James Allen

The Trench

1937

Broadway Parade Lithograph, 1934-1935 Signed, titled and editoned in pencil (see photos) Printer: George Miller, New York Edition: 100, plus trial proofs Printed on cine collee Creat...

Signed and numbered by the artist Edition: 25 Printed on Hahnemuhle paper Published by Neptune Fine Arts Condition: excellent Plate/Image size: Sheet size: "Stone Roberts’ luminous still lifes, private interiors, and large-scale panoramas of figures in motion invite us to look—and then look some more—and relish in the sensuality of the three-dimensional world. While Roberts’ varied influences include Greek Mythology and Roman Classicism, Dutch and Spanish Old Masters, Fantin-Latour, Ingres, and Balthus, his subjects are decidedly of today. From Grand Central Terminal to his wife gardening in Stonington, Connecticut, Roberts paints people and places from his personal surroundings into formal compositions that often appear to have mythical, literary, or psychological elements. Roberts received his B.A. from Yale University, New Haven, CT, where he studied painting with William Bailey, and his M.F.A. from the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, and Rome. Roberts' work can be found in numerous public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe, including the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louis-Dreyfus Family Collection, New York. A solo exhibition of Stone Roberts’ work was held at the Museum of the City of New York in 2012 entitled Stone Roberts: New York City Paintings." Courtesy of Hirschl & Adler Modern PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC Sydney and Walda Besthoff Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC Mrs. Robert Carroll Mr. and Mrs. Willam Cecil Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, IN Jerald Dillon Fessenden Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI Ms. Barbara Goldsmith Mrs. Paul Gottlieb Mr. and Mrs. Graham Gund Mr. and Mrs. Arie L. Kopelman Alex S. Jones William Louis-Dreyfus Mr. and Mrs. James C. Marlas J.D. McClatchy and Chip Kidd Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Menschel The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Mrs. Stephen Paine Mr. and Mrs. W.J.W.J. van Roijen Mrs. Julius Rosenwald II Mark Singer Carl Spielvogel and Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa Stephens Inc., Little Rock, Arkansas Woodberry Forest...

The Fifer Etching, c. 1875 Unsigned Provenance: Estate of the Artist Bt descent in the artist's family Edition: One of four known impressions With annotation on...

Indian Friendship Dance Drypoint, 1953 Signed in pencil lower right, (see photo) Edition 200 Published by The Society of American Graphic Artists, New York An impression is in the collection of SAAM, Washington and RISD Museum, Condition: Excellent Very rich impression with burr and selective whiping of the ink for atmospheric nocturnal effect. Image/Plate size: 8 3/16 x 11 15/16 inches Sheet size: 11 1/8 x 17 inches Reference: Kloss 450 "'Indian Friendship Dance' is an eloquent statement of something which Gene Kloss has both observed and participated in. It is an Indian dance that is thought of as entertainment, rather than ceremony, but it is essentially an idea expressed in action, and an idea that has universal meaning. The young men who dance wear costumes of exquisite workmanship, intricately wrought with beads and feathers and subtle combinations of colors. The dancers are trained from childhood but develop their own steps and exhibit distinctive strength and grace. Singers and a tom-tom accompany the dance and since it usually takes place at night, a campfire is the source of light. The conclusion occurs when all the onlookers, old and young and from many places, join hands with the dancers in a slow revolving movement, while those who can, sing the difficult but meaningful Indian song that flows with the rhythmical dance step and speaks of fellowship, brotherhood, friendship." - An excerpt from a descriptive statement, written by Lynd Ward, and distributed with the drypoint at the time of publication." Courtesy Old Print Shop Born Alice Glasier in Oakland, CA, Kloss grew up amid the worldly bustle of the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with honors in art in 1924. She discovered her talents in intaglio printmaking during a senior-year course in figurative drawing. The professor, Perham Nahl, held up a print from Kloss’ first plate, still damp from the printing process, and announced that she was destined to become a printmaker. In 1925, Gene married Phillips Kloss, a poet and composer who became her creative partner for life. The match was uncanny, for in her own way Gene, too, was a poet and a composer. Like poetry, her artworks capture a moment in time; like music, her compositions sing with aesthetic harmony. Although she was largely self-taught, Kloss was a printmaking virtuoso. On their honeymoon the Klosses traveled east from California, camping along the way. They spent two week is Taos Canyon – with a portable printing press cemented to a rock near their campsite – where Gene learned to appreciate the wealth of artistic subject matter in New Mexico. The landscape, the cultures, and the immense sky left an indelible impression on the couple, who returned every summer until they made Taos their permanent home 20 years later. Throughout her life, Kloss etched more than 625 copper plates, producing editions ranging from five to 250 prints. She pulled every print in every edition herself, manually cranking the wheel of her geared Sturges press until she finally purchased a motorized one when she was in her 70s. Believing that subject matter dictated technique, she employed etching, drypoint, aquatint, mezzotint, roulette, softground, and a variety of experimental approaches, often combining several techniques on the same plate. She also produced both oil and watercolor paintings. Kloss’ artworks are filled with drama. Her prints employ striking contrasts of darkness and light, and her subjects are often illuminated by mysterious light sources. Though she was a devout realist, there is also a devout abstraction on Kloss’ work that adds an almost mythical quality. For six decades Kloss documented the cultures of the region-from images of daily life to those of rarely seen ceremonies. She and her husband shared a profound respect for the land and people, which made them welcome among the Native American and Hispanic communities. Kloss never owned a camera but relied instead on observation and recollection. Her works provide an inside look at the cultures she depicted yet at the same time communicate the awe and freshness of an outsider’s perspective. Although Kloss is best known for her images of Native American and Penitente scenes, she found artistic inspiration wherever she was. During the early years of their marriage, when she and Phil returned to the Bay Area each winter to care for their aging families, she created images of the California coast. And when the Klosses moved to southwestern Colorado in 1965, she etched the mining towns and mountainous landscapes around her. In 1970 the Klosses returned to Taos and built a house north of town. Though her artwork continued to grow in popularity, she remained faithful to Taos’ Gallery A, where she insisted that owner Mary Sanchez keep the prices of her work reasonable regardless of its market value. Kloss continued to etch until 1985, when declining health made printmaking too difficult. From her first exhibition at San Francisco’s exclusive Gump’s in 1937 to her 1972 election to full membership in the National Academy of Design, Kloss experienced a selective fame. She received numerous awards, and though she is not as well known as members of the Taos Society of Artists...

