Imao Keinen

Flowering Quince and Cantonese Buttercup, Siskin — 19th century woodblock print

1882

Imao Keinen, 'Cabbage Rose and Spotted Munia' from the series 'Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons', color woodblock Oban diptych, 1882. A fine impression, with fresh colors, on cream Japan paper, in excellent condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size: diptych 12 5/8 x 17 7/8 inches (321 x 452 mm). ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Kyoto, Imao Keinen (1845-1924) studied painting and calligraphy with Umegata Tokyo and Suzuki Hyakunen. He taught at the Kyoto Prefecture School of Painting and exhibited in shows in Japan and Paris. One of the most well-known Japanese painters of his time, Keinen was honored by his country with the title of 'Artist of the Japanese Empire...

Fred Becker, 'Sailing', wood engraving, c. 1935, edition c. 25. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, on off-white wove paper; with full margins (1 to 2 15/16...

Lyonel Feininger, 'Church with Star (Kirche mit Stern)', woodcut, 1936, one of a small but unknown number of letterhead proofs; Prasse W265. Annotated 'W 265' (Feininger catalogue number) and inventory no. '2808' in pencil, in the bottom right sheet corner. A fine impression, on cream, laid letterhead stock; hinge remains on the left and right top sheet edges, verso, in excellent condition. Very scarce. Image size 2 3/8 x 2 3/8 inches; sheet size 10 1/16 x 7 1/16 inches. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. ABOUT THE ARTIST Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) was born in New York City into a musical family—his father was a violinist and composer, his mother was a singer and pianist. He studied violin with his father, and by the age of 12, he was performing in public, but he also drew incessantly, most notably the steamboats and sailing ships on the Hudson and East Rivers, and the landscape around Sharon, Conn., where he spent time on a farm owned by a family friend. At the age of 16 he left New York to study music and art in Germany, from where his parents emigrated. Drawn more to the visual arts, he attended schools in Hamburg, Berlin, and Paris from 1887 to 1892. After completing his studies, Feininger began his artistic career as a cartoonist and illustrator, his originality leading him to great success. In 1906, after working for a dozen years in Germany, he was offered a job as a cartoonist at the Chicago Tribune, the largest circulation newspaper in the Midwest. He worked there for a year, inventing what became the standard design for the comic strip: in the words of John Carlin, “an overall pattern. . . that allowed the page to be read both as a series of elements one after the other, like language and as a group of juxtaposed images, like visual art.” His originality did not end there: he went on to become one of the great abstract painters. Like Kandinsky, music was his model, but Kandinsky only knew music from the outside—as a listener (inspired initially by Wagner, then by Schoenberg)—while Feininger knew it from the inside. He lived in Paris from 1906 to 1908, during which time he met and was influenced by the work of progressive painters Robert Delaunay and Jules Pascin, as well as that of Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. He began painting full-time, developing his distinctive Iyrical style based on Cubist and Expressionist idioms and a concern for the emotive qualities of light and color. He exhibited with the Der Blaue Reiter group in 1913, and in 1917, he had his first solo exhibition at Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin. One year after his solo exhibition, in 1918, Feininger began making woodcuts. He became enamored with the medium, producing an impressive 117 in his first year of exploring the printmaking medium. In 1919 at the invitation of the architect Walter Gropius, he was appointed the first master at the newly formed Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar. His woodcut of a cathedral crowned...

Wood engraving, 1930, edition small, Physick 642 / 643. Initialed in pencil. Two blocks printed on a single sheet: fine impressions on cream laid Japan with full margins (1 1/2 to 2...