Drypoint Animal Prints

Leonard Merchant's mezzotint, "Snail in Cup" is inscribed for fellow artist, Fritz Eichenberg. While a student at the Central School for Arts and Crafts in London, a young Leonard Marchant found an engraving rocker in a cupboard and proceeded to turn himself into a master of the painstaking art of mezzotinting. Marchant, who has died in Shrewsbury aged 70, grew up in Simonstown, the Royal Navy's enclave in South Africa. Though his first job was as a parliamentary messenger, he taught himself to paint and, aged 19, was given a one-man show in Cape Town. Fired by this success, he left for England to study painting and, he claimed, to escape the stifling home atmosphere created by his Catholic mother and aunts. (His father was killed in the second world war.) Without contacts in London, he phoned Jacob Epstein, whose recommendation resulted in a grant to study briefly at the Central School. It was later, when studying full-time at the Central, that he saw the mezzotints of the Japanese master, Yozo Hamaguchi, in a London gallery. He was hooked. Creating a mezzotint is tedious in the extreme. The copper plate must first be prepared with a "rocker" which roughens the surface. A plate may be "rocked" 30 or 40 times. The rough texture is then reduced with a burnisher and a scraper, allowing the print a range of tones from velvety black through the greys to white. Marchant's plates could be months in the making. But the technical demands were the least of his worries. In its 18th- and 19th-century heyday, mezzotint was solely a reproductive medium, for copying masters such as Reynolds and Turner. The development of photography rendered it unfashionable, and by the 1960s the technique, known as la manière anglaise, was a bygone medium. Marchant, by now a teacher in printmaking at the Central, began to create original mezzotints with a colleague, Radavan Kraguly. A perfectionist, he seemed to revel in the straitjacket procedure. Perhaps it was the metaphor of bringing darkness out of light that appealed to this straight-talking, sometimes sombre, man, who would suddenly relax and light up like a gleaming hue on one of his prints. His work was of squares and triangles with the occasional cat, black and ominous, and carefully arranged still lifes, featuring plants, a seed pod, a pot he might have bought at auction to celebrate the sale of a print. There were one-man shows, notably at the Bankside Gallery. He sold well at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, was a Florence Biennale prizewinner, spent a fellowship year at the British School in Rome, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. But making mezzotints was not a paying job. Marchant and his South African wife...

NEGRO ES BELLO II is an original limited edition lithograph created by the African-American woman printmaker and sculptor, Elizabeth Catlett using hand printmaking techniques on archival printmaking paper, 100% acid free. Pencil signed, titled, dated by Elizabeth Catlett on the lower margin, embossed with printers chop mark lower left, print documentation provided. NEGRO ES BELLO II is a powerful graphic statement; a visual representation and social commentary on the Black Power movement's resilience, determination, strength, and beauty. The orange color circular badges with panther emblems on the lithograph are symbols (Black Panther Logo) from the Black Panther movement - one of their mottos being "Black Is Beautiful". Print size - 33.5 x 25.25 inches, unframed, mint condition, pencil signed by Elizabeth Catlett Image size - 27 1/2 × 21 inches Dated - 69'-01' , printed in 2001 at JK Fine Art Editions Co. Edition - 100 Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), a sculptor and printmaker, is widely considered one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century. Throughout her career Catlett used art in support of issues that mattered to her – feminism and maternalism, ethnicity, social justice, freedom against racism, class and gender inequality. An American and Mexican citizen, Catlett is best known for her depictions of African American women, the African American experience, and Mexican people...

Python is a hand-pulled mezzotint in an edition of 25. This is #7/25. Jacob Crook was born in St. Louis, MO in 1985. Crook works primarily in the intagli...

Three Cocker Spaniels is an original color etching by well known French sports artist Leon Danchin. The three Spaniels are in waiting mode with two lying down and one sitting ...

Vintage American modernist interior scene by Will Barnet. Titled "Interlude". Signed and numbered limited edition from 1982.

Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) – Spanish painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Drypoint with etching and pochoir on Japon paper "Elijah and the Chariot," 1975, (Horse and rider) from the "Our Historical Heritage" suite. Pencil signed along the lower right and numbered 53/250 along the lower left. Literature: Field 75-4 J Framed; Height: 29 in x width: 35 in. Mat opening 19.5 X 25.5. The Spanish artist’s extensive oeuvre not only includes watercolors, drawings and sculptures but also tapestries; here a fine example from the limited edition ‘The Twelve Tribes of Israel’ The tapestry was created after an etching by Salvador Dalí from 1973 with the title ‘The Tribe of Judah’, which the artist created as part of a suite to mark the 25th anniversary of the State of Israel, and in which he represented the twelve tribes of Israel. This vintage French tapestry is an impeccable textile re-creation of a rare Dali etching. This is a flat weave Aubusson style tapisserie. The edition size was 500. The tapestry is inscribed with woven ‘Salvador Dalí’ lower right Genre: Surrealism Subject: people, architecture rendering Medium: textile Salvador Dali (Spanish, 1904-1989) Salvador Dali is considered as the greatest original artist of the surrealist art movement and one of the greatest masters of art of the twentieth century. Dali began to study art at the Royal Academy of Art in Madrid. He was expelled twice and never took the final examinations. His opinion was that he was more qualified than those who should have examined him. In 1928 Dali went to Paris where he met the Spanish painters Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. He established himself as the principal figure of a group of surrealist artists grouped around Andre Breton, who was something like the theoretical "schoolmaster" of surrealism. Years later Breton turned away from Dali accusing him of support of fascism, excessive self-presentation and financial greediness. By 1929 Dali had found his personal style that should make him famous - the world of the unconscious that is recalled during our dreams. The surrealist theory is based on the theories of the psychologist Dr. Sigmund Freud. Recurring images of burning giraffes and melting watches became the artist's surrealist trademarks. Along with Rene Magritte his is considered the greatest of the Surrealists. His great craftsmanship allowed him to execute his paintings in a nearly photo realistic style. No wonder that the artist was a great admirer of the vintage Italian Renaissance painter Raphael. Meeting Gala was the most important event in the artist's life and decisive for his future career. She was a Russian immigrant and ten years older than Dali. When he met her, she was married to Paul Eluard. In 1933 Salvador Dali had his first one-man show in New York. One year later he visited the U.S. for the first time supported by a loan of US$500 from Pablo Picasso. To evade World War II, Dali chose the U.S.A. as his permanent residence in 1940. He had a series of spectacular exhibitions, among others a great retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He has worked in paining, sculpture, tapestry, Daum glass and prints. Dali became the darling of the American High Society. Celebrities like Jack Warner or Helena Rubinstein gave him commissions for portraits. His artworks became a popular trademark and besides painting he pursued other activities - jewelry and dated clothing designs for Coco Chanel or film making with Alfred Hitchcock. In 1948 Dali and Gala returned to Europe, spending most of their time either in their residence in Ligate/Spain or in Paris/France or in New York. Dali developed a lively interest in science, religion and history. He integrated things into his art that he had picked up from popular science...

PLAY by the American painter and printmaker Will Barnet (born May 25, 1911 - died Nov. 13, 2012) is an original hand drawn lithograph printed using hand lithography techniques on arc...

"Based on a mixed-media fine art piece I made using collage, stenciling, and painting. I’ve created several iterations of the peace dove over the years because as an icon, the dove i...

Jaime Corum's equine portraiture captures the conformation and the spirit of the horse through an understanding informed by years of experience in equine s...

Jaime Corum's equine portraiture captures the conformation and the spirit of the horse through an understanding informed by years of experience in equine s...

HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD, is an original hand drawn, stone lithograph by the American artist/sculptor Chaim Gross. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD was hand proofed and printed from hand drawn lithographic stones on archival Arches paper in shades of warm yellow for the background texture and red brown for the master drawing. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD is a surrealistic portrait composition depicting Sigmund Freud's face(one portraying him with spectacles) surrounded by symbolic imagery including swirling birds, a child opening a heart-shaped lock, an embracing couple, fingers and bare leg. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD expresses an intriguing variety of visualized psychological references. This original, hand printed lithograph measures 18.5" x 22", registration marks are visible in print margins as evidence of the master printer's use of age-old printing methods first utilized in fine art lithography printmaking. HOMAGE TO SIGMUND FREUD is unframed, in excellent condition, pencil signed, dated and inscribed B.A.T., Trial Proof aside from the edition by Chaim Gross. Edition was published in 1976 as a fundraiser for the Hebrew University in Israel. Print size - 18.5 x 22 in., unframed, very fine condition, from the master printer's private collection Printer - Joseph Kleineman, J K Fine Art Editions Co. NYC Chaim Gross,(1904 - 1991) was a sculptor, artist, and teacher, known for his wood carvings, sculptures of moving human figures, religious imagery, acrobats, mothers and children. Chaim was born on March 17, 1904 to a Jewish family in Austrian Galicia, in the village of Wolowa in the Carpathian Mountains. In 1911, his family moved to Kolomyia. During World War I, Russian forces invaded Austria-Hungary; amidst the turmoil, the Grosses fled Kolomyia. They returned when Austria retook the town in 1915, refugees of the war. When World War I ended, Gross and brother Avrom-Leib went to Budapest, where Gross attended the city's art academy and studied with painter Béla Uitz, though within a year a new regime under Miklos Horthy took over and attempted to expel all Jews and foreigners from the country. After being deported from Hungary, Gross began art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna shortly before emigrating to New York City in 1921. In the U.S., Gross's studies continued at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where he studied sculpture with Elie Nadelman and others, and at the Art Students League, with sculptor Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School, studying under Abbo Ostrowsky. In the late 1920s and early 1930s Gross exhibited at the Salons of America exhibitions at the Anderson Galleries and, beginning in 1928, at the Whitney Studio Club (the precursor to the Whitney Museum of American Art). In March 1932 Gross had his first solo exhibition at Gallery 144 in New York City. Also in 1932, Gross married Renee Nechin (1909-2005), and they had two children, Yehuda and Mimi (Mimi Gross is a New York-based artist, and was married to the artist Red Grooms from 1963-1976). In 1933, Gross joined the government's PWAP (Public Works of Art Project), which transitioned into the WPA (Works Progress Administration). Under these programs Gross taught and demonstrated art, made sculptures for schools and public colleges, and created works for Federal buildings including the Federal Trade Commission Building, and for the France Overseas and Finnish Buildings at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Gross was also recognized during these years with a silver medal at the 1937 Exposition universelle in Paris. Chaim Gross, Sculptor by Josef Vincent Lombardo, the first major book on Gross, came out in 1949 and included a catalogue raisonne of his sculpture. In the 1950s Gross began to make more bronze...

Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Plate No. 39; Unidentified tree with moth, caterpillar and pupa. The Netherlands: 1705....