Watercolor Figurative Prints

Hélène of Septeuil (enfant au perroquet) (child with a parakeet). c. 1889-1890. Drypoint. Breeskin, 134.v. 9 3/8 x 6 1/4 (sheet 15 3/4 x 9 7/8). A rich impression with burr and plate...

After Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto Copper plate engraving with hand coloring on cream laid paper with the Arms of France watermark (a crown in shield topped by a fleur-de-lys and the letters GR), 22 3/4 x 15 3/4 inches (576 x 400 mm), wide to full margins. Multiple vertical and horizontal creases from folding and rolling; none appear to be particularly hard, there is however some associated cockeling. While there is some minor mat tone visible around the perimeter of the sheet, the extensive handcoloring remains extremely fresh and saturated in the intended areas. There are edge tears at each the right and left sheet edge (outside of the image area) due to an improper effort to mount the sheet to a mat. Otherwise in very good condition with all issues being consistent with age. The print is wrongly titled "The South East Prospect of Westminster Bridge...

Alejandro Colunga is a renowned Mexican artist born in 1948 in Guadalajara, Jalisco. He is part of the Nueva Mexicanidad movement and is celebrated for his surrealist and fantastical...

A mischievous tableau with sexual overtones. Tokyo: Shuei-Sha, 1768. Woodblock print in colors printed on laid mulberry paper, 10 3/4 x 7 7/8 inches (273 x 200 mm), full margins. I...

Detailed and dramatic hand-colored etching by Luigi Kasimir (Austrian, 1881-1962). St. Stephen's cathedral towers above the streets of Vienna, with people going about their daily bus...

London: 1799. Copperplate stipple engraving with hand coloring in watercolor, 17 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches (445 x 260 mm) (sheet), full margins. In very good condition with some minor, lig...

A scene from a vanishing Japan. Two Women Playing Sugoroku from "Comparison of the Customs of Beauties."; The Customs and Manners of Women Japan: Matsuki Heikichi, 1891. Woodblock ...

A scene from a series of ghost stories and spooky rural legends. Tokyo: Matsuki Heikichi, 1896. Woodcut in ink with embossing and hand-coloring in watercolor on handmade mulberry pa...

Robert Wilkinson, 1816. Copperplate engraving on buff wove paper with hand coloring in watercolor, 10 7/8 x 13 /4 inches (275 x 336 mm), full margins. In good condition with some sc...

Estate stamped, verso, for Victor Di Gesu (American, 1914-1988) and created circa 1950. A substantial monotype and gouache showing a young woman seated, her kimono fallen open and b...

The lithograph, "Blava taula Mexicana" pays homage to the beautiful country of Mexico which Alvar lived for a time in his life. The subject is a poetic mixture of elements drawn from...

French School 20th century Two naval images depicting 17th century warships flying various flags, including the Plantagenet Lions and St. George's Cross. (2) c1950. Two engravings w...

A large format book (15.25 x 11.25 inches), following the trend among leading Parisian couture houses who had been producing elaborately designed luxury catalogs since Paul Poiret’s ...

A lovely grand tour image of the Doric architectural masterpiece dedicated to Castor and Pollux. Dated 1863. Watercolor and graphite on lightweight card stock, 10 x 13 3/4 inches (2...

The Battle of Dan-no-ura in Yashima, Nagato Province in the First Year of the Bunji Era (1185) Tokyo c. 1830 Woodblock print (nishiki-e) with ink and hand-coloring in watercolor on handmade mulberry paper, 14 7/16 x 9 15/16 inches (367 x 252 mm), ōban tate-e, the full sheet. In good condition with some handling creases. Colors are fresh and extremely vibrant. The right panel from the triptych by Yoshitora depicting one of Japan's most storied naval battles. An impression of this work may be found in the permanent collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art. The great naval battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185 was the final climax in a long series of bitter wars between two powerful families in feudal Japan...

Comical illustration by Gaston Hoffmann (French, 1883-1977). A doctor is giving a shot to a female patient, while a nurse tries to prevent a man from barging in. Pencil signed "G Ho...

Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Wild Raspberries FS IV.126-143 The complete book, comprising 18 offset lithographs, 3 with hand-coloring, (one of which is a double plate), printed title page and two blank pages (as issued), with recipes by Suzie Frankfurt...

The Grand Coronation Banquet of King George IV at Westminster Hall, the oldest building on the Parliamentary estate. A Prospect of the Inside of Westminster Hall; The Grand Coronati...

Sedans used by the Japanese Ladies of Quality; One plate from Drake's Voyages London: circa 1860. Engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on cream laid paper; 7 1/2 x 10 3/4 inch...

The present hand-colored lithograph was produced as part of the funeral and mourning culture in the United States during the 19th century. Before the printmaking boom of the 1830s, however, such inexpensive memorial images were not widely available. These prints became popular as ways of remembering loved ones, an alternative to portraiture of the deceased or to meticulous hand-embroidered memorials often made by female academy students. In the image, the urn-topped monument contains a space where a family could inscribe the name and death dates of a deceased loved one, though this example was never used. In the variations of this image type produced by the Kellogg...

A stunning 18th century optical view of London from the Thames. London: 1760. Copper plate engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on cream laid paper with a large circular wate...

19th century European Group of 13 hand-colored English and Continental fashion plates and costume designs. Each an etching with hand coloring in watercolor. Various sizes and condit...

Etching with extensive hand coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper laid down to archival cardstock, 9 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches ( 235 x 342 mm), margins trimmed inside the platemark. C...

A rare, extensively hand-colored impression of this charming British satirical image. London: 1830. Lithograph with hand coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper, 12 1/4 x 9 5/1...

Coleth The Lovers of Venice Carnival Original gouache and ink drawing (c. 1925) Signed bottom right On drawing paper 23 x 20 cm (c. 9 x 8 in) at view...

Artist: Andy Warhol Title: Flowers (Hand-Colored) Medium: Screenprint hand-colored with watercolor on white wove paper Date: 1974 Edition: 238/250 Sheet Size: 40 7/8" x 27 1/4" Signa...

A market scene; the spot on which the execution of Joan of Arc took place. London: R. Bower, 1825. Aquatint with hand-coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper, 10 3/4 x 13 5/8 inc...

This portrait of King George the III's son was published in the same year that Beethoven's Ninth Symphony premiered in London. 'The Protestants Champion!!' (Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex...

An image of Jerusalem from the first comprehensive collection of documentary images of the Holy Land. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, circa 1850. Lithograph with hand coloring an...

Screen print & hand-finished watercolor on paper. Hand signed and numbered by the artist. Pest Control included. Banksy’s Dumbo is an extremely rare Ban...

Paris: L'Estampe Moderne, 1897. Color wood engraving on light-weight, cream-colored imitation vellum, 13 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches (342 x 252 mm), full margins. With the L'Estampe Moderne ...

Figurative surreal etching print with watercolor by Polish artist Leszek Rozga. Artwork depicts several portraits in different styles. Artwork is signed by the artist, it comes from ...

Price is for the set of 12 framed engravings. Hand-coloured mezzotint engravings from: ""Phytanthoza Iconographia"", c1739, presented in hand-made pa...

London: Thomas Mclean, 1835. Etching with hand coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper. 5 3/8 x 7 3/4 inches (135 x 195 mm), full margins. A lovely well inked impression with fres...

Pugin, Augustus Charles & Rowlandson, Thomas (after). College of Physicians, from Ackermann's "Microcosm of London." London: Rudolph Ackermann, 1808. Hand-colored lithograph, 9 1/4 ...

"Three Ribