Carl Arlen

ONE OF A KIND

Lithograph on paper. Hand signed, titled and numbered by the artist. Edition of 350. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of Authenticity is included. All reasonable o...

Lithograph on paper. Hand signed, titled and numbered by the artist. Edition of 350. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of Authenticity is included. All reasonable off...

"Laboureur du Kef (Plowman of Kef)" is an original lithograph by Alexandre Lunois. It features a figure plowing the field with a camel. The artist's name is lower left and the printe...

William Robinson Leigh, 'Foul Rope (Left)', etching, c. 1920, edition unknown but small. Signed in pencil. Signed in the plate, lower left. A superb, richly-inked impression, in dark brown ink, on buff wove Umbria paper, the full sheet with margins (1 1/2 to 2 3/4 inches); slight toning at the sheet edges, otherwise in excellent condition. Very scarce. Image size 14 7/8 x 11 15/16 inches (378 x 303 mm); sheet size 20 3/8 x 15 3/8 inches (518 x 391 mm). Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born near Falling Waters, West Virginia on a plantation a year after the Civil War, and raised in Baltimore, William Robinson Leigh (1866 - 1955) became one of the foremost painters of the American West. His career spanning some seventy-five years, Leigh created some of the most iconic depictions of the western landscape, admirers referring to him as ‘The Sagebrush Rembrandt’. The son of impoverished Southern aristocrats, Leigh took his first art training at age 14 from Hugh Newell at the Maryland Institute where he was regarded as the best student in his class. From 1883 to 1895, he studied in Europe, mainly at the Royal Academy in Munich with Ludwig Loefftz. From 1891 to 1896, he painted six cycloramas or murals in the round, a giant German panorama. In 1896, Leigh began working as a magazine illustrator in New York City for Scribner's and Collier's Weekly Magazine, and he also painted portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes. Leigh's trips to the Southwest began in 1906 when he made an agreement with William Simpson, Santa Fe Railway advertising manager, to paint the Grand Canyon in exchange for free transportation West. In 1907, he completed his Grand Canyon painting, which led to more commissions and an extensive painting trip through Arizona and New Mexico. These travels inspired him to paint western subjects for the next 50 years, his primary interest being the Hopi and Navajo Indians. In 1910, he traveled to Wyoming, where he painted in Yellowstone Park and created sketches, many of which he later converted into large canvases such as ‘Lower Falls of the Yellowstone’ (1915) and ‘Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone’ (1911). In 1926 he traveled to Africa at the invitation of Carl Akeley for the American Museum of Natural History, and from this experience wrote and illustrated 'Frontiers of Enchantment: An Artist's Adventures in Africa'. In 1933, he wrote and illustrated 'The Western Pony'. His adventures were chronicled in a number of popular magazines including Life, the Saturday Evening Post, and Colliers. For many years, his work was handled exclusively in New York by Grand Central Art Galleries at the Biltmore Hotel. In 1953 Leigh was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, becoming a full Academician in 1955. In March 1999, the Historical Center of Cody, Wyoming, held an exhibition of his field sketches and finished works depicting his experiences near Cody in the early part of the century. These years, between 1910 and 1921, when he often painted in the Carter Mountain vicinity, were considered pivotal to his artistic development and his devotion to the western landscape. Leigh's work is held in many museum collections of American western art...