Gifford Beal (1879-1956) "Bareback Act, Old Hippodome" 1950 Lithograph Signed Lower Right With original Associated American Artists label verso image: 6 3/8 x 9 5/8 in. (16.2 x 24.6 cm) sheet: 12 x 16 in. (30.4 x 40.6 cm) framed: 17 x 20 in. Gifford Beal, painter, etcher, muralist, and teacher, was born in New York City in 1879. The son of landscape painter William Reynolds Beal, Gifford Beal began studying at William Merritt Chase's Shinnecock School of Art (the first established school of plein air painting in America) at the age of thirteen, when he accompanied his older brother, Reynolds, to summer classes. He remained a pupil of Chase's for ten years also studying with him in New York City at the artist's private studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building. Later at his father's behest, he attended Princeton University from 1896 to 1900 while still continuing his lessons with Chase. Upon graduation from Princeton he took classes at the Art Students' League, studying with impressionist landscape painter Henry Ward Ranger and Boston academic painter Frank Vincent DuMond. He ended up as President of the Art Students League for fourteen years, "a distinction unsurpassed by any other artist." His student days were spent entirely in this country. "Given the opportunity to visit Paris en route to England in 1908, he chose to avoid it" he stated, "I didn't trust myself with the delightful life in ParisIt all sounded so fascinating and easy and loose." His subjects were predominately American, and it has been said stylistically "his art is completely American." Gifford achieved early recognition in the New York Art World. He became an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1908 and was elected to full status of academician in 1914. He was known for garden parties, circuses, landscapes, streets, coasts, flowers and marines. This diversity in subject matter created "no typical or characteristic style to his work." Beal's style was highly influenced by Chase and Childe Hassam, a long time friend of the Beal family who used to travel "about the countryside with Beal in a car sketching...

Signed in Pencil Lower Right Ed. 500 Circulated by Twayne Publishers, New York City Image Size: 16 x 12 3/8 Framed Size: 24 1/4 x 20 1/2 inches The legendary actor actor and musici...

George Biddle (1885-1973), Coffee Huskers, 1928, lithograph, signed, titled and numbered [also inscribed ’43/Biddle/1928 in the plate]. Reference: Pennigar 77, Trotter 43. From the edition of 100, on Rives cream wove paper, with the Rives watermark. In excellent condition, probably never framed or matted, the full sheet, 13 1/4 x 9 3/4, the sheet 16 x 11 1/2 inches, archival mounting (mylar non-attached hinging between acid free boards glassine cover). A fine black impression. Biddle wrote of this lithograph, in 1943: “After scraping the tusche away…I worked back with a pensil (sic) and again with diamond. This all adds to the richness of texture and color.” This work produces a very sophisticated lithographic look, akin in some ways to drypoint work in etching. After Groton, Harvard College and Harvard Law (and several breakdowns) Biddle concluded that a conventional career in law was not for him; he decided on art, went to Paris, worked with Mary Cassatt and familiarized himself with modernist currents in art (as well as more traditional European art). After serving in WWI, and the dissolution of his marriage, he became interested in working outside of the European tradition (although his travels continued to include Europe, and he spent a period working under the influence of Jules Pascin in Paris in the mid-‘20’s). Coffee Huskers, like many of the Mexican and Haitian prints...

What did Broadway look like at the turn of the 20th Century? Here is a scarce and important block-by-block view published in 1899 by The Mail and Express New York: The Mail and Expr...