and ink on card stock, 1900. 265x196 mm; 10½x8 inches. Signed, titled and dated “June 1900” in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Hogencamp Mountain, now within Harriman State Park, is twenty miles northwest of Hopper’s boyhood home in Nyack, New York. This is among the largest, most developed ink landscape drawing by Hopper (1882-1967) from the early decades of his career and likely drawn from nature that we have located. There is another, Study of a Forest with Stream, pen and ink, circa 1899-1906, now in the Whitney Museum of American Art (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest), New York, as well as Camp Nyack, Greenwood Lake (a location slightly southwest of Hogencamp Mountain), pen and ink, 1900, that sold at Christie’s, New York, September 28, 2010, lot 45.
In a letter he wrote to an editor in 1935, recalling his early artistic pursuit, Hopper noted, “In every artist’s development the germ of the later work is always found in the earlier. The nucleus around which the artist’s intellect builds his work is himself; the central ego, personality, or whatever it may be called, and this changes little from birth to death. What he was once, he always is, with slight modification. Changing fashions in methods or subject matter alter him little or not at all,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 1).
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Oscar bluemner
Landscape, Staten Island.
Watercolor, gouache and pencil on wove paper, 1902. 256x360 mm; 10x14 inches. Initialed and dated in ink, lower center recto, and indistinctly titled in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Graham Gallery, New York; Athena Fine Arts Corporation, New York; Mark Borghi Fine Art, Inc., New York; private collection, Chicago.
Exhibited: Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 1993.
Bluemner (1867-1938), one of America’s most accomplished Modern colorists, was largely overlooked for the majority of his career. Now, however, his place alongside Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Marsden Hartley and Max Weber—all fellow exhibitors at Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery, 291, in New York—is recognized, and he ranks among the group of the most modern and influential artists in America during the early 20th century.
After developing a friendship with Stieglitz around 1911, and after a drawn-out litigation to rightfully claim his recognition and compensation for designing the Bronx, New York courthouse, Bluemner decided to turn completely to painting in 1912 and embarked on a seven month European voyage. Upon his return, after exposure to works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, as well as the Fauves and Cubists, Bluemner’s work reflected a dramatic shift toward the bright, streamlined style that would define his work and parallel the avant-garde developments made by other American modern artists during the early 20th century. Like Edward Hopper, Bluemner traveled widely along the east coast, mostly in the countryside surrounding New York, and made numerous watercolor studies of landscapes and buildings, many of which are devoid of human presence.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Oscar bluemner
Group of 6 drawings.
Morris Hill, color crayons on cream wove paper, 1910. Signed with artist’s monogram, dated and inscribed in ink, lower recto * Mt. Vernon, pencil on cream wove paper, 1895. Signed with artist’s monogram, titled and dated in pencil, lower recto * Oak Point, pencil on cream wove paper, 1895. Signed with artist’s monogram in ink and titled and dated in pencil, lower left recto * Watchogue Road, crayon on cream wove paper, 1909. Signed with artist’s monogram, titled and dated in crayon, lower right recto * Boonton, pencil on cream wove paper, 1908. Signed with artist’s monogram, titled and dated in pencil, lower left recto * Sawmill at Fairfield, pencil on cream laid paper, 1909. Signed with artist’s monogram, dated, titled and annotated in pencil, lower recto. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Private collection, New Hampshire.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Edward hopper
Fisher Boy.
Pen and ink and pencil on wove paper, circa 1900. 205x127 mm; 8¼x5¼ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
According to Levin, “In 1899, after graduating from high school in his hometown of Nyack, New York, Hopper commuted to New York City daily to study illustration at the Correspondence School of Illustrating at 114 West Thirty-fourth Street. His parents had not objected to his becoming an artist, but they encouraged him to study commercial illustration which offered a more secure income. This must have seemed more practical to his father, who owned a drygoods store in Nyack and would have been familiar with advertising illustrations,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9).
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Edward hopper
Galleon in a Storm.
Pen and ink and pencil on wove paper, circa 1900-05. 153x125 mm; 6¼x5 inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Hopper (1882-1967) made numerous similar nautical studies as an aspiring young art student and in his early years as an illustrator. Many of these drawings are now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest). Growing up on the Hudson River, in Nyack, New York, Hopper had a frequent glimpse of the ship building yards in and around Nyack as well as the busy shipping traffic on the river itself, in addition to what appears to have been an insatiable interest in ships and the sea from the multitude of early drawings he made of these subjects. His first signed oil painting, from 1895, depicts a Rowboat in a Rocky Cove, and among his most accomplished early oils is Ships, circa 1898, now in the collection of the Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, Florida, which he copied from a painting by the American artist Edward Moran (1829-1901).
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Edward hopper
The Storm.
Pencil on wove paper, circa 1895-1900. 130x100 mm; 5¼x4 inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper Drawings: The Poetry of Solitude,” Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, September 9-October 15, 1995; “The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper,” Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, November 4-25, 1995, number 11.
Published: The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper, New York, 1995, catalogue number 11 (illustrated).
Hopper (1882-1967) made numerous similar ship studies, very early on as an aspiring young artist, before his training as an illustrator. Many of these early nautical drawings are now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest). As a student (he graduated from Nyack High School in 1899), Hopper dreamed of being a naval architect, and this desire is evidenced by the numerous nautical drawings he made during these years.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
The Sloop.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1899-1900. 137x130 mm; 5½x5¼ inches. Dated or numbered “99” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Hopper (1882-1967) made numerous similar ship studies, very early on as an aspiring young artist, before his training as an illustrator. Many of these early nautical drawings are now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest). As a student (he graduated from Nyack High School in 1899), Hopper dreamed of being a naval architect, and this desire is evidenced by the numerous nautical drawings he made during these years.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Abraham walkowitz
Two watercolors of Cape Cod.
Both circa 1900. Both approximately 397x460 mm; 15⅝x18 inches. One signed in ink, lower center recto, the other signed twice in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Steiglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Abraham walkowitz
Two watercolors of Cape Cod.
Both circa 1900. One 390x565 mm; 15¾x22¼ inches, the other 360x565 mm; 14¼x22¼ inches. One signed and dated in ink, lower right recto, the other signed in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Steiglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Edward hopper
A Work Horse * Studies of Kneeling Figures.
Pen and ink on card stock, double-sided, 1900. 113x146 mm; 4½x5½ inches. Initialed and dated “Sept. 1900” in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
According to Levin, “In 1899, after graduating from high school in his hometown of Nyack, New York, Hopper commuted to New York City daily to study illustration at the Correspondence School of Illustrating at 114 West Thirty-fourth Street. His parents had not objected to his becoming an artist, but they encouraged him to study commercial illustration which offered a more secure income. This must have seemed more practical to his father, who owned a drygoods store in Nyack and would have been familiar with advertising illustrations,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9).
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Edward hopper
Study of a Horse (An Old Favorite).
Pencil on stiff wove paper, circa 1895-1900. 55x76 mm; 2¼x3¼ inches. Signed and inscribed “An Old Favorite” in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper,” Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, November 4-25, 1995, number 20.
Published: The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper, New York, 1995, catalogue number 20 (illustrated).
There is a similar, early study of a horse by Hopper (1882-1967), Bronco, pencil, 1892-95, now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
The Eagle or The Eagle and Dead Red Deer (after Sir Edwin Landseer).
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1900. 135x180 mm; 5¼x7 inches. Initialed and inscribed “Sir Edwin Landseer” in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper Drawings: The Poetry of Solitude,” Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, September 9-October 15, 1995; “The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper,” Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, November 4-25, 1995, number 4.
Published: The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper, New York, 1995, catalogue number 4 (illustrated).
As a young artist, Hopper (1882-1967) frequently made drawings based on illustrations he found in books, magazines, newspapers and elsewhere, practicing and perfecting his technique through the study of works by Renaissance and Victorian masters alike. He copied the current drawing from an etching made by the Victorian painter and sculptor Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873), who was especially renowned during the 19th century for his depictions of animals. Landseer’s etching, The Eagle (or The Eagle and Dead Red Deer), 1825, was issued in the series Etchings by Edwin Landseer published by E. Gambart & Co., London in 1848.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Edward hopper
Alone.
Pen and ink on wove paper, 1898. 204x153 mm; 8¼x6¼ inches. Signed, titled and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper: The Early Years,” September 6, 1982-August 31, 1983, various institutions, organized by the Brevard Art Center and Museum for the Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Touring Program; “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper: The Early Years, Melbourne, Florida, 1982, catalogue number 15c; Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 24 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 20, figure 7 (illustrated).
There is another study of this subject by Hopper (1882-1967), though more loosely drawn and less finished than the current work, in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest). From this very early treatment of the subject, at just 16 years old, only a year before he began art studies with a correspondence course in 1899 and soon after transferred to the New York School of Art and Design (the forerunner of Parsons The New School for Design), Hopper frequently returned to the theme of aloneness (and loneliness) in many of his most iconic works, including the oil paintings Automat, 1927, Morning Sun, 1952, and Office in a Small City, 1953, as well as the etching Night Shadows, 1921.
According to Levin, “Hopper brought to his art and to illustration a cool detachment reflecting the reserve with which he dealt with the world around him. His personality, especially his shyness, did not lend itself to illustrating fiction that was either overly sentimental or involved with fantasy. Hopper preferred to depict what he observed in the most matter-of-fact manner. When he had to illustrate to earn a living, he found greater freedom in the illustration of nonfiction topics, particularly for trade publications,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 5).
Estimate
$12,000 – $18,000
Edward hopper
A Russian Lancer.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1900. 187x110 mm; 7½x4½ inches. Titled in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper: The Early Years,” September 6, 1982-August 31, 1983, various institutions, organized by the Brevard Art Center and Museum for the Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Touring Program; “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper: The Early Years, Melbourne, Florida, 1982, catalogue number 15e; Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 40 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 22, figure 11 (illustrated).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
One of the Preobrajenski Regiment.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1900. 189x113 mm; 7¼x4 inches. Titled in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper: The Early Years,” September 6, 1982-August 31, 1983, various institutions, organized by the Brevard Art Center and Museum for the Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Touring Program; “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper: The Early Years, Melbourne, Florida, 1982, catalogue number 15d; Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 42 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 22, figure 12 (illustrated).
The Preobrazhensky (or Preobrajenski) Life-Guards Regiment was one of the oldest and most elite guard units of the Imperial Russian Army.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
Even the Worm Will Turn.
Pen and ink on card stock, circa 1900-05. 137x82 mm; 5½x3¼ inches. Titled in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
“Even a worm will turn” is an expression used to convey the message that even the meekest or most docile of creatures will retaliate or seek revenge if pushed too far.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
Edward hopper
A Cossack.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1900. 148x98 mm; 5¾x3¾ inches. Titled in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
A Russian Grenadier.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1900. 189x113 mm; 7¼x4 inches. Titled in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
A Native American in Cavalry Uniform with a Pistol.
Pen and ink on wove paper, 1899. 123x66 mm; 4½x2b inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper,” Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, November 4-25, 1995, number 2.
Published: The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper, New York, 1995, catalogue number 2 (illustrated).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
Standing Man in Khakis, Sketching.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1900-05. 205x130 mm; 8x5 inches. Inscribed “av” in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 44 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 29, figure 27 (illustrated).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
John marin
Ponte Ghetto, Venice.
Etching on Japan paper, 1907. 239x189 mm; 9⅜x7½ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately only 30. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce, early etching.
Zigrosser cites only 4 impressions in public collections. We have found only 2 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
Marin (1870-1953) left New York for Paris in the summer of 1905, overlapping with Edward Hopper’s own visits there at the time, when the city was under the influence of Late Impressionism and the Fauves were dominating the avant-garde scene (Hopper left for Paris in October 1906 and returned to New York in August 1907). Marin exhibited at the Salone d’Automne several times, along with works by Henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, as well as alongside the 1907 Paul Cézanne retrospective. Though surrounded by the excitement of the center of the art world, Marin’s main influence at this time period was the artist James A. M. Whistler (1834-1903). In his European prints, before returning to New York, Marin emulated Whistler’s high career, looser style of etching, which he had honed during his 1879-80 stay in Venice (Marin even selected similar vantage points as those used by Whistler in Venice). Zigrosser 69.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John marin
Porta San Marco, Venice.
Etching on Japan paper, 1907. 228x169 mm; 9x6⅝ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 29/30 in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this early etching with selective wiping to highlight the arch.
Marin (1870-1953) left New York for Paris in the summer of 1905, overlapping with Edward Hopper’s own visits there at the time, when the city was under the influence of Late Impressionism and the Fauves were dominating the avant-garde scene (Hopper left for Paris in October 1906 and returned to New York in August 1907). Marin exhibited at the Salone d’Automne several times, along with works by Henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, as well as alongside the 1907 Paul Cézanne retrospective. Though surrounded by the excitement of the center of the art world, Marin’s main influence at this time period was the artist James A. M. Whistler (1834-1903). In his European prints, before returning to New York, Marin emulated Whistler’s high career, looser style of etching, which he had honed during his 1879-80 stay in Venice (Marin even selected similar vantage points as those used by Whistler in Venice). Zigrosser 66.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John marin
Quartier de la Maison Blanche.
Etching on Japan paper, 1907. 130x180 mm; 5¼x7¼ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately only 12. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. A superb, dark impression of this extremely scarce, early etching.
Marin (1870-1953) left New York for Paris in the summer of 1905, overlapping with Edward Hopper’s own visits there at the time, when the city was under the influence of Late Impressionism and the Fauves were dominating the avant-garde scene (Hopper left for Paris in October 1906 and returned to New York in August 1907). Marin exhibited at the Salone d’Automne several times, along with works by Henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, as well as alongside the 1907 Paul Cézanne retrospective. Though surrounded by the excitement of the center of the art world, Marin’s main influence at this time period was the artist James A. M. Whistler (1834-1903). In his European prints, before returning to New York, Marin emulated Whistler’s high career, looser style of etching, which he had honed during his 1879-80 stay in Venice (Marin even selected similar vantage points as those used by Whistler in Venice). Zigrosser 78.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
John marin
Rainy Day at Meaux.
Watercolor and pencil on cream wove paper, 1908. 390x280 mm; 15¼x11⅛ inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower left recto, titled in pencil at the upper edge recto and inscribed “Wet Weather, Meaux” in pencil, verso.
Provenance: The artist, from 1908; 291, New York; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, with the label; Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: “Exhibition of Sketches in Oil by Alfred Maurer, of Paris and New York and Water-colors by John Marin of Paris and New York,” 291, New York, March 30-April 19, 1909, number 7 (as Wet Weather, Meaux); “Exhibition of Watercolors, Oil Paintings, and Etchings by John Marin,” Montross Gallery, New York, January 24-February 11, 1922, number 1.
Published: Reich, John Marin: A Stylistic Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné, Tucson, 1970, volume 1, pages 22-23, and volume 2, number 08.8, page 330 (illustrated; as Houses and Bridge at Meaux).
Marin (1870-1953) left New York for Paris in the summer of 1905, overlapping with Edward Hopper’s own visits there at the time, when the city was under the influence of Late Impressionism and the Fauves were dominating the avant-garde scene (Hopper left for Paris in October 1906 and returned to New York in August 1907). Marin exhibited at the Salone d’Automne several times, along with works by Henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard, as well as alongside the 1907 Paul Cézanne retrospective. Though surrounded by the excitement of the center of the art world, Marin’s main influence at this time period was the artist James A. M. Whistler (1834-1903). Marin’s color palette, intimacy, and the spontaneity of the “wet-on-wet” technique echoed that of Whistler. Meaux, a town northeast of Paris, dovetailed into Marin’s early inclination towards picturesque, decorative subjects synonymous with the previous century. Marin’s “wet-on-wet” technique, allowing for the blurring or melting of the subjects as in the current work, enabled him to fulfill the late 19th century tenet of the direct observation of the moment and the importance of conveying the instantaneous mood of the scene.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Joseph pennell
Canyon, No. III.
Etching on Japan paper, 1904. 300x125 mm; 11¾x4⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 75. Signed in pencil, lower center. A very good, richly-inked impression.
The influence of James A. M. Whistler is evident in Pennell’s (1857-1926) work with its often impressionistic line, but the artist often chose a modern subject. Born in Pennsylvania, Pennell made London his home and did not return full-time to the United States until World War I. He traveled twice to New York prior to that, in 1904 and 1908, and captured the changing character of the city with the growing number of skyscrapers, a reflection of his interest in depicting modern life through urban landscapes, factories and industry. Wuerth 338.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Edward hopper
Street Scene with a Man Playing an Organ Grinder.
Pen and ink on card stock, circa 1900. 115x117 mm; 4¾x4¾ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
According to Levin, “In 1899, after graduating from high school in his hometown of Nyack, New York, Hopper commuted to New York City daily to study illustration at the Correspondence School of Illustrating at 114 West Thirty-fourth Street. His parents had not objected to his becoming an artist, but they encouraged him to study commercial illustration which offered a more secure income. This must have seemed more practical to his father, who owned a drygoods store in Nyack and would have been familiar with advertising illustrations,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9).
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Edward hopper
The Ivory Booth.
Pen and ink and wash on cream wove paper, 1897. 250x180 mm; 10x7¼ inches. Titled in ink, upper right recto, and dated “5/12/97” in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper: The Early Years,” September 6, 1982-August 31, 1983, various institutions, organized by the Brevard Art Center and Museum for the Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Touring Program; “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper: The Early Years, Melbourne, Florida, 1982, catalogue number 9a; Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 34 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 20, figure 8 (illustrated).
In this early, finished ink drawing, 15-year old Hopper (1882-1967) positioned the isolated figure, an ivory soap saleswoman, in a theatrical setting resembling a marionette booth. There are no patrons or other figures present in the composition; stillness and eeriness dominate the scene, emphasized by the darkly-shaded background. The subject appears to be commonplace, but also invites the viewer to interpret the narrative, like many of Hopper’s iconic works. Decades later, the figure of the usherette in Hopper’s oil painting New York Movie, 1938-39, lost in her thoughts against a dark backdrop, would echo the contemplative mood evoked by the current drawing.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Edward hopper
Wedded (after Lord Frederic Leighton).
Brush and ink and wash and pencil on illustration board, circa 1900-05. 315x185 mm; 12½x7½ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 46 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 31, figure 34 (illustrated).
Hopper (1882-1967) based this drawing on the same-titled painting by Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) from 1882, now in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, which he likely encountered through a reproductive print of the Victorian master’s work. Hopper explored subjects centered on couples throughout his career, with figural and compositional arrangements reminiscent of this early drawing, most famously in his oil paintings Summer Evening, 1947, and Sunlight on Brownstones, 1956, and the etching, Night on the El Train, 1918.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Robert henri
Study of a Woman with Hand on Chin.
Pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1905. 277x215 mm; 11x8½ inches. Inscribed with the artist’s name and initialed “JCL” in blue ink by John C. LeClair, executor of Henri’s estate and the nephew of his sister-in-law, Violet Organ, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Davis Galleries, New York, with the label; Gallery Fifty-two, South Orange, New Jersey, with the label; estate of Elizabeth Rosenstein, East Orange, New Jersey; sold Christie’s, New York, October 1, 1987, lot 248, to the current owner, private collection, Toronto.
Henri (1865-1929) was a leading Ashcan artist, a prominent figure in the revolt against American academic art, and Hopper’s teacher during the early 1900s. As an art instructor, Henri preached originality and urged Hopper’s further study of European art. “Hopper had heard Henri praise the work of European artists such as Daumier, Courbet, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Hals, Velásquez, Goya, and El Greco, and like so many of Henri’s students, felt he should travel to Europe to see the works of these great masters firsthand. So, with his parents’ help, he left for Paris in October 1906 and did not return until the following August,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 11).
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
Robert Henri.
Etching, 1902. 171x114 mm; 6¾x4½ inches, full margins. Edition of 75 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression of this scarce, early etching.
Sloan (1871-1951) noted in his diary, “A sketch of my great friend and teacher, the distinguished painter, Robert Henri (1865-1929). Drawn directly. He posed for me one evening when he came over from New York for a day or two–on the occasion of his visit to Philadelphia just prior to my removal to New York.” Henri became Sloan’s mentor in 1892 and the following year they co-founded the short-lived Charcoal Club, whose members would also include William Glackens, George Luks and Everett Shinn. Sloan was still working as an illustrator in Philadelphia at the time and would ultimately move to New York in 1904, where he became of member of the group known as The Eight and one of the founders of the Ashcan school of American art, many of whose fellow artists—Sloan included—would interact with and have an impact on Hopper and vice versa. Morse 70.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Edward hopper
Portrait of a Gentleman.
Pen and ink and pencil on wove paper, circa 1900-05. 237x194 mm; 9¼x7½ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 8 (illustrated).
Hopper (1882-1967) made numerous similar pen and ink portrait studies around the turn-of-the century, while he was progressing toward working professionally as a freelance illustrator, many of which are now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest).
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Edward hopper
Portrait of a Bearded Man with a Hat (William Merritt Chase).
Pencil on wove paper, circa 1900. 80x75 mm; 3¼x3 inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper: The Early Years,” September 6, 1982-August 31, 1983, various institutions, organized by the Brevard Art Center and Museum for the Southern Arts Federation Visual Arts Touring Program.
Published: Edward Hopper: The Early Years, Melbourne, Florida, 1982, catalogue number 23b.
Hopper (1882-1967) began studying at the New York School of Art and Design, the forerunner of Parsons The New School for Design, with the artists William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) and Robert Henri (1865-1929), shortly after taking a correspondence course in drawing in 1899. Chase, who bears a strong resemblance to the sitter in the current portrait, established his own art school, which became the New York School of Art and Design, in 1896, and was an instructor there until 1907. He was the elder statesman among the artists at the school, among the most talented and renowned 19th century American Impressionist artists, and an immensely influential teacher, fostering the early careers of artists such as George Bellows, Howard Chandler Christy, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Georgia O’Keeffe, Joseph Stella and many others.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Edward hopper
Pope Innocent X (after Diego Velázquez).
Pen and ink on card stock, circa 1900. 125x196 mm; 5x7¾ inches. Inscribed “Velasquez” in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 4 (illustrated).
Hopper (1882-1967) made this study from the famous portrait painting of the Pamphili Pope, Innocent X (ruled 1644-1655) by the Spanish Golden Age master Diego Velázquez (1599-1660). Considered among the finest portraits ever painted, and now in the Galleria Doria Pamphili in Rome, Velázquez’s work has prompted numerous artistic studies and responses. Perhaps most famously, the Irish-born artist Francis Bacon (1909-1992) painted a series of distorted variants, often known as the “Screaming Popes,” which total more than forty-five known versions executed during the 1950s and early 1960s.
One of the motivators behind Hopper’s interest in European art was his teacher during the early 1900s, Robert Henri (1865-1929). As an art instructor, Henri preached originality and urged Hopper’s further study of European art. “Hopper had heard Henri praise the work of European artists such as Daumier, Courbet, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Hals, Velásquez, Goya, and El Greco, and like so many of Henri’s students, felt he should travel to Europe to see the works of these great masters firsthand. So, with his parents’ help, he left for Paris in October 1906 and did not return until the following August,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 11).
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Edward hopper
The Enchantment of Don Quixote (after Gustave Doré).
Pencil and white gouache heightening on cream laid paper, circa 1900-05. 189x136 mm; 7¼x5¼ inches. Initialed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper Drawings: The Poetry of Solitude,” Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, September 9-October 15, 1995; “The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper,” Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, November 4-25, 1995, number 18 (illustrated); “Small and Beautiful: The Issue of Scale,” Eaton Fine Art, Inc., West Palm Beach, November 7, 1997-January 2, 1998.
Published: Levin, Edward Hopper, A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1995, volume 1, page 106, figure I-7 b (illustrated); The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper, New York, 1995, catalogue number 18.
Hopper (1882-1967) made this detail study after a design by Gustave Doré (1832-1883) that appeared in an illustrated edition of Don Quixote by Cervantes from around 1880. The subject clearly interested Hopper, who produced at least two other drawings of the famous literary character from around this time period, which are now in the Whitney Museum of American Art (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest), New York, as well as the etching, Don Quixote, 1915-18 (Levin 12).
One of the motivators behind Hopper’s interest in European art was his teacher during the early 1900s, Robert Henri (1865-1929). As an art instructor, Henri preached originality and urged Hopper’s further study of European art. “Hopper had heard Henri praise the work of European artists such as Daumier, Courbet, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Hals, Velásquez, Goya, and El Greco, and like so many of Henri’s students, felt he should travel to Europe to see the works of these great masters firsthand. So, with his parents’ help, he left for Paris in October 1906 and did not return until the following August,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 11).
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
EDWARD HOPPER
Liz.
Color crayons, black chalk and pencil on stiff wove paper, 1900. 161x95 mm; 6½x3¾ inches. Signed and dated in green crayon, lower right recto, and titled in pencil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth Griffiths Smith Hopper, who bears a strong resemblance to the sitter in this portrait, was the artist’s mother and the subject of several of his paintings, notably Elizabeth Griffiths Smith Hopper, The Artist’s Mother, oil on canvas, circa 1915-16, now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest).
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Edward hopper
Woman with a Fur-Collar Jacket * Man with a Pipe Seated on a Stool in Tyrolian Costume.
Pencil on wove paper, double-sided, circa 1900-10. 325x221 mm; 13x9 inches. The drawing of the woman initialed in pencil, lower right.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; private collection, New York; Patrick Morgan, Partner, Berger Cole & Morgan Antique Clocks, New York; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 52 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 24, figures 16 and 17 (illustrated).
There are several similar drawings by Hopper (1882-1967) of men in Tyrolian costume, like one side of the current drawing, one of which appears to be the same model (Study of a Man in Suit with Hand in Pocket and Sketch of Hands), now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest).
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Edward hopper
Seated Woman in a Long Dress with a Bow * Seated Woman in a Gown with a Parasol.
Pencil on wove paper, double-sided, 1903. 325x221 mm; 13x9 inches. The drawing of the woman in a dress initialed and dated in pencil, lower right.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; private collection, New York; Patrick Morgan, Partner, Berger Cole & Morgan Antique Clocks, New York; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011; and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, with the label.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 48 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 23, figures 13 and 14 (illustrated).
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
John sloan
Turning Out the Light.
Etching, 1905. 127x178 mm; 5x7 inches, full margins. Edition of 110 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. From New York City Life. A superb, richly-inked impression with very strong contrasts.
Sloan (1871-1951) produced his New York City Life series of ten etchings from 1905-06, recording the lives of the city’s tenement dwellers. Sloan found these prints difficult to market to buyers, as they were not accustomed to seeing such honest depictions of everyday life. The current etching was one of the works rejected from an American Watercolor Society exhibition in 1906 for indecency.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 134.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
The Women’s Page.
Etching, 1905. 127x177 mm; 5x7 inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of 100. Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. From New York City Life. A superb, richly-inked impression with very strong contrasts.
Sloan (1871-1951) produced his New York City Life series of ten etchings from 1905-06, recording the lives of the city’s tenement dwellers. Sloan found these prints difficult to market to buyers, as they were not accustomed to seeing such honest depictions of everyday life.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 132.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
Man, Wife and Child.
Etching, 1905. 127x177 mm; 5x7 inches, full margins. Fifth state (of 5). Edition of 85 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. From New York City Life. A very good impression.
Sloan (1871-1951) produced his New York City Life series of ten etchings from 1905-06, recording the lives of the city’s tenement dwellers. Sloan found these prints difficult to market to buyers, as they were not accustomed to seeing such honest depictions of everyday life.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 135.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
Two etchings.
The Show Case, 1905. 127x178 mm; 5x7 inches, wide margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of 75 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin * Fun, One Cent, 1905. 125x175 mm; 4⅞x6¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 60 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. From New York City Life. Both very good impressions.
Sloan (1871-1951) produced his New York City Life series of ten etchings from 1905-06, recording the lives of the city’s tenement dwellers. Sloan found these prints difficult to market to buyers, as they were not accustomed to seeing such honest depictions of everyday life.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 129 and 131.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
The Little Bride.
Etching, 1906. 134x179 mm; 5¼x7 inches, full margins. Edition of 85 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. From New York City Life. A very good impression with strong contrasts.
In his diary, Sloan (1871-1951) commented, “Back in 1906 there was a considerable French population north of 23rd Street, and the church near Proctor’s Theatre [141 West 23rd Street] was known as the French Church. The stone steps down which these newlyweds are escaping have since been removed. I hope the couple lived happy ever after.”
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 138.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
Connoisseurs of Prints.
Etching, 1905. 127x178 mm; 5x6 7/8 inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. From New York City Life. A very good impression.
The first of Sloan’s (1871-1951) “New York City Life” plates, Connoisseurs of Prints depicts an exhibition of prints to be auctioned at the old American Art Gallery, on East 23rd Street and Madison Square. Sloan (1871-1951) planned a series of “Connoisseurs” themed prints; however, this was the only one realized.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 127.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Edward hopper
Sheet of Studies with a Man Smoking a Pipe * Architectural Elements and Birds.
Pen and ink on wove paper, double-sided, circa 1900-05. 95x140 mm; 3½x5¼ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 20 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 31, figures 32 and 33 (illustrated).
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
John sloan
Man Monkey.
Etching, 1905. 125x177 mm; 5x7 inches, full margins. Fifth state (of 5). Edition of 100. Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin, and signed and inscribed “imp (old paper)” by the printer, Ernest D. Roth, lower left corner. From New York City Life. A very good impression.
Sloan (1871-1951) produced his New York City Life series of ten etchings from 1905-06, recording the lives of the city’s tenement dwellers. Sloan found these prints difficult to market to buyers, as they were not accustomed to seeing such honest depictions of everyday life.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 130.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Edward hopper
Sheet of Studies with Men in Hats and a Saloon Keeper.
Pen and ink on pencil on wove paper, circa 1900-05. 203x126 mm; 8x5 inches. Inscribed “From Life” in ink, upper left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 30 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 21, figure 10 (illustrated).
Hopper (1882-1967) revisited the figure of the man in a vest and shirt with sleeve garters, the central figure in this sheet of studies, in his oil painting, Sunday, 1926.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Edward hopper
Full-Length Portrait of a Man in Jacket and Knickers.
Charcoal on cream laid paper, circa 1900-05. 625x447 mm; 24¾x17¾ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection,, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, 2005.
The current drawing appears to relate to other life studies by Hopper (1882-1967), many of which are academic nudes, also in charcoal and on similar sheets of drawing paper, made while he was studying at the New York School of Art and Design, the forerunner of Parsons The New School for Design, with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) and Robert Henri (1865-1929), the latter of whom taught life drawing and stressed originality to his students. There are nearly fifty such academic studies, both male and female nudes, many also with added marginal “doodles” like the current drawing, now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art (Josephine N. Hopper Bequest). The current drawing of a man in a suit is drawn over another quickly, more lightly-sketched figure of a woman in a dress. The initials “R.F.” upper right recto might refer to the name of the sitter.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
1910 - 1920
Inspired by time spent in Europe, around 1910, Arthur Dove became the first American artist to paint an abstract painting. At this time, abstract art was still largely unknown by many American artists. That would change in 1913 with the Armory Show, which became a catalyst for modern artists to embrace European influences.
In 1911, the Association of American Painters and Sculptors was created to host a large invitational show that included European artists. Walt Kuhn and Arthur B. Davies ran the association and organized the exhibition, choosing the 69th Regiment Armory as its location. The exhibition included three hundred artists, living and dead, and around 1,300 works of art. The earliest works were by Ingres, Delacroix and Goya; overall, it showed the development of modern art in Europe (although some key artists were excluded). Overall, it was a media sensation. The work of Marcel Duchamp whose Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 created an uproar of revulsion and led to a debate on the nature of art itself. American artists were included in the exhibition, but their work appeared provincial next to their European counterparts.
After the European prominence exhibited at the Armory show, many artists and dealers felt the absence of a national aesthetic and dedicated themselves to giving modernism a true American voice. During this decade, Stieglitz focused on exhibiting American artists; he had a close-knit circle including John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, Max Weber, Arthur B. Carles, Abraham Walkowitz and Georgia O’Keeffe. While Stieglitz’s space focused on exhibiting artists looking towards Europe and abstraction, the Whitney Studio supported those continuing to work in a Realist style. In 1914, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney started the Whitney Studio, a building funded by the heiress and society sculptor, and held exhibitions to nurture artists. She favored realist artists such as Sloan and Luks. In 1918, it officially transitioned to the Whitney Studio Club and the space grew to include exhibition galleries, a squash court, library, salon and billiard rooms.
In 1910, Hopper returned from his time abroad and in 1913 settled in his studio at Washington Square Park North where he would remain for the rest of his career. His work was included in the Armory show; in fact, it was where he sold his first painting Sailing. In 1915, he took up etching and would produce around 70 etchings over the next decade. He learned the etching process from Martin Lewis, another printmaker working in New York, who captured the city at night, exploring light and shadow. Through printmaking Hopper found critical and commercial success. He also found his signature style of depicting ordinary city or rural scenes with a pervading sense of loneliness. Printmaking was essential to developing Hopper’s artistic voice, and he noted that “After I took up etching, my painting seemed to crystallize.”
As artists continued to develop an American modern art, there were profound changes to global political stability. The carnage of World War I was impossible to ignore. Charles Burchfield recorded his fear of being drafted in his diaries and Georgia O’Keeffe’s brother enlisted immediately. George Bellows was explicit of his view of war in his work; his War Series was a group of lithographs that depicted atrocities of war carried out by the Germans. Stieglitz closed 291 in 1917 due to financial difficulties caused by the war and decided to focus on his own photography.
Edward hopper
Man Smoking a Cigar.
Pencil on wove paper, circa 1910-15. 105x67 mm; 4¼x2¾ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 12 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 27, figure 23 (illustrated).
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
John sloan
Barber Shop.
Etching and aquatint, 1915. 256x308 mm; 10x12 inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of only 35 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce etching.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 173.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
George bellows
Artists Judging Works of Art.
Lithograph, 1916. 370x485 mm; 14½x19⅛ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of approximately 52. Signed, titled and inscribed “No. 35” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this early lithograph.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist.
This represents a scene at the National Arts Club, New York an important gathering and socializing place for artists; Bellows (1882-1925) pictured himself in the lithograph at the extreme upper right.
According to Levin, “In New York Hopper had his first two opportunities to show his work in art exhibitions during this period. During March 9-31, 1908, he exhibited with several other [Robert] Henri students–including Arnold Friedman, Glenn O. Coleman, George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, and Guy Pène du Bois–in a rented space at the old Harmonie Club building at 43-45 West Forty-second Street. He showed The Louvre, one of his Paris oil paintings, in the Exhibition of Independent Artists organized by Sloan, Henri, and Arthur B. Davies held April 1-27, 1910, on West Thirty-fifth Street,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 11). Mason 18.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
George bellows
Dance in a Madhouse.
Lithograph, 1917. 471x624 mm; 18½x24⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 77. Signed “Geo. Bellows” and initialed “E.S.B.” by the artist’s wife, Emma Story Bellows, and inscribed “No. 1” in pencil, lower margin. A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this important lithograph.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist.
Bellows was a family friend of the superintendent of the State Hospital at Columbus, Ohio. He noted that “for years the amusement hall was a gloomy old brown vault where on Thursday nights the patients indulged in ‘Round Dances’ interspersed with two-steps and waltzes by the visitors. Each of the characters in this print represents a definite individual… This is the happier side of a vast world which a more considerate and wiser society would reduce to a not inconsiderable degree.” Mason 49.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Paul strand
New York (City Hall Park).
Photogravure on thin laid Japan paper, 1916. 218x108 mm; 8⅝x4¼ inches, full margins. From Camera Work, number 48.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Paul strand
New York (Fifth Avenue).
Photogravure on thin laid Japan paper, 1916. 125x164 mm; 5x6½ inches, full margins. From Camera Work, number 48.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Edward hopper
Sheet of Figure Studies.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1910. 225x153 mm; 9x6 inches. With studies of a ship’s hull in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 32 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 25, figure 20 (illustrated).
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Charles burchfield
Artist and Patron.
Pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1910-15. 265x198 mm; 10⅜x7⅞ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Burchfield’s (1893-1967) works transcend the Regionalist label that is often applied to the artist. He is both a realist and abstractionist. Though he strived to create a strong sense of human emotion and thought in his works, he often did not simply document the reality of his surroundings (he lived most of his life in small towns). Like William Zorach and Emil Bisttram, Burchfield saw nature as being endowed with mystical and mysterious qualities, which he communicated in his works.
Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio and attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916. He began his career in Buffalo, New York working as a wallpaper designer for M. H. Birge & Sons Company. It was during this time period that Burchfield’s work was more rooted in suburban realism. Burchfield and Edward Hopper began their friendship in 1928, after Hopper wrote favorably of Burchfield’s work in Arts magazine (Burchfield in turn, wrote an essay for Hopper’s 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York). Hopper wrote that Burchfield, “Has extracted a quality that we may call poetic, romantic, lyric . . . By sympathy with the particular he had made it epic and universal.” Like Hopper, Burchfield was able to stop working commercially and focus on painting full time after finding gallery representation. In 1929, Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York, the same gallery that represented Hopper, began showing Burchfield’s works. Through the 1930s, Burchfield was the recipient of international recognition; Life magazine declared him one of America’s greatest painters in December 1936. In the 1940s, Burchfield’s works became more spiritual, transcendental and based in nature.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Charles burchfield
Two pencil drawings.
Seamstress, circa 1910-15. 265x205 mm; 10½x8 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto * Young Boy, circa 1910-15. 300x225 mm; 11⅞x8¾ inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Burchfield’s (1893-1967) works transcend the Regionalist label that is often applied to the artist. He is both a realist and abstractionist. Though he strived to create a strong sense of human emotion and thought in his works, he often did not simply document the reality of his surroundings (he lived most of his life in small towns). Like William Zorach and Emil Bisttram, Burchfield saw nature as being endowed with mystical and mysterious qualities, which he communicated in his works.
Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio and attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916. He began his career in Buffalo, New York working as a wallpaper designer for M. H. Birge & Sons Company. It was during this time period that Burchfield’s work was more rooted in suburban realism. Burchfield and Edward Hopper began their friendship in 1928, after Hopper wrote favorably of Burchfield’s work in Arts magazine (Burchfield in turn, wrote an essay for Hopper’s 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York). Hopper wrote that Burchfield, “Has extracted a quality that we may call poetic, romantic, lyric . . . By sympathy with the particular he had made it epic and universal.” Like Hopper, Burchfield was able to stop working commercially and focus on painting full time after finding gallery representation. In 1929, Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York, the same gallery that represented Hopper, began showing Burchfield’s works. Through the 1930s, Burchfield was the recipient of international recognition; Life magazine declared him one of America’s greatest painters in December 1936. In the 1940s, Burchfield’s works became more spiritual, transcendental and based in nature.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,500
Childe hassam
Reading in Bed.
Etching, 1915. 175x145 mm; 6¾x5½ inches, full margins. Signed with the artist’s cypher and inscribed “imp” in pencil, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce etching.
We have found only one other impression at auction in the past 30 years.
Like John Marin early in his career, Hassam (1859-1935) was inspired by the etchings of James A. M. Whistler. A reluctant printmaker who reveled in the colors of painting, Hassam drew a few of his plates during his training in Paris, circa 1898, though he did not return to them until 1915 as a mature artist. As Royal Cortissoz stated, Hassam’s etchings, aside from being technically brilliant, bear “a certain joie de vivre implicit in all Mr. Hassam’s work. The thing that has stamped him has been the happy, inspiriting nature of his impressions of the American Scene.” Hassam was equally fascinated with the urban environment as well as the countryside, both treated in an individualistic manner intrinsic to American art. In review of Hassam’s etchings in 1923, Joseph Pennell, an artistic rival, wrote to Hassam, “America, our country, is full of subjects, and that our New York is the most marvelous and endless subject on the face of the earth . . . your show is another proof that New England is also worth doing . . . that there are other methods besides tracing photographs, of drawing nudes, and that there are other ways and other motives than even yours and mine for etching New York.” Since his emergence as a printmaker in 1915, Hassam had not run out of subject matter, he completed 380 etchings in his lifetime. Cortissoz/Clayton 28.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
John sloan
Woman and Child on the Roof.
Etching, 1914. 110x150 mm; 4⅜x5⅞ inches, full margins. Eighth state (of 8). Edition of 60 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled, and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin, and signed by the printer Ernest Roth and inscribed “imp. (old paper)” in pencil, lower left. A very good impression with strong contrasts.
In his diary, Sloan (1871-1951) noted, “The heat of summer in New York drives the folks at home to the roofs of the tenements, where extemporized shelters make spots that are comparatively cool.”
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 169.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
John sloan
Three etchings.
Girls Running, 1914. 93x60 mm; 3⅝x2⅜ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of 55 (from an intended edition of 100) * Little Woman, 1920. 60x95 mm; 2⅜x3¾ inches, full margins. Fourth state (of 4). Edition of 65 (from an intended edition of 100) * Half Nude on Elbow, with engraving, 1931. 71x127 mm; 3x5 inches, full margins. Sixth state (of 6). Edition of 75 (from an intended edition of 100). Each signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. Very good impressions.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 168, 193 and 250.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Peggy bacon
The Socialist Meeting.
Drypoint on imitation Japan paper, 1919. 152x201 mm; 6¼x8 inches, wide margins. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce, early print.
Flint cites only two other impressions in public collections. We have found only two impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
Bacon (1895-1987) spent the summers of 1915, 1916 and 1917 as an aspiring art student in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where the established artists Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Abraham Walkowitz and Marguerite and William Zorach were also in residence and had a profound impact on her. She also studied at the Art Students League, New York, from 1915 to 1920, attending life classes with John Sloan and portraiture classes with George Bellows.
This scene represents a lecture in New York by the Irish-American poet, novelist and children’s book author Padraic Colum (1881-1972). Flint 14.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John sloan
Hell Hole.
Etching and aquatint, 1917. 204x253 mm; 8x10 inches, wide margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of 110 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression with strong contrasts.
This etching represents the back room of Wallace’s, a New York bar popular with the actors and artists of Greenwich Village, at Sixth Avenue and West 4th Street. Notable figures pictured by Sloan (1871-1951) in the etching are Eugene O’Neill (background upper right), Peggy O’Neill, no relation to the former (seated at the table beside Eugene O’Neill), René Lacoste (right center) and Charles Ellis (left foreground). Morse 186.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
Arch Conspirators.
Etching, 1917. 110x153 mm; 4½x6 inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed, titled, and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin and signed by the printer Ernest Roth and inscribed “imp.” in pencil, lower left. A very good impression with strong contrasts.
Artists celebrating on top of the Washington Square Arch for the establishment of the mock, bohemian “secession of Greenwich Village from the United States,” including Marcel Duchamp (standing), the actor Charles Ellis (far left, seated), the poet Gertrude Drick (left-center) and Sloan (1871-1951) himself (at the far right, in profile with a pipe). Morse 183.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John sloan
Night Windows.
Etching, 1910. 136x179 mm; 5¼x7 inches, full margins. Fifth state (of 5). Edition of 110 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, dark impression with strong contrasts.
In his diary, Sloan (1871-1951) wrote, “The subject of this plate is one which I have had in mind—night, the roofs back of us—a girl in deshabille at a window and a man on the roof smoking his pipe.” It seems that he struggled with the execution of this idea, however; at various points he refers to this plate as “a pretty bad snarl,” and “a mess of line.” After roughly two years of work, a substantial amount of time for an etching of this size, he finally deemed the plate fit for publishing.
According to Levin, “Hopper may have first met John Sloan as early as April 1904, just after Sloan’s move to New York where he lived in the same building as Robert Henri, but certainly by 1906 when Sloan substituted for Henri for one month at the New York School of Art. For Hopper, Sloan represented one artist he could respect who prior to 1916 had worked regularly as a commercial illustrator. Sloan’s influence is particularly visible during Hopper’s formative years,” (Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 9). Morse 152.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Childe hassam
Fifth Avenue, Noon.
Etching, 1916. 251x190 mm; 9⅞x7½ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2), after the slight reduction of the plate along the left edge. Edition of approximately only 20. Signed with the artist’s cypher and inscribed “imp” in pencil, lower right. A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this very scarce etching, with sharp plate edges, the artist’s printing ink finger-print smudges at the sheet edges and strong contrasts.
A view of Fifth Avenue, New York, drawn from life, looking north from 34th Street (from the site of the Empire State building today).
Like John Marin early in his career, Hassam (1859-1935) was inspired by the etchings of James A. M. Whistler. A reluctant printmaker who reveled in the color of painting, Hassam drew a few of his plates during his training in Paris, circa 1898, though he did not return to them until 1915 as a mature artist. As Royal Cortissoz stated, Hassam’s etchings, aside from being technically brilliant, bear “a certain joie de vivre implicit in all Mr. Hassam’s work. The thing that has stamped him has been the happy, inspiriting nature of his impressions of the American Scene.” Hassam was equally fascinated with the urban environment as well as the countryside, both treated in an individualistic manner intrinsic to American art. In review of Hassam’s etchings in 1923, Joseph Pennell, an artistic rival, wrote to Hassam, “America, our country, is full of subjects, and that our New York is the most marvelous and endless subject on the face of the earth . . . your show is another proof that New England is also worth doing . . . that there are other methods besides tracing photographs, of drawing nudes, and that there are other ways and other motives than even yours and mine for etching New York.” Since his emergence as a printmaker in 1915, Hassam had not run out of subject matter, he completed 380 etchings in his lifetime. Cortissoz/Clayton 77.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Edward hopper
Under Control.
Gouache, ink and wash, and pencil on card stock, circa 1907-10. 477x374 mm; 19x15 inches. Titled in gouache, upper center recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper: Prints and Illustrations,” various institutions, organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, September 27, 1979-November 30, 1980, with the label; “Edward Hopper Drawings: The Poetry of Solitude,” Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, September 9-October 15, 1995; “The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper,” Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, November 4-25, 1995, number 14.
Published: Levin, Edward Hopper as Illustrator, New York, 1979, page 479, number 480 (illustrated); Levin, Edward Hopper, A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1995, volume 1, page 135, figure I-55 (illustrated); The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper, New York, 1995, catalogue number 14 (illustrated).
As a student, Hopper’s (1882-1967) parents pushed him to study illustration and he took classes at the Correspondence School of Illustrating and at the New York School of Art. He studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller and Robert Henri (John Sloan was also an early influence). Illustration was an important way for artists to support themselves, and Henri, Sloan, George Luks and other significant artists of the time worked as illustrators. Hopper engaged in illustration for about 20 years, starting in 1906 as a part-time illustrator for various advertising agencies in New York. He illustrated for magazines such as Scribner’s Magazine, Everybody’s and Country Gentleman as well as for specialty magazines like Hotel Management, The MorseDial and Wells Fargo Messenger.
Estimate
$30,000 – $50,000
Lewis w. hine
King Philip Spinning room, Oiler Boy–Oils all the spindles in this room.
Silver contact print, 1915. 120x171 mm; 4¾x6¾ inches, approximately ⅛ inch margins. With the negative number “4314” in pencil, verso.
George Courtemonds, age 14, working in the King Philip Spinning room at 114 Kellogg Street, Fall River, Massachusetts, photographed for the National Child Labor Committee on October 3, 1915.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
William zorach
The Hog Slaughter.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1917. 280x219 mm; 11¼x8¾ inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Marguerite Thomas Zorach (1887-1968) and her husband William (1887-1966) are renowned for their innovation during the rise of American modernism, embodied by their unique blend of Cubism and Fauvism as well as the scope of their varied careers. Marguerite was an early exponent of modernism in America, born in California into a well-to-do family. She exhibited an interest in art at an early age, and studied at Stanford University before traveling to Paris with her aunt, where she was introduced to Gertrude Stein and exposed to the work of Henri Matisse. There she discovered her affinity for the color palette of the Fauves. Marguerite studied for a period of time at the conservative Académie de la Grande Chaumière before attending the progressive art school La Palette, where she met her future husband, William. Their marriage, in 1912, began a strong companionship in which the two artists consistently inspired, influenced and shaped each another’s artistic lives.
Born in 1887 in Lithuania, William Zorach immigrated to Cleveland, with his family at age 4. He worked as both a sculptor and watercolorist at the vanguard of American modernism, after briefly studying in Paris in the early 1910s. While Zorach initially practiced painting, his interests in sculpture, which took root in 1917, soon eclipsed all other media. By the 1930s, Zorach was regarded as one of America’s premier sculptors and was honored with multiple commissions and exhibitions including shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
George bellows
Head of a Woman.
Pencil on paper, circa 1915. 222x206 mm; 8⅞x8⅛ inches. Signed “George W. Bellows” and initialed “E.S.B.” by the artist’s wife, Emma Story Bellows.
Provenance: Frederick Keppel & Co., New York; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, New York.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (28.1935).
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. While he was known for his urban scenes, he also created many portraits throughout his career capturing the spirit of the sitter, often who were friends or family members, with a more delicate and detailed touch.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Maurice sterne
Group of 5 pencil drawings of Mabel Dodge.
Each 1915-17. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Sterne (1878-1957) was born in Libau, Latvia and traveled extensively, to New York in 1904 and then to Europe, Egypt, Burma, and Java, before returning to the United States in 1914. From 1918 to 1933, he alternated time between New York and Anticoli, Italy. Sterne’s movements allowed him to explore different styles and subjects, never settling on an identity for long.
Sterne met Dodge (1879-1962), an artist and wealthy heiress born in Buffalo, New York, while attending a ballet recital in the summer of 1914 or 1915. Sterne, said of her, “The woman I was then to visit puzzled and intrigued me, attracted and repelled me. She was entirely different from the kind of woman I had always been attracted to before . . . Her most amazing feature was her eyes. They were cool, dark gray pools, shaded with long black lashes. They reflected her complex emotions spontaneously and honestly, could flash up with fury . . . or glow with rapture.” During their summer in Cape Cod in 1915, Sterne completed a series Portraits of Mabel Dodge, which was shown in New York that winter. The two artists, though their relationship rife with conflict, married in Peekskill, New York in 1917, against the advice of their friends and families. Thereafter the couple moved to Taos, New Mexico. In 1918, Sterne moved back to New York and Dodge and her son remained in New Mexico. The two officially divorced in December 1922.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Max weber
Woman with Closed Eyes.
Color pastels on paper, 1917. 310x228 mm; 12¼x9 inches. Signed and dated “Princeton, May 27, ‘17” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Arthur b. davies
Two etchings with aquatint.
Pleiades, 1919. 150x202 mm; 6x8 inches, full margins. Sixth state (of 6). Edition of approximately only 20. With the artist’s signature ink stamp, lower right * Ruddy Summer, 1919. 251x200 mm; 9¾x7¾ inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition unspecified but considered small. Signed in pencil, lower right. Both very good impressions.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years. Czestochowski 76 and 88.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Arthur b. davies
Andante.
Drypoint, 1916. 149x121 mm; 5¾x4¾ inches, full margins. With the artist’s signature ink stamp, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce, early print.
According to Czestochowski, there is no specified edition, the total printing is unknown but considered small.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years. Czestochowski 34.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Arthur b. davies
Model, Dancing.
Color pastels and black chalk on oiled, cream wove paper mounted on card stock, circa 1910. 425x312 mm; 17x12½ inches. Signed in black chalk, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John sloan
Model Resting.
Charcoal on cream wove paper, 1916. 254x314 mm; 10x12⅜ inches. Signed “John Sloan—’16 (per HFS)” and titled in pencil by Helen Farr Sloan, the artist’s student and second wife, and with the inventory number “JS#S-138” in red pencil, recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Everett shinn
Standing Nude with Drapery.
Red chalk on light tan wove paper, circa 1910-15. 360x225 mm; 14¼x9inches. Signed in red chalk, lower right recto (rubbed), and countersigned in red chalk verso (pale).
Provenance: Graham Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, Chicago.
Shinn (1876-1953) began his career, like many of his near contemporaries and fellow artists, including John Sloan and Edward Hopper, as an illustrator. He worked initially in Philadelphia, became friends with Sloan and Robert Henri, and moved to New York in 1897 to continue working as an illustrator. As his career as a fine artist progressed, Shinn became best known for street scenes and theatrical subjects, regarding the theatre as a place of satisfying illusion. Like Hopper, Shinn’s best works effectively captured a slice of American urban life in the first decades of the 20th century, in both a realist and a romantic spirit.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Edward hopper
Study of Fencers and Boxers.
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1910-20. 112x195 mm; 4½x7¾ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 18 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 27, figure 24 (illustrated).
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
Studies of Men in Hats and an Arched Window.
Pencil on wove paper, circa 1910-20. 105x160 mm; 4¼x6½ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 28 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 28, figure 25 (illustrated).
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
John marin
Cityscape and Bridge Study.
Pencil on cream wove paper, 1913. 200x250 mm; 7⅞x9⅞ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: (with) Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, with the ink stamp verso; private collection, Atlanta.
Drawing similarities between the works of Marin (1870-1953) and his contemporaries with that of the Photo-Secessionists, led by Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), the George Eastman House, Rochester, mounted the exhibition, “Photo-Secession: Photography as a Fine Art” from October 15, 1960 to January 15, 1961. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York holds two Marin works on paper that appeared, uncredited, in this exhibition.
Stieglitz had first shown Marin’s (1870-1953) work at his New York gallery, 291, in 1910 and continued to do so throughout Stieglitz’s career. The two remained close friends (Marin served as a witness to the Stieglitz’s marriage to Georgia O’Keeffe), and shared an interest in depicting urban New York, often influencing each other’s works.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
John marin
Brooklyn Bridge, No. 6 (Swaying).
Etching, 1913. 272x222 mm; 11x9 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately only 12. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Alfred Stieglitz, 291 Fifth Avenue, New York. A dark, richly-inked impression of this exceedingly scarce, etching.
Stieglitz, who published this work and many of Marin’s (1870-1953) early New York etchings, had first shown Marin’s work at his New York gallery, 291, in 1910 and continued to do so throughout Stieglitz’s career. The two remained close friends (Marin served as a witness to the Stieglitz’s marriage to Georgia O’Keeffe), and shared an interest in depicting urban New York, often influencing each other’s works. Zigrosser 112.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
John marin
Woolworth Building (The Dance)
Etching and drypoint, 1913. 327x262 mm; 12⅞x10⅜ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Artist’s proof, aside from the edition of 30. Inscribed “Artist’s Proof” in pencil, lower left. Published by Alfred Stieglitz, 291 Fifth Avenue, New York.
Though Zigrosser calls for an edition of 30, it is estimated that approximately only 15 were printed.
A brilliant, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce etching, with selective wiping at the plate border, inked in the manner of a monotype, with very strong contrasts and with crisp, partially inky plate edges.
Stieglitz (1864-1946) was a gallery owner and photographer who founded the famed gallery, 291, on Fifth Avenue, a pioneering New York institution that exhibited early 20th Century European art before it gained popularity in America. Stieglitz not only focused on the European avant-garde, but also fostered and propelled the careers of important American modernists.
Marin (1870-1953), renowned for his abstract watercolors and prints of landscapes and cityscapes (particularly of New York), was closely associated with Stieglitz. Their rapport began when Marin met Stieglitz’s agent, Edward Steichen, while they were both in Paris in 1908 (Marin had been in Paris since 1905, making etchings very much in the style of James A. M. Whistler and working to establish himself as a fine artist). Steichen directed Stieglitz’s attention to Marin’s work, which prompted the galley director to visit Marin’s Parisian apartment. Stieglitz was extremely impressed and the following year, at 291 in New York, he held an exhibition of Marin’s works. When Marin returned to the United States in 1911, Stieglitz began supplying him with a yearly stipend that would support and encourage his artistic output.
Even after 291 closed, Stieglitz continued to promote Marin’s work and ultimately helped him attain critical acclaim. Marin’s first major retrospective was held at the Daniel Gallery in New York in 1920. Stieglitz featured Marin’s work in the famous “Seven Americans” exhibition at the Anderson Gallery, New York, and arranged another retrospective for the artist at his new gallery, the Intimate Gallery, in December 1925.
We have found only 9 other impressions of this etching at auction in the past 30 years. Zigrosser cites only 5 impressions from the second state in public collections. Zigrosser 116.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
John marin
Woolworth Building, No. 2.
Etching and drypoint, 1913. 330x265 mm; 13x10½ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of approximately only 10. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Alfred Stieglitz, 291 Fifth Avenue, New York. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce etching.
Soon after he arrived in New York in 1911, following a six year sojourn in Europe, mainly Paris, where he had sharpened his skill as a printmaker under the influence of masters such as James A. M. Whistler and Charles Meryon, Marin (1870-1953) made a conscious shift in style, from what can loosely be described as a more traditional Neo-Impressionist model to a novel, expressive, modern form of abstraction. He attributed this transition to the city itself, and recalled of New York, “Shall we consider the life of a great city as confined simply to the people and animals on the streets and in its buildings? Are the buildings themselves dead? We have been told somewhere that a work of art is a thing alive. You cannot create a work of art unless the things you behold respond to something within you. Therefore if these buildings move me, they too must have life. Thus the whole city is alive; buildings, people all are alive; and the more they move me the more I feel them to be alive.
It is this moving of me that I try to express, so that I may recall the spell I have been under and behold the expression of the different emotions that have been called into being. How am I to express what I feel, so that its expression will bring me back under the spells? Shall I copy facts photographically?
I see great forces at work; great movements; the large buildings and the small buildings; the warring of the great and the small; influences of one mass on another greater or smaller mass. Feelings are aroused which give me the desire to express the reaction of these ‘pull forces’; those influences which play with one another; great masses pulling smaller masses, each subject to some degree to the other’s power,” (the artist’s introduction to his exhibition of watercolors at 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, in 1913). Zigrosser 114.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
John marin
Woolworth Building (Swaying).
Pencil on heavy cream wove paper, circa 1913-15. 370x298 mm; 14¾x11¾ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto. Strathmore paper blind stamp lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of Patrick Roberts, founder of the American Museum of Industry and Technology, Inc., New Preston, Connecticut; private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Georgia o’keeffe
Some Memories of Drawings.
Complete set of 21 offset lithographs and text, 1974. 206x148 mm; 8⅛x5⅞ inches, sheets, loose as issued. One of only 14 sets issued for collaborators with an additional suite of plates on Meridan Bristol, aside from the regular edition of 100. Signed by the artist and numbered "1" in ink on the justification page. The portfolio designed and letterpress text printed by Leonard Baskin, Gehenna Press, Northampton, Massachusetts, with his signature in pencil on the justification page. The offset lithographs printed by Meriden Gravure, Meriden, Connecticut. Published by Atlantis Editions, New York.
Original green paper folders and vellum covered tray case. Very good impressions.
This copy reserved for Carol Blinn, printer and bookbinder at Gehenna Press.
The present livre d'artiste provides intimate insight on how O'Keeffe (1887-1986) came to view her work with the passage of time. Many of the drawings reproduced were executed between 1916 and 1919 and were exhibited at Alfred Stieglitz's gallery, 291, New York. Her commentary on each drawing includes how she had altered the plates printed five decades later.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Abraham walkowitz
Abstract Cityscape.
Pencil on card stock, 1912. 238x173 mm; 9¼x6¾ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Givon Fine Art, Tel Aviv; Galerie Michael Hasenclever, Munich, July 1980; private collection, Germany.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Abraham walkowitz
Two Abstract Cityscape pencil drawings.
Both 1910. Both 352x211 mm; 13⅞x8⅜ inches. One drawing dated in pencil, lower right.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York, one drawing with the inventory number in pencil, verso; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Abraham walkowitz
Three abstract pencil drawings.
Each Untitled, circa 1916. Each approximately 355x276 mm; 14x10⅞ inches. Each signed in pencil, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Abraham walkowitz
Three abstract pencil drawings.
Each Untitled, circa 1916. One drawing 470x310 mm; 18⅝x12¼ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto. Two drawings 340x500 mm; 13½x19¾ inches. Each signed in pencil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291 Gallery, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
William zorach
Mountain Stream.
Linoleum cut, 1916. 274x356 mm; 10¾x14 inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb impression of this very scarce modernist print.
Zorach (1887-1966) completed the majority of his printed œuvre from 1914 to the early 1920s, most reflecting his love of nature or his transcendentalist philosophy (other prints served as announcements or greeting cards). He was often inspired by his summer retreats away from New York. In 1913 and 1914, Zorach and his wife, artist Marguerite, spent their summer in Chappaqua, New York. Their summer destinations also included Randolph, New Hampshire; Echo Farm, Plainfield, New Hampshire; Provincetown, Massachusetts; Stoningtown, Maine; and the island of Robinhood, Maine. The current work is imbued with Zorach’s love of the outdoors. Here, six figures appear in harmony with the wilderness, recalling Zorach’s words about his summer in Chappaqua, “The country was a new world to me—every flower and every weed was a revelation of color and design. The richness of invention in nature was unbelievable… Flowers bloomed, wildlife carried on, clouds floated, trees designed themselves in the landscapes. Nude figures lay around pools, played with children made love, dreamed.”
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Rockwell kent
Shore (Resurrection Bay).
Pen and ink on cream wove paper, 1919. 93x165 mm; 3⅝x6½ inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto. With a pencil sketch, verso.
Provenance: Acquired Hartung & Hartung, Munich, November 10, 2000 by the current owner, private collection, Germany.
This drawing is reproduced in Rockwell Kent’s Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska, New York, 1920, page 102.
Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska was written by Kent (1882-1971) mostly on Fox Island as a collection of travel journal entries and correspondence with sketches made on his journey from 1918-1919, not originally intended for publication. In physical isolation, the only human “characters” in Kent’s book are a young boy, an old man, and the artist himself. Dorothy Canfield, in her introduction to the publication, argues that Fox Island, the land itself is a living character as well, endowed with the spirit of the place.
Kent was a celebrated artist and illustrator who was just as famous for his world voyages. He was born in Tarrytown, New York, the same year as Edward Hopper, grew up just across the Hudson River from Hopper, and enrolled in Columbia University as an architecture student in 1900. He soon abandoned his studies in favor of painting, inspired by his time with William Merritt Chase. He attended the New York School of Art and studied under Robert Henri, who introduced Kent, Edward Hopper and George Bellows, to the artist colony on Mohegan Island, where the young artist remained year-round. His love of nature and solitude brought him to Fox Island off the coast of Seward in Resurrection Bay in 1918, accompanied by his 8 year old son. The wood engravings he refined in Alaska, as well as the illustrated book of his experiences helped to expand his market. With the ultimate goal of sailing around Cape Horn onboard a freighter in 1922, Kent travelled as far as Tierra del Fuego, the trip inspired his second illustrated book. Although he purchased a large farm in Au Sable Forks, New York in 1927, Kent could not be tied to one place. His 1930 book N by E was based on his recent voyage and shipwreck in Greenland, where he returned twice in the 1930s. By the time he was commissioned to illustrate an edition of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Kent was able to call on his own perilous expeditions for inspiration.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Rockwell kent
The Cabins.
Pen and ink on cream wove paper, 1919. 73x170 mm; 2 7/8 x 6 5/8 inches. Signed, titled and dated in ink, lower right recto. With a pencil sketch, verso.
Provenance: Acquired Hartung & Hartung, Munich, November 10, 2000 by the current owner, private collection, Germany.
This drawing is reproduced in Kent's Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska, New York, 1920, page 1.
Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska was written by Kent (1882-1971) mostly on Fox Island as a collection of travel journal entries and correspondence with sketches made on his journey from 1918-1919, not originally intended for publication. In physical isolation, the only human "characters" in Kent's book are a young boy, an old man, and the artist himself. Dorothy Canfield, in her introduction to the publication, argues that Fox Island, the land itself is a living character as well, endowed with the spirit of the place.
Kent was a celebrated artist and illustrator who was just as famous for his world voyages. He was born in Tarrytown, New York, the same year as Edward Hopper, grew up just across the Hudson River from Hopper, and enrolled in Columbia University as an architecture student in 1900. He soon abandoned his studies in favor of painting, inspired by his time with William Merritt Chase. He attended the New York School of Art and studied under Robert Henri, who introduced Kent, Edward Hopper and George Bellows, to the artist colony on Mohegan Island, where the young artist remained year-round. His love of nature and solitude brought him to Fox Island off the coast of Seward in Resurrection Bay in 1918, accompanied by his 8 year old son. The wood engravings he refined in Alaska, as well as the illustrated book of his experiences helped to expand his market. With the ultimate goal of sailing around Cape Horn onboard a freighter in 1922, Kent travelled as far as Tierra del Fuego, the trip inspired his second illustrated book. Although he purchased a large farm in Au Sable Forks, New York in 1927, Kent could not be tied to one place. His 1930 book N by E was based on his recent voyage and shipwreck in Greenland, where he returned twice in the 1930s. By the time he was commissioned to illustrate an edition of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Kent was able to call on his own perilous expeditions for inspiration.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
John marin
Summer.
Watercolor on cream wove paper, 1913. 394x467 mm; 15½x18⅜ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Susanne Hilberry Gallery, Inc., Birmingham, Michigan, with the label; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, with the label; Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
The current work was painted during the summer Marin (1870-1953) spent in Castorland, a small town on the Black River in Lewis County, New York. He wrote of Castorland to Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), the photographer and proprietor of the vanguard modern art gallery, 291, on Fifth Avenue, New York, “It is a great big rolling country, this, and I expect to be up here through September, I’ll be rolling with it or continue to roll against.” Finding himself out of the city, Marin was able to return to vibrant, warm colors like those he had used previously during his European sojourn. Marin’s work from this summer featured simplified forms and imaginative palettes, a carefree style free from the frenetic energy of New York.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Charles burchfield
Sunrise over Snowfield.
Watercolor on cream wove paper, circa 1918. 180x252 mm; 7¼x10 inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New York; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection, New York.
Burchfield’s (1893-1967) works transcend the Regionalist label that is often applied to the artist. He both a realist and abstractionist. Though he strived to create a strong sense of human emotion and thought in his works, he often did not simply document the reality of his surroundings (he lived most of his life in small towns). Like William Zorach and Emil Bisttram, Burchfield saw nature as being endowed with mystical and mysterious qualities, which he communicated in his works.
Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio and attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916. He began his career in Buffalo, New York working as a wallpaper designer for M. H. Birge & Sons Company. It was during this time period that Burchfield’s work was more rooted in suburban realism. Burchfield and Edward Hopper began their friendship in 1928, after Hopper wrote favorably of Burchfield’s work in Arts magazine (Burchfield in turn, wrote an essay for Hopper’s 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York). Hopper wrote that Burchfield, “Has extracted a quality that we may call poetic, romantic, lyric . . . By sympathy with the particular he had made it epic and universal.” Like Hopper, Burchfield was able to stop working commercially and focus on painting full time after finding gallery representation. In 1929, Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York, the same gallery that represented Hopper, began showing Burchfield’s works. Through the 1930s, Burchfield was the recipient of international recognition; Life magazine declared him one of America’s greatest painters in December 1936. In the 1940s, Burchfield’s works became more spiritual, transcendental and based in nature.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Max weber
Pine Trees.
Watercolor and gouache on paper, 1917. 380x276 mm; 15x10⅞ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Downtown Gallery, New York; Richard D. Brixey, New York.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (118.1943). Gifted by Richard D. Brixey.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Charles demuth
Daylilies.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1918. 456x302 mm; 18x11⅞ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left recto and with an additional pencil sketch, verso.
Provenance: Margaret V. and Samuel A. Lewisohn, New York; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.
Demuth (1883-1935) was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and suffered an injury as a child that forced him to walk with a cane. As he was unable to be as physically active as other children, his mother gave him crayons to draw with. His parents supported his art from a young age and he attended Franklin and Marshall College, Drexel University and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. After leaving school, he focused on his preferred medium of watercolor and found inspiration in flowers and plants in his mother’s garden, a subject that would preoccupy him throughout his life.
Demuth made his studio at his home in Lancaster, but traveled frequently and made many important friends in the artistic community. He traveled three times to Paris where he studied at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian, joined the avant-garde artistic scene, and admired the work of European modernists, even spending time at Gertrude Stein’s salon. He met Marsden Hartley while in Paris who later introduced him to Alfred Stieglitz and became part of his tightknit group of artists.
While well-traveled, most of his work was created in his studio in Lancaster. Demuth eventually embraced a Precisionist style, focusing on geometric forms and industrial subject matter. He also returned to flowers, plants and vegetables consistently throughout his career, focusing with technical virtuosity and deft handling on their color and form.
Estimate
$60,000 – $90,000
Max weber
Still Life with a Vase and Lemon.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1918. 321x218 mm; 12¾x8¾ inches. Signed and dated “Jan. 6, ‘18” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
1920 - 1930
The 1920s were a time of prosperity in America. World War I had ended and the pessimism of the 1910s turned into optimism for modern life. American artists continued to focus on developing their artistic voices and both institutions and galleries were formed to bring their work to a broader audience.
Politically, the 1920s was a period of isolationism, and this thinking affected the cultural interests of the country. There was a push to define American art was outside of European influences. Folk Art emerged in this decade as a form of primitive American art. In 1929, Edith Halpert along with Holger Cahill started the American Folk Art Gallery as the first space where American folk art was promoted and sold. In a similar vein, in 1926, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg started, financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to preserve a colonial American town.
Artists also continued to find their voices beyond the influences of Europe. Around 1920, some American artists began to work in a new style, Precisionism, that controlled and diluted form down to basic shapes. Artists like Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler, Elsie Driggs, Ralston Crawford, and Louis Lozowick, found some inspiration in European models such as Cubism, but chose subjects that were undoubtedly American and emblematic of modern life: urban landscapes, steel mills, and factories. The Precisionist preoccupation with “the machine” made sense: in the 1920s there was a great deal of optimism surrounding what factories and machines could build. In 1927, the Machine-Age Exposition held in New York brought together artists and engineers to exhibit architecture, the industrial arts and fine art together in one space. Works by Demuth and Sheeler were displayed next to cogs and motorboat propellers to create a machine-age aesthetic that exhibited the possibilities of modern life.
Realism, however, still had its place in American art. During the 1920s, a group of artists set up studios around Union Square and 14th street. They were fittingly called The Fourteenth Street school and focused on figuration. Artists like Isabel Bishop, Raphael Soyer and Reginald Marsh depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants. Unlike the Ashcan School, they were less focused on the city’s poor, but instead, highlighted the figure of the New Woman who worked and lived outside the home.
During this decade Hopper worked to solidify his standing as a working artist rather than an illustrator. In 1923, six of his watercolors were included in the Brooklyn Museum’s International Watercolor Exhibition and the Brooklyn Museum bought Mansard Roof. The following year, he quit working as an illustrator to focus on his painting. He also married his wife Josephine “Jo” Verstille Nivison, who was hi record keeper and often modeled for him. During the 1920s the artist sold works to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and to the collector Duncan Phillips. By the end of the decade, he sold House by the Railroad (1925) to The Museum of Modern Art—the first painting by any artist to enter the museum’s permanent collection.
Museums and galleries were opened during this decade to specifically support American artists. The Museum of Modern Art was founded in 1929 to challenge traditional museums and provide a space where modern art could be displayed. Its first exhibition was “Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat, Van Gogh,” but it turned its attention to Contemporary European and American artists shortly thereafter. Stieglitz returned to exhibition work when he opened the Intimate Gallery in 1925; he showed the works of American artists in his inner circle: Demuth, Dove, Hartley, Marin and O’Keeffe. He continued exhibiting their work at his gallery, An American Place, which opened in 1929. Edith Halpert started the Downtown Gallery in 1926 as a place where contemporary American artists could sell their work.
In 1929 with the stock market crash, the prosperity and hopefulness of the decade ended. Nevertheless, the decade that followed would bring unprecedented opportunities for artists in America.
Edward hopper
Figures in an Interior and a House Front * Interior Study and Geometric Study.
Pencil on tan wove paper, double-sided, circa 1920. 280x217 mm; 11x8¾ inches. Signed and with an additional list of surnames in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 38 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 30, figure 30 (illustrated).
This double-sided sheet of drawings by Hopper (1882-1967) appears to have four distinct though perhaps related studies. The drawing upper recto represents figures in an interior, possibly a dance hall. The composition, with the figures in front of the wall and row of windows that recede diagonally from lower left to upper right, recalls Hopper’s etching, House Tops, 1921 (Levin 79). The study lower recto shows a building exterior with a suggestion of clouds in the background and most likely a separate architectural detail. The verso is also bisected with two drawings: above is an interior study, possibly a theatre or dance hall, and below a geometric, architectural detail.
Hopper’s artistic process involved the creation of numerous sketches ranging from quick compositional ideas to small details in the pictures. Hopper once noted, “I make various small sketches, sketches of the thing that I wish to do, also sketches of details in the picture.” For his iconic oil painting Nighthawks, 1942, Hopper created many small scale sketches and storyboards, focusing on details from the hands of the man holding a cigarette to the coffee urns on the cafe counter top. After creating a multitude of sketches, Hopper made a final study of all the elements together before embarking on the final oil painting.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Martin lewis
Charleston Practice—Lunch Hour.
Etching and sand ground printed in dark brownish black, 1926. 200x250 mm; 7⅞x9⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of only 20. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good impression of this extremely scarce etching.
We have found only 4 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 54.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Peggy bacon
Bicycle Rider.
Pencil on wove paper, circa 1920. 243x198 mm; 9¾x8 inches. Initialed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Bacon (1895-1987) was best known for her realistic representations of everyday life and her satirical caricatures. She studied at the Art Students League, New York, with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and George Bellows, and taught herself drypoint there in between drawing classes. Looking back at her time at the League, Bacon said, “The years at the Art Students League were a very important chunk of life to me and very exhilarating. It was the first time in my life, of course, that I had met and gotten to know familiarly a group of young people who were all headed the same way with the same interests. In fact it was practically parochial.” From the 1910s to the 1930s, she worked mainly in drypoint printmaking and also doing illustrations for the satirical magazine Bad News, while her later drawings appeared as illustrations in publications including The New Yorker, New Republic, Fortune and Vanity Fair. She further went on to illustrate over 60 books, 19 of which she also wrote.
Bacon exhibited frequently in New York from the 1910s onward, with galleries including Alfred Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery, the Weyhe Gallery and the Downtown Gallery (she had more than 32 solo exhibitions during her career), and was closely connected with other artists with ties to these galleries, including Katherine Schmidt and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Peggy bacon
Two drawings.
Richard Lahey, crayon on beige wove paper, 1920-29. 277x216 mm; 10⅞x8½ inches. Signed and inscribed “B-“ in pencil, lower right recto. * Belinda, pen and ink on cream wove paper, 1931. 285x340 mm; 11⅛x13⅜ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left recto and with the date stamp verso.
Exhibited: (Belinda) “New Acquisitions: American Drawings, Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.,” February 18-March 15, 1942.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (145.1940 and k147.1940).
Bacon (1895-1987) was best known for her realistic representations of everyday life and her satirical caricatures. She studied at the Art Students League, New York, with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and George Bellows, and taught herself drypoint there in between drawing classes. Looking back at her time at the League, Bacon said, “The years at the Art Students League were a very important chunk of life to me and very exhilarating. It was the first time in my life, of course, that I had met and gotten to know familiarly a group of young people who were all headed the same way with the same interests. In fact it was practically parochial.” From the 1910s to the 1930s, she worked mainly in drypoint printmaking and also doing illustrations for the satirical magazine Bad News, while her later drawings appeared as illustrations in publications including The New Yorker, New Republic, Fortune and Vanity Fair. She further went on to illustrate over 60 books, 19 of which she also wrote.
Bacon exhibited frequently in New York from the 1910s onward, with galleries including Alfred Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery, the Weyhe Gallery and the Downtown Gallery (she had more than 32 solo exhibitions during her career), and was closely connected with other artists with ties to these galleries, including Katherine Schmidt and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Martin lewis
Under the Street Lamp.
Etching, 1928. 380x240 mm; 14⅞x9⅜ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 83. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 70.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
George bellows
Married Couple.
Lithograph, 1923. 250x183 mm; 9⅞x7⅛ inches, full margins. Edition of 44. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower left. A very good impression.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist. Mason 141.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
George bellows
Reducing, Small, Third Stone.
Lithograph, 1921. 277x217 mm; 10⅞x8⅝ inches, wide margins. Edition of 45. Signed in pencil, lower margin, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown and inscribed “imp.”, in pencil, lower left. A very good impression.
In the current lithograph, Bellows (1882-1925) returned to the subject of his two same-titled 1916 lithographs (see Mason 21 and 22), of which he wrote, “A study which started out in a humorous vein but developed into a drama of light and dark. The picture is as interesting upside down. Gymnastics before retiring are supposed to reduce the flesh. The husband is contented with his figure.” When first appearing in The Masses, Socialist magazine with art direction by John Sloan, in November 1915, the subject was not without controversy. Art critic Royal Cortissoz claimed that Bellows was “dedicated too whole-heartedly to the depiction of what is prosaic in life to care a straw about what is poetic, what is beautiful.” Finding small vignettes of beauty within the banal, Bellows believed that “there is no beauty without strength.” Mason 79.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
George bellows
The Drunk, First Stone.
Lithograph, 1923-24. 395x328 mm; 15½x12⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 35. Signed “Geo. Bellows” and initialed “J.B.B.” by the artist’s daughter, Jean Bellows Booth, in pencil, lower right, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower left. A very good impression.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist.
This design by Bellows was used as an illustration for an article by Mabel Potter Daggett, written in support of the Volstead Prohibition Act, in Good Housekeeping, February 1924. Mason 169A.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
George bellows
The Dead-Line.
Lithograph, 1923. 305x275 mm; 12x11 inches, full margins. Edition of 32. Signed and inscribed “The Strikers” in pencil, lower margin and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower left. A very good impression. A very good impression.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist.
Bellows based this lithograph on a 1913 photograph of onlookers following a mining disaster at Courtney, Pennsylvania. Mason 148.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
George bellows
The Hold-Up.
Lithograph, 1921. 275x215 mm; 11x8½ inches, full margins. First state (of 2). Edition of 42 in this state (there is also an edition of 29 in the second state). Signed in pencil, and signed and inscribed “imp” by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scare lithograph.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist.
The New York Times described this lithograph in its May 1, 1921 review as a “Subject interpreted in the spirit of Dickens. With a hint of melodrama, a hint of comedy, and a pinch of realism.” Mason 89.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Edward hopper
Night Shadows.
Etching, 1921. 175x210 mm; 7x8¼ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 500. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by The New Republic, New York. A brilliant, luminous, richly-inked impression of this important etching, with very strong contrasts.
Hopper (1882-1967) began making etchings and drypoints in 1915 with the help of fellow artist Martin Lewis (1881-1962), and he produced 70 prints before he ceased etching in 1928 to focus solely on painting. Night Shadows is a particularly iconic image, epitomizing Hopper’s propensity for conveying isolation and stillness through the use of heavy chiaroscuro and strong, dark hatching throughout. He used a bird’s-eye vantage point with extended shadows and darkness to intensify the suspense and drama.
The artist depicted this same street corner in a painting from 1913, Corner Saloon, now in The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Unlike Hopper’s other prints, which he printed himself on his personal etching press in very small editions, this is the only etching that was printed in a larger edition, for The New Republic, New York, and published in a limited edition portfolio for their December 1924 issue. Levin 82.
Estimate
$25,000 – $35,000
Martin lewis
Relics (Speakeasy Corner).
Drypoint, 1928. 302x252 mm; 11¾x9¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 111. Signed in pencil, lower right. A brilliant, luminous impression of this important print with richly-inked, velvety burr.
According to McCarron, the location of this scene is at the intersection of Charles Street and West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village. The location of the speakeasy alluded to in Lewis’s title was on the ground floor of the building across the street in the upper left, a space that was later occupied by Camilla’s Village Garden restaurant. Kennedy Galleries, the artist’s New York representative for most of his career, changed Lewis’s (1880-1962) title to Relics, possibly in an attempt to tone down the subject.
Among Lewis’s most masterful prints are those depicting scenes of New York City life. These prints have historical interest, as the imagery captures the architecture and urban scenery of the time, while simultaneously incorporating ephemeral moments. The time of day, the weather, the lighting, the viewpoint–each aspect was important and added to the atmosphere of the scene. Lewis’s use of shadows and light to create mood, life and movement is most powerful in his New York prints. Relics is his most celebrated etching, incorporating all of the aspects that make his prints such cherished glimpses into New York’s bustling yester-year, while simultaneously capturing the timelessness of city life.
This was Lewis’s most popular print during his lifetime too. He sold out the entire intended edition of 100 soon after its completion, and it remains one of his most sought after prints today.
Lewis had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow.
Lewis’s Relics (Speakeasy Corner) is thought to be a response to Hopper’s Night Shadows, etching, 1921, with Lewis employing a similar bird’s-eye, nocturnal, urban street view, though Hopper simplified his composition with a solitary figure while Lewis populated his scene with several disconnected individuals and pairs. McCarron 74.
Estimate
$40,000 – $60,000
Isaac friedlander
Around the Corner.
Etching, 1929. 296x236 mm; 11⅝x9⅜ inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed “Riga” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this exceedingly scarce etching.
We have not found another impression of this etching at auction in the past 30 years.
Friedlander (1888-1968) was born in Mitau, Latvia near the city of Riga. Due to his political leanings, he spent four years in a Czarist prison, many of them in solitary confinement. Upon release, he travelled to Rome, where he briefly received formal training in printmaking and drawing. After the Revolution of 1917, Friedlander returned to Latvia and became an art teacher, though he was encouraged to come to New York by his cousin art collector Joseph Hirshhorn. After immigrating to New York in 1937, the passage paid for by Hirshhorn, Friedlander and his cousin became estranged. New York became the primary subject of Friedlander’s works, exploring the realities of the Great Depression while celebrating the city’s indomitable spirit.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
John sloan
The Lafayette.
Etching, 1928. 125x174 mm; 5x6⅞ inches, wide margins. Sixth state (of 6). Edition 80 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression with strong contrasts.
The Lafayette was a storied French restaurant and hotel, located at 9th Street and University Place in Greenwich Village. Sloan (1871-1951) painted the establishment in 1927; the oil on canvas in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Juliana Force, assistant to Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, cognizant of Sloan’s financial hardships at the time, organized a collection to purchase the same-titled painting from the artist. The painting was donated to the museum in 1928, with the credit line “Gift of The Friends of John Sloan.” In gratitude Sloan created and mailed approximately 50 impressions of the current etching to the fund contributors, mostly Sloan’s fellow artists. Morse 233.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Leo j. meissner
Shine?
Linoleum cut, 1928. 302x213 mm; 12x8⅜ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 10/30 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce print.
Meissner (1895-1977) was born in Michigan, studied at the Detroit Fine Art Academy, and after serving in France during World War I, won a scholarship to the Art Students League, New York, where he studied with George Luks and Robert Henri. Meissner worked as an illustrator as his career as a fine artist, and a printmaker in particular, progressed during the 1920s and 1930s. Like many fellow artists and contemporaries, Edward Hopper, William and Marguerite Zorach, Abraham Walkowitz, Rockwell Kent, and others, Meissner was drawn to the New England coast and, more specifically, Monhegan Island, which had been a retreat for American artists since the 19th century. While Meissner maintained a home in New York throughout his career, and depicted the urban lives and everyday scenes he witnessed around him, like the current work, he returned to Monhegan virtually every year for more than a half century to draw and paint the rugged coastline and its rocks, surf and sea.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Raphael soyer
Union Square.
Lithograph, circa 1928. 180x220 mm; 7¼x8½ inches, full margins. Edition unknown but presumably very small. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Jacob Friedland, New York. A very good impression of this extremely scarce, unrecorded lithograph.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top American realist artists of the 20th century.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Raphael soyer
East Side Street.
Lithograph, 1928. 200x255 mm; 7¾x10⅛ inches. Edition of 50. Signed and titled “East Street” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce, early lithograph. Cole 13.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top American realist artists of the 20th century.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John taylor arms
Early Morning, North River.
Etching and aquatint, 1921. 240x190 mm; 9½x7½ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of 100. Signed in pencil, lower right. Printed by Frederick Reynolds, New York. A very good impression.
Arms (1887-1953) studied law at Princeton University before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to study architecture. After serving as an officer in the United States Navy during World War I, he devoted himself full-time to etching. He published his first etchings, subjects primarily taken from New York, like the current etching, in 1919. Arms also traveled extensively throughout Europe, France and Italy in particular, and made numerous landscape and architectural etchings. He was a meticulous printmaker, using sewing needles and magnifying glasses to achieve the fine level of detail in his work. Fletcher 100.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
John taylor arms
Cobwebs (Brooklyn Bridge).
Etching printed in dark brownish black, 1921. 245x192 mm; 9⅝x7½ inches, full margins. One of only 10 artist’s proofs, aside from the edition of 75. Signed, dated and inscribed “Trial proof” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Frederick Reynolds, New York. A superb impression of this scarce, early New York etching, with all the details distinct.
Arms (1887-1953) studied law at Princeton University before transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to study architecture. After serving as an officer in the United States Navy during World War I, he devoted himself full-time to etching. He published his first etchings, subjects primarily taken from New York, in 1919. Arms also traveled extensively throughout Europe, France and Italy in particular, and made numerous landscape and architectural etchings. He was a meticulous printmaker, using sewing needles and magnifying glasses to achieve the fine level of detail in his work. Fletcher 95.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
William meyerowitz
New York #1.
Etching, 1929. 300x250 mm; 11⅞x9⅞ inches, wide margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good, richly-inked impression.
According to artist Theresa Bernstein, Meyerowitz’s wife, Meyerowitz (1887-1981) had started to etch early in his career, and worked with the same press throughout his life, printing his plates personally in one stage. While many artists rely on large format support for their abstract works, Meyerowitz was able to achieve the same flattened effect and intricate patterns using small etching plates, delicate lines, and nuanced technique.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John marin
Downtown, New York.
Pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1920. 305x228 mm; 12¼x9 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of Patrick Roberts, founder of the American Museum of Industry and Technology, Inc., New Preston, Connecticut; private collection, Florida.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
John marin
Cityscape (Cover for World Service of the American Express).
Watercolor, gouache and crayon on paper, circa 1920. 280x204 mm; 11x8 inches. Signed in crayon, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
The World Service of the American Express Company was an employee magazine published in London from June 1920 to September 1921. Marin (1870-1953) may have been invited to provide a cover design for the magazine (though there is no published edition of the magazine with this cover by Marin), through his connection with Alfred Stieglitz or another media contact in New York, though Marin rarely worked in commercial illustration. Other artists who contributed to the short-lived World Service of the American Express Company magazine include the prolific Hungarian illustrator Willy Pogany (1882-1955) and the American graphic designer William T. Sniffin, who was a lead designer at American Type Founders, New Jersey, from 1927-33.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
John marin
New York Telephone Company Building from the River.
Color crayons on paper mounted on card stock, circa 1927-30. 187x216 mm; 7½x8½ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: The Downtown Gallery, New York; private collection, New York; private collection, Chicago.
Marin (1870-1953) likely made the current drawing soon after the completion of this building in downtown Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood. The New York Telephone Company building is a stepped, 32-story building designed in the Art Deco style by Ralph Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin and Walker, and was Walker’s first major commission as well as one of the first Art Deco skyscrapers. Contemporary publications described the building as being “Modernistic” or “Modern Perpendicular.” It occupies the entire block bounded by West Street to the west, Barclay Street to the north, Vesey Street to the south, and Washington Street to the east, abutting the World Trade Center.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
John marin
Downtown, The El.
Etching, 1921. 170x219 mm; 6⅝x8½ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 275. Signed in pencil, lower left. Published by The New Republic, New York. A superb impression.
According to Zigrosser, the total edition of The New Republic portfolio exceeded 500, but the quota for Marin (1870-1953) prints was divided between this print and another, Brooklyn Bridge and Lower New York, etching, 1913, making Marin’s etchings scarcer than the Hopper (Night Shadows), Sloan, Bacon, Miller and Haskell prints in the same portfolio. Zigrosser 134.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Howard cook
Towers.
Etching, 1928. 174x125 mm; 6⅞x5 inches, full margins. Edition of 50. Signed, titled and inscribed “imp.” and “1929” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce etching.
Cook (1901-1980), most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-patriots and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York, who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut technique remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes. Duffy 100.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Anton schutz
Plaza Lights.
Aquatint, circa 1929. 352x255 mm; 9⅞x14 inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good, luminous impression of this extremely scarce print.
Born in Germany, Schutz (1894-1977) came to the United States in the early 1900s, settling in New York while beginning his etching practice. He was a founder of the New York Graphic Society. He specialized in nocturnes and urban views; this is his most celebrated New York scene.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Alice conklin bevin
Rue de Passy, Midnight.
Oil on canvas, circa 1925. 655x540 mm; 25¾x21¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bevin (1893-1969) was born in East Hampton, Connecticut and traveled throughout the world, using painting to document her itinerary and the people whom she met. She attended the Lasell Female Seminary in Boston from 1913-16 and the Hartford Art School before studying at the Art Students League in New York under George Bridgeman. After her marriage in 1922, she made her home in France, and painted scenes from her time in Brittany and Paris to show in New York, including at Studio Guild and Holt Gallery. With the onset of World War II, Bevin returned to the United States and worked out of her New York studio while maintaining residence in her hometown in Connecticut.
Like her contemporaries of the American Scene, Bevin believed in painting not the idyllic country sides, but of the reality of present day. In 1938, with tensions rising in Europe, she wrote "This is not the moment to paint a beautiful bouquet of flowers or Paris under snow . . . I cannot paint trivial things today when I remember that only one week before the war began, I painted a Russian Orthodox church in Helsingfors, which today is probably a mass of smouldering ruins." Bevin's determination to document her surroundings combined with imbued soul or sense of tension creates a kinship with Hopper and his contemporaries. In response to her 1939 show at Studio Guild, a reviewer wrote in The Art News, "Her particular gift seems to lie in her sense of a quiet street, buildings massed together and reflected on wet pavements."
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Stuart davis
Arch No. 1.
Lithograph printed in black on light tan Chine appliqué, 1929. 227x329 mm; 9x13 inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 28/30 in pencil, lower margin. A superb, dark impression of this early, extremely scarce lithograph.
Davis (1892-1964) was among the first American artists to begin experimenting with Cubism. He studied painting with John Sloan and Robert Henri beginning in 1910 but, like John Marin, largely abandoned their Realist style after the Armory Show in 1913. His 1931 lithograph Sixth Avenue El reflects an interest in Sloan and Henri’s social realism, depicting a New York street scene, but also applies Cubist style and leans heavily towards abstraction. Davis was also inspired by Jazz music and the concept of improvisation, particularly later in his career, giving his work a distinctly American quality. Cole/Myers 6.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Charles burchfield
Study for “Sulphurous Evening.”
Black crayon on cream wove paper, circa 1925. 390x295 mm; 15¼x11½ inches. Inscribed “Round topped windows over at top” in black crayon, lower center recto.
Provenance: Raydon Gallery, New York; private collection, Chicago.
A study for the same-titled watercolor by Burchfield (1893-1967), from 1922-29, now in the collection of The Saint Louis Museum of Art.
Burchfield’s (1893-1967) works transcend the Regionalist label that is often applied to the artist. He both a realist and abstractionist. Though he strived to create a strong sense of human emotion and thought in his works, he often did not simply document the reality of his surroundings (he lived most of his life in small towns). Like William Zorach and Emil Bisttram, Burchfield saw nature as being endowed with mystical and mysterious qualities, which he communicated in his works.
Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio and attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916. He began his career in Buffalo, New York working as a wallpaper designer for M. H. Birge & Sons Company. It was during this time period that Burchfield’s work was more rooted in suburban realism. Burchfield and Edward Hopper began their friendship in 1928, after Hopper wrote favorably of Burchfield’s work in Arts magazine (Burchfield in turn, wrote an essay for Hopper’s 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York). Hopper wrote that Burchfield, “Has extracted a quality that we may call poetic, romantic, lyric . . . By sympathy with the particular he had made it epic and universal.” Like Hopper, Burchfield was able to stop working commercially and focus on painting full time after finding gallery representation. In 1929, Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York, the same gallery that represented Hopper, began showing Burchfield’s works. Through the 1930s, Burchfield was the recipient of international recognition; Life magazine declared him one of America’s greatest painters in December 1936. In the 1940s, Burchfield’s works became more spiritual, transcendental and based in nature.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
John sloan
Snowstorm in the Village.
Etching, 1925. 177x128 mm; 7x5 inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of 100. Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” and signed by the printer, Ernest D. Roth, in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this important etching with strong contrasts.
Sloan (1871-1951) noted in his diary, “Viewed from my studio on Washington Place, the Jefferson Market Court tower and elevated tracks on Sixth Avenue under a swirl of snow.” Sloan’s studio at Washington Place was just around the corner from Edward Hopper’s at 3 Washington Square North, both facing Washington Square Park, and many other American realist artists–including William Glackens, Everett Shinn, Guy Pène du Bois and Oscar Bluemner–had studios in the vicinity. Morse 216.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Edward hopper
The Railroad.
Etching, 1922. 200x248 mm; 7⅞x9¾ inches, full margins. Eighth state (of 8). Signed and titled twice in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce etching with very strong contrasts.
We have found only two other impressions of this etching at auction in the past 30 years.
According to Carl Zigrosser, Hopper “does not number his prints and has fixed one hundred as the outside limit of impressions taken. This does not mean that there are one hundred proofs of each subject in existence. The artist prints them as the occasion demands. He has done his own printing except for Night Shadows, where the plate was turned over to Peter Platt for the printing of a large edition published by the New Republic.”
The conté crayon preparatory drawing for this etching is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, accession number 1962-30-5a,b.
Hopper first became interested in etching through Charles Meryon’s prints of Paris which highlight the city’s architecture. After encouragement from friend and fellow artist Martin Lewis, Hopper embarked on printmaking in 1915. The emotional tension in Hopper’s paintings were soon present in his etchings, much of which were completed between 1919 and 1923. After completing his last etching, The Balcony in 1928 and achieving success as an artist, Hopper focused on oils and watercolors. Admittedly, Hopper later recalled, “After I took up etching, my painting seemed to crystalize.”
Though Hopper (1882-1967) claimed that his etchings, unlike his paintings, were not based on a specific observation or model (with the exception of House at Tarrytown), their styles are still based in realism with great emotional depth. Intimate, isolated, fleeting moments are conveyed by Hopper’s deliberate burin on copper plates (he also made some dry points on zinc). Perhaps needing to express a more heightened moodiness in his prints through contrast, Hopper sought out the blackest ink on the market to be printed on stark white paper. He wrote to Zigrosser, “The best prints were done on an Italian paper called ‘Umbria’ and was the whitest paper I could get. The ink was an intense black that I sent for to Kimber in London, as I could not get an intense enough black here. I had heard so much of the beauty of old paper, but it did not give me the contrast and brilliance that I wanted, and I did not use it.” Urban scenes, nocturnes, and train subjects, like in the current work, feature largely in Hopper’s printed œuvre, a similarity with Martin Lewis, while coastal scenes and boats, which are rife in Hopper’s paintings rarely make an appearance in his etchings, perhaps because they lend themselves to high contrast so easily. Not only did Hopper employ his materials for visual impact, but also used unusual vantage points, such as in Night Shadows, in which the scene is viewed from above. Lewis, who reached his stride by the time Hopper abandoned etching in 1928, drew on much of the same subject matter and a heightened sense of drama, qualities which went on to characterize the American Scene artists. Levin 87.
Estimate
$70,000 – $100,000
Reginald marsh
Loco–Erie Watering.
Etching, 1929. 178x253 mm; 7x10 inches, full margins. Fourth state (of 4). Edition of approximately 50. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, dark impression.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 85.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Lewis w. hine
Rail Yard.
Silver contact print, 1920s. 121x171 mm; 4¾x6¾ inches, the sheet slightly larger.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Howard cook
The Station.
Etching on thin cream wove paper, 1928. 176x226 mm; 6⅞x8⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 30 (from an intended edition of 50). Signed and inscribed “imp” in pencil, lower right. A very good impression of this extremely scarce etching.
The railroad station in Greenfield, Massachusetts, due north of Cook’s hometown of Springfield.
Cook (1901-1980), most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-patriots and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York, who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut technique remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes. Duffy 99.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Martin lewis
Shadows, Garage at Night.
Drypoint, 1928. 250x303 mm; 9¾x11¾ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 49. Signed in pencil, lower right. A luminous, richly-inked impression of this very scarce print.
We have found only 9 other impressions of this drypoint at auction in the past 30 years.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 69.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
George bellows
Indoor Athlete, Second Stone.
Lithograph on thin cream wove paper, 1921. 130x228 mm; 5¼x9 inches, wide margins. Edition of 20. Signed in pencil, lower right, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower left. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. A very good impression.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist.
In a letter to Bellows in 1920, the artist Robert Henri wrote: “I am avoiding the National Arts billiard room because I do not think it fair to myself to destroy my health by playing in that air before you come. I will reserve all my vigor to use up on playing with you.” Mason 82.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
George bellows
Introductions.
Lithograph, 1921. 215x175 mm; 8½x7 inches, wide margins. Edition of 57. Signed and titled in pencil, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower margin.
A larger lithograph of the same subject by Bellows (1882-1925), Introducing the Champion, was printed in 1916 (see Mason 26) and was based on a set of drawings commissioned by American magazine. The drawing, unlocated, was published in the April 1913 issue with the caption, “Tornado Black! Champion of the World.” Mason 97.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Peggy bacon
Moving to 8th Street.
Drypoint, 1920. 152x200 mm; 6x7⅞ inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated, dedicated and inscribed “#25” in pencil, lower margin. A very good, richly-inked impression.
The friends helping Bacon (1895-1987), at center with the hat box, are identified as Dorothy Varian, Kimon Nicolaides, and Arthur Bar-le-Duc.
Provenance: Downtown Gallery, New York, with the ink stamp verso.
Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery would hold an annual exhibit of young American printmakers each December and these early shows had a significant impact on the exchange of modern artistic ideas in New York that spread throughout the United States. This new generation of artists who also were members of the Whitney Studio Club, were known as the American Print Makers and included Bacon and Mabel Dwight. Flint 46.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
George bellows
Sixteen East Gay Street.
Lithograph, 1923-24. 240x298 mm; 9½x11¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 72. Signed and titled in pencil, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Bellows’s (1882-1925) family home on 265 Rich Street is most likely the inspiration for this scene, drawn on one of the artist’s visits to Columbus, Ohio. Mason 183.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
George ault
A Country House.
Pencil on wove paper, 1921. 200x230 mm; 8x9¼ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Suzanne and Maurice Vanderwoude, New York; private collection, Chicago.
Ault (1891-1948) was a talented though troubled American artist. Born in Cleveland, he spent his youth in London and studied art there before returning to New York in 1911. During the 1920s, following the death of his mother, Ault became an alcoholic, each of his three brothers committed suicide, and his family fortune was lost following the 1929 stock market crash. He moved with his second wife to Woodstock, New York, in 1937, and worked there the remainder of his career. He and his wife lived in a small rented cottage that had no electricity or indoor plumbing. Though he created many of his finest works during this challenging period in Woodstock, he had difficulty selling them and failed to gain critical success until after his untimely death in December 1948.
Ault is often grouped with Precisionist painters such as Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) and Ralston Crawford (1906-1978) because of his unadorned representations of architecture and urban landscapes. However, the ideological aspects of Precisionism are not so apparent in his work. Much like Edward Hopper (1882-1967), Ault was more of a solitary artist. He painted what he saw around him, simplifying detail slightly into flat shapes and planes, and portraying the underlying geometric patterns of structures, in this way developing an individual modernist style that prefigured Ellsworth Kelly on other Minimalist artists of the later 20th century.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Abraham walkowitz
Three lithographs.
Fishermen’s Houses, 1926. 92x225 mm; 3⅝x8⅛ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right * Telegraph, 1926-27. 120x220 mm; 4¾x8¾ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right * Rockport House, No. 2, 1927. 240x380 mm; 9⅜x14⅞ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. Each a very good impression.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Abraham walkowitz
Two watercolors of Ogunquit, Maine.
Both circa 1925. Both 382x551 mm; 15x21½ inches. Both signed in ink, lower right or left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
William zorach
Rocky Landscape.
Watercolor and ink on wove paper, circa 1920. 374x455 mm; 14¾x18 inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Marguerite Thomas Zorach (1887-1968) and her husband William (1887-1966) are renowned for their innovation during the rise of American modernism, embodied by their unique blend of Cubism and Fauvism as well as the scope of their varied careers. Marguerite was an early exponent of modernism in America, born in California into a well-to-do family. She exhibited an interest in art at an early age, and studied at Stanford University before traveling to Paris with her aunt, where she was introduced to Gertrude Stein and exposed to the work of Henri Matisse. There she discovered her affinity for the color palette of the Fauves. Marguerite studied for a period of time at the conservative Académie de la Grande Chaumière before attending the progressive art school La Palette, where she met her future husband, William. Their marriage, in 1912, began a strong companionship in which the two artists consistently inspired, influenced and shaped each another’s artistic lives.
Born in 1887 in Lithuania, William Zorach immigrated to Cleveland, with his family at age 4. He worked as both a sculptor and watercolorist at the vanguard of American modernism, after briefly studying in Paris in the early 1910s. While Zorach initially practiced painting, his interests in sculpture, which took root in 1917, soon eclipsed all other media. By the 1930s, Zorach was regarded as one of America’s premier sculptors and was honored with multiple commissions and exhibitions including shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Joseph stella
Muro Lucano, Italy.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, circa 1920. 350x465 mm; 14x18½ inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower center recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Stella (1877-1946) was born in Muro Lucano, a village in the province of Potenza, Italy, and came to New York in 1896, following in his older brother’s footsteps, with the intention of becoming a physician. He soon abandoned his medical studies and turned instead to art, enrolling at the Art Students League and the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), with whom Hopper had studied with several years previous. During the 1910s and 1920s, Stella became one of the foremost American modernist artists through his association with Gertrude Stein and her circle in Paris. He was friends with many of the avant-garde artists of the time, notably Marcel Duchamp and Albert Gleizes along with the Italian Futurist artists Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severini.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Arthur b. davies
Landscape.
Watercolor on blue laid paper, circa 1925-28. 243x315 mm; 9½x12⅜ inches. With the artist’s signature ink stamp and inscribed “N.M.D” by Niles Davies, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Vance Jordan Fine Art, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Arthur b. davies
Mountainous Landscape.
Oil on canvas, circa 1925. 303x360 mm; 12x14 inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Arthur b. davies
Landscape with Clouds.
Watercolor, gouache and charcoal on cream wove paper mounted to board, circa 1925. 265x375 mm; 10½x14¾ inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto, and with the artist’s signature ink stamp, lower right recto on the board.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Spanierman Gallery, New York, with the label on the frame back; private collection, New Jersey.
Davies (1862-1928) was a visionary modern artist and arts director, just as remembered for his instrumental role in organizing the Armory Show in 1913. Davies was born in Utica, New York and showed artistic promise early on, studying with Dwight Williams, a local landscape painter in 1877. Once Davies’ family moved to Chicago in 1879, he attended classes at the Chicago Academy of Design and supported himself with commercial commissions. He moved to New York in either 1885 or 1886 and attended the Art Students League and classes with the Gotham Art Students. Davies worked and exhibited throughout the city, despite having moved to Congers, New York in the early 1890s. In 1893, he made the first of his two trips to Europe with funding from patrons through the Macbeth Gallery. The commute to New York and constant travel caused a rift between Davies and his wife, and in the early 1900s he started a secret second family with model Edna Potter in New York.
Rooted in poetic fantasy, Davies’ works did not stylistically resemble his contemporaries known as “The Eight,” though his work did appear at the Macbeth Gallery’s controversial landmark exhibition in 1908. Davies was active in the New York artist community and befriended several young progressive artists like Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent. It was in the capacity of president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors that Davies worked with Walter Pach to organize the Armory Show, pushing to include contemporary American artists. It was during this time that Davies changed from his Romantic style to one more inspired by Cubism. He took on printmaking from 1917 to 1924, returning to his earlier style in his later years.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
William zorach
Landscape with a Field of Flowers and a Distant Line of Trees.
Watercolor and pencil on paper mounted on card stock, 1929. 390x570 mm; 15½x22½ inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Marguerite Thomas Zorach (1887-1968) and her husband William (1887-1966) are renowned for their innovation during the rise of American modernism, embodied by their unique blend of Cubism and Fauvism as well as the scope of their varied careers. Marguerite was an early exponent of modernism in America, born in California into a well-to-do family. She exhibited an interest in art at an early age, and studied at Stanford University before traveling to Paris with her aunt, where she was introduced to Gertrude Stein and exposed to the work of Henri Matisse. There she discovered her affinity for the color palette of the Fauves. Marguerite studied for a period of time at the conservative Académie de la Grande Chaumière before attending the progressive art school La Palette, where she met her future husband, William. Their marriage, in 1912, began a strong companionship in which the two artists consistently inspired, influenced and shaped each another’s artistic lives.
Born in 1887 in Lithuania, William Zorach immigrated to Cleveland, with his family at age 4. He worked as both a sculptor and watercolorist at the vanguard of American modernism, after briefly studying in Paris in the early 1910s. While Zorach initially practiced painting, his interests in sculpture, which took root in 1917, soon eclipsed all other media. By the 1930s, Zorach was regarded as one of America’s premier sculptors and was honored with multiple commissions and exhibitions including shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Marguerite zorach
View of Wethersfield Cove, Connecticut.
Lithograph with hand coloring in watercolor, 1929. 292x440 mm; 11½x17½ inches, full margins. Edition of 30. Signed, dated and numbered 30/10 in pencil, lower right. A very good impression of this extremely scarce, early lithograph.
Marguerite Thomas Zorach (1887-1968) and her husband William (1887-1966) are renowned for their innovation during the rise of American modernism, embodied by their unique blend of Cubism and Fauvism as well as the scope of their varied careers. Marguerite was an early exponent of modernism in America, born in California into a well-to-do family. She exhibited an interest in art at an early age, and studied at Stanford University before traveling to Paris with her aunt, where she was introduced to Gertrude Stein and exposed to the work of Henri Matisse. There she discovered her affinity for the color palette of the Fauves. Marguerite studied for a period of time at the conservative Académie de la Grande Chaumière before attending the progressive art school La Palette, where she met her future husband, William. Their marriage, in 1912, began a strong companionship in which the two artists consistently inspired, influenced and shaped each another’s artistic lives.
Born in 1887 in Lithuania, William Zorach immigrated to Cleveland, with his family at age 4. He worked as both a sculptor and watercolorist at the vanguard of American modernism, after briefly studying in Paris in the early 1910s. While Zorach initially practiced painting, his interests in sculpture, which took root in 1917, soon eclipsed all other media. By the 1930s, Zorach was regarded as one of America’s premier sculptors and was honored with multiple commissions and exhibitions including shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Wanda gág
Moonlight.
Lithograph, 1926. 359x428 mm; 14⅛x16⅞ inches, wide margins. Edition of 60. Signed and dated in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. A very good impression. Winnan 26.
Gág’s (1893-1946) first solo exhibition was held in 1926 at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. Like Edward Hopper, Gág’s works reveal a disenchantment of the “American Dream” between the two world wars and seem to capture a moment in time, giving life to inanimate objects when there are no humans present. Coming to New York to attend the Art Students League on a scholarship in 1917, Gág began to explore the city’s less aesthetic scenes, such as the subway stations, further encouraged by her classes with John Sloan.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Wanda gág
In the Attic.
Brush and ink on paper, 1920-29. 218x240 mm; 8½x9½ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Weyhe Gallery, New York; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, New York, with her blue monogram ink stamp verso.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (157.1940).
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Wanda gág
Evening.
Lithograph, 1928. 205x302 mm; 8¼x7¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Printed by George Miller, New York. A superb, richly-inked and dark impression of this very scarce lithograph.
Gág (1893-1946) was primarily a printmaker; paintings and gouaches are scarce among her works. She trained at the Art Students League, New York, under the instructors John Sloan, George Luks and Kenneth Hayes Miller, among others, and might have been influenced to begin making lithographs by the artist Adolf Dehn (1895-1968), with whom she was then romantically involved. Along with her haunting lithographs of scenes in and around New York from the 1920s and 1930s, many of which are imbued with an eeriness and desolation reminiscent of Hopper, she is also remembered for her innovative and modern children’s books, consisting of stories she told her younger siblings when growing up and illustrated herself, including Millions of Cats, Gone is Gone and The ABC Bunny. Winnan 62.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Charles burchfield
Three pencil landscape studies.
The Grove, circa 1913. With color notes in pencil * Rolling Landscape, circa 1950s * Queen Anne’s Lace, circa 1957. Various sizes and conditions.
Provenance: Raydon Gallery, New York; private collection, Chicago.
The last drawing is likely a study for the same-titled watercolor, 1957, now in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Burchfield’s (1893-1967) works transcend the Regionalist label that is often applied to the artist. He both a realist and abstractionist. Though he strived to create a strong sense of human emotion and thought in his works, he often did not simply document the reality of his surroundings (he lived most of his life in small towns). Like William Zorach and Emil Bisttram, Burchfield saw nature as being endowed with mystical and mysterious qualities, which he communicated in his works.
Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio and attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916. He began his career in Buffalo, New York working as a wallpaper designer for M. H. Birge & Sons Company. It was during this time period that Burchfield’s work was more rooted in suburban realism. Burchfield and Edward Hopper began their friendship in 1928, after Hopper wrote favorably of Burchfield’s work in Arts magazine (Burchfield in turn, wrote an essay for Hopper’s 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York). Hopper wrote that Burchfield, “Has extracted a quality that we may call poetic, romantic, lyric . . . By sympathy with the particular he had made it epic and universal.” Like Hopper, Burchfield was able to stop working commercially and focus on painting full time after finding gallery representation. In 1929, Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York, the same gallery that represented Hopper, began showing Burchfield’s works. Through the 1930s, Burchfield was the recipient of international recognition; Life magazine declared him one of America’s greatest painters in December 1936. In the 1940s, Burchfield’s works became more spiritual, transcendental and based in nature.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Charles e. prendergast
Monte Carlo.
Gouache and pencil on cream wove paper, 1927. 260x340 mm; 10¼x13⅜ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, Connecticut; Eugénie van Kemmel Prendergast, the artist’s widow; the Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach; private collection, New Jersey.
The current work is registered with the Williams College Museum of Art, Prendergast Collection, Williamstown, with a letter of authenticity, dated August 11, 2005.
Artist brothers Maurice (1858-1924) and Charles Prendergast (1863-1948) were born in Newfoundland and moved to Boston as children. Both studied fine art in Paris in 1891 and by 1894, were living together in Boston, Charles making his career primarily as a framer and Maurice as an artist. Maurice modelled his work after the French avant-garde and exhibited with The Eight in New York in 1908 and at the landmark 1913 Armory Show. Charles was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and New England folk art. In 1915, Maurice and Charles exhibited together for the first time in New York at Montross Gallery. They continued to exhibit together with the Society of Independent Artists, where Charles was elected vice president in 1917. The Society, founded in New York in 1916, filled the void caused by the dissolution of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors after the Armory Show was mounted in 1913. It was based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants with the mission of promoting avant-garde artists with annual exhibitions. Unlike the conservative National Academy of Design, membership in the Society was open to any artist able to pay a fee and annual dues. Among its other founders were Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Katherine Dreier, William Glackens, Rockwell Kent, John Marin, Walter Pach, John Sloan and Joseph Stella. Its first exhibition, held at the Grand Central Palace in New York in April 1917, was twice the size of the Armory Show, and espoused the democratic ideal of accessible arts.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Joseph stella
Cactus Flower.
Oil on canvas mounted on board, circa 1920-30. 245x195 mm; 9⅝x7⅝ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Ella Lerner Gallery, Lenox, Massachusetts and New York; private collection, Maryland.
Stella (1877-1946) was born to a middle-class family in Muro Lucano, Italy. He moved to New York in 1896 to study medicine, but he quickly eschewed his medical ambitions when he discovered his passion for art, enrolling at the Art Students League and studying at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). Stella worked as an illustrator from 1905 to 1908 and was also active in the Federal Art Project during the 1930s, however it is his avant-garde works for which he is today best known, including colorful, fanciful floral studies, like the current work, ethereal landscapes, and modernist city depictions. His Futurist oil painting Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, 1913, was exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show and caused a sensation. Collector and art educator Katherine Dreier included Stella among those artists whose work she sought to promote under the auspices of her Société Anonyme, New York’s first museum dedicated exclusively to advanced contemporary art, which opened its doors in 1920 (she acquired Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras and it is now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). Like John Marin, Stella became fascinated with the geometric quality of the architecture of Lower Manhattan. During the 1920s he also began to make collages consisting of scraps of discarded paper, wrappers (some with the commercial logo or label still visible), and other bits of urban debris. Stella’s works from the 1920s onward, however, were problematic for the cultivation of a sustained career. Once he had ceased painting in a Futurist or quasi-Cubist mode and had finished with his period of Precisionist factory images (circa 1920), he was not aligned with any particular movement. Even his retrospective at the Newark Museum, New Jersey in 1939 failed to reestablish him and his work was underappreciated at mid-century prior to being prized again in recent decades.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Joseph stella
Lotus Flowers.
Silverpoint, crayon and color pencils on prepared paper, circa 1920. 326x245 mm; 12⅞x9¾ inches.
Provenance: Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, circa 1987; private collection, New York.
Silverpoint, linked Stella (1877-1946) to the Old Masters and allowed him to attain thin, light capturing lines. The medium was rarely used, as it requires precise handling (it cannot be erased) and an abrasive ground. Stella used zinc white gouache to prepare his paper which also gave the illusion that his subjects floated in space. Stella’s botanical drawings, in which he gives life to, or anthropomorphizes, inanimate objects, are linked to his 1919 oil on canvas Tree of My Life (now in the collection of Art Bridges, Texas), though he continued to create these drawings throughout his career. In 1946, he remembered fondly, “From 1921 on I was swinging as a pendulum from one subject to the opposite one. With sheer delight I was roaming through different fields, spurred by the inciting expectation of finding thrilling surprises, especially going through the luxuriant garden of the Bronx, I was seized with a sensual thrill in cutting with the sharpness of my silverpoint the terse purity of the lotus leaves or the matchless stem of a strange tropical plant. Innumerable visions of pictures were storming around me like chimeric butterflies.”
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Stefan hirsch
Two floral still lifes.
Larkspur and Woodlilies, pencil on paper, 1921. 252x203 mm; 10x8 inches. Initialed and dated in pencil, upper right recto and titled in pencil, lower center recto * Rose: A Study, pencil on paper, circa 1921. 210x170 mm; 8¼x6¾ inches.
Provenance: Collection of Dorothy Hirsch, sister of the artist, New York, until 1983; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: (Larkspur and Woodlilies) “Realism and Abstraction: Counterpoints in American Drawing, 1900-1940,” Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, November 12-December 30, 1983, number 107 (illustrated); “Brooklyn’s Bounty: Natural Splendor and Domestic Opulence,” Museum of the Borough of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College, New York, April 16–May 16, 1985.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Marsden hartley
Grapes.
Lithograph, 1923. 248x310 mm; 9⅞x12¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and inscribed “Berlin” and “No. 1” in black crayon, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this early, extremely scarce lithograph.
We have found only one other impression at auction in the past 30 years.
Hartley (1877-1943) was a member of the “Stieglitz Group,” under the patronage of the famed gallerist and early champion of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) who arranged the artist’s first solo exhibition in 1909 at his 291 gallery in New York. This was a major turning point in Hartley’s career; through Stieglitz he met and became influenced by other emerging artists such as Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Arthur Dove (1880-1946), John Marin (1870-1953) and Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986).
Growing up in Maine and Cleveland, Hartley showed promise as a young artist and was funded by an art patron to study in New York in 1899. He studied with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) at his New York School and at the National Academy of Design. But it was not until he gained the support of Stieglitz and the artist Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), a senior member of the Stieglitz circle, that he was able to travel to Paris. In France, Hartley closely studied the Post-Impressionist and Cubist masterpieces and experimented in these styles. From Paris, he traveled through Europe and arrived in Berlin. Adopting a bold new style, Hartley exhibited with the avant-garde Der Blaue Reiter group in 1913. He revisited Berlin in 1914, producing his most iconic works of the War Motif series, following the death of his purported romantic partner, a German World War I soldier named Karl von Freyburg. These paintings are comprised of bold, sweeping colors, German insignia and undulating flattened shapes.
Ingenious and innovative, Hartley drew from the two-dimensionality of the Cubists and the spiritualism, raw emotion and subjectivity of the Expressionists. Hartley traveled around the world throughout his career, often deeply embedding himself in his surroundings. His works slowly became less abstract as his career advanced. University of Kansas 4.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Marsden hartley
Flowers in Goblet #1.
Lithograph on light tan wove paper, 1923. 625x410 mm; 24½x16¼ inches (sheet), full margins. Edition of 25. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right margin. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
Hartley (1877-1943) was a member of the “Stieglitz Group,” under the patronage of the famed gallerist and early champion of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) who arranged the artist’s first solo exhibition in 1909 at his 291 gallery in New York. This was a major turning point in Hartley’s career; through Stieglitz he met and became influenced by other emerging artists such as Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Arthur Dove (1880-1946), John Marin (1870-1953) and Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986).
Growing up in Maine and Cleveland, Hartley showed promise as a young artist and was funded by an art patron to study in New York in 1899. He studied with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) at his New York School and at the National Academy of Design. But it was not until he gained the support of Stieglitz and the artist Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), a senior member of the Stieglitz circle, that he was able to travel to Paris. In France, Hartley closely studied the Post-Impressionist and Cubist masterpieces and experimented in these styles. From Paris, he traveled through Europe and arrived in Berlin. Adopting a bold new style, Hartley exhibited with the avant-garde Der Blaue Reiter group in 1913. He revisited Berlin in 1914, producing his most iconic works of the War Motif series, following the death of his purported romantic partner, a German World War I soldier named Karl von Freyburg. These paintings are comprised of bold, sweeping colors, German insignia and undulating flattened shapes.
Ingenious and innovative, Hartley drew from the two-dimensionality of the Cubists and the spiritualism, raw emotion and subjectivity of the Expressionists. Hartley traveled around the world throughout his career, often deeply embedding himself in his surroundings. His works slowly became less abstract as his career advanced. University of Kansas 10.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Marsden hartley
Flowers in Goblet #2.
Lithograph on light tan wove paper, 1923. 655x500 mm; 26x19¾ inches (sheet), full margins. Edition of 25. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. A superb impression of this very scarce lithograph.
Hartley (1877-1943) was a member of the “Stieglitz Group,” under the patronage of the famed gallerist and early champion of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) who arranged the artist’s first solo exhibition in 1909 at his 291 gallery in New York. This was a major turning point in Hartley’s career; through Stieglitz he met and became influenced by other emerging artists such as Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Arthur Dove (1880-1946), John Marin (1870-1953) and Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986).
Growing up in Maine and Cleveland, Hartley showed promise as a young artist and was funded by an art patron to study in New York in 1899. He studied with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) at his New York School and at the National Academy of Design. But it was not until he gained the support of Stieglitz and the artist Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), a senior member of the Stieglitz circle, that he was able to travel to Paris. In France, Hartley closely studied the Post-Impressionist and Cubist masterpieces and experimented in these styles. From Paris, he traveled through Europe and arrived in Berlin. Adopting a bold new style, Hartley exhibited with the avant-garde Der Blaue Reiter group in 1913. He revisited Berlin in 1914, producing his most iconic works of the War Motif series, following the death of his purported romantic partner, a German World War I soldier named Karl von Freyburg. These paintings are comprised of bold, sweeping colors, German insignia and undulating flattened shapes.
Ingenious and innovative, Hartley drew from the two-dimensionality of the Cubists and the spiritualism, raw emotion and subjectivity of the Expressionists. Hartley traveled around the world throughout his career, often deeply embedding himself in his surroundings. His works slowly became less abstract as his career advanced. University of Kansas 11.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Marsden hartley
Flowers in Goblet #3.
Lithograph on light tan wove paper, 1923. 655x500 mm; 25½x19¾ inches (sheet), full margins. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
Hartley (1877-1943) was a member of the “Stieglitz Group,” under the patronage of the famed gallerist and early champion of modern art in America, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) who arranged the artist’s first solo exhibition in 1909 at his 291 gallery in New York. This was a major turning point in Hartley’s career; through Stieglitz he met and became influenced by other emerging artists such as Charles Demuth (1883-1935), Arthur Dove (1880-1946), John Marin (1870-1953) and Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986).
Growing up in Maine and Cleveland, Hartley showed promise as a young artist and was funded by an art patron to study in New York in 1899. He studied with William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) at his New York School and at the National Academy of Design. But it was not until he gained the support of Stieglitz and the artist Arthur B. Davies (1862-1928), a senior member of the Stieglitz circle, that he was able to travel to Paris. In France, Hartley closely studied the Post-Impressionist and Cubist masterpieces and experimented in these styles. From Paris, he traveled through Europe and arrived in Berlin. Adopting a bold new style, Hartley exhibited with the avant-garde Der Blaue Reiter group in 1913. He revisited Berlin in 1914, producing his most iconic works of the War Motif series, following the death of his purported romantic partner, a German World War I soldier named Karl von Freyburg. These paintings are comprised of bold, sweeping colors, German insignia and undulating flattened shapes.
Ingenious and innovative, Hartley drew from the two-dimensionality of the Cubists and the spiritualism, raw emotion and subjectivity of the Expressionists. Hartley traveled around the world throughout his career, often deeply embedding himself in his surroundings. His works slowly became less abstract as his career advanced. University of Kansas 12.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Charles demuth
Tulips.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 1924. 457x303 mm; 18x11⅞ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower recto, and with an additional watercolor study, verso.
Provenance: Margaret V. and Samuel A. Lewisohn, New York; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.
Demuth (1883-1935) was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and suffered an injury as a child that forced him to walk with a cane. As he was unable to be as physically active as other children, his mother gave him crayons to draw with. His parents supported his art from a young age and he attended Franklin and Marshall College, Drexel University and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. After leaving school, he focused on his preferred medium of watercolor and found inspiration in flowers and plants in his mother’s garden, a subject that would preoccupy him throughout his life.
Demuth made his studio at his home in Lancaster, but traveled frequently and made many important friends in the artistic community. He traveled three times to Paris where he studied at the Académie Colarossi and Académie Julian, joined the avant-garde artistic scene, and admired the work of European modernists, even spending time at Gertrude Stein’s salon. He met Marsden Hartley while in Paris who later introduced him to Alfred Stieglitz and became part of his tightknit group of artists.
While well-traveled, most of his work was created in his studio in Lancaster. Demuth eventually embraced a Precisionist style, focusing on geometric forms and industrial subject matter. He also returned to flowers, plants and vegetables consistently throughout his career, focusing with technical virtuosity and deft handling on their color and form.
Estimate
$80,000 – $120,000
Yasuo kuniyoshi
Sketchbook with drawings.
Sketchbook with 79 drawings in pencil and ink on 41 sheets, 1920-30. 255x195 mm; 10⅛x7¾ inches (sheets). The front cover signed in ink
With—An additional seven pencil drawings on four sheets, 1920-30. Each 280x215 mm; 11x8½ inches. Each inscribed with the artist's name and signed by Bumpei Usui, friend of the artist in pencil or ink, with his red ink chopmark.
Provenance: Collection of the artist Mr. Bumpei Usui (1898–1994); private collection, Tokyo.
After arriving in the United States in 1921 and settling in New York, Bumpei Usui started out as a framer for Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) and Kuniyoshi (1889-1953) while establishing himself in the art world as a painter. Kuniyoshi became Usui's informal mentor and the two had a deep friendship throughout their lives. Usui's 1930 oil on canvas portrait of Kuniyoshi is held by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Born in Okayama, Japan, Kuniyoshi attended the Los Angeles School of Art and Design before moving to New York to ultimately study at the Art Student's League from 1916-20 (he briefly studied also with Robert Henri at the National Academy). He began to exhibit with the Penguin Club, an informal artists group founded by Walt Kuhn in 1917 to rebel against the stringent National Academy, which counted Guy Pène du Bois, Arthur B. Davies, Edward Hopper, Jules Pascin, Joseph Stella and Max Weber as its affiliated artists. Though short lived, the club was only active until 1920, it sponsored social events, exhibitions, auctions and sketch classes. Kuniyoshi remembered, "This small but fertile group helped establish the roots of contemporary American painting. Considered the rebels of their time, they waged a vigorous battle against conservatism with might and humor. We knew how to play and enjoy ourselves in those days." This humor and playfulness are clearly evident in Kuniyoshi's works, though there is also a sense of political awareness. As in the present work, the appearance of newspapers signifies Kuniyoshi's reaction to contemporary violence and upheavals through the 1940s.
Finding success in New York, Kuniyoshi had his first solo exhibition at the Daniel Gallery and was soon exhibiting internationally in Europe and Japan through the 1930s. He travelled to Mexico in 1935 on a Guggenheim Fellowship and frequently summered in Woodstock, New York. Like several of his contemporaries, Kuniyoshi returned to the Art Students League as a teacher, a position that he would hold from 1933 to his death in 1953.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Stuart davis
Faun and Girl from The Puritans.
Gouache, pencil and ink on paper, 1923. 470x600 mm; 18½x23⅝ inches. Signed and dated in gouache and titled “Faun and Girl from the Pilgrims” in pencil, lower margin recto.
Provenance: The artist; Mr. and Mrs. Ralph deGolier, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, circa 1925; Edith Gregor Halpert, New York; thence to the estate of Edith Gregor Halpert; offered Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, “The Edith G. Halpert Collection of American Paintings Part II,” March 16, 1973, sale 3520, lot 3; sold Christie’s New York, March 23, 1984, sale 5520, lot 99, to the current owner, private collection, Southfield, Michigan.
Published: A. Boyajian and M. Rutkoski, Stuart Davis: A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven, Connecticut, 2007, vol. 2, pages 524-25, number 1075.
Costume designs for the play The Puritans, written by Ralph deGolier. Boyajian and Rutkoski note that “Although inscribed ‘Faun and Girl from the Pilgrims’ reference instead to the actual title of the play, The Puritans.”
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Arthur b. carles
Woman Playing a Guitar.
Crayon and pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1915. 265x205 mm; 10½x8⅛ inches. Inscribed with the artist’s sketchbook number “16” in pencil, verso.
Provenance: David David, Inc., Philadelphia, with the label on the frame back; private collection, New Jersey.
Carles (1882-1952) was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. Like Edward Hopper and many of their contemporaries, Carles visited Paris (1907-10) for further artistic study. In France, Carles greatly admired the works of Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, and became close friends with John Marin and Edward Steichen. Carles’s work was included in the 1910 “Younger American Painters” exhibit held at Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery, 291. Stieglitz also gave Carles his first one-man show at 291 in January 1912. Carles was among the most inventive creatively and brilliant colorists of the American modernist artists.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Walt kuhn
Edith.
Lithograph, 1925. 394x256 mm; 15¾x10¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 50. Signed, titled and numbered 19-50 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce, early lithograph.
Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Kuhn (1877-1949) took art classes at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and then worked as an illustrator. He met John Sloan and Robert Henri through his work as an illustrator and helped them organize the Exhibition of Independent Artists in April 1910. He then co-founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors who organized the Armory Show and was in charge of finding European artists to participate. He traveled throughout Europe with Arthur B. Davies and Walter Pach to find the avant-garde in European art, which led to the Armory Show largely introducing Americans to modern art.
As an artist he embraced a variety of modern styles, including Cubism and Fauvism, before developing his own style of painting single figures against dark backgrounds with a psychological and emotional intensity. He often depicted performers—clowns, burlesque dances and acrobats—referencing his lifelong interest in performance and theater.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Arthur b. carles
Woman at a Table.
Color pastels and chalk on blue laid paper, circa 1920. 230x145 mm; 9⅛x5⅞ inches. Inscribed “73” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Carles (1882-1952) was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. Like Edward Hopper and many of their contemporaries, Carles visited Paris (1907-10) for further artistic study. In France, Carles greatly admired the works of Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, and became close friends with John Marin and Edward Steichen. Carles’s work was included in the 1910 “Younger American Painters” exhibit held at Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery, 291. Stieglitz also gave Carles his first one-man show at 291 in January 1912. Carles was among the most inventive creatively and brilliant colorists of the American modernist artists.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Everett shinn
Reading.
Conté crayon on tan wove paper, circa 1925. 230x203 mm; 9⅛8 inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; estate of Elizabeth Rosenstein, East Orange, New Jersey; sold Christie’s, New York, October 1, 1987, lot 224 to current owner, private collection, Toronto.
This lot has been authenticated by Charles T. Henry, friend of the artist and executor of his estate.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John sloan
Reading in the Subway.
Etching, 1926. 127x100 mm; 5x4 inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of 85 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled, inscribed “100 proofs” and annotated in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression with strong contrasts. Morse 223.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
George bellows
Morning, Nude Sketch.
Lithograph on thin cream wove paper, 1921. 243x183 mm; 9½x7¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 48. Signed in pencil, lower right, and signed by the printer, Bolton Brown, and inscribed “imp” in pencil, lower left. A very good impression.
Bellows (1882-1925) was part of the second generation of Aschan School artists. Born in Columbus, Ohio he worked as a commercial illustrator as a student at The Ohio State University from 1901-04. After Ohio State, he moved to New York where he studied with Robert Henri and soon became associated with the Aschan artists. He depicted scenes of everyday life in New York that were rooted in realism. He started making lithographs in 1916 and revived interest in the medium as at the time etching was the preferred printmaking method. Lithography gave him a steady stream of income to provide for his family and also grew his popularity as an artist. Mason 75.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Arthur b. carles
Nude Model.
Charcoal on cream laid paper, circa 1920. 303x228 mm; 11⅞x9 inches.
Provenance: Private collection, New Jersey.
Carles (1882-1952) was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. Like Edward Hopper and many of their contemporaries, Carles visited Paris (1907-10) for further artistic study. In France, Carles greatly admired the works of Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, and became close friends with John Marin and Edward Steichen. Carles’s work was included in the 1910 “Younger American Painters” exhibit held at Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery, 291. Stieglitz also gave Carles his first one-man show at 291 in January 1912. Carles was among the most inventive creatively and brilliant colorists of the American modernist artists.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Arthur b. carles
After the Bath.
Watercolor and pencil on cream laid paper, circa 1920. 304x230 mm; 12x9 inches.
With—Street Scene. Pencil and watercolor on tan wove paper. 180x125 mm; 7⅛x5 inches. Inscribed “159” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, After the Bath with the red ink estate stamp verso; private collection, New Jersey.
Carles (1882-1952) was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1900 and 1907. Like Edward Hopper and many of their contemporaries, Carles visited Paris (1907-10) for further artistic study. In France, Carles greatly admired the works of Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, and became close friends with John Marin and Edward Steichen. Carles’s work was included in the 1910 “Younger American Painters” exhibit held at Alfred Stieglitz’s New York gallery, 291. Stieglitz also gave Carles his first one-man show at 291 in January 1912. Carles was among the most inventive creatively and brilliant colorists of the American modernist artists.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Jan matulka
Woman Bathing.
Crayon on thick cream wove paper, 1920-28. 302x210 mm; 11⅞x8⅜ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Downtown Gallery, New York.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (190.1940).
Exhibited: “New Acquisitions: American Drawings, Gift of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.” Museum of Modern Art, New York, February 18-March 15, 1942.
br>Matulka (1890-1972), alongside Stuart Davis and Max Weber, was one of the proponents of the nascent American Cubism style. He was born in Czechoslovakia and studied fine art in Prague before immigrating to the United States in 1907. He enrolled at the National Academy of Design and in 1917 won the Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship, which he used to fund trips to the American southwest and Europe. Works from his time in Europe reflect influences by Paul Cézanne and early Cubism, striking a balance between realism and geometric abstraction. Later in his career, Matulka would explore Surrealism and Expressionism. During the Great Depression, Matulka worked for the WPA’s Federal Art Project and supported himself by teaching at the Art Student’s League (instructing students such as Burgoyne Diller, Dorothy Dehner and David Smith). Matulka brought different elements of European Modernism to the United States and to his students, though this style fell out of favor in light of the new American Scene style and socially inspired themes. Like Edward Hopper and many of their contemporaries, Matulka exhibited with the Whitney Studio Club in New York during the 1920s.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Max weber
The Mirror #2.
Lithograph, circa 1929. 210x330 mm; 8¼x13 inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed and numbered “40-1” in pencil, lower right. A superb, dark impression of this scarce lithograph.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists. Rubenstein 80.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Yasuo kuniyoshi
Girl Dressing.
Lithograph on Chine appliqué, 1928. 323x225 mm; 12¾x8¾ inches. Signed, dated and numbered 25/30 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Desjobert, Paris. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
Born in Okayama, Japan, Kuniyoshi (1889-1953) attended the Los Angeles School of Art and Design before moving to New York to ultimately study at the Art Student’s League from 1916-20 (he briefly studied also with Robert Henri at the National Academy). He began to exhibit with the Penguin Club, an informal artists group founded by Walt Kuhn in 1917 to rebel against the stringent National Academy, which counted Guy Pène du Bois, Arthur B. Davies, Edward Hopper, Jules Pascin, Joseph Stella and Max Weber as its affiliated artists. Though short lived, the club was only active until 1920, it sponsored social events, exhibitions, auctions and sketch classes. Kuniyoshi remembered, “This small but fertile group helped establish the roots of contemporary American painting. Considered the rebels of their time, they waged a vigorous battle against conservatism with might and humor. We knew how to play and enjoy ourselves in those days.” This humor and playfulness are clearly evident in Kuniyoshi’s works, though there is also a sense of political awareness. As in the present work, the appearance of newspapers signifies Kuniyoshi’s reaction to contemporary violence and upheavals through the 1940s.
Finding success in New York, Kuniyoshi had his first solo exhibition at the Daniel Gallery and was soon exhibiting internationally in Europe and Japan through the 1930s. He travelled to Mexico in 1935 on a Guggenheim Fellowship and frequently summered in Woodstock, New York. Like several of his contemporaries, Kuniyoshi returned to the Art Students League as a teacher, a position that he would hold from 1933 to his death in 1953. Davis 26.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Reginald marsh
Model.
Lithograph on Chine appliqué, 1928. 285x220 mm; 11¼x8½ inches, full margins. Edition of 15. Signed and inscribed “15 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
We have not found another impression at auction in the past 30 years.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 8.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
1930 - 1940
The stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed changed American society and politics irrevocably. The decade was an extraordinary opportunity for artists to find employment through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and was also a time during which divergent approaches towards American art solidified, creating tension between artists as to what constituted true American art.
In Washington, D.C., President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the Great Depression by creating The New Deal to restore prosperity to Americans. Artists benefitted significantly from its programs, and from 1933 to 1934 the Public Works of Art Project created jobs for artists in the form of producing murals for public housing, courthouses and post offices. In 1935, it transformed into the Federal Art Project, employing artists through 1943. These programs championed a Realist approach to their compositions since artists were often hired to focus on historical subjects and specific locales. Stuart Davis and other abstract artists were occasionally hired, but these programs were a boon for Regionalist and Realist sensibilities.
Overall, during the decade Regionalism grew in popularity. Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood opposed the urbanization of the country, the concentration of money on Wall Street and the intellectualism of the East Coast. Rural areas were especially hit hard during the Depression, but they had also experienced a recession since the end of World War I. Regionalist paintings and prints are steeped in nostalgia and depicted the American farmer as the soul of American. In 1933, there was an exhibit at the Kansas Art Institute of works by Benton, Curry and Wood. Maynard Walker, the organizer, said it was a new direction for American art that sprang from Midwest soil. In 1934, when Benton graced the cover of Time magazine, he became one of America’s most famous artists.
Realism was not relegated to the Midwest:, in New York artists like Reginald Marsh and Ben Shahn depicted social life and the activities of city dwellers, including bawdy entertainment and realities of day-to-day life. Edward Hopper, also considered a Realist, was an outlier; He didn’t depict the social environment of the city. Instead, his New York was quiet, focusing on its emptiness through light and form. He continued to become one of the most praised American modernists. In 1933, MoMA opened Edward Hopper: Retrospective Exhibition, which included a separate room dedicated to his etchings, the first show in which etchings had such importance. The catalog included an introduction from Alfred Barr who praised Hopper as a great American modernist. Nevertheless, some criticized Hopper’s Realist style for not being modern enough.
The reception of Hopper’s MoMA exhibit speaks to a larger fight playing out among artists as they defined American art — Stuart Davis and Thomas Hart Benton battled publicly in art publications in the 1930s. Benton thought Davis’s work was not American enough since the Abstract American Artists were looking towards Europe for inspiration. Benton believed there was still room for the figure in modern art. It is important to note, however, that even the European modernists conveyed a strong sense of place in their art and were regionally aligned. Although the artists believed they had little common ground in this struggle for dominance, they both laid claim to the inherent value of their approach as they sought authentic and independent voices that could speak for the nation.
In a broader sense, the public found access to an art that was shaped by an American identity. In addition to Hopper’s 1933 exhibition, art exhibitions began to focus on contemporary American art. In 1931, the Whitney Museum opened with Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s collection after it was rejected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and its mandate was to display and collect works by contemporary artists. Many of its exhibitions were devoted to Realists such as Hopper, but it also displayed modernists working in international styles, including Davis. In 1931-33, Rockefeller Center was constructed with murals by leading American artists. This was, of course, also not free from scandal, as Diego Rivera’s mural Man at the Crossroads was destroyed because it depicted socialist themes and Vladimir Lenin.
The growth of Communism and Fascism abroad resulted in an undercurrent in American society and art throughout the decade. America’s population had doubled between 1890 and 1930, and by 1929 one in 10 Americans were born abroad or had an immigrant parent. Many artists themselves were born outside the U.S. or were first generation Americans and were loosely aligned with political movements. However, most artists who were affiliated with the Communist party in the 1930s abandoned it when Stalin signed a nonaggression pact with Hitler in 1939. Artists were more interested in depicting social protest than radical political movements. As the growth of Fascism loomed across the Atlantic, European artists moved to New York to escape conflict and persecution. By the end of the decade, the city was poised to become a new artistic center of the world.
Reginald marsh
Box at the Metropolitan.
Etching and engraving, 1934. 255x204 mm; 10x8 inches, full margins. Fifth state (of 5). Edition of approximately 30. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb impression of this very scarce print.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 143.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Don freeman
Art Curb Market.
Lithograph, 1934. 246x301 mm; 9¾x9⅞ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 15/50 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Art Curb Market, also called Washington Square Art Show was drawn from sketches made at the first same-titled annual New York exhibition in 1932. The lithograph was used in the exhibition’s announcement and checklist in 1936.
Freeman (1908-1978), known for his later work as a children’s book illustrator, was an active chronicler of city life during the 1930s and 1940s. His images of New York, lacking the emotional tension of the American Scene artists, are like that of his instructor, John Sloan, in documenting the everyday lives of New Yorkers. He was born in San Diego and after attending a summer course at the San Diego School of Fine Arts, he moved to New York to become an artist. He studied at the Art Students League spent much of his time backstage at theater productions sketching from life. McCulloch 84.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Don freeman
On the Fly Rail.
Lithograph, 1934. 244x300 mm; 9⅝x7⅞ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 5/50 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Freeman (1908-1978), known for his later work as a children’s book illustrator, was an active chronicler of city life during the 1930s and 1940s. His images of New York, lacking the emotional tension of the American Scene artists, are like that of his instructor, John Sloan, in documenting the everyday lives of New Yorkers. He was born in San Diego and after attending a summer course at the San Diego School of Fine Arts, he moved to New York to become an artist. He studied at the Art Students League spent much of his time backstage at theater productions sketching from life. McCulloch 97.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Gifford beal
Circus (Dog and Pony Show).
Gouache and pen and ink with pencil on paper, circa 1930. 238x323 mm; 9¼x12¾ inches. Signed in gouache, lower recto.
Provenance: Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New Jersey.
Exhibited: McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, Texas, November 20-December 31, 1970, with the label.
Beal (1879-1956) was a prominent American painter who studied under William Merritt Chase and was also significantly influenced by Childe Hassam. After taking classes of Impressionist painting at the Art Students League, Beal served as their president from 1914 to 1929. He found inspiration not only in holiday spectacle and pageantry but also in the natural and everyday side of life. Beal enjoyed painting the landscape along the Hudson River and in Gloucester and Rockport, Massachusetts, where he spent many summers.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
John marin
From the Brooklyn Bridge, New York.
Watercolor, gouache and pencil on thick, textured wove paper, circa 1930. 290x387 mm; 11½x15½ inches. Signed in watercolor on the building facade, center right recto. Arches France watermark.
Provenance: Estate of Patrick Roberts, founder of the American Museum of Industry and Technology, Inc., New Preston, Connecticut; private collection, Florida.
There are similar compositions by Marin (1870-1953), this was a subject he returned to on multiple occasions over several decades, including The Red Sun, Brooklyn Bridge, watercolor and charcoal on paper, 1922, now in the Art Institute of Chicago, and From the Bridge N.Y.C, opaque and transparent watercolor with charcoal and collage on wove paper, 1933, now in the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, both of which also incorporate the Brooklyn Bridge cables, the red sun upper left and the horse-drawn cart lower right.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Clarence carter
Railroad Avenue (Cleveland).
Watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper, 1930. 230x301 mm; 9¼x12 inches. Signed and dated in gouache, lower right recto, and titled and annotated in pencil, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
According to the Cleveland Museum of Art, which has a significant holding of works by Carter (1904-2000), including a color aquatint of Railroad Avenue, 1931, perhaps related to the current work, the artist was one of Cleveland’s most imaginative interpreters of the American scene. Carter was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and developed a love of drawing at an early age. Encouraged by his family, he took private watercolor lessons and won art prizes in county and state fairs in his early teens. He studied with William Eastman, Henry Keller, and Paul Travis at the Cleveland School of Art, 1923–27. He exhibited in the annual May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1927–39). In 1927 William Milliken, then curator of paintings at the art museum, organized a subscription scholarship to allow Carter two years of travel through Italy, Switzerland, England and France. In the summer of 1927, he studied in Capri with Hans Hofmann. On returning to Cleveland in 1929, Carter had his first solo exhibition at the Cleveland Art Center. He taught studio classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1930–37. In 1934, under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, the first of the New Deal art programs, Carter was commissioned to paint two murals for the Cleveland Public Auditorium. For a subsequent governmental art program, the Works Progress Administration, he served as a district supervisor for painting projects in north east Ohio. After 1935 he completed two federal mural commissions: one for the post office in Ravenna, Ohio, and another for the post office in his hometown. In 1938 he moved to Pittsburgh to teach at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University). During the 1930s and 1940s he showed in annual exhibitions in Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Berenice abbott
Statuary Shop, Water Street, New York.
Silver print, 1930 (printed 1970s). 390x492 mm; 15⅜x19⅜ inches, the mount slightly larger. Signed in pencil, on the mount, lower right, and with the artist’s “Abbott, Maine” stamp on mount, verso.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Walker evans
Group of 5 vintage silver prints of different residential houses in Massachusetts.
From the Estate of Pearl Korn
Each circa 1930-32. Each approximately 4⅝x6⅝ inches, printed to the sheet edges, the mounts slightly larger. Each signed in pencil, three with the location in pencil, on the mounts verso.
Includes Gingerbread Houses, South Boston, Massachusetts * Greek House, Greenfield, Massachusetts * Italianate Revival House with Simple Hipped Roof and Full-Height Entry Porch, Northampton, Massachusetts.
Provenance: Paul Cadmus, Weston, Connecticut, with his ink stamp on the mounts, verso.
GROUP OF 5 PHOTOS OF DIFFERENT RESIDENTIAL HOUSES
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Stow wengenroth
Roof Garden.
Lithograph, 1933. 190x138 mm; 7½x5⅜ inches, full margins. Edition of 25. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
The drawing for this print was made looking out the window of Wengenroth’s (1906-1978) Brooklyn apartment at 139 MacDougal Street. Stuckey 34.
Wengenroth (1906-1978) was born into a creative family in Brooklyn and studied at the Art Students League, New York with George Bridgman and at the Grand Central School of Art with Wyman Adams. It was not until 1929 that he started working in lithography with George Pearse Ennis at the Eastport Summer School. He published his first lithographs in 1931 and it soon became his preferred medium. He became one of the most accomplished American lithographers of the 20th century, leading the great American realist painter, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), to praise Wengenroth as, “America’s greatest living artist working in black and white.” While most of Wengenroth’s 350-plus lithographs feature landscape and natural scenery of the eastern Atlantic coast, he returned to his New York roots for some of his most prized prints.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Berenice abbott
Henry Street, Lower East Side, New York.
Silver print, 1935. 200x250 mm; 7⅞x9⅞ inches, thread margins. With Abbott’s Federal Art Project “Changing New York” hand stamp with the title, date, location and numeric notations, in ink, on verso. Yochelson 8.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Howard cook
Looking Up Broadway.
Lithograph, 1937. 330x240 mm; 13x9½ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 200. Published by the American Artists Group, New York. A very good impression.
Cook (1901-1980), most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-patriots and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York, who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut technique remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes. Duffy 192.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Howard cook
Queensboro Bridge.
Etching and aquatint, 1930. 277x184 mm; 10⅞x7¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 40 (from an intended edition of 50). Signed, dated, numbered 21/50 and inscribed “imp.” in pencil, lower margin. A very good, richly-inked impression.
Cook (1901-1980), most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-patriots and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York, who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut technique remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes. Duffy 139.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Louis lozowick
Under the Bridge.
Lithograph, 1930. 357x203 mm; 14x8 inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 2/20 in pencil, lower right. Printed by George Miller, New York. A very good impression.
Lozowick (1892-1973) was born in Ludvinovka, a small village near Kiev and moved to the larger city of Kiev with his brother as a child. He studied at the Kiev Art School before following his brother again to New York in 1906 where he settled in New Jersey, got a job at a factory, and learned English. He continued his studies, at the National Academy of Design, taking courses with Emil Carlsen and Leon Kroll. They pushed Lozowick to seek a personal viewpoint in his artwork beyond the traditional training. He took a break from making art while he was a student at Ohio State University and joined the army during World War I.
The modern European art movements had a profound effect on Lozowick, and between 1920 and 1924 he traveled to Europe and spent time meeting modern artists and enmeshing himself into artistic and cultural communities. He was particularly drawn to Cubist and Futurist styles, and in 1923, when he was introduced to lithography, he applied their principles to American subject matter.
Lozowick was among a small group of artists, including Jan Matulka and Howard Cook, who depicted the industrial city. Embracing these European movements while choosing specifically American subject matter was typical of Precisionism, and while artists like Charles Sheeler and Ralston Crawford never organized, they shared the approach of paring down their compositions to the simplest of forms. After the fall of the stock market and as the country turned towards despair in the 1930s, Lozowick adapted his concept of the city. Along with many artists, he turned toward depicting the social reality of its residents who were affected by the Depression. Throughout his career, New York remained his primary subject matter, and he reflected in 1943, “From the innumerable choices which our complex and tradition-laden civilization presents to the artist, I have chosen one which seems to suit my training and temperament. I might characterize it this: ‘Industry harnessed by Man for the Benefit of Mankind.’” Flint 75.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Louis lozowick
Dusk.
Lithograph, 1931. 215x170 mm; 8⅜x6¾, full margins. Edition of 10. Signed, dated and inscribed “Ed. 10” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Lozowick (1892-1973) was born in Ludvinovka, a small village near Kiev and moved to the larger city of Kiev with his brother as a child. He studied at the Kiev Art School before following his brother again to New York in 1906 where he settled in New Jersey, got a job at a factory, and learned English. He continued his studies, at the National Academy of Design, taking courses with Emil Carlsen and Leon Kroll. They pushed Lozowick to seek a personal viewpoint in his artwork beyond the traditional training. He took a break from making art while he was a student at Ohio State University and joined the army during World War I.
The modern European art movements had a profound effect on Lozowick, and between 1920 and 1924 he traveled to Europe and spent time meeting modern artists and enmeshing himself into artistic and cultural communities. He was particularly drawn to Cubist and Futurist styles, and in 1923, when he was introduced to lithography, he applied their principles to American subject matter.
Lozowick was among a small group of artists, including Jan Matulka and Howard Cook, who depicted the industrial city. Embracing these European movements while choosing specifically American subject matter was typical of Precisionism, and while artists like Charles Sheeler and Ralston Crawford never organized, they shared the approach of paring down their compositions to the simplest of forms. After the fall of the stock market and as the country turned towards despair in the 1930s, Lozowick adapted his concept of the city. Along with many artists, he turned toward depicting the social reality of its residents who were affected by the Depression. Throughout his career, New York remained his primary subject matter, and he reflected in 1943, “From the innumerable choices which our complex and tradition-laden civilization presents to the artist, I have chosen one which seems to suit my training and temperament. I might characterize it this: ‘Industry harnessed by Man for the Benefit of Mankind.’” Flint 81.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Howard cook
The New Yorker.
Wood engraving on Japan paper, 1930. 446x217 mm; 17½x8⅝ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, inscribed “imp.” and numbered 49/50 in pencil, lower margin. A brilliant, dark, richly-inked impression with strong contrasts and all the details distinct.
Cook (1901-1980), most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-patriots and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York, who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut technique remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes. Duffy 135.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Howard cook
New York Night.
Lithograph, 1931. 253x305 mm; 9⅞x12 inches, full margins. Edition of 35 (from an intended edition of 75). Signed, dated and dedicated “To George Miller, in deep appreciation of his helpfulness and excellent printing” in pencil, lower margin. Signed by the printer George Miller and inscribed “printer” in pencil, lower left. A superb, richly-inked and luminous impression of this scarce lithograph.
Cook (1901-1980), most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-patriots and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York, who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut technique remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes. Duffy 162.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Armin landeck
Two drypoints.
Lonely Street, 1936. 172x128 mm; 6¾x5⅛ inches, full margins * Demolition No. 1, 1940. 150x225 mm; 6x8⅞ inches, full margins. Both an edition of 100. Both signed, dated and inscribed “Ed 100” in pencil, lower margin. Both very good, richly-inked impressions. Kraeft 62 and 80.
Both Landeck (1905-1984) and Martin Lewis chronicled New York in their prints and made their reputation as printmakers. They were associated with the American Scene and Landeck came to specialize in urban landscapes with only implicit presence of a human subject. Like Hopper, Landeck drew from the drama unfolding outside his window. He created the composition of the 1938 etching and drypoint Manhattan Nocturne from his apartment window at University Place and 8th Street.
Landeck was born in Wisconsin and raised in Toledo, Ohio. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at Columbia University, New York. The same year he graduated in 1927, Landeck was noticed by Kennedy Galleries, New York for his etching and was soon represented by them. When he could not find architectural work during the Great Depression, Landeck turned to printmaking full time, focusing on the themes of isolation and a deserted city. In 1934, Landeck opened the short-lived School for Printmakers with George Miller and Martin Lewis and continued to teach at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He took up engraving after meeting Stanley William Hayter in 1941, a medium that he would continue to use, almost exclusively, until the end of his career.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ellison hoover
Washington Arch.
Lithograph, circa 1930. 290x237 mm; 11⅜x9½ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Like Edward Hopper, Hoover (1888-1955) had also supported himself as a commercial illustrator. Though Hopper disliked this line of work, once claiming that, “Illustrating was a depressing experience. And I didn’t get very good prices because I didn’t often do what they wanted,” Hoover found his work more fulfilling, becoming a syndicated cartoonist while also enjoying a reputation as an accomplished fine artist and printmaker.
Hoover was born in Cleveland and studied at the Cleveland School of Art and the Art Students League in New York. There are stylistic parallels between Hoover and Hopper, in a 1950 review of Hoover’s Parisian scenes, Margaret Breuning for The Art Digest commented that they, “Seize the feel of place so trenchantly that they are nostalgic. They are little vignettes of different phases of the city’s life, only slightly stressing architectural setting. With a few deft touches of color and surety of line the artist weaves, through one vivid incident, a whole pattern of life and living.”
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Armin landeck
Three etchings.
Bedford Street (second state), 1938. Edition of 80 (from an intended edition of 100) * Shadowed Street, 1947. Edition of 75 (from an intended edition of 100) * Alleyway, 1948. Edition of 90 (from an intended edition of 100. Each signed, dated and inscribed “Ed. 100” in pencil, lower margin. Various sizes and conditions. Kraeft 68, 98 and 101.
Both Landeck (1905-1984) and Martin Lewis chronicled New York in their prints and made their reputation as printmakers. They were associated with the American Scene and Landeck came to specialize in urban landscapes with only implicit presence of a human subject. Like Hopper, Landeck drew from the drama unfolding outside his window. He created the composition of the 1938 etching and drypoint Manhattan Nocturne from his apartment window at University Place and 8th Street.
Landeck was born in Wisconsin and raised in Toledo, Ohio. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at Columbia University, New York. The same year he graduated in 1927, Landeck was noticed by Kennedy Galleries, New York for his etching and was soon represented by them. When he could not find architectural work during the Great Depression, Landeck turned to printmaking full time, focusing on the themes of isolation and a deserted city. In 1934, Landeck opened the short-lived School for Printmakers with George Miller and Martin Lewis and continued to teach at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He took up engraving after meeting Stanley William Hayter in 1941, a medium that he would continue to use, almost exclusively, until the end of his career.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Mortimer borne
Two drypoints.
Rainy Night, 1939. 250x175 mm; 9⅞x7 inches, wide margins. Edition of 25. Signed in pencil, lower right * Restless Night, 1940. 154x190 mm; 6x7½ inches, wide margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. Very good impressions. Biran p. 43; Biran p. 137.
Borne (1902), a successful printmaker as well as sculptor, had invented color drypoint in 1943, a technique distinct from that of color etching. John Taylor Arms, in a review of Borne’s 1941 exhibition of drypoints at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., wrote that the artist was “in such harmony with his medium that he is able, through it, to interpret his conceptions in terms of the printed line with clarity, without hesitation, and with a feeling of discerning and sensitive as it is forthright.”
Borne was born in Poland though immigrated with his family to the United States when he was 14 years old during World War I. He studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy in New York. While his subjects varied, his most striking scene is Rainy Night, which won the Frederick Talcott Prize from the Society of American Etchers in 1939. In 1950, Borne and his wife moved from Brooklyn to Nyack, New York, where he founded the Tappan Zee Art Center.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ernest fiene
City Lights (Madison Square Park, New York).
Etching and drypoint, 1932. 305x240 mm; 12x9½ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good, richly-inked impression with strong contrasts.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Armin landeck
Manhattan Vista.
Drypoint, 1934. 257x217 mm; 10⅛x8½ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed and dedicated in pencil, lower margin. A very good, richly-inked impression.
This is a detail of Landeck’s (1905-1984) View of New York lithograph, 1932; the large, tiered-base of the structure in the center is the Chrysler Building. Kraeft 47.
Both Landeck (1905-1984) and Martin Lewis chronicled New York in their prints and made their reputation as printmakers. They were associated with the American Scene and Landeck came to specialize in urban landscapes with only implicit presence of a human subject. Like Hopper, Landeck drew from the drama unfolding outside his window, he created the composition of the 1938 etching and drypoint Manhattan Nocturne from his apartment window at University Place and 8th Street.
Landeck was born in Wisconsin and raised in Toledo, Ohio. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at Columbia University, New York. The same year he graduated in 1927, Landeck was noticed by Kennedy Galleries, New York for his etching and was soon represented by them. When he could not find architectural work during the Great Depression, Landeck turned to printmaking full time, focusing on the themes of isolation and a deserted city. In 1934, Landeck opened the short-lived School for Printmakers with George Miller and Martin Lewis and continued to teach at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He took up engraving after meeting Stanley William Hayter in 1941, a medium that he would continue to use, almost exclusively, until the end of his career.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Louis lozowick
Roofs and Sky.
Color screenprint,1939. 255x332 mm; 10x13 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 25. Signed, dated and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Federal Art Project WPA, New York. A superb impression of this scarce print.
Lozowick (1892-1973) was born in Ludvinovka, a small village near Kiev and moved to the larger city of Kiev with his brother as a child. He studied at the Kiev Art School before following his brother again to New York in 1906 where he settled in New Jersey, got a job at a factory, and learned English. He continued his studies, at the National Academy of Design, taking courses with Emil Carlsen and Leon Kroll. They pushed Lozowick to seek a personal viewpoint in his artwork beyond the traditional training. He took a break from making art while he was a student at Ohio State University and joined the army during World War I.
The modern European art movements had a profound effect on Lozowick, and between 1920 and 1924 he traveled to Europe and spent time meeting modern artists and enmeshing himself into artistic and cultural communities. He was particularly drawn to Cubist and Futurist styles, and in 1923, when he was introduced to lithography, he applied their principles to American subject matter.
Lozowick was among a small group of artists, including Jan Matulka and Howard Cook, who depicted the industrial city. Embracing these European movements while choosing specifically American subject matter was typical of Precisionism, and while artists like Charles Sheeler and Ralston Crawford never organized, they shared the approach of paring down their compositions to the simplest of forms. After the fall of the stock market and as the country turned towards despair in the 1930s, Lozowick adapted his concept of the city. Along with many artists, he turned toward depicting the social reality of its residents who were affected by the Depression. Throughout his career, New York remained his primary subject matter, and he reflected in 1943, “From the innumerable choices which our complex and tradition-laden civilization presents to the artist, I have chosen one which seems to suit my training and temperament. I might characterize it this: ‘Industry harnessed by Man for the Benefit of Mankind.’”
Lozowick (1892-1973) was one of the first artists to make a screenprint for the WPA, New York, and this is his only extant print in the medium.
We have found only 2 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Flint 166.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Berenice abbott
Yuban Warehouse, Water and Dock Streets, Brooklyn.
Silver print, 1936 (printed 1970s). 381x448 mm; 15x17⅝ inches, printed to the sheet edge. Signed in pencil and with her “Abbott, Maine” ink stamp, verso.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Berenice abbott
Penn Station, Interior.
Silver print, 1936 (printed 1970s). 324x270 mm; 12¾x10⅝ inches, printed to the sheet edge, the mount 508x406 mm; 20x16 inches. Signed in pencil on mount, lower right, with an additional signature and dedication in pencil and with two of the artist’s “Abbott, Maine” ink stamps on the mount, verso.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
H. f. dutcher
Under the El, 38th Street.
Silver print mounted on linen, 1939. 115x168 mm; 4⅝x6⅝ inches, ¼ inch margins. Inscribed “38 St, March 19, 1939” in pencil, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Reginald marsh
Erie R. R. Locos Watering.
Etching, 1934. 229x306 mm; 9x12 inches, wide margins. Eighth state (of 8). Edition of approximately only 18. Signed, dedicated and inscribed “#6” in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression of this extremely scarce etching.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 155.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Louis lozowick
Train and Factory.
Lithograph, 1933. 270x181 mm; 10⅝x7⅛ inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered I/X in pencil, lower right. A superb impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Lozowick (1892-1973) was born in Ludvinovka, a small village near Kiev and moved to the larger city of Kiev with his brother as a child. He studied at the Kiev Art School before following his brother again to New York in 1906 where he settled in New Jersey, got a job at a factory, and learned English. He continued his studies, at the National Academy of Design, taking courses with Emil Carlsen and Leon Kroll. They pushed Lozowick to seek a personal viewpoint in his artwork beyond the traditional training. He took a break from making art while he was a student at Ohio State University and joined the army during World War I.
The modern European art movements had a profound effect on Lozowick, and between 1920 and 1924 he traveled to Europe and spent time meeting modern artists and enmeshing himself into artistic and cultural communities. He was particularly drawn to Cubist and Futurist styles, and in 1923, when he was introduced to lithography, he applied their principles to American subject matter.
Lozowick was among a small group of artists, including Jan Matulka and Howard Cook, who depicted the industrial city. Embracing these European movements while choosing specifically American subject matter was typical of Precisionism, and while artists like Charles Sheeler and Ralston Crawford never organized, they shared the approach of paring down their compositions to the simplest of forms. After the fall of the stock market and as the country turned towards despair in the 1930s, Lozowick adapted his concept of the city. Along with many artists, he turned toward depicting the social reality of its residents who were affected by the Depression. Throughout his career, New York remained his primary subject matter, and he reflected in 1943, “From the innumerable choices which our complex and tradition-laden civilization presents to the artist, I have chosen one which seems to suit my training and temperament. I might characterize it this: ‘Industry harnessed by Man for the Benefit of Mankind.’” Flint 113.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Martin lewis
Veterans.
Lithograph, 1935. 250x342 mm; 9¾x13½ inches, full margins. Edition of only 8. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good impression of this extremely scarce, first-known lithograph by Lewis.
According to McCarron, Lewis (1881-1962) used a combination of crayon lithography and tusche, the technique of using a brush to apply ink to the stone. In 1934, Lewis had become involved in the formation of the School for Print Makers in New York and likely learned this lithographic technique from George Miller, a co-founder of the School. Veterans was used by the American Artists Group as the image on a Christmas card, with the title Awaiting the Homecomers. McCarron 113.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Martin lewis
The Passing Freight, Danbury.
Drypoint and sand ground, 1934. 227x363 mm; 8¾x14¾ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, aside from the edition of 47. Signed and inscribed “Trial proof” in pencil, lower margin. A superb, luminous, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print with strong contrasts and with all the details distinct.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 108.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Martin lewis
American Nocturne.
Lithograph with scratchwork, 1937. 250x366 mm; 9⅞x14⅜ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 17. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 125.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Gordon h. coster
Pittsburgh.
Silver bromide print, circa 1930. 244x343 mm; 9⅝x13½ inches, printed to the edge of the sheet. Signed, titled, and with notations in pencil, on mount verso.
Coster (1906-1988) was a photojournalist whose works were regularly reproduced in LIFE magazine.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Louis lozowick
Jersey Landscape.
Lithograph, 1930. 413x175 mm; 16¼x6⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 15. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Lozowick (1892-1973) was born in Ludvinovka, a small village near Kiev and moved to the larger city of Kiev with his brother as a child. He studied at the Kiev Art School before following his brother again to New York in 1906 where he settled in New Jersey, got a job at a factory, and learned English. He continued his studies, at the National Academy of Design, taking courses with Emil Carlsen and Leon Kroll. They pushed Lozowick to seek a personal viewpoint in his artwork beyond the traditional training. He took a break from making art while he was a student at Ohio State University and joined the army during World War I.
The modern European art movements had a profound effect on Lozowick, and between 1920 and 1924 he traveled to Europe and spent time meeting modern artists and enmeshing himself into artistic and cultural communities. He was particularly drawn to Cubist and Futurist styles, and in 1923, when he was introduced to lithography, he applied their principles to American subject matter.
Lozowick was among a small group of artists, including Jan Matulka and Howard Cook, who depicted the industrial city. Embracing these European movements while choosing specifically American subject matter was typical of Precisionism, and while artists like Charles Sheeler and Ralston Crawford never organized, they shared the approach of paring down their compositions to the simplest of forms. After the fall of the stock market and as the country turned towards despair in the 1930s, Lozowick adapted his concept of the city. Along with many artists, he turned toward depicting the social reality of its residents who were affected by the Depression. Throughout his career, New York remained his primary subject matter, and he reflected in 1943, “From the innumerable choices which our complex and tradition-laden civilization presents to the artist, I have chosen one which seems to suit my training and temperament. I might characterize it this: ‘Industry harnessed by Man for the Benefit of Mankind.’” Flint 56.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Stuart davis
Anchor.
Lithograph, 1936. 210x330 mm; 8½x12⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Published by the American Artists School, New York, with the ink stamp verso. A very good impression.
Anchor was one of several prints created as part of a fundraising campaign for the American Artists School, New York, which had opened in April 1936. Artists who participated in the effort alongside Davis (1892-1964) where Harry Gottlieb, Eugene C. Fitsch, Raphael Soyer and Yasuo Kuniyoshi. Though the printer of this series is unknown, there is consensus that it was likely Jacob Friedlander, who was the lithography instructor at the American Artists School. Cole/Myers 19.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Benton spruance
The Homecoming.
Lithograph, 1935. 230x350 mm; 9x13¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 28 (from an intended edition of 30). Signed and dated in pencil, lower right margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Spruance (1904-1967) was born in Philadelphia, where he studied and remained to work and teach for most of his life. The heart of Spruance’s practice was lithography, and he created over 550 prints over the course of his career. He favored religious themes and modernist abstraction, but during the WPA era he created many prints in the social realist style reminiscent of the Aschan school. Fine/Looney 122.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Joseph stella
Mountain Landscape.
Oil on canvas, circa 1930. 220x610 mm; 8¾x24¾ inches. With the artist’s estate ink stamp, twice lower right recto, twice verso.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; private collection, Chicago.
Stella (1877-1946) was born to a middle-class family in Muro Lucano, Italy. He moved to New York in 1896 to study medicine, but he quickly eschewed his medical ambitions when he discovered his passion for art, enrolling at the Art Students League and studying at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase (1849-1916). Stella worked as an illustrator from 1905 to 1908 and was also active in the Federal Art Project during the 1930s, however it is his avant-garde works for which he is today best known, including colorful, fanciful floral studies, like the current work, ethereal landscapes, and modernist city depictions. His Futurist oil painting Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras, 1913, was exhibited in the 1913 Armory Show and caused a sensation. Collector and art educator Katherine Dreier included Stella among those artists whose work she sought to promote under the auspices of her Société Anonyme, New York’s first museum dedicated exclusively to advanced contemporary art, which opened its doors in 1920 (she acquired Battle of Lights, Coney Island, Mardi Gras and it is now in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). Like John Marin, Stella became fascinated with the geometric quality of the architecture of Lower Manhattan. During the 1920s he also began to make collages consisting of scraps of discarded paper, wrappers (some with the commercial logo or label still visible), and other bits of urban debris. Stella’s works from the 1920s onward, however, were problematic for the cultivation of a sustained career. Once he had ceased painting in a Futurist or quasi-Cubist mode and had finished with his period of Precisionist factory images (circa 1920), he was not aligned with any particular movement. Even his retrospective at the Newark Museum, New Jersey in 1939 failed to reestablish him and his work was underappreciated at mid-century prior to being prized again in recent decades.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Walt kuhn
Buffalo Hunt.
Watercolor and pencil on paper, circa 1930. 190x232 mm; 7¼x9 inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; DC Moore Gallery, New York, with the label; Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; Gerald Peters Gallery, Dallas, with the label; private collection Chicago.
Born in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Kuhn (1877-1949) took art classes at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and then worked as an illustrator. He met John Sloan and Robert Henri through his work as an illustrator and helped them organize the Exhibition of Independent Artists in April 1910. He then co-founded the Association of American Painters and Sculptors who organized the Armory Show and was in charge of finding European artists to participate. He traveled throughout Europe with Arthur B. Davies and Walter Pach to find the avant-garde in European art, which led to the Armory Show largely introducing Americans to modern art.
As an artist he embraced a variety of modern styles, including Cubism and Fauvism, before developing his own style of painting single figures against dark backgrounds with a psychological and emotional intensity. He often depicted performers—clowns, burlesque dances and acrobats—referencing his lifelong interest in performance and theater.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
William sommer
Landscape with Power Lines.
Watercolor and pen and ink on cream wove paper, 1935. 390x500 mm; 15¼x19¾ inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto and with an additional watercolor drawing, signed and dated in ink, verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
The current work, painted near the artist’s studio and home in Brandywine, Ohio, is characteristic of Sommer’s (1867-1949) mature style, with its flattened perspective and generous use of concentrated pigments. Sommer’s work typically takes on abstract characteristics, though consistently emote restlessness and spontaneity. Sommer projected influences of Paul Gauguin and Paul Cézanne on to his thoroughly American subjects, Brandywine landscapes and local portraits.
Sommer was born in Detroit and from 1878 to 1883 studied drawing locally under sculptor and lithographer Julius Melchers. After apprenticing at the Detroit Calvert Lithograph Company, Sommer worked in lithography at the Bufford Company in Boston, the Ottman Company in New York, and at the Dangerfield Brothers Printing Company in London. After studying in Munich with intermittent travels through Europe, Sommer returned to New York. Influenced by early German Expressionism, Sommer joined the American Kit Kat Club, which provided life drawing models, akin to the Whitney Studio Club. In 1907 Sommer followed his printmaking work to the Otis Lithography Company in Cleveland, where he began a friendship with William Zorach and founded the Kokoon Art Club. In 1914, Sommer and his wife Martha purchased their property in Brandywine where he set up his studio in an old schoolhouse, working as an artist, muralist, and theater production designer. Finding himself without work during the Great Depression, Sommer worked first under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project, the Works Progress Administration, and then the Treasury Art Project, the most notable project being a mural he completed for Brett Hall in the Cleveland Public Library.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Martin lewis
Subway Steps.
Drypoint printed in dark brownish black, 1930. 345x205 mm; 13⅝x8⅛ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2), after the reduction of the plate. One of only 8 artist’s proofs in this state, aside from the edition of approximately 65. Signed and inscribed “No 5—final proof after cutting plate” in pencil, lower margin. A brilliant, richly-inked and dark impression with strong contrasts and all the details distinct.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 90.
Estimate
$20,000 – $30,000
Mabel dwight
In the Crowd (Faces in the Crowd).
Lithograph, 1931. 236x300 mm; 9⅜x11⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 32. Signed, dated and titled in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. Robinson/Pirog 60.
Dwight (1876-1955) was born in Cincinnati and travelled extensively as a child and young adult. She studied at the Hopkins School of Art in San Francisco in the late 1890s, though gave up her nascent reputation as an artist once she was married in 1906. In 1917, she separated from her husband and resumed painting, joining the Whitney Studio Club in New York. With the encouragement of Carl Zigrosser, who often urged American artists to make a pilgrimage to the Atelier Desjobert, she traveled to Paris in 1927 to learn lithography. He said of her, “Dwight did not just skim the surface of the comic and incongruous, but probed into the depths, ever imbued with pity and compassion, a sense of irony, and the understanding that comes of profound experience… There is detachment also, the sense of seeing life from afar, the long view of things.” After returning to New York, her mature style blossomed, blending social realist subjects with her unique brand of satire. In 1928, she produced her first American lithographs and printed 17 works in collaboration with George Miller. She went on to produce lithographs for the Federal Arts Projects during the Great Depression.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Isabel bishop
Spectators.
Etching, 1933 (printed 1989). 177x125 mm; 7x5 inches, full margins. With the artist’s signature ink stamp, lower right, and numbered 50/50 in pencil, lower left. Published by the Sylvan Cole Gallery and Midtown Galleries, New York. From Eight Etchings: 1927–1934. A very good impression.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers. Teller 15.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Peggy bacon
Two crayon drawings.
The Tate, 1931. 270x200 mm; 10¾x8 inches. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower right recto. * Bagels. 250x195 mm; 10x7¾ inches, inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bacon (1895-1987) was best known for her realistic representations of everyday life and her satirical caricatures. She studied at the Art Students League, New York, with Kenneth Hayes Miller, John Sloan and George Bellows, and taught herself drypoint there in between drawing classes. Looking back at her time at the League, Bacon said, “The years at the Art Students League were a very important chunk of life to me and very exhilarating. It was the first time in my life, of course, that I had met and gotten to know familiarly a group of young people who were all headed the same way with the same interests. In fact it was practically parochial.” From the 1910s to the 1930s, she worked mainly in drypoint printmaking and also doing illustrations for the satirical magazine Bad News, while her later drawings appeared as illustrations in publications including The New Yorker, New Republic, Fortune and Vanity Fair. She further went on to illustrate over 60 books, 19 of which she also wrote.
Bacon exhibited frequently in New York from the 1910s onward, with galleries including Alfred Stieglitz’s Intimate Gallery, the Weyhe Gallery and the Downtown Gallery (she had more than 32 solo exhibitions during her career), and was closely connected with other artists with ties to these galleries, including Katherine Schmidt and Yasuo Kuniyoshi.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Isabel bishop
Studies of a Woman * Seated Man.
Pen and ink and pencil on cream wove paper, double-sided, circa 1930. 267x180 mm; 10½x7⅛ inches. Signed in pencil, lower left verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Isabel bishop
Three ink drawings.
Two Girls Standing at a Counter, with watercolor, circa 1936. 235x128 mm; 9¼x5 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto *Studies of Girls at a Soda Fountain, with watercolor, double-sided, circa 1952. 355x235 mm; 14x9¼ inches. Signed three times in pencil, recto * Studies of People at a Counter, with watercolor, circa 1958. 288x292 mm; 11¼x11½ inches. Signed in pencil, upper right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Kyra markham
The Fit Yourself Shop.
Lithograph, 1935. 322x245 mm; 12¾x9¾ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 33/50 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
An artist as well as an actress, Markham’s (1891-1967) works seek out every day dramas, assisted by her use of high contrast and shadows. Markham attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1907 to 1909, when she left the Institute to work at Chicago’s Little Theater and later with the Provincetown Players in Massachusetts. She became an illustrator to supplement her acting career and in 1930 attended classes at the Art Students League in New York, where she started to work in lithography. Her employment with the Federal Art Project in 1936 coincided with what are considered the finest examples of her lithographic œuvre. The New York Herald Tribune named Markham among the Federal Art Project’s Graphic Arts Division artists who “assist particularly in carrying on the project’s graphic work to a success unsurpassed by any of its other departments” after viewing the spring 1937 exhibition of “Recent Fine Prints” at the Federal Art Project Gallery in New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Minna citron
Subway Technique.
Lithograph, 1933. 212x256 mm; 8½x10⅛ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled, numbered 17/20 and inscribed “litho” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Citron’s (1896-1991) subjects were often drawn from her direct observations and social commentary. The current lithograph and the same-titled 1932 oil on Masonite painting (present location unknown) is based upon were inspired by the artist’s morning commute from Brooklyn to her studio in Union Square. As she recalled “I’d see something I would almost be sorry because I had to sketch it… I always had a feeling that this guy was goosing her… but she was liking it.” Women had found independence during the 1920s and, subsequently, had seen these strides reversed during the downturn of the Great Depression. This composition is also tied to the highly publicized and long drawn out case of the “Scottsboro Boys,” nine black teenagers arrested and tried in Scottsboro, Arizona for allegedly raping two white women on a train in 1931. In the 1932 painting, the black man to the left of the woman holds a newspaper referencing the case, Citron depicting him in a dignified manner, contrary to the typical caricatures seen during the 1920s and 1930s.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Fritz eichenberg
Subway.
Wood engraving, 1934. 157x120 mm; 6¼x4¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 200. Signed, titled and inscribed “Ed. 200” in pencil, lower margin. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. A very good impression.
Eichenberg (1901-1990) was born in Cologne, Germany and studied at the Municipal School of Applied Arts, Cologne, and the Academy of Graphic Arts, Leipzig. He learned various forms of printmaking during his studies and apprenticed for a printer. He worked as an illustrator in Germany, but in 1933, as Nazi Germany rose to power, he immigrated to the United States. He participated in the Federal Arts Project during the 1930s, and had a successful career as a book illustrator and teacher at the New School for Social Research, Pratt Institute and the University of Rhode Island. Eichenberg’s urban scenes of New York from the 1930s captured the essence of the bustling, growing city.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Kyra markham
Sailors in Penn Station.
Lithograph, 1944. 330x250 mm; 13x9⅞ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 24/25 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
An artist as well as an actress, Markham’s (1891-1967) works seek out every day dramas, assisted by her use of high contrast and shadows. Markham attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1907 to 1909, when she left the Institute to work at Chicago’s Little Theater and later with the Provincetown Players in Massachusetts. She became an illustrator to supplement her acting career and in 1930 attended classes at the Art Students League in New York, where she started to work in lithography. Her employment with the Federal Art Project in 1936 coincided with what are considered the finest examples of her lithographic œuvre. The New York Herald Tribune named Markham among the Federal Art Project’s Graphic Arts Division artists who “assist particularly in carrying on the project’s graphic work to a success unsurpassed by any of its other departments” after viewing the spring 1937 exhibition of “Recent Fine Prints” at the Federal Art Project Gallery in New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Kyra markham
Mature Vision.
Lithograph, 1935. 280x232 mm; 11x9¼ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 20. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 14/20 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
An artist as well as an actress, Markham’s (1891-1967) works seek out every day dramas, assisted by her use of high contrast and shadows. Markham attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1907 to 1909, when she left the Institute to work at Chicago’s Little Theater and later with the Provincetown Players in Massachusetts. She became an illustrator to supplement her acting career and in 1930 attended classes at the Art Students League in New York, where she started to work in lithography. Her employment with the Federal Art Project in 1936 coincided with what are considered the finest examples of her lithographic œuvre. The New York Herald Tribune named Markham among the Federal Art Project’s Graphic Arts Division artists who “assist particularly in carrying on the project’s graphic work to a success unsurpassed by any of its other departments” after viewing the spring 1937 exhibition of “Recent Fine Prints” at the Federal Art Project Gallery in New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Jack markow
Automat.
Lithograph, circa 1935. 225x272 mm; 8⅞x10¾ inches, wide margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
We have not found another impression at auction in the past 30 years.
Markow (1905-1983) was born in London and emigrated with his family to New York at the age of two. He began drawing avidly in high school and continued his studies at the Art Students League, New York. Markow was primarily an illustrator and contributed frequently to The Saturday Evening Post and The New Yorker. He was also one of the first faculty members at New York’s School of Visual Arts.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Raphael soyer
Men Eating.
Lithograph, 1937. 220x302 mm; 8⅝x11⅞ inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Federal Art Project, Work Projects Administration, New York, with the ink stamp, lower left. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
We have not found another impression at auction in the past 30 years. Cole 50.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top American realist artists of the 20th century.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Kyra markham
Lockout.
Lithograph, 1937. 255x306 mm; 10x12 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 16/50 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
An artist as well as an actress, Markham’s (1891-1967) works seek out every day dramas, assisted by her use of high contrast and shadows. Markham attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1907 to 1909, when she left the Institute to work at Chicago’s Little Theater and later with the Provincetown Players in Massachusetts. She became an illustrator to supplement her acting career and in 1930 attended classes at the Art Students League in New York, where she started to work in lithography. Her employment with the Federal Art Project in 1936 coincided with what are considered the finest examples of her lithographic œuvre. The New York Herald Tribune named Markham among the Federal Art Project’s Graphic Arts Division artists who “assist particularly in carrying on the project’s graphic work to a success unsurpassed by any of its other departments” after viewing the spring 1937 exhibition of “Recent Fine Prints” at the Federal Art Project Gallery in New York.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Thomas hart benton
Strike.
Lithograph, 1933. 255x276 mm; 10x11 inches, full margins. Edition of fewer than 100 (from an intended edition of 300). Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by the Contemporary Print Group, New York. A superb, dark impression of this extremely scarce, early lithograph.
This is one of Benton’s (1889-1975) earliest lithographs and was published in the second portfolio circulated by the Contemporary Print Group, The American Scene, Series 2, along with prints by John Steuart Curry, William Gropper, Russell Limbach, Charles Locke and Raphael Soyer. According to Cole, “probably fewer than 100 impressions were printed as the project was not successful,” The Lithographs of John Steuart Curry, New York, 1976, number 22. Fath 5.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Clare leighton
Bread Line, New York.
Engraving, 1932. 298x200 mm; 11¾x7⅞ inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 10/100 in pencil, lower margin. Fletcher 198.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Reginald marsh
Bread Line.
Pencil on cream wove paper, circa 1930. 214x353 mm; 8⅜x13⅞ inches. Signed “Reginald Marsh,” by the artist’s wife, Felicia Marsh, and with the estate inventory number “D IV-13” in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Toronto.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey.
The current drawing resembles a number of Marsh’s (1898-1954) Depression-era works, notably of the crowded Bowery Street (the tempera on Masonite painting The Bowery, 1930, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the same-titled 1928 lithograph (see Sasowsky 16) and of his various scenes of urban charity. A sketch for his 1932 etching Bread Line— Not One Has Starved (see Sasowsky 139), closely resembling the drawing, is now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, accession number 80.31.29.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Reginald marsh
Bowery—Upright.
Lithograph on Chine appliqué, 1932. 245x180 mm; 9⅝x7⅛ inches, wide margins. Signed and numbered 18/21 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 26.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Reginald marsh
U. S. Marine.
Etching, 1934. 200x150 mm; 8x5⅞ inches, wide margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of approximately only 20. Signed, dated, dedicated and numbered “#4” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce etching.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 144.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Reginald marsh
Courtship.
Lithograph on Chine appliqué, 1932. 190x245 mm; 7⅜x9⅝ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 1/22 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce, early lithograph.
We have found only 4 other impressions of this lithograph at auction in the past 30 years.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 22.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Kyra markham
Night Club.
Lithograph, 1935. 350x267 mm; 13¾x10½ inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered 1-25 in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce lithograph.
An artist as well as an actress, Markham’s (1891-1967) works seek out every day dramas, assisted by her use of high contrast and shadows. Markham attended the Art Institute of Chicago from 1907 to 1909, when she left the Institute to work at Chicago’s Little Theater and later with the Provincetown Players in Massachusetts. She became an illustrator to supplement her acting career and in 1930 attended classes at the Art Students League in New York, where she started to work in lithography. Her employment with the Federal Art Project in 1936 coincided with what are considered the finest examples of her lithographic œuvre. The New York Herald Tribune named Markham among the Federal Art Project’s Graphic Arts Division artists who “assist particularly in carrying on the project’s graphic work to a success unsurpassed by any of its other departments” after viewing the spring 1937 exhibition of “Recent Fine Prints” at the Federal Art Project Gallery in New York.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Rockwell kent
And Now Where?
Lithograph, 1936. 330x235 mm; 12⅞x9¼ inches, full margins. Published by the American Artists Group, New York. A very good impression. Burne-Jones 110.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Stow wengenroth
Excursion.
Lithograph, 1933. 265x412 mm; 10½x16¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 25. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, luminous impression of this very scarce lithograph. Stuckey 38.
Wengenroth (1906-1978) was born into a creative family in Brooklyn and studied at the Art Students League, New York with George Bridgman and at the Grand Central School of Art with Wyman Adams. It was not until 1929 that he started working in lithography with George Pearse Ennis at the Eastport Summer School. He published his first lithographs in 1931 and it soon became his preferred medium. He became one of the most accomplished American lithographers of the 20th century, leading the great American realist painter, Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), to praise Wengenroth as, “America’s greatest living artist working in black and white.” While most of Wengenroth’s 350-plus lithographs feature landscape and natural scenery of the eastern Atlantic coast, he returned to his New York roots for some of his most prized prints.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Mabel dwight
Staten Island Shore (Bathers II).
Lithograph on cream wove paper, 1931. 237x334 mm; 9⅜x13⅛ inches, full margins. Edition of 25. Signed in pencil, lower right. Printed by George Miller, New York. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. Robinson/Pirog 51.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Yasuo kuniyoshi
From the Boardwalk.
Lithograph, 1936. 235x314 mm; 9¼x12¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 45. Signed, dated and inscribed “45 p” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
Born in Okayama, Japan, Kuniyoshi attended the Los Angeles School of Art and Design before moving to New York to ultimately study at the Art Student’s League from 1916-20 (he briefly studied also with Robert Henri at the National Academy). He began to exhibit with the Penguin Club, an informal artists group founded by Walt Kuhn in 1917 to rebel against the stringent National Academy, which counted Guy Pène du Bois, Arthur B. Davies, Edward Hopper, Jules Pascin, Joseph Stella and Max Weber as its affiliated artists. Though short lived, the club was only active until 1920, it sponsored social events, exhibitions, auctions and sketch classes. Kuniyoshi remembered, “This small but fertile group helped establish the roots of contemporary American painting. Considered the rebels of their time, they waged a vigorous battle against conservatism with might and humor. We knew how to play and enjoy ourselves in those days.” This humor and playfulness are clearly evident in Kuniyoshi’s works, though there is also a sense of political awareness. As in the present work, the appearance of newspapers signifies Kuniyoshi’s reaction to contemporary violence and upheavals through the 1940s.
Finding success in New York, Kuniyoshi had his first solo exhibition at the Daniel Gallery and was soon exhibiting internationally in Europe and Japan through the 1930s. He travelled to Mexico in 1935 on a Guggenheim Fellowship and frequently summered in Woodstock, New York. Like several of his contemporaries, Kuniyoshi returned to the Art Students League as a teacher, a position that he would hold from 1933 to his death in 1953. Davis 70.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Mabel dwight
Life Class.
Lithograph, 1931. 250x344 mm; 9¾x13½ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Printed by George Miller, New York. A superb impression of this scarce lithograph.
We have found only 7 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years.
According to Robinson/Pirog, Dwight did not sign all impressions within an edition.
Dwight (1876-1955) attended life drawing classes with the Whitney Studio Club, New York, through the 1920s. In the present work, Edward Hopper is depicted in the back of the class, bald head and furrowed brow. Jan Matulka is also depicted (far right), as well as Yasuo Kuniyoshi (at center with a pipe). Artist Peggy Bacon’s drypoint, Frenzied Effort, 1925, in which Dwight is depicted, is also based on such a class at the Whitney Studio Club. Robinson/Pirog 52.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
John sloan
Robert Henri, Painter.
Etching, 1931. 355x279 mm; 14x11 inches, full margins. Eighth state (of 8). Edition of 60 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression with strong contrasts and warm plate tone.
According to Morse, approximately 30 impressions were pulled from the plate in the seventh state and another 30 were taken in the eighth state, which differs in the heavy diagonal shading in the plate upper right, to account for the total published edition of 60.
Sloan (1871-1951) made this portrait as a memorial to his teacher, mentor and friend, fellow Ashcan artist Robert Henri (1865-1929). Henri had died unexpectedly, after being hospitalized at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York, of cardiac arrest early in the morning of July 12, 1929. His sudden death had a strong impact on the scores of artists he had taught and mentored for several decades, including Sloan, George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, Stuart Davis and Edward Hopper. The artist and student of Henri, Eugene Speicher said, “Not only was he a great painter, but . . . I don’t think it too much to call him the father of independent painting in this country.”
Sloan based the current work, one of his largest portrait etchings, on a drawing he had made of Henri in 1905, now in the collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. In his diary, Sloan noted, “I am pleased with the plate and hope that it conveys some of the kindly strength and helpful wisdom which this great artists so freely gave toothers.” Morse 246.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Milton avery
Self Portrait.
Drypoint printed in dark brownish black on cream wove paper, 1937. 201x165 mm; 8x6½ inches, full margins. Edition of 60. Signed and dated in pencil, lower margin. A very good, richly-inked impression of this scarce print, with strong contrasts.
This is Avery’s (1885-1965) only printed self-portrait, though he painted some 50 or more self-portraits over the course of his career. He may have been contemplating a series of printed portraits, with this self-portrait and the drypoint portraits of his friends and fellow artists Mark Rothko (1936) and Vincent Spagna (1938). Lunn 13.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Guy pène du bois
Portrait of a Woman.
Oil on paper, circa 1935. 415x350 mm; 16¼x13¾ inches. Signed in oil, upper right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Pène du Bois (1884-1958), born in Brooklyn, spent his childhood on Staten Island and attended the New York School of Art as a student of Robert Henri and classmate of George Bellows, Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, Walter Pach, and Gifford Beal. Henri advocated for faithful depictions of urbanites, usually done quickly (as a newspaper illustrator would) and picking up the threads of his subjects’ anecdotes. A promising young artist, Pène du Bois studied for a short time in Paris and exhibited at a Salon in 1905. He returned to New York in the summer of 1906 and started work as a reporter for the New York American, eventually becoming an art critic for the publication. During his career as a writer, he would also contribute to Arts and Decoration, the New York Post, International Studio, Creative Art, and Arts Weekly. Pène du Bois established himself as an artist in the 1910’s and was one of the founding members of the Whitney Studio Club in New York in 1918. As part of his work for the Club, he arranged his very close lifelong friend, Hopper’s first exhibition in 1920. As an extension of his successful painting and writing, he became a well-respected curator, juror, and teacher.
The foundation of Pène du Bois’s mature style is Henri’s philosophy of accessibility and urban realism, from which he subtracted the Ashcan style anecdotal narrative and added his own imagination and ambiguity. His glamorous subjects are not to be envied, as they are frequently detached, either psychologically or physically isolated in an almost satirical way.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Charles burchfield
Mary Alice (Preliminary Study).
Pencil on wove paper, circa 1930. 355x254 mm; 14x10 inches. Annotated in pencil, upper right and lower center recto.
Provenance: Raydon Gallery, New York; private collection, Chicago.
A portrait study of Burchfield’s (1893-1967) daughter Mary Alice, who was born in Buffalo in 1923, lived in Chicago and upstate New York, and died in 1988 in Los Angeles. This appears to be a preliminary study for Burchfield’s Portrait Study in Spring Landscape, watercolor, charcoal and pencil on paper, 1930-60, now in the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College. The watercolor shows the artist’s daughter, seated on a log and holding a flower, in a verdant spring landscape. Around her head is a golden aura, which is called for in the artist’s pencil notes on the current drawing.
Burchfield’s (1893-1967) works transcend the Regionalist label that is often applied to the artist. He both a realist and abstractionist. Though he strived to create a strong sense of human emotion and thought in his works, he often did not simply document the reality of his surroundings (he lived most of his life in small towns). Like William Zorach and Emil Bisttram, Burchfield saw nature as being endowed with mystical and mysterious qualities, which he communicated in his works.
Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Harbor, Ohio and attended the Cleveland School of Art from 1912 to 1916. He began his career in Buffalo, New York working as a wallpaper designer for M. H. Birge & Sons Company. It was during this time period that Burchfield’s work was more rooted in suburban realism. Burchfield and Edward Hopper began their friendship in 1928, after Hopper wrote favorably of Burchfield’s work in Arts magazine (Burchfield in turn, wrote an essay for Hopper’s 1933 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York). Hopper wrote that Burchfield, “Has extracted a quality that we may call poetic, romantic, lyric . . . By sympathy with the particular he had made it epic and universal.” Like Hopper, Burchfield was able to stop working commercially and focus on painting full time after finding gallery representation. In 1929, Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries in New York, the same gallery that represented Hopper, began showing Burchfield’s works. Through the 1930s, Burchfield was the recipient of international recognition; Life magazine declared him one of America’s greatest painters in December 1936. In the 1940s, Burchfield’s works became more spiritual, transcendental and based in nature.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Max weber
Beautification.
Lithograph, 1932. 393x458 mm; 15½x18 inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, dark, richly-inked impression of this scarce lithograph.
Perhaps more than any other American artist returning from Paris in the first decade of the 20th century, Weber (1881-1961), an avid student of art history who possessed a critical eye for the avant-garde, skillfully incorporated the new directions of French modern art into his work. Weber absorbed the primitivism of his good friend, the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau, the early Cubism of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and the Fauvism of Henri Matisse and Émile Othon Frieze.
Born in Poland and emigrating to Brooklyn at the age of ten, Weber studied at the Pratt Institute under pioneering modernist teacher, Arthur Wesley Dow, who was also an important influence on Weber as an accomplished printmaker and painter himself. In the early 1920s, Weber traveled to Paris just in time to view a major Paul Cézanne retrospective, as well as visit Gertrude Stein’s artistic salon and take classes at Matisse’s private academy. Weber worked in singular modern style throughout most of his career and influenced many following generations of American artists. Rubenstein 109.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
John sloan
Nude Standing on a Stairway.
Etching, 1933. 177x139 mm; 6⅞x5½ inches, full margins. Third state (of 3). Edition of 70 (from an intended edition of 100). Signed, titled and inscribed “100 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression. Morse 266.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Rockwell kent
Charlotte.
Color lithograph printed in black, ochre and dark olive greenish yellow, 1934. 273x365 mm; 10¾x14½ inches, wide margins. Edition of 100. Signed in pencil, lower right. Printed by George Miller, New York. A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. Burne-Jones 107.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Paul cadmus
Standing Nude (DN 1).
Pen and ink on cream laid paper, circa 1930. 363x160 mm; 14¼x6¼ inches. Signed in ink, lower right recto, and inscribed “DN 1” and “A” in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Often identifying models by the initials of their pseudonym (the most notable example being “NM” used for “Nantucket Man” or Jon Anderson), Cadmus (1904-1999) used the model identified as “DN” in other studies. Another pen and ink drawing of this model, Male Nude #DN 3 sold at Sotheby’s New York, March 6, 2008, lot 95.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Grant wood
Sultry Night.
Lithograph, 1939. 225x292 mm; 8 ¾x11½ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb impression of this very scarce lithograph.
Wood (1891-1942), best known for his depictions of rural American life, was one of the original members of a Midwestern American art movement in the 1930s known as Regionalism. He was dedicated to spreading his artistic tenets and founded an artist’s colony near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1932, before he became a fine art professor at the University of Iowa and the state director of the Public Arts Fund in 1934. As Wood was so involved with teaching, and because his technique was meticulously time-consuming, he only produced approximately 50 paintings and 19 lithographs over the course of his career.
His lithographs, which represent the bulk of his output at the end of his career, were made in limited editions of 250, published by Associated American Artists (AAA), New York, and advertised through a national catalogue for $5 apiece. However, Sultry Night is a particularly significant, controversial lithograph because of its blatant, realistic depiction of the male nude (which is coincidentally the only nude represented by a Regionalist artist). At the time, the male nude was so shocking that the New York postmaster refused to send what were deemed indecent lithographs–therefore, only 100 impressions of Sultry Night were produced and sold “over the counter” at AAA. Cole 6.
Estimate
$12,000 – $18,000
Robert riggs
The Pool.
Lithograph, circa 1933. 370x495 mm; 14½x19½ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this large, scarce lithograph. Bassham 33.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Robert riggs
Clown Alley.
Lithograph, circa 1934. 367x486 mm; 14½x19⅛ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 50. Signed, titled and numbered “2” in pencil, lower margin. A very good, dark impression. Bassham 39.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Armin landeck
Two drypoints.
Studio Interior No. 1, 1935. 200x270 mm; 8x10⅝ inches, full margins * Studio Interior No. 2, 1936. 240x303 mm; 9½x12 inches, full margins. Both signed, dated and inscribed “Ed 100” in pencil, lower margin. Very good impressions. Kraeft 57 and 58.
Both Landeck (1905-1984) and Martin Lewis chronicled New York in their prints and made their reputation as printmakers. They were associated with the American Scene and Landeck came to specialize in urban landscapes with only implicit presence of a human subject. Like Hopper, Landeck drew from the drama unfolding outside his window, he created the composition of the 1938 etching and drypoint Manhattan Nocturne from his apartment window at University Place and 8th Street.
Landeck was born in Wisconsin and raised in Toledo, Ohio. He studied architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at Columbia University, New York. The same year he graduated in 1927, Landeck was noticed by Kennedy Galleries, New York for his etching and was soon represented by them. When he could not find architectural work during the Great Depression, Landeck turned to printmaking full time, focusing on the themes of isolation and a deserted city. In 1934, Landeck opened the short-lived School for Printmakers with George Miller and Martin Lewis and continued to teach at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He took up engraving after meeting Stanley William Hayter in 1941, a medium that he would continue to use, almost exclusively, until the end of his career.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
George c. ault
Tulips.
Pencil on cream wove paper, 1933. 375x250 mm; 15x10 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Conner Rosenkranz, New York, with the label on the frame back; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Salons of America, Inc., Forum Galleries, Rockefeller Center, April 9-May 6, 1934.
The Salons of America organized no-jury exhibitions featuring American artists, the 1934 exhibition at Rockefeller Center included over 5,000 works of art with established and unknown artists.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Luigi lucioni
Calla Lily.
Charcoal with white heightening and red crayon on brown wove paper, circa 1930. 425x285 mm; 16⅞x11¼ inches. Signed and dedicated to art historian Nelson C. White and his wife, Ida Rovetti White, in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Gifted by the artist to the current owner, private collection, Connecticut.
Lucioni (1900-1988) and White (1900-1989) met at a social event while both were summering on Shelter Island in 1922. White was also a painter and had studied at the National Academy of Design from 1919 to 1923 and was an active member of the Lyme Art Association. White married Aida (“Ida”) Rovetti (1897-2002) in 1929 and the couple settled in Waterford, Connecticut. Lucioni was also an alumni of the National Academy of Design and attended Cooper Union. The letters between White and Lucioni’s are held in the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Estimate
$3,500 – $5,000
1940 - 1950
The 1940s was a decade of conflicting paths for artists. If Benton was still America’s most popular artist at the beginning of the decade the climate changed dramatically as New York established itself as the leading international center for art.
Representational art continued with the work of the Regionalists, and others such as Ben Shahn and Charles Burchfield. Edward Hopper continued to paint, solidifying his place as a great American modernist with his painting Nighthawks in 1942. Non-representational art also proliferated, supported by a growing number of organizations like the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (opened in 1939).
However, while American artists had organized themselves and were trying to find an American voice, European artists were fleeing the war and making their way to New York. America joined the Allies in fighting Germany in 1941 after Pearl Harbor. While some young artists left New York to fight, refugee artists from Europe arrived in New York and inserted themselves in artistic circles. The Surrealists, including Max Ernst and André Breton, arrived in the early 1940s. In 1941, Fernand Léger and Piet Mondrian were invited to join the American Abstract Artists group. While in the past, American artists were able to view European modern works of art in galleries or museums, now they were engaging with their creators on a personal level. New York became the center of exchanged ideas and innovation.
Also fleeing Europe was Peggy Guggenheim, the heiress and collector of modern European art who opened her gallery Art of This Century in 1942. It served a threefold purpose: a space for Guggenheim to display her own collection of European modernists, a gallery where she sold works of art, and a gathering place for artists. Guggenheim gave Jackson Pollock, who had trained with Thomas Hart Benton, his first show in 1943. He was working in a surrealistic style at the beginning of the decade, but by 1947 his drip technique emerged.
The 1940s were marked by the emergence of the New York School and Abstract Expressionism. Artists like Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Robert Motherwell were moving increasingly towards abstraction. Their abstractions had bold, expressive and spontaneous brushstrokes. Rooted in the Surrealist concept of tapping the unconscious, the artists aimed to make paintings that had an immediacy of expression. Their work was supported by important New York art critics like Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg.
By the end of the decade, New York had emerged as the new center of the art world and American artists were steadily leading the way in emerging forms of expression.
Edward hopper
Figure Studies (Pennsylvania Coal Town).
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1945. 280x215 mm; 11¼x8½ inches.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist’s widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: “Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions,” Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; “A Window into Edward Hopper,” Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.
Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 26 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 28, figure 26 (illustrated).
Each of the sketches on this sheet of ink drawings, except for the figure upper left of the boy in shorts, appear to be studies for Hopper’s (1882-1967) oil painting Pennsylvania Coal Town, 1947, now in the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio. There are several studies of the lone character in the oil painting, the standing man holding what appears to be a rake, as well as detail studies of the man’s arm and rake handle and the urn planter. According to the Butler Institute of American Art, “Pennsylvania Coal Town is a relatively late work [by Hopper] . . . You can hear the echoes of loneliness and isolation, a prevalent theme in many of his works (Automat, 1927; Nighthawks,1942; Hotel by a Railroad, 1952, for example), in this depiction of a man raking leaves outside his home. With a few deft strokes of the brush, Hopper’s man can be seen gazing off at something beyond our view—capturing a place and time which conveys stillness, solitude, and an eerie silence.
Estimate
$8,000 – $12,000
Isabel bishop
Figural Studies.
Watercolor and pen and ink on cream wove paper, circa 1945. 340x540 mm; 13¼x21¼ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Isabel bishop
Group of 4 etchings.
Ice Cream Cones No. 2, 1945 * Seated Woman with Hat, 1949 * Fourteenth Street Oriental, 1950 * Two Girls Outdoors (Helping with the Veil, 1953. Each printed later, 1981. Each signed in pencil, lower right. Various sizes. Very good impression with strong contrasts.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers. Teller 37, 44, 45 and 49.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Isabel bishop
Three etchings.
Sisters, 1948 * Interlude, 1952 * Summer Travelers No. 2, 1958. Each printed later, 1981-85. Each signed in pencil, lower right. Various sizes. Very good impressions.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers. Teller 43A, 48 and 52.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Isabel bishop
Two watercolors.
Study for Women at Subway, circa 1960. 335x458 mm; 13x18 inches * Seven Women, circa 1968. 330x490 mm; 13x19 inches. Both signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Isabel bishop
Three drawings.
Standing Nude, ink and watercolor, circa 1970. 233x168 mm; 9¼x6½ inches. Initialed in pencil, lower right recto * Girl Walking, pen and ink with watercolor, circa 1972. 235x275 mm; 9⅜x10¾ inches. Initialed in pencil, lower right recto * Study of Youths Walking, watercolor, circa 1975. 193x400 mm; 7½x15¾ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Isabel bishop
People Walking.
Watercolor on cream wove paper, circa 1975. 465x375 mm; 14½x18¼ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right recto. With figural studies in ink verso.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Bishop (1902-1988) was born in Cincinnati, though moved often as a child. She began studying art at age 12 in Detroit at the John Wicker Art School. In 1918, she moved to New York and continued her studies at the New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Art Students League where she studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller who greatly influenced her.
She acquired her studio in Union Square in 1926 and become part of a group of artists known as the Fourteenth Street School who depicted the urban environment and its inhabitants in a realist manner. She often depicted the New Woman that first emerged in the 1920s who worked outside the home; her subjects were often shopping, riding the subway and enjoying urban life. She looked towards Old Masters, particularly Dutch and Flemish artists, in how she rendered the form and movement of city dwellers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Reginald marsh
Woman Walking.
Brush and ink on paper, circa 1940. 380x275 mm; 15x11 inches. Initialed in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Reginald marsh
Woman Seated in a Train Car.
Gouache and watercolor on illustration board, 1953. 125x100 mm; 5x4 inches. Signed and dated in ink, lower right recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Florida.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Raphael soyer
Farewell.
Lithograph, 1943. 412x321 mm; 16x12½ inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Cole notes an edition of approximately 100, but we have found only one other impression at auction in the past 30 years, indicating a significantly smaller edition.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top American realist artists of the 20th century. Cole 61.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Louis lozowick
Spring on Fifth Avenue.
Lithograph, 1940. 303x193 mm; 12x7⅝ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 10/20 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Lozowick (1892-1973) was born in Ludvinovka, a small village near Kiev and moved to the larger city of Kiev with his brother as a child. He studied at the Kiev Art School before following his brother again to New York in 1906 where he settled in New Jersey, got a job at a factory, and learned English. He continued his studies, at the National Academy of Design, taking courses with Emil Carlsen and Leon Kroll. They pushed Lozowick to seek a personal viewpoint in his artwork beyond the traditional training. He took a break from making art while he was a student at Ohio State University and joined the army during World War I.
The modern European art movements had a profound effect on Lozowick, and between 1920 and 1924 he traveled to Europe and spent time meeting modern artists and enmeshing himself into artistic and cultural communities. He was particularly drawn to Cubist and Futurist styles, and in 1923, when he was introduced to lithography, he applied their principles to American subject matter.
Lozowick was among a small group of artists, including Jan Matulka and Howard Cook, who depicted the industrial city. Embracing these European movements while choosing specifically American subject matter was typical of Precisionism, and while artists like Charles Sheeler and Ralston Crawford never organized, they shared the approach of paring down their compositions to the simplest of forms. After the fall of the stock market and as the country turned towards despair in the 1930s, Lozowick adapted his concept of the city. Along with many artists, he turned toward depicting the social reality of its residents who were affected by the Depression. Throughout his career, New York remained his primary subject matter, and he reflected in 1943, “From the innumerable choices which our complex and tradition-laden civilization presents to the artist, I have chosen one which seems to suit my training and temperament. I might characterize it this: ‘Industry harnessed by Man for the Benefit of Mankind.’” Flint 185.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Martin lewis
Chance Meeting.
Drypoint, 1940-41. 265x187 mm; 10½x7½ inches, full margins. Edition of 105. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by the Society of American Etchers, New York. A superb, richly-inked impression.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 131.
Estimate
$6,000 – $9,000
Leonard pytlak
Standees (Garbo and Gilbert).
Color screenprint, circa 1940. 270x330 mm; 10½x13 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 10. Signed in pencil, lower right and titled in ink, lower left. A very good impression of this scarce print with strong colors.
Pytlak (1910-1998) studied art at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art and at the Art Students League, New York. From 1934 to 1941 he worked almost exclusively in lithography. During the 1930s he made numerous lithographs under the auspices of the New York Chapter of the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration). Around 1940 Pytlak began to experiment with the newly discovered graphic arts medium of the screenprint (or silkscreen). He was among the first artists to be included in the silkscreen unit of the Graphic Arts Division of the New York Federal Arts Project. At this time he also founded the National Serigraph Society. Pytlak’s screenprints of New York from the 1940s evoke the optimism and dynamic of the immediate post-war era as well as the gritty, sometimes lonely feel of the urban experience.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Joseph delaney
Third Avenue Movie.
Oil on canvas, 1940. 430x535 mm; 17x21 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto and signed, titled and with the artist’s address in oil on the stretcher, verso.
Provenance: Sragow Gallery, New York, purchased by the current owner, private collection, Toronto 1986.
Delaney (1904-1991) arrived in New York in 1930, enrolling in the Art Students League and studying under Alexander Brooke and Thomas Hart Benton. Delaney took to heart the League’s belief in progressing uniquely American aesthetic and subjects. He exhibited in the inaugural Washington Square Art Show in 1931, alongside Don Freeman and became employed by the Works Progress Administration until 1943. Delaney had always expressed a natural curiosity in the daily lives of people in the city. As in the present early work, he painted his observations of the quotidian without bias or political motive. Delaney once said, “The curtain goes up on the stage of life every time we walk into the street.”
Hopper enjoyed going to the movies and was inspired to paint his own version of the past time in 1939, his oil on canvas New York Movie, in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This painting evokes the isolation found in a room full of people, as the usherette rests against the balustrade of the theater’s interior while the audience, unnoticing, is entranced by the glowing projection. Hopper used his sketches from the Strand, Palace, Republic and Globe theaters for the interior of the painting.
Estimate
$15,000 – $20,000
Wanda gág
Macy’s Stairway.
Lithograph, 1940-41. 247x323 mm; 9¾x12⅞ inches, full margins. The posthumous edition of 13 printed for the family of the artist (aside from the lifetime edition of 12), with the artist’s ink stamp lower left. Printed by George Miller, New York. A very good impression.
This lithograph was drawn from a study for an earlier same-titled etching (see Winnan 71). Winnan 117.
Gág’s (1893-1946) first solo exhibition was held in 1926 at the Weyhe Gallery in New York. Like Hopper, Gág’s works reveal a disenchantment of the “American Dream” between the two world wars and seem to capture a moment in time, giving life to inanimate objects when there are no humans present. Coming to New York to attend the Art Students League on a scholarship in 1917, Gág began to explore the city’s less than aesthetic scenes, such as the subway stations, further encouraged by her classes with John Sloan.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Thomas hart benton
The Farmer’s Daughter.
Lithograph, 1944. 248x337 mm; 9¾x13¼ inches, wide margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. A very good impression with strong contrasts.
The artist’s description of this lithograph by Benton (1889-1975), which was selected for “Fifty Prints of the Year, 1944,” by the publisher, reads, “Along the dirt roads that run at various angles off the highways of central Missouri, there are hundreds of houses that look just like this one. The tenant farmers who occupy them, for longer or shorter times, always have little children who play around the houses while the grownups work the fields. Even when the women folk are in the kitchen, the children of these places look lonely, lonely like the places themselves. The little girl who works the pump is doing so ‘just because.’ For a moment there is nothing else to do.” Fath 62.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Abraham walkowitz
Landscape with a Red Barn, Woodstock.
Oil on canvas board, circa 1940. 501x605 mm; 19¾x23⅞ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Zabriskie Gallery, New York; Estate of Virginia M. Zabriskie.
Walkowitz (1878-1965) was born in Tyumen, Siberia to Jewish parents and immigrated to the Lower East Side of New York with his mother in 1889. He was trained in the academic style at the National Academy of Design, New York, and also at the Académie Julian in Paris, though his style was most influenced by his experiences outside of the studio. Walkowitz’s studies in Paris intersected with Edward’s Hopper’s sojourns there at the same time, while Hopper was primarily studying the works of the Old Master artists. During his time in Paris from 1906-07, Walkowitz saw Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) dance at Auguste Rodin’s (1840-1917) Paris studio and made his first drawings of her. He later recalled, “She was a Muse. She had no laws. She didn’t dance according to rules. She created. Her body was music. It was a body electric, like Walt Whitman.” Like Duncan’s dancing, Walkowitz’s drawings and watercolors were created by quick and spontaneous lines and washes of color. In Paris, Walkowitz was also impressed by the landmark 1907 Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) retrospective exhibit at the Salon d’Automne and by his introduction to the work of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Henri Rousseau (1844-1910). By the time Walkowitz returned to New York, his style was heavily influenced by European Modernism, with emphasis on gestures, simplified forms and flat planes of bold color. His first solo exhibition was held at Haas Gallery, the back of a modest frame shop, in New York in 1908.
In 1912, Walkowitz met Albert Stieglitz (1864-1946) through Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and became involved with 291, Stieglitz’s New York gallery, which served as a hub of American modernism. Stieglitz was so impressed by the young artist, that he sent him to study art in Greece, Italy and North Africa in 1914. His style became more abstract; its reduced linear forms lent themselves to the city’s rush skyward, prematurely anticipating the New York School and the Abstract Expressionists.
In 1913, Walkowitz was represented at the Armory Show and in the 1916 Forum exhibition. Walkowitz was concerned with politics and artists’ rights and was active in various artist’s groups, founding the People’s Art Guild and the Society of Independent Artists (he became director of the latter from 1918 to 1938). In 1920, he exhibited at the Société Anonyme alongside Hartley and Joseph Stella (1877-1946). Despite local and international recognition, Walkowitz was not nearly as well-known as his contemporaries. Walkowitz painted into the 1940s, when his eyesight began to fail.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Douglas gorsline
Railroad Scene, Plano, Illinois.
Watercolor on paper, 1941. 200x285 mm; 8x11½ inches. Signed, dated and inscribed “Plano, Illinois” in ink, lower center recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Gorsline (1913-1985) was a prolific illustrator, drawing for publications such as Coronet and Saturday Review, as well as several children’s and costume reference books. He was born in Rochester, New York and attended the Yale School of Art and the Art Student’s League under Frank V. DuMond and Kenneth Hayes Miller during the early 1930s. His early works were influenced by Social Realism. In 1938, he was included in the Whitney Museum’s exhibition of contemporary artists and in 1939, ArtNews magazine declared him “a young artist of promise” with a favorable review of an exhibition at Arden Gallery, New York. In 1940, Gorsline, along with Reginald Marsh and Isabel Bishop, attended etching classes at the New School for Social Research taught by Stanley Hayter. Through the 1940s, he was represented by Babcock Galleries, New York. He became a member of the National Academy of Art in 1945 after winning the Obrig Prize and the Clark Prize. He had also won awards from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Library of Congress. During his career, he became a member of the Audubon Artists and the Society of American Etchers.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ralston crawford
Grey Street.
Color screenprint, 1940. 307x380 mm; 11¾x15 inches, full margins. Signed, titled and dedicated in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce print with fresh colors.
Crawford (1906-1978) is known for his depictions of industry in a Precisionist style. He was born in Ontario, near Niagara Falls, and moved to Buffalo, New York in 1910. He studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, The Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the Barnes Foundation (where he came into contact with masterpieces by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse) and the Hugh Breckenridge School. Over the course of his career, working in both country (Chadds Ford and Exton, Pennsylvania) and urban settings, notably New York and New Orleans, Crawford developed into one of the foremost American Precisionists, along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) and Louis Lozowick (1892-1973).
Precisionism evolved from its roots in European Cubism with its sharp edges and flattened forms, but American Precisionists focused primarily on depicting industrial subjects. Crawford’s work emphasized American symbols of industry such as skyscrapers, bridges, silos and machinery, creating dynamic, modern and innovative compositions out of flattened forms. He also experimented with photography and graphic media such as screenprints.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Leonard pytlak
Under the Overpass.
Color screenprint, circa 1940. 328x430 mm; 12⅞x16⅞ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower left. A very good impression of this extremely scarce print.
Pytlak (1910-1998), a native of Newark, New Jersey, attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art as well as the Art Students League in New York. He was a painter as well as a printmaker and executed murals while working for the W.P.A. in the 1930s. In 1938, Pytlak joined the special screenprinting unit led by Anthony Velonis in the Federal Art Project’s Graphic Arts department in New York, where he was among the first artists to use screenprinting as a fine art medium. He was a founder of and became president of the National Serigraph Society and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for printmaking in 1941 and would continue to promote the medium through exhibiting and teaching throughout his career. Between 1941 and 1949, Pytlak is estimated to have created 96 screenprints, and during these years he had several solo exhibitions, including at the ACA Gallery, New York in 1942; the Weyhe Gallery, New York, in 1944; the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in 1948; and the Serigraph Gallery, New York, in 1949.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Martin lewis
Yorkville Night.
Drypoint, 1947. 216x290 mm; 8½x11½ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression of this scarce print.
Lewis (1881-1962) had considered the titles “Vanishing New York” and “Corner Fruit Stand” before ultimately deciding on the present title, Yorkville Night. According to his records, the location is the corner of 89th Street and Third Avenue near the artist’s studio at 439 East 89th Street.
Lewis (1881-1962) had met Edward Hopper approximately 15 years after his arrival in the United States in 1900. The two artists shared discontent over their commercial careers. In 1927, Lewis was given a solo exhibition at Kennedy & Company in New York and successive shows at the gallery were so well received that Lewis, like Hopper after his own first taste of success, stopped commercial work after 1929.
Lewis’s career was built upon his technical virtuosity in printmaking. Lewis’s first interest in printmaking has been tied to his work for the Sydney newspaper Bulletin in the 1890s. While in Australia, he was exposed to works of several important etchers, including Australian artist Arthur Streeton, as well as Seymour Haden (Whistler’s brother-in-law), Rembrandt, Charles Meryon, and James A. M. Whistler, but there was no known attempt to etch before Lewis reached the United States. Lewis’s first documented print, Smoke Pillar, Weehawken, printed in 1915, (see McCarron 1) has enough technical skill to argue that this was not the artist’s first attempt (he was known to have destroyed unsatisfactory impressions). The same year, Lewis encouraged Hopper to take up printmaking and gave him technical advice. After this exchange, Hopper created his own etching Paris Street Scene with Carriage, 1915-18 (see Levin 6). While Lewis would employ aquatint and other processes in conjunction with etching, Hopper continued to work with only etching and drypoint. Nevertheless, the two artists would use largely the same subject matter and compositional elements, like cutting angles and the interplay between light and shadow. McCarron 140.
Estimate
$25,000 – $35,000
Gershon benjamin
Man Sitting by the Dock.
Color crayons on cream wove paper, circa 1940. 195x252 mm; 7¾x10 inches. Signed in ink, lower left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; private collection, New Jersey.
After attending the Canadian Royal Academy of Arts, Ontario and working as an artist in Montreal, Benjamin (1899-1985) moved to New York in 1923 and attended classes at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, and the Educational Alliance Art School while working as a commercial artist for the New York Sun newspaper, where he would work for the next 25 years. Benjamin received instruction from Joseph Pennell, John Sloan and Yasuo Kuniyoshi and became close friends with Milton and Sally Avery. As part of the artist circle surrounding Avery and the studios in the Lincoln Arcade, a building at 65th Street and Broadway later torn down to build Lincoln Center, Benjamin became acquainted with French modernists such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia as well as other New York artists including Stuart Davis and Mark Rothko. Benjamin’s formal training and his close association with French and American modernists created a stylistically blended œuvre that incorporated minute details with dynamic, sweeping lines and colors, which became more abstract as his career progressed. During the Great Depression, Benjamin moved from Lincoln Arcade to East 59th Street, though still kept close ties with the Avery family, accompanying them to Gloucester, Massachusetts during the summers. Rather than appeasing critics who called for a thoroughly American art genre to be consumed by the masses, Benjamin held to his idea that art should convey personal emotions and feelings rather than conforming to a strict dogma as in Social Realism, though he painted much of the same subjects.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Gershon benjamin
Cityscape.
Gouache on black wove paper. 510x660 mm; 20⅛x26 inches. Signed in gouache, lower left recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; private collection, New Jersey.
After attending the Canadian Royal Academy of Arts, Ontario and working as an artist in Montreal, Benjamin (1899-1985) moved to New York in 1923 and attended classes at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, and the Educational Alliance Art School while working as a commercial artist for the New York Sun newspaper, where he would work for the next 25 years. Benjamin received instruction from Joseph Pennell, John Sloan and Yasuo Kuniyoshi and became close friends with Milton and Sally Avery. As part of the artist circle surrounding Avery and the studios in the Lincoln Arcade, a building at 65th Street and Broadway later torn down to build Lincoln Center, Benjamin became acquainted with French modernists such as Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia as well as other New York artists including Stuart Davis and Mark Rothko. Benjamin’s formal training and his close association with French and American modernists created a stylistically blended œuvre that incorporated minute details with dynamic, sweeping lines and colors, which became more abstract as his career progressed. During the Great Depression, Benjamin moved from Lincoln Arcade to East 59th Street, though still kept close ties with the Avery family, accompanying them to Gloucester, Massachusetts during the summers. Rather than appeasing critics who called for a thoroughly American art genre to be consumed by the masses, Benjamin held to his idea that art should convey personal emotions and feelings rather than conforming to a strict dogma as in Social Realism, though he painted much of the same subjects.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Howard cook
Brooklyn Bridge.
Oil stick and chalk on beige wove paper, circa 1940. 692x501 mm; 27¼x20 inches. Signed in oil stick, lower recto.
Provenance: Owings-Dewey Fine Art, Santa Fe, with the label on the frame back; private collection, New York.
Cook (1901-1980), most widely known for his lyrical prints of Manhattan, was born in Massachusetts and traveled the continental United States extensively. As a young man, he moved to New York and enrolled in the Art Students League. He studied printmaking there under Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) who, nearing the end of his life, was characterized by his atmospheric cityscape etchings. Cook’s interest in the medium increased after a trip to Paris in 1925, where he spent time with fellow ex-patriots and master printmakers James E. Allen (1894-1964) and Thomas Handforth (1897-1948).
Cook’s career took off after a 1926 trip to Maine, when woodcuts he made there were picked up by Forum, one of the most widely-circulated American magazines at the time. The publication subsequently commissioned Cook to create woodcuts of the American Southwest, where he became enamored with New Mexico and the Taos artist’s colony, returning throughout his life (he relocated there permanently in 1939 and ultimately died in Santa Fe). By the end of the 1920s, Cook’s adept printmaking caught the interest of Carl Zigrosser (1891-1975), the esteemed director of the Weyhe Gallery in New York, who supported many emerging artists. In 1929, Zigrosser both hosted Cook’s first solo exhibition and encouraged him to travel to Paris, providing him entrée into the venerable lithography studio Atelier Desjobert. Despite experimenting in a range of printmaking techniques, the woodcut technique remained Cook’s medium of choice.
At the peak of his career, from the late 1920s until his 1939 move to New Mexico, Cook feverishly depicted a rapidly-changing New York. Construction on skyscrapers flourished in the interwar period, with landmark towers like the Chrysler Building completed in 1930 and the Empire State Building completed the following year, while the Great Depression halted progress on other projects and construction sites remained commonplace. Cook was employed by the Works Progress Administration during this time. Artists like Cook, Louis Lozowick (1892-1973) and Samuel Margolies (1897-1974) embraced the evolving city as their subject, using exaggerated perspective to emphasize the grandeur of buildings, and portraying construction workers as everyday heroes.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Adolf dehn
Manhattan Night.
Lithograph, 1946. 344x421 mm; 13½x16½ inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and numbered 24/40 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Lawrence Barrett, Colorado Springs. A superb, dark impression. Lumsdaine/O’Sullivan 420.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Mark freeman
The City Sleeps.
Lithograph, 1947. 420x273 mm; 16⅝x10¾ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, aside from the editions of 20 and 30. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed “A/P” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
A view of East 37th Street and Second Avenue, New York, near the Queens Midtown Tunnel.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Raphael soyer
Young Model.
Lithograph, 1940. 305x245 mm; 12x9⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed and titled “The Model” in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Associated American Artists, New York. A very good impression. Cole 57.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top American realist artists of the 20th century.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Raphael soyer
Seated Nude.
Oil on canvas, circa 1940. 385x305 mm; 15¼x12¼ inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Private collection, Chicago.
Soyer was born in Russia and immigrated to New York at the age of twelve. He studied at Cooper Union, the National Academy of Design and with Guy Pène du Bois (1884-1958) at the Art Students League. He is known as a Social Realist, depicting the daily struggles of those living in New York City. His chosen subject matter became especially poignant at the onset of the Great Depression, and, after he began to exhibit his work in the late 1920s, he cemented his reputation among the top American realist artists of the 20th century.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Reginald marsh
Sheet of Figure Studies.
Pencil on wove paper, circa 1940. 226x303 mm; 8⅞x12 inches. Initialed in pencil, lower left recto, and signed in ink, lower right recto.
Property of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund (819.1963). Gifted by Dorothy Williams Garrett Bequest in memory of her husband Garet Garrett.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Reginald marsh
Bathers at Coney Island.
Tempera on illustration board, 1951. 402x505 mm; 15⅞x20 inches. Signed and dated in tempera, lower right recto.
Provenance: Frank K.M. Rehn Galleries, New York; The Fox Gallery, April 1976; private collection, New York; thence by descent to current owner, private collection, New York.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey.
Throughout his career, Marsh returned to the subject of Coney Island and its revelers. He stated: “I like to go to Coney Island because of the sea, the open air, and the crowds—crowds of people in all directions, in all positions, without clothing, moving—like the great compositions of Michelangelo and Rubens.”
Estimate
$25,000 – $35,000
Milton avery
Standing Nude.
Drypoint, 1941. 364x195 mm; 14¼x7¾ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 32/60 in pencil, lower margin. A brilliant, richly-inked impression with strong contrasts. Lunn 21.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Milton avery
Nude Combing Hair.
Drypoint, 1950. 218x156 mm; 8½x6¼ inches, wide margins. Signed, dated and numbered 48/90 in pencil, lower margin. A superb, well-inked impression of this very scarce print.
We have found only 9 other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Lunn 30.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Everett shinn
Another Clown.
Oil on board, 1947. 250x203 mm; 9⅞x8 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Christie’s New York, March 10, 1989, lot 353; private collection, New York.
Shinn (1876-1953) is considered to be a proponent of the Ashcan School or “The Eight” and like some of the artists in this group, documented the vibrant theater and vaudeville communities. While living in Philadelphia, Shinn performed in intimate amateur productions put on by friends such as Glackens, Henri, and Sloan. Once in New York, Shinn continued this practice and created a small theater in his home, cofounding the “Waverly Street Players” with Glackens). He befriended notable actors and theater patrons such as Elsie de Wolfe, Julia Marlowe, Clyde Fitch, David Belasco, and Stanford White, leading him to take on several commissions. During the period between 1917 and 1923, Shinn devoted himself full time to set designs and art direction for theater and movie productions. In his painted New York scenes, Shinn emphasized the exchange between performer and spectator, which at times leaves a feeling of alienation. In his so-called “glimpses of stage life,” Shinn painted from the back-lit perspective of behind the stage, casting his acrobats and performers in highlights and shadows. The viewer is at once a voyeur as well as part of the spectacle. In his later career when represented by Feragil Gallery, New York and by James Vigeveno in Los Angeles, Shinn revisited his love of entertainment and focused primarily on clown paintings, like the present work.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Thomas hart benton
The Race.
Lithograph, 1942. 225x337 mm; 8⅞x13¼ inches, wide margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. A superb, richly-inked impression of this important lithograph.
Based on the same-titled oil painting, now in a private American collection. Benton (1889-1975) shows a lone horse racing a steam engine across a barren midwestern prairie. The telephone pole and line are the only other signs of human presence in this bygone scene. Fath 56.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Reginald marsh
Switch Engines, Erie Yards, Jersey City, Stone No. 3.
Lithograph, 1948. 230x340 mm; 9x13½ inches, full margins. Edition of 253. Signed in pencil, lower right. Printed by George Miller, New York. Published by The Print Club of Cleveland, with the ink stamp (Lugt 2049b, verso). A very good impression.
Born in Paris, the second son in a well-to-do family, Marsh (1898-1954) attended Yale University and then moved to New York where, during the early 1920s, he worked as an illustrator and took classes at the Art Students League. Marsh was equally influenced by his art teachers in New York, notably John Sloan (1871-1951), as well as American Regionalists like Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) and Old Masters such as Rubens, Titian and Tintoretto. He wholly rejected the avant-garde artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as modern social realism: depictions of everyday life in New York, Coney Island beach scenes, vaudeville and burlesque women, the jobless on the streets of New York and the railroad yards and freight trains in New York and New Jersey. Sasowsky 30.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Stow wengenroth
Greenport, 8 p.m.
Lithograph, 1953. 251x402 mm; 9⅞x16⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 25. Signed and inscribed “Ed/24” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Wengenroth (1906-1978) was born into a creative family in Brooklyn, New York, but did not begin his artistic endeavors until his last year of high school. He then studied at the Art Students League with George Bridgman in 1923 and later at the Grand Central School of Art with Wyman Adams. It was not until 1929 that he started working in lithography with George Pearse Ennis at the Eastport Summer School.
He published his first lithographs in 1931 and it soon became his preferred medium. In his lithographs he depicted New York as well as the Maine landscape. In the 1950s he settled in Greenport, New York, with his family while continuing to travel throughout New England. He produced more than 350 lithographs during his career, published books and articles on the technique and today is recognized among the American masters of the medium. Stuckey 211.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
John marin
The Circus I.
Color crayons on white wove paper, 1948. 253x318 mm; 10x12½ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Edith Gregor Halpert, New York, with the “Halpert Collection” ink stamp on the frame back; The Downtown Gallery, New York, with the labels; Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York, with the label; Marlborough Gallery, New York, with the label; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: “Arts of the Circus,” The Dallas Museum of Contemporary Art, October 9-November 11, 1962, with the label.
Marin (1870-1953) began to incorporate circus themes into his work in 1934, the figures often overwhelmed by whirring scenes surrounding them. During the 1940s, Marin’s circus subjects were drawn from the point of view of a spectator looking down on the abstracted figures in the rings. While Marin’s 1930s circus scenes contained hapless clowns and acrobats, usually disrobed in some form, his later works on the theme feature just a suggestion of human presence in a looser, more spontaneous style.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Emil j. bisttram
Atonement.
Photolithograph, circa 1940. 310x230 mm; 12¼x9¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 50. Signed, titled and inscribed “No. 18” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce print.
This image is based on Bisttram’s (1895-1976) oil painting Pulsation–The Oversoul, 1938, which sold Christie’s, New York, November 18, 2014, lot 38.
Bisttram (1895-1976) was an American modernist painter who lived in New York and later Taos, New Mexico. He began his career as an illustrative artist in New York, but ultimately shifted direction, studying successively at the National Academy of Design, Cooper Union, the Art Students League and the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. Bisttram’s early work is tied to Realism (in 1931 he went to Mexico on a Guggenheim grant, to study fresco techniques with Diego Rivera), but with successive trips to New Mexico beginning in 1930, and ultimately with his settling in Taos in 1932, his work became increasingly modern, colorful, spiritual and abstract. In 1938, Bisttram founded, with Raymond Jonson, the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization devoted to nonobjective painting that aspired to enhance the spiritual level of society. In his paintings of the late 1930s and beyond, Bisttram explored these concepts and gave titles, such as Upward, circa 1940, and The Oversoul, that indicated the spiritual understandings he intended. Throughout his career, Bisttram actively contributed to the artistic development of New Mexico. He continued to draw inspiration from legends and visual motifs native to the Southwest but couched them in the nonobjective, transcendental terms he had evolved during the late 1930s. In 1952, he co-founded the Taos Art Association.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Emil j. bisttram
Creation.
Photolithograph, circa 1940. 310x235 mm; 12¼x9½ inches, full margins. Edition of 50. Signed, titled and inscribed “No. 17” in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce print.
This image is based on Bisstram’s (1895-1976) oil painting Cosmic Egg Series No. 1 (Creative Forces), 1936.
Bisttram (1895-1976) was an American modernist painter who lived in New York and later Taos, New Mexico. He began his career as an illustrative artist in New York, but ultimately shifted direction, studying successively at the National Academy of Design, Cooper Union, the Art Students League and the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. Bisttram’s early work is tied to Realism (in 1931 he went to Mexico on a Guggenheim grant, to study fresco techniques with Diego Rivera), but with successive trips to New Mexico beginning in 1930, and ultimately with his settling in Taos in 1932, his work became increasingly modern, colorful, spiritual and abstract. In 1938, Bisttram founded, with Raymond Jonson, the Transcendental Painting Group, an organization devoted to nonobjective painting that aspired to enhance the spiritual level of society. In his paintings of the late 1930s and beyond, Bisttram explored these concepts and gave titles, such as Upward, circa 1940, and The Oversoul, that indicated the spiritual understandings he intended. Throughout his career, Bisttram actively contributed to the artistic development of New Mexico. He continued to draw inspiration from legends and visual motifs native to the Southwest but couched them in the nonobjective, transcendental terms he had evolved during the late 1930s. In 1952, he co-founded the Taos Art Association.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Milton avery
Stars, Moon and Sea.
Monotype, 1951. 355x427 mm; 14x17 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower left recto.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the Estate of Sally Michel Avery by the Marianne Friedland Gallery, Naples, Florida; private collection, Norfolk; Virginia; Marianne Friedland Gallery, Naples, Florida; private collection, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; private collection, Chicago.
Estimate
$7,000 – $10,000
Milton avery
Trees by the Sea.
Woodcut on Japan paper, 1953. 248x353 mm; 9¾x13¾ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, aside from the edition of 20. Signed, dated and inscribed “artist’s proof” in pencil, lower margin. A very good, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print. Lunn 53.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Milton avery
Three Birds.
Color woodcut printed in blue and black on Japan paper, 1952. 245x635 mm; 9⅝x25 inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, aside from the edition of 15. Signed, dated and inscribed “Artist’s proof” in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce woodcut with strong colors. Lunn 43.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Milton avery
Fish.
Woodcut printed in green on cream Japan paper, 2 impressions printed one adjoining the other on a single sheet, with hand colored additions in yellowish green gouache, 1952. 120x225 mm; 4¾x9 inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, likely a unique impression printed in this manner, aside from the edition of 100. Signed, dated and inscribed “a/p” in pencil, lower margin. A superb, richly-inked impression.
Avery (1885-1965) printed from the same wood block twice on this sheet, inverting the image and joining the two impressions along the horizontal axis, to create this likely unique impression. Lunn 41.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
John marin
The Lobster Fisherman.
Etching, 1948. 225x177 mm; 8⅞x7 inches, full margins. Edition of 125. Signed in pencil, lower right. Printed by David Strong, New York. Published by Twin Editions, New York. A superb, dark impression. Zigrosser 172.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Stuart davis
Landscape, Bass Rocks.
Color screenprint, 1941. 214x302 mm; 8½x11¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed in pencil, lower left. Published by Jack Rich, New York, with the original label. A very good impression with strong colors.
Based on the oil painting by Davis (1892-1964) Bass Rocks, No. 1 now in the collection of the Wichita Art Museum. The composition was developed based on observation of an area of the Atlantic coastline between Gloucester and Cape Ann, Massachusetts where Davis’ family summered every year. Cole/Myers 23.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Stuart davis (after)
Report from Rockport.
Color screenprint, circa 1950. 610x762 mm; 23¾x30 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately only 50. Published by Esther Gentle, New York. A superb impression of this scarce print with strong colors.
Based on the same-titled oil painting by Davis (1892-1964) now in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Stuart davis (after)
Pad #4.
Color screenprint, circa 1950. 363x465 mm; 14½x18½ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately only 50. Published by Esther Gentle, New York. A superb impression of this scarce print with strong colors.
Based on the same-titled oil painting by Davis (1892-1964) now in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, New York.
According to the Brooklyn Museum, “Pad #4 is one of a series of four related pictures that Stuart Davis made while working on The Mellow Pad, a painting in the Brooklyn Museum’s collection. In all of these works, the word pad appears—here, sideways in green at the upper left (and a number 4 is in white at the lower right). This title reveals the artist’s fondness for wordplay: pad refers both to an artist’s sketchbook and to the jazz slang term for “home.” A lifelong aficionado of jazz, Davis regularly drew analogies between the visual patterns of his pictures and the syncopated rhythms of this modern form of American music.”
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Stuart davis
Ivy League.
Color screenprint, 1953. 126x202 mm; 5x8 inches, full margins. With the stencil signature, upper right. A very good impression with strong colors. Cole/Myers page 79.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Stuart davis
Composition.
Color screenprint, 1964. 281x359 mm; 11x14¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 500. Published by the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford. From Ten Works x Ten Painters. A very good impression with strong colors. Cole 27.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Charles sheeler
Architectural Cadences #4.
Color screenprint, 1954. 159x222 mm; 6¼x8¾ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 50/100 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Tiber Press, New York. Published by the Art Galleries, University of California, Los Angeles. A very good impression of this scarce print with strong colors. A same-titled oil painting is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gordon 6.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Ralston crawford
Cologne Landscape #4.
Lithograph, 1951. 270x440 mm; 10⅝x17⅜ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 4/15 in pencil, lower left. Printed by Desjobert, Paris. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
We have not found another impression of this lithograph at auction in the past 30 years.
Crawford (1906-1978) is known for his depictions of industry in a Precisionist style. He was born in Ontario, near Niagara Falls, and moved to Buffalo, New York in 1910. He studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, The Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the Barnes Foundation (where he came into contact with masterpieces by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse) and the Hugh Breckenridge School. Over the course of his career, working in both country (Chadds Ford and Exton, Pennsylvania) and urban settings, notably New York and New Orleans, Crawford developed into one of the foremost American Precisionists, along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) and Louis Lozowick (1892-1973).
Precisionism evolved from its roots in European Cubism with its sharp edges and flattened forms, but American Precisionists focused primarily on depicting industrial subjects. Crawford’s work emphasized American symbols of industry such as skyscrapers, bridges, silos and machinery, creating dynamic, modern and innovative compositions out of flattened forms. He also experimented with photography and graphic media such as screenprints. Freeman 51.7.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Ralston crawford
Building Facade, New York City.
Silver print, 1940. 111x155 mm; 4⅜x6⅛ inches. With Crawford’s Estate stamp with a reference number in ink on verso; with a Robert Miller Gallery, New York label on mat verso.
Crawford (1906-1978) is known for his depictions of industry in a Precisionist style. He was born in Ontario, near Niagara Falls, and moved to Buffalo, New York in 1910. He studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, The Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the Barnes Foundation (where he came into contact with masterpieces by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse) and the Hugh Breckenridge School. Over the course of his career, working in both country (Chadds Ford and Exton, Pennsylvania) and urban settings, notably New York and New Orleans, Crawford developed into one of the foremost American Precisionists, along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) and Louis Lozowick (1892-1973).
Precisionism evolved from its roots in European Cubism with its sharp edges and flattened forms, but American Precisionists focused primarily on depicting industrial subjects. Crawford’s work emphasized American symbols of industry such as skyscrapers, bridges, silos and machinery, creating dynamic, modern and innovative compositions out of flattened forms. He also experimented with photography and graphic media such as screenprints.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Ralston crawford
Third Avenue Elevated #1A.
Lithograph, 1951. 265x440 mm; 10½x17½ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 6/8 in pencil, lower right margin. Printed by Desjobert, Paris. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Crawford (1906-1978) is known for his depictions of industry in a Precisionist style. He was born in Ontario, near Niagara Falls, and moved to Buffalo, New York in 1910. He studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, The Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the Barnes Foundation (where he came into contact with masterpieces by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse) and the Hugh Breckenridge School. Over the course of his career, working in both country (Chadds Ford and Exton, Pennsylvania) and urban settings, notably New York and New Orleans, Crawford developed into one of the foremost American Precisionists, along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) and Louis Lozowick (1892-1973).
Precisionism evolved from its roots in European Cubism with its sharp edges and flattened forms, but American Precisionists focused primarily on depicting industrial subjects. Crawford’s work emphasized American symbols of industry such as skyscrapers, bridges, silos and machinery, creating dynamic, modern and innovative compositions out of flattened forms. He also experimented with photography and graphic media such as screenprints.
The third avenue elevated train was a subject of Crawford’s photographs in the 1940s. Later he decided to transfer them to other media; his series of eight lithographs was completed in the early 1950s in Paris. Each lithograph shows the elevated pared down to its most basic form so that it takes on a new abstract shape. Freeman 51.3.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Ralston crawford
Third Avenue Elevated #4.
Color lithograph, 1952. 435x260 mm; 17⅛x10¼ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 27/45 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Desjobert, Paris. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Crawford (1906-1978) is known for his depictions of industry in a Precisionist style. He was born in Ontario, near Niagara Falls, and moved to Buffalo, New York in 1910. He studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, The Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the Barnes Foundation (where he came into contact with masterpieces by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse) and the Hugh Breckenridge School. Over the course of his career, working in both country (Chadds Ford and Exton, Pennsylvania) and urban settings, notably New York and New Orleans, Crawford developed into one of the foremost American Precisionists, along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) and Louis Lozowick (1892-1973).
Precisionism evolved from its roots in European Cubism with its sharp edges and flattened forms, but American Precisionists focused primarily on depicting industrial subjects. Crawford’s work emphasized American symbols of industry such as skyscrapers, bridges, silos and machinery, creating dynamic, modern and innovative compositions out of flattened forms. He also experimented with photography and graphic media such as screenprints.
The third avenue elevated train was a subject of Crawford’s photographs in the 1940s. Later he decided to transfer them to other media; his series of eight lithographs was completed in the early 1950s in Paris. Each lithograph shows the elevated pared down to its most basic form so that it takes on a new abstract shape.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Ralston crawford
The Windows.
Color lithograph, 1957. 336x518 mm; 13¼x20½ inches, full margins. Signed and numbered 21/25 in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Mourlot, Paris. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph with strong colors.
Crawford (1906-1978) is known for his depictions of industry in a Precisionist style. He was born in Ontario, near Niagara Falls, and moved to Buffalo, New York in 1910. He studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, The Pennsylvania Academy of Art, the Barnes Foundation (where he came into contact with masterpieces by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse) and the Hugh Breckenridge School. Over the course of his career, working in both country (Chadds Ford and Exton, Pennsylvania) and urban settings, notably New York and New Orleans, Crawford developed into one of the foremost American Precisionists, along with Stuart Davis (1892-1964), Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) and Louis Lozowick (1892-1973).
Precisionism evolved from its roots in European Cubism with its sharp edges and flattened forms, but American Precisionists focused primarily on depicting industrial subjects. Crawford’s work emphasized American symbols of industry such as skyscrapers, bridges, silos and machinery, creating dynamic, modern and innovative compositions out of flattened forms. He also experimented with photography and graphic media such as screenprints.