The Artists of the WPA
Officers
Harold Porcher
Director
hporcher@swanngalleries.com
(212) 254-4710 ext. 67
Nigel Freeman
Vice President & Director, African American Art
nfreeman@swanngalleries.com
212 254 4710 ext. 33
Corey Serrant
Cataloguer
cserrant@swangalleries.com
(212) 254-4710 ext. 29
Deborah Rogal
Director, Photographs & Photobooks
drogal@swanngalleries.com
(212) 254-4710 ext. 55
Lauren Cooper
Associate Director
lgoldberg@swanngalleries.com
(212) 254-4710 ext. 57
George S. Lowry
Chairman
Nicholas D. Lowry
President, Principal Auctioneer
924899
Andrew M. Ansorge
Vice President & Controller
Alexandra Mann-Nelson
Chief Marketing Officer
2030704
Todd Weyman
Vice President & Director, Prints & Drawings
1214107
Nigel Freeman
Vice President & Director, African American Art
Rick Stattler
Vice President & Director, Books & Manuscripts
Administration
Andrew M. Ansorge
Vice President & Controller
aansorge@swanngalleries.com
Ariel Kim
Client Accounting
akim@swanngalleries.com
Diana Gibaldi
Operations Manager
diana@swanngalleries.com
Kelsie Jankowski
Communications Manager
kjankowski@swanngalleries.com
Shannon Licitra
Shipping Manager
slicitra@swanngalleries.com
Howard cook (1901-1980)
New England Valley (The Valley).
Etching. 303x252 mm; 11⅞x9⅞ inches, wide margins. Edition of 35 (from an intended edition of 50). Signed and inscribed "imp." in pencil, lower right. 1928.
A very good impression of this scarce etching. Duffy 88.
Howard Cook, 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-pats 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 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
$700 – $1,000
Howard cook (1901-1980)
The Checkerboard.
Bound volume with complete text and nine wood engravings on handmade paper. 230x155 mm; 9⅛x6⅛ inches (sheets), full margins, eight engravings bound as issued with Wood Interior, insert. The deluxe edition of 100. Checkerboard Tailpiece signed in ink on the back cover. Wood Interior signed, dated, titled and inscribed "100" in pencil, lower margin. Published by The Weyhe Gallery, New York. 1931.
Includes Checkerboard Cover, Window Plants, Skyscraper #2 (Chryser Tower), Chimneys, Bookstalls, Self-Portrait and Houses in Snow.
Very good impressions. Duffy 123, 141, 148, 150, 163, 169, 171, HH and JJ.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Walker evans (1903-1975)
Child’s Grave with Bottles and Jars on Plot, Hale County, Alabama.
Silver print, the image measuring 181x235 mm; 7⅛x9¼ inches, the mount 457.2x374.7 mm; 18x14¾ inches, with Evans' signature and the edition and other notations "X 89/100 1936-1971," all in pencil, on mount recto. 1936.
WITH—Message from the Interior. Afterword by John Szarkowski. Illustrated with 12 gravure reproductions of Evans' photographs. Folio, white-stamped black cloth with the printed title label on the front cover, lightly worn at the corners. Hasselblad 220. First Edition, Signed and inscribed by Evans "With Feeling" And his finger print. New York: The Eakins Press, (1966).
From the Collection of Bobbi Carrey, friend, fellow photographer, and Evans' assistant from 1973-74.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Marion post wolcott (1910-1990)
Barn and Silos, York County, Pennsylvania * City Jail, Mississippi Delta.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 241.3x181 mm; 9½x7⅛ inches and 158.8x206.4 mm; 6¼x8⅛ inches, the first sheet slightly larger, each with Wolcott’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, numeric notations, in pencil, and a typed or handwritten caption, in pencil, on verso; the first accompanied by a label with a typed caption. 1939.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Adelaide lawson (gaylor) (1889-1986)
Untitled (Rural Landscape).
Oil on linen canvas. 737x889 mm; 29x35 inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Circa 1940.
Adelaide Lawson studied at the Arts Students League with Kenneth Hayes Miller and later worked in Maine. She began to exhibit in the late teens and early 1920's with other modernist artists at the J. Wannamaker Gallery of Modern Decorative Art and Gallery 134 and later she showed at the Midtown Gallery and the Whitney Studio Club. Lawson was a member, not only of the New York Society of Women Artists, but the Society of Independent Artists, the Salons of America and an early group of painters known as the Dialis.Lawson and her husband, the painter Wood Gaylor, were very active in the New York art world in the early part of the century and their friends included artists William and Marguerite Zorach, Jules Pascin, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Stefan Hirsch, Lawson and Gaylor moved to Glenwood Landing, Long Island in 1932 where they gave art classes and mounted exhibitions in their barn. Bio courtesy of Julie Heller Gallery and the New York Society of Women Artists.
Provenance: Private collection, Philadelphia.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Designers unknown
[Pennsylvania Game Commission / Department of Forests and Waters.]
Three color silkscreen posters printed on card. Sizes vary.
Includes Protect Field and Forest / Be Careful with Fire; Save Birds and Game / Control the Stray Cat, by Joe Wolf; and Use the Flushing Bar / Protect Game.
Images available upon request. Posters for the People p. 104.
Estimate
$600 – $900
Designers unknown
Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Four color silkscreen posters printed on card. Sizes vary.
Includes Winter Feeding / Provide Food for Game; Help Wildlife / Leave Cover Along Fence Rows; Help Wildlife! / Provide Food Plots Near Cover; and Help! Wildlife / Plant Trees, Shrubs and Vines.
Images available upon request. Posters for the People p. 104, 108.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Designers unknown
Pennsylvania Game Commission / [Birds & Wildlife.]
Five color silkscreen posters printed on card. Each approximately 355x280 mm, 14x11 inches.
Includes Shelter Our Game / Don't Cut the Brush; Birds Destroy Harmful Insects / Protect Them; Protect Our Birds / Birds Destroy Harmful Insects; Protect Birds / They Destroy Harmful Insects; and Protect Wildlife / Leave Briar Patches and Cover for Game.
Images available upon request. Posters for the People pp. 100-1, 108.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Lucile blanch (1895-1981)
Untitled, (EH Thompson Hose Company).
Oil on canvas. 457x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed, Lucile Blanch, lower left.
Funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA), Lucile Blanch created three post office murals, in Appalachia, VA, Flemingsburg, KY, and Tylertown, MS.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
John steuart curry (1897-1946)
Heart Ranch, Barber County, Kansas.
Oil on canvas. 508x660 mm; 20x26 inches. Signed and dated, lower right. 1929.
Provenance: Philip Evergood; thence by descent to Julia Vincent Cross; acquired from the Estate of Julia Vincent Cross, 1983, by a private collection, Washington, DC; private Collection, New York.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Peter hurd (1904-1984)
The Sentinel, Santa Fe Trail.
Lithograph. 335x500 mm; 13x19½ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. A very good impression. 1946.
Hurd was born in Roswell, New Mexico, then moved to the Philadelphia area, where he went to school and trained as an artist (he was a student of N. C. Wyeth). In the mid-1930s during the Great Depression, he and his family moved to San Patricio, New Mexico, settling on 40 acres, gradually acquiring more land, developing the 2,200-acre Sentinel Ranch, where he lived and worked most of the remainder of his career. Hurd became a war correspondent with the U.S. Air Force for Life magazine. He made lithographs and several murals (Dallas, Texas) under the auspices of the WPA.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Adolf dehn (1895-1968)
Farm Scene.
Watercolor on cream wove paper. 563x492 mm; 22½x19½ inches. Signed and dated in watercolor, lower right recto. 1941.
Provenance: Private collection, Connecticut.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Adolf dehn (1895-1968)
Group of 3 lithographs.
Flamingoes. 240x337 mm; 9½x13¼ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 200. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1936 * Storm (A Storm on the Mountain). 238x327 mm, 9⅜x12⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 100. Signed, titled and inscribed “100 prints” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. 1937 * Northern Lake (North Country Lake). 240x339 mm; 9½x13⅜ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1949.
Very good impressions. Lumsdaine/O’Sullivan 297, 308 and 462.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Rockwell kent (1882-1971)
Adirondack Cabin.
Lithograph. 245x316 mm; 9½x12½ inches, wide margins. Edition of 100. Signed and inscribed “Adirondack Log House,” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. Published by the Print Club of Rochester, New York. 1946.
A very good impression. Burne-Jones 140.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Thomas hart benton (1889-1975)
Rainy Day.
Lithograph. 222x340 mm; 8¾x13⅜ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1938.
A very good impression. Fath 23.
Benton was already seen as a leader in the Regionalist movement and a celebrated muralist by the time the WPA started the Federal Arts Program. He had been commissioned to paint murals of life in Indiana for the 1933 Century of Progress Exhibition in Chicago, which caused controversy. In 1934, his work was featured on the cover on Time magazine, which legitimized Regionalism as an art movement. His murals were influential for the artists hired as muralists under the WPA.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Thomas hart benton (1889-1975)
Flood.
Lithograph. 235x310 mm; 9⅛x12¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 196. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1937.
A very good impression. Fath 16.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Thomas hart benton (1889-1975)
The Prodigal Son.
Lithograph. 258x335 mm; 10⅛x13¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1939.
A very good impression.
Benton used a dilapidated house and surrounding landscape in Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard, where he and his family summered, as the setting for this subject. Fath 29.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Martin lewis (1881-1962)
R.F.D.
Drypoint and sandpaper ground. 250x300 mm; 9⅞x11⅞ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof, included in the edition of approximately 148. Signed and inscribed “trial proof” in pencil, lower right. 1933.
A superb, richly-inked impression with all the tonal nuances distinct.
A view in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, where Lewis (1881-1962) resided during the Great Depression; the mailbox references his Connecticut neighbor, friend and fellow printmaker Armin Landeck (1905- 1984). According to McCarron, there were three trial proofs printed, which are included in the total recorded impressions of 148. McCarron 106.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Jackson pollock (1912-1956)
Stacking Hay.
Lithograph. 238x335 mm; 9½x13¼ inches, wide margins. Printer’s proof, aside from the edition of 60. Annotated in pencil, lower left. Circa 1935-36.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print. We have found only two other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Thaw/O’Connor 1060.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Grant wood (1891-1942)
Approaching Storm.
Lithograph. 297x225 mm; 11¾x8¾ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1940.
A very good impression. Cole 19.
Wood was one of the most well-known muralists of the WPA, having rose to celebrity status after his painting “American Gothic” won a bronze medal at the Art Institute of Chicago. Wood had always wished to re-create the midwest as an arts center and helped to found an artist colony in his native Cedar Rapids in 1932. In the Iowa University Parks Library in Ames, Iowa, Wood produced a series of murals in his archetypal American regionalist style (a first set for the Public Works of Art Project in 1934, a second in 1936 under the WPA). Wood also was involved in the production of another Iowan mural project at the Callanan Middle School in Des Moines for the Federal Arts Project.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Grant wood (1891-1942)
Seed Time and Harvest.
Lithograph. 188x307 mm; 7½x12¼ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1937.
A very good impression. Cole 2.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Grant wood (1891-1942)
December Afternoon.
Lithograph. 228x302 mm; 9x11⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1941.
A very good impression. Cole 16.
The artist's first lithograph. Wood was urged to make lithographs by the New York art dealer Reeves Lowenthal (founder of Associated American Artists) in 1934. Three years later, Wood created Tree Planting Group and subsequently, in several years following, the remaining 18 lithographs which comprise his entire printed oeuvre.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Dorothea lange (1895-1965)
Oklahoma mother of five children, now picking cotton in California, near Fresno * Wife and Child of Migrant Worker, near Winters, California.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 168.3x212.7 mm; 6⅝x8⅜ inches, the sheets slightly larger, each with an Acme Newspictures hand stamp, an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date 10-11-37), a numeric notation, in pencil, and a typewritten caption, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Dorothea lange (1895-1965)
Mexican children playing in ditch which runs through company cotton camp near Corcoran, California.
Silver print, the image measuring 190.5x244.5 mm; 7½x9⅝ inches, the sheet slightly larger, with Lange’s Resettlement Administration credit hand stamp, an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date 10-2-38), a MAG. hand stamp with the typed caption, RA number and additional numeric notations and a title in pencil, and a title label, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Marion post wolcott (1910-1990)
Mississippi Delta, Lelan * Preacher, Relative, and Friends of the deceased at a memorial meeting near Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky.
Together, 2 photographs. Silver prints, the images measuring 241.3x342.9 and 266.7x339.7 mm; 9½x13½ and 10½x13⅜ inches, the second sheet slightly larger, each with Wolcott’s signature, extended title, date, numeric notation, and notation “an original vintage F.S.A. print,” in pencil, and one with Wolcott’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, on verso. 1939-40.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Russell lee (1903-1986)
A group of 5 photographs depicting children.
Silver prints, the images measuring 177.8x244.5 to 336.6x266.7 mm; 7x9⅝ to 13¼x10½ inches, four sheets slightly larger, each with Lee's signature and a numeric notation, in ink or pencil, one with the title, date, and notations, in pencil, and one with Lee's F.S.A. credit hand stamp and the typed title and date, in ink, on verso. 1937-40; three printed 1970s.
Coat rack in hall, grade school, San Augustine, Texas, 1939 * Young boy playing with truck, late 1930s * Two of the Bodray children in their home near Tipler, Wisconsin, 1937; printed 1970s * Children play with the goats at all day Sunday visiting, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940; printed 1970s * Children at the blackboard, Lake Dick Project, Arkansas, 1938; printed 1970s.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Russell lee (1903-1986)
A group of 5 photographs depicting the Southern United States.
Silver prints, the images measuring 165.1x241.3 mm; 6½x9½ inches, and slightly larger, the sheets 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, all but one with Lee’s signature, and each with Lee’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp and the title, date, and numeric notation, in pencil or typed, on verso. 1938-39.
Southeast Missouri Farms. Son of sharecropper dressing in combination bedroom and corn crib, 1938 * Residents at Boothville, Louisiana sitting on dock, 1938 * Sewing cap into toe of boot. Cowboy bootmaking shop, Alpine, Texas, 1939 * Farmers in town, Spur, Texas, 1939 * Family living in Mays Avenue camp. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1939.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
(john vachon, john collier, et alia)
A group of 5 F.S.A. portrait photographs, including three by Vachon, one by Collier, and one unidentified.
Silver prints, the images measuring 190.5x241.3 mm; 7½x9½ inches and slightly smaller, and the reverse, the sheets 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, Vachon’s vintage prints with the typed title and date, and the numeric notation, in pencil, one with Vachon’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp; the unidentified print with a publication hand stamp with the title, date, and numeric notation, in pencil and ink; the later prints with the Library of Congress hand stamp, and the photographer’s credit, title, date, and numeric notation, in pencil, on verso. 1938-43; two printed 1960s-70s.
Vachon’s Rehabilitation Client, Guilford County, North Carolina, 1938 * Rehabilitation Client, Beaufort County, North Carolina, 1938 * Omaha Nebraska, 1938; printed later, Collier’s Juan Lopez, the Mayor of the Town, Trampas, New Mexico, 1943; printed later, and an unknown photographer, Pocatello Yardmaster, circa 1940.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Aaron bohrod (1907-1992)
Getting Ready for Auction.
Oil on Masonite. 686x889 mm; 27x35 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. 1942.
This work is to be published in Charles C. Eldridge's forthcoming We Gather Together: American Artists and the Harvest, University of California Press, 2022.
In 1941 the president of American Tobacco Company approached then director of the New York gallery, Associated American Artists, Reeves Lewenthal to select leading American scene painters to travel to the American southeast to capture in paintings the planting, harvesting, curing and auction of tobacco crops. Amongst the nineteen artists who received the commissions for this project were Arnold Blanch, Aaron Bohrod, and Ernest Fiene. These paintings appeared in adds for Lucky Strike brand cigarettes from 1942 - 1947. In the 1940s over 1.5 million American farms were dedicated to supplying the tobacco industry.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,000
Ernest fiene (1894-1965)
Farmers in the Grading Room.
Oil on canvas. 711x965 mm; 28x38 inches. Signed lower right. 1942.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Arnold blanch (1896-1968)
A Stick of Tobacco After Curing.
Oil on canvas. 641x940 mm; 25¼x37 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. 1942.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Robert gwathmey (1903-1988)
Tobacco Farmers.
Color screenprint. 345x267 mm; 13⅝x10⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of 300. Signed twice in ink, lower margin. Published by the National Serigraph Society. 1947.
A very good impression with strong colors. Williams 8.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Robert gwathmey (19003-1988)
Non-Fiction.
Color screenprint. 455x355 mm; 17½x14 inches, full margins. Signed in ink lower left. 1945.
A very good impression of this scarce print with strong colors. Williams 5.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Jack delano (1914-1997)
Interior of a Negro Rural House, Greene County, Georgia.
Silver print, the image measuring 187.3x238.1 mm; 7⅜x9⅜ inches, with Delano’s signature, in ink, on verso. 1941; printed 1960s.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Marion post wolcott (1910-1990)
Farmers exchange news and greetings in front of Court House on Saturday afternoon, Versailles, Kentucky.
Silver print, the image measuring 165.1x241.3 mm; 6½x9½ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with Wolcott’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, a typed caption, and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1940.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Georges schreiber (1904-1977)
Two lithographs.
Cotton Pickers. 237x335 mm; 9⅜x13⅛ inches, full margins. 1943. * Evening in South Carolina. 243x336 mm; 9½x13⅛ inches, full margins. 1947. Both an edition of 250. Both signed in pencil, lower right. Both printed by George C. Miller & Son, New York. Both published by Associated American Artists, New York.
Both very good impressions.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Georges schreiber (1904-1977)
In Tennessee.
Lithograph. 232x330 mm; 9⅛x13 inches, wide margins. Edition of 250. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by the Associated American Artists, New York.
A very good impression.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Russell lee (1903-1986)
Game of cards, bunkhouse of strawberry pickers near Hammond, Louisiana * Gathering Lettuce, Yuma County, Arizona.
Together, 2 silver prints, the images measuring 177.8x238.1 and 250.8x330.2 mm; 7x9⅜ and 9⅞x13 inches, the first on a trimmed United States Department of Agriculture exhibition mount 196.9x260.4 mm; 7¾x10¼ inches, with a numeric hand stamp; the second with Lee’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, title, in red pencil, and numeric notation, in pencil, on verso. 1939.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Carl mydans (1907-2004)
Cotton patch in stony soil which is characteristic of a good part of the Crabtree Creek recreational demonstration area near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Silver print, the image measuring 187.3x244.5 mm; 7⅜x9⅝ inches, the sheet slightly larger, with Mydans’ Resettlement Administration hand stamp, an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date 6-2-36), the title and RA number, in pencil, and an RA number hand stamp, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$500 – $750
Arthur rothstein (1915-1985)
Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma.
Silver print, the image measuring 254 mm; 10 inches square, the sheet 355.6x279.4 mm; 14x11 inches, with Rothstein’s signature, in pencil, on recto, and the partial title and negative date, in pencil, on verso. 1936; printed 1960s.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
(farm security administration)
A portfolio of 10 F.S.A. photographs, including images by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, and Ben Shahn.
With 10 (of 10) iconic photographs from the Farm Security Administration, each printed under the supervision of Arthur Rothstein. Silver prints, the images measuring 203.2 mm square to 301.6x209.6 mm; 8 to 11⅞x8¼ inches, the sheets 279.4x355.6 mm; 11x14 inches, each with a credit, title, date, and RA number hand stamp, and all but three with the printer’s portfolio hand stamp, on verso; not including original printed paper title folder. FROM A LIMITED EDITION. The Photographic Historical Society of New York Inc., 1975
Dorothea Lange’s Hoe Culture, 1936 * Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, 1936; Arthur Rothstein’s Farmer and Wife, Colorado, 1939 * Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 1936 * Sharecropper’s Wife and Child, Arkansas, 1935 * Badlands, South Dakota, 1936; Walker Evans’ Bud Fields Family, Alabama, 1936 * Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1935; and Ben Shahn’s Sheriff’s Deputy, Morgantown, W. Va., 1935 * Linworth, Ohio, 1935.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Margaret bourke-white (1904-1971)
Scene at a dam-workers’ bar, Fort Peck, Montana.
Silver print, the image measuring 181x235 mm; 7⅛x9¼ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with a Works Progress Administration notation, in ink, a date hand stamp, and lengthy typewritten caption with Bourke-White’s credit, on verso. 1936.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Dorothea lange (1895-1965)
String of Five Housecars * Squatters Along the Highway, Near Bakersfield, California * Facilities of Kern County Migratory Camp, California * Exterior shower unit, FSA camp Merrill, Klamath County, Oregon.
Together, 4 silver prints, the images measuring 168.3x212.7 to177.8x235 mm; 6⅝x8⅜ to 7x9¼ inches, three with sheets slightly larger, one with a numeric notation, in ink, on recto, and each with an N.E.A. hand stamp (with the date) and numeric notations, in pencil, three with Acme Newspictures hand stamps, three with captions, typed or in pencil, one with Lange’s F.S.A. credit hand stamp, one with an RA number, in pencil, and three with typed caption labels, on verso. 1935-39.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Bread Line.
Etching. 129x230 mm; 5x9 inches, wide margins. Fourth state (of 4). Edition of 50. Signed and numbered 15/50 in pencil, lower right. 1929.
A superb, dark impression of this extremely scarce etching. Sasowsky 63.
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 modern artistic movements gaining strength in America at the time—Cubism, Surrealism, Abstraction. Instead he pursued a style that is best summed up as 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.
He participated in the federal art programs under the WPA, painting two murals in Washington, DC, and, funded by the Treasury Relief Art Project, completed a series of frescoes in the New York Customs House, now the National Museum of the American Indian, that depict eight New York Harbor scenes and eight portraits of great navigators. It is one of the most celebrated mural installations created under the New Deal in New York City.
Estimate
$4,000 – $6,000
Raphael soyer (1899-1987)
Union Square.
Lithograph. 180x220 mm; 7⅛x8⅝ inches, wide margins. Edition of approximately 10. Signed in crayon, lower right. Printed by Jacob Friedland, New York, with the partial blind stamp, lower margin. 1929.
A very good impression of this scarce lithograph. Cole 17A.
Soyer is known for his social realist depictions of daily life around New York City. He participated in the WPA as a muralist, completing the murals at the Kingsessing Station Post Office in Philadelphia with his brother Moses (1899-1974) in 1939, and painting two murals for the Queens Borough Public Library in 1936. He was also engaged as a printmaker, and the WPA published many of his lithographs during that time.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Frank cohen kirk (1889-1963)
All That He Left.
Oil on linen. 641x762 mm; 25¼x30 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto. Circa 1933.
A variant of this secular ex-voto is in the collection of the National Academy Museum, New York, published in Philpott, The Life and Work of Frank C. Kirk, New York, 1938, page 3 (illustrated). This variant also published in Kleeblatt, Painting a Place in America: Jewish Artists in New York 1900-1945, New York, 1991, page 137.
A related painting, Homecoming, also from the early months of the Great Depression during which Kirk sojourned in the Anthracite Coal Mining Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Frank cohen kirk (1889-1963)
My Inheritance.
Oil on linen. 800x864mm; 31½x34 inches. Signed in oil, lower left recto. Circa 1933.
Provenance: Sold Doyle, New York, March 18, 2003, lot 35; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Members Exhibition, Boston Art Club, Boston, MA, May 2 - 25, nd; Society of Washington Artists 50th Annual Exhibition, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, February 1 - 23, 1941, with the labels on the frame back.
Literature: Philpott, A.J., Frank C. Kirk, 1964, illus. p. 54.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
John sloan (1871-1951)
The Wake on the Ferry.
Etching. 125x178 mm; 5x7 inches, wide margins. Edition of 350 (from an intended edition of 200). Signed, titled and inscribed “200 proofs” in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Ernest Roth, New York for the Art Students League. 1949.
A very good impression. Morse 313.
The WPA gave opportunities and financial help to many artists who were struggling during the Depression. Sloan, already an established artist and teacher at the Art Students League (who taught many artists who particapted in the WPA programs), did not fit that profile, but he did participate in the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, which hired well-known artists for its projects. He painted the mural The Arrival of the First Mail in Bronxville in 1846 for the post office in Bronxville, New York. He also created two paintings for the WPA, one The Wigwam, Old Tammany Hall, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the other Fourteenth Street at Sixth Avenue, originally hung the office of U.S. Sen. Royal Copeland and now is exhibited at the Detroit Insitute of Arts.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Designer unknown
“Early” Is the Watchword! Cancer is Curable.
Color silkscreen poster on board. 356x279 mm, 14x11 inches. New York State Department of Health, WPA Art Project NYC. Circa 1937.
One in a series of public service announcements informing the American public about cancer, in this specific instance advising early treatment.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Designer unknown
Long Island Tercentenary Celebration / Suffolk County.
Color screenprint poster, 559x355 mm, 22x14 inches. Federal Art Project, WPA, Nassau Country. 1936.
A rare and unrecorded WPA poster promoting the two month long celebration of Long Island's 300th anniversary. One of several posters promoting the event, this one shows a split scene of images from the previous two centuries; the first, early settlers arriving on Long Island, and then cozy colonialists, fireside, with an infant and spinning wheel.
Not in the Library of Congress.
Estimate
$400 – $600
Paul landacre (1893-1963)
Three Kids and a Horse.
Wood engraving on Japan. 190x256 mm; 7½x10 inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 20/100 in pencil, lower margin. Published by Erwin H. Furman, The Print Rooms, Los Angeles. From Three Fine Prints by California Artists. With the original paper folder issued by The Print Rooms. 1941.
A very good impression. Wien 246.
Estimate
$2,500 – $3,500
Paul landacre (1893-1963)
Children’s Carnival.
Wood engraving on thin Japan paper. 215x305 mm; 8½x12 inches, wide margins. Edition of 265. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. 1946.
With—Happy New Year, woodcut on Japan paper. 145x83 mm; 5⅜x3⅜ inches, full margins. Circa 1950.
Very good impressions. Wien 275.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Howard cook (1901-1980)
Bremen #2.
Wood engraving. 281x203 mm; 11¼x8 inches, small margins. Edition of only 30 (from an intended edition of 50). 1931.
Cook, 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-pats 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 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
$1,000 – $1,500
James e. allen (1894-1964)
The Wreck.
Color lithograph. 360x245 mm; 14⅛x9⅝ inches, wide margins. Edition of 40. Signed and inscribed “Ed/40” in pencil, lower margin. 1937.
A very good impression of this scarce lithograph.
We have found only two other impressions at auction in the past 30 years. Ryan 45.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Martin lewis (1881-1962)
From the River Front.
Etching and aquatint. 378x303 mm; 14¾x11⅞ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately only 19. Signed and inscribed “imp” in pencil, lower right. 1916.
A superb impression of this extremely scarce, early etching.
A view of lower Manhattan, near what is now the South Street Seaport. McCarron 10.
Estimate
$5,000 – $8,000
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Tug at Battery.
Etching with hand coloring in watercolor. 200x250 mm; 8x9⅞ inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of approximately only 20 (few of which were hand colored). Signed and inscribed “4” in pencil, lower margin. 1934.
A superb, crisp and dark impression with strong contrasts and before any of the corrosion on the plate cited by Sasowsky; extremely scarce. Sarkowsky 145.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Reginald marsh (1898-1954)
Skyline from Governor’s Island.
Etching. 130x288 mm; 5x11¼ inches, wide margins. Fourth state (of 7). One of only 16 proofs aside from the published edition of 50. Numbered "8" and signed by the artist’s wife, Felicia Marsh, in pencil, lower margin. 1929.
A very good impression. Sasowsky 69.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Riva helfond (1910-2002)
Barges on Canal.
Color lithograph. 320x465 mm; 12½x18¼ inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Works Progress Administration, with the ink stamp lower left. 1935-43.
A very good impression.
Helfond taught at the Federal Art Project’s Harlem Community Art Center in the late 1930s before working in the Works Progress Administration’s graphics division. Helfond worked in traditional printing techniques such as lithography as well as the new fine art medium, the screenprint, alongside Anthony Velonis (1911-1997).
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
Barge Canal—Harlem.
Color woodcut. 232x142 mm; 9¼x5⅝ inches, full margins. Edition of only 15. Signed, dated and numbered 5/15 in pencil, lower right. 1940.
A very good impression of this extremely scarce woodcut. Flint 172.
In the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression, Lozowick turned toward depicting the social reality of New York City and its residents who were affected by economic despair. He also worked for public programs that supported artists, such as the New York Graphic Arts Division of the WPA and the Treasury Relief Art Project creating numerous prints and, most notably, in 1936, a mural for the New York City General Post Office.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
James turnbull (1909-1976)
Deck Scene with Canopy.
Watercolor and charcoal on paper. 394x285 mm; 15½x11¼ inches. Signed, Jim Turnbull, lower right. Signed, James B. Turnbull, and inscribed #47, verso.
James Turnbull was awarded two mural projects funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA). In 1939 he completed, The Lead Belt, for the Fredericktown, MO Post Office, and in 1940, Loading Cattle for the Jackson, MO Post Office. The latter is now the Chamber of Commerce building, and the mural has been moved to the new post office serving Jackson.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
James turnbull (1909-1976)
Coal Mine Rail Road.
Watercolor on paper. 285x394 mm; 11¼x15½ inches. Signed, Jim Turnbull, lower left. Inscribed, Coal Mine RR, and, #223, verso. Stamped, Jim Turnbull, verso.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Peter sekaer (1901-1950)
Youngstown, Ohio, Gibson Street * New Orleans * St. Louis Street.
Together, 3 photographs. Silver prints, the first image measuring 114.3x158.7 mm; 4½x6¼ inches and the other two 120.7x95.2 mm; 4¾x3¾ inches, and the reverse, the sheets 177.8x127 mm; 7x5 inches, each with Elizabeth Sekaer Rothschild’s (the photographer’s widow) signature, and her notations, including Sekaer’s credit, the title, and date, in pencil, on verso. Circa 1938-39.
Estimate
$5,000 – $7,500
Walker evans (1903-1975)
Cherokee Parts Store Garage Work, Atlanta, Georgia * Street scene, Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Together, 2 photographs. Silver prints, the images measuring 190.5x241.3 mm; 7½x9½ inches, the sheets 260.3x336.5 mm; 10¼x13¼ inches, each with the Library of Congress hand stamp and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1936; printed 1970s.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Walker evans (1903-1975)
Steelmill and workers’ houses, Birmingham, Alabama.
Silver print, the image measuring 184.1x235 mm; 7¼x9¼ inches, the sheet 203.2x254 mm; 8x10 inches, with the Library of Congress hand stamp and numeric notations, in pencil, on verso. 1936; printed circa 1960-70.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Berenice abbott (1898-1991)
Sobol Gas Station.
Silver print, the image measuring 193.7x244.5 mm; 7⅝x9⅝ inches, with Abbott’s signature, in pencil, and her Photograph by Berenice Abbott hand stamp, on verso. Circa 1937.
Estimate
$3,000 – $4,500
Carl mydans (1907-2004)
Manhattan From Brooklyn Heights.
Silver print, the image measuring 250.8x336.6 mm; 9⅞x13¼ inches, the mount slightly larger, with Mydans’ signature, title, and date, in ink, on mount recto, and his credit hand stamp, on mount verso. 1937.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Morris kantor (1896-1974)
Union Square.
Oil on linen canvas. 584x381 mm; 23x15 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right. 1931.
Provenance: Rehn Gallery, New York; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: College Art Association, New York, with the label on the frame back.
Estimate
$3,000 – $5,000
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
57th Street.
Lithograph. 374x190 mm; 14¾x7½ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed, dated “ ‘30” and titled in pencil, lower margin. Printed by George Miller, New York. 1929.
A superb, luminous impression of this scarce lithograph, with strong contrasts and all the details distinct. Flint 26.
In the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression, Lozowick turned toward depicting the social reality of New York City and its residents who were affected by economic despair. He also worked for public programs that supported artists, such as the New York Graphic Arts Division of the WPA and the Treasury Relief Art Project creating numerous prints and, most notably, in 1936, a mural for the New York City General Post Office.
Estimate
$10,000 – $15,000
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
Above the City.
Lithograph. 435x195 mm; 17x7¾ inches, full margins. Signed “Louis Lozowick (A.L.)” and numbered 100/200 by the artist’s wife in pencil, lower margin. Printed by Burr Miller, New York. 1932.
A very good impression. Flint 88.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Ernest fiene (1894-1965)
City Lights (Madison Square Park, New York).
Etching and drypoint. 303x233 mm; 11⅞x9⅛ inches, full margins. Edition of 40. Signed in pencil, lower right. 1932.
A very good impression.
Fiene, born in Germany, came to the United States in 1912, and settled in New York City, spending the majority of his life and career split between there and Woodstock. Known for his scenes of New York, during the WPA years, Fiene worked as a muralist on projects such as the Canton, Massachusetts Post Office and a set of four oil on canvas murals for The Stewart Lee Udall Department of the Interior in Washington, DC.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Louis lozowick (1892-1973)
Distant Manhattan from Brooklyn.
Lithograph. 202x334 mm; 8x13¼ inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 200. Published by the American Artists Group, New York. 1937.
A very good impression. Flint 145.
In the 1930s with the onset of the Great Depression, Lozowick turned toward depicting the social reality of New York City and its residents who were affected by economic despair. He also worked for public programs that supported artists, such as the New York Graphic Arts Division of the WPA and the Treasury Relief Art Project creating numerous prints and, most notably, in 1936, a mural for the New York City General Post Office.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Werner drewes (1899-1985)
Three woodcuts.
Skyscrapers. 340x215 mm; 13⅜x8½ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered I/XXX. 1930 * Self-Portrait. 410x295 mm; 16⅛x11½ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered I/XXX. 1932 *It Can’t Happen Here. 155x262 mm; 6⅛x10¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered I/XXXV. From the same-titled portfolio. 1934.
Very good impressions. Rose 48, 78 and 97.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Harry gottlieb (1895-1922)
Statue of Liberty.
Color screenprint. 392x478 mm; 15⅜x18¾ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof. Signed, inscribed “artist’s proof” and numbered 1/1 in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1945.
A very good impression of this scarce screenprint.
Gottlieb was born in Bucharest, but immigrated to Minnesota with his family when he was twelve years old and studied at the Minneapolis Institue of Art. He served as an illustrator for the Navy during World War I, then moved to New York City where, influenced by the Ashcan School, he began painting in a social realist style. In 1935, he joined the Federal Art Project in the Silk Screen Unit where he was first introduced to the silkscreen method of printmaking. The WPA was integral in the promotion of silkscreening as an artistic technique; developed in the early 1900s it had been used mostly for commercial purposes. Gottlieb continued to be a pioneer of the medium beyond his work with the WPA.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Robert philipp (1895-1981)
In Central Park, NY.
Oil on masonite board. 356x597 mm; 14x23½ inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Circa 1938.
Exhibited: Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS, The Neglected Generation of American Realist Painters: 1930-1948, May 2 - June 14, 1981.
Literature: Wooden, Howard E., The Neglected Generation of American Realist Painters: 1930-1948,1981, illus., p.48.
Robert Philipp participated in the Easel Project division of the WPA/FAP.
Provenance: Raydon Gallery, New York, with the label verso; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Bertram hartman (1882-1960)
Repairs on a Steeple.
Oil on canvas. 915x685 mm; 36x27 inches. Signed in oil, lower center recto.
In 1939, Hartman completed his mural, View from Johnson's Bluff, for the Dayton Post Office, Dayton, TN. The mural is still in place, however the post office facilities are now used to house Dayton Water and Electric. This project was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts, (TSFA).
Provenance: [Doyle, New York, February 28, 2007, lot 3018]; Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Frank di gioia (1900-1981)
Day.
Oil on canvas. 1015x765 mm; 40x30 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left recto. 1950.
Frank di Gioia created a companion piece to this painting, titled Night, measuring the same as this painting. Night is in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, and was gifted to the collection by Mrs. John W. Ames, 1961, (1961:1).
Provenance: Milch Galleries, New York, with the label on the stretcher; [Hindman, Chicago, September 11, 2011, lot 132]; Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Louis ribak (1902-1979)
City at Night.
Oil on linen. 305x610 mm; 12x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Circa 1940s.
Provenance: Private collection, New York.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Joseph solman (1909-2008)
New York Nocturne, Sixth Avenue.
Gouache on black wove paper. 262x365 mm; 10¼x14⅜ inches. Initialed twice in ink and gouache, lower right recto and titled in white pencil verso. 1936.
Sidney Paul Schectman was the co-owner of Mercury Galleries, New York and was instrumental in exhibiting The Ten, a group of New York Expressionist painters (also called the “Whitney Dissenters,” including Ben-Zion, Ilya Bolotowsky, David Burliuk, Earl Kerkam, Mark Rothko, Louis Shanker, and Joseph Solman in the mid to late 1930s.
Provenance: A.M. Adler Fine Arts, Inc., New York, with the label; Collection of Sidney Paul Schectman and Helen Schectman, New York; sold Swann Galleries, New York, June 14, 2014, sale 2354, lot 178; private collection, New York.
Exhibited: Cornell Collects: A Celebration of American Art from the Collections of Alumni and Friends, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, August 21-November 4, 1990, number 134, with the label.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Jules halfant (1909-2001)
Gryphon Peddlar, Harlem.
Oil on canvasboard. 305x406 mm; 12x16 inches. Signed, Halfant, lower left. Signed, Jules Halfant, and inscribed, 0-1375, verso.
Exhibited: “The New York Group,” ACA Gallery, New York, 1938.
Estimate
$600 – $800
Claude clark (1915-2001)
Old Swedes’ Church.
Lithograph. 292x228 mm; 11½x9 inches, full margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), PA. 1940.
Another impression of this scarce WPA print is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Isaac friedlander (1890-1968)
Ruins in Brooklyn.
Etching. 175x240 mm; 7x9½ inches, full margins. Artist’s proof. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed “Trial proof No. 4” in pencil, lower margin. 1939.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce etching.
Friedlander was born in Latvia. In 1912, he went to Italy where he met and worked with the Russian artist Maxim Gorky. During this period he also received his only art training, studying etching, drawing and relief printing at the Academy of Rome. In 1937, he emigrated to New York where he worked full time as an artist until his death. He is best known for his woodcuts and etchings, many of which are embued with a sharp social commentary reflecting the despair of the WPA era. His work is in many major American museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, and the Brooklyn Museum, New York.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Will barnet (1911-2012)
Swing Shift.
Etching and aquatint. 249x270 mm; 9⅞x10⅝ inches, wide margins. Artist’s proof, aside from the edition of 30. Signed and inscribed “Artist’s Proof” in pencil, lower margin. Printed and published by the artist, New York. 1937.
A superb, richly-inked impression of this etching made by Will Barnet while he was working as a printer in the Graphic Division of the Federal Art Project in New York. Szoke 41.
Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Barnet attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 1928-30. He later won a 3 year scholarship to the Art Students League, New York, where he focused on printmaking. Throughout his career, he mastered a variety of techniques, including etching, woodcut and lithography. An extremely dynamic artist, Barnet changed his style significantly throughout his career. His earliest graphic works captured the social and economic despair which resulted from the Great Depression; during these years he also worked for the WPA, producing prints for the graphics arts division.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
William gropper (1897-1977)
Sweatshop.
Lithograph. 240x305 mm; 9½x12 inches, wide margins. Edition of 300. Signed in pencil, lower right. Printed by George C. Miller & Son, New York. Published by Contemporary Print Group, New York. From The American Scene, no. 2. 1934.
A very good impression.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Alicia wiencek (fiene) (1918-1961)
The Painter.
Oil on board. 610x457 mm; 24x18 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower right, recto. Signed, titled and inscribed “215 West 57th Street, New York City” in pencil, verso. 1936.
Wiencek was a muralist in the WPA - she painted the mural North Carolina Cotton Industry in 1937 for the Mooresville Post Office, NC, now in the Moorseville Graded School District for the Treasury Section of Fine Arts. She also assisted the artist Louis Fiene, whom she later married, on two WPA murals - one for the post office in Canton, Mass., and the other in the Department of the Interior Building, Washington, DC.
A native of Chicopee, Massachusetts, Winecek studied at the Art Students League of New York. Her paintings were exhibited at the International Carnegie Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the National Association of Women Artists and the National Academy of Design. Fiene was also a member of the National Association of Women Artists.
Provenance: Private collection, Washington, DC.
Exhibited: Annual Exhibition for Michigan Artists, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI, with the label verso.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Alicia wiencek (fiene) (1918-1961)
Mural Study, (Cane Workers).
Oil on Masonite. 610x610 mm; 24x24 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left. 1937.
Provenance: Private collection, Washington, DC.
Estimate
$1,200 – $1,800
Albert gold (1916-2006)
Fish Packing, Crisfield, MD.
Watercolor on paper. 330x463 mm; 13x18¼ inches. Signed, Albert Gold, lower left. 1938.
Provenance: The artist; private collection, Georgia; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$300 – $500
Albert gold (1916-2006)
Circus Workers.
Pencil and watercolor on paper. 495x648 mm; 19½x25½ inches. Signed, Albert Gold, lower right. 1939.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist, 1990; private collection, New York.
Estimate
$400 – $600
James turnbull (1909-1976)
Coal Miner’s Locker Room, West Virginia.
Watercolor on paper. 394x285 mm; 15½x11¼ inches. Signed, Jim Turnbull, lower left. Inscribed, #72, on verso. 1941.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Harry sternberg (1904-2001)
Blast Furnaces #1.
Etching and aquatint. 300x212 mm; 11⅞x8⅜ inches, full margins. Signed in pencil, lower right. Published by Associated American Artists, New York. 1937.
A very good impression.
Estimate
$800 – $1,200
Harry sternberg (1904-2001)
Steel Workers.
Color screenprint. 550x280 mm; 21½x11 inches, full margins. Signed in ink, lower right. 1950.
A very good impression with strong colors.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Claude clark (1915-2001)
Drill Press.
Carbograph (carborundum etching) on cream wove paper. 241 mm; 9½ inches diameter (tondo), wide margins. Signed in ball point pen and ink, lower right. Published by the Pennsylvania Art Program, WPA, Philadelphia. 1941.
A very good, dark impression. We have found only one other impression of this scarce WPA print at auction in the past 20 years.
Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection, Texas.
Estimate
$2,000 – $3,000
Claude clark (1915 - 2001)
Tanning a Machine Gun Barrel.
Lithograph on cream wove paper. 254x330 mm; 10x13 inches, 1¼-inch margins. Signed and titled in pencil, lower edge. Published by Works Progress Administration (WPA), Federal Art Project, Philadelphia. 1941.
Estimate
$1,000 – $1,500
Edward arthur wilson (1886-1970)
Two lithographs.
Hard Work. 280x330 mm; 11x13 inches. Signed and titled in pencil, lower margin. Circa 1940 * Pipe Jungle. 280x334 mm; 11x13¼ inches, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered 15/50 in pencil, lower margin. 1941.
Both very good impressions.
Wilson was born in Glasgow and moved to New York as a young man in 1893. Wilson was a sought-after illustrator of over 77 books and an accomplished printmaker. His WPA prints depicted the heroic efforts of industrial workers.
Estimate
$1,500 – $2,500
Edward arthur wilson (1886-1970)
Two lithographs.
Raising a Pipe. 285x316 mm; 11¼x12½ inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower margin. 1941 * Pipe Jungle. 280x334 mm; 11x13¼ inches, full margins. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. 1941.
Both very good impressions.
Wilson was born in Glasgow and moved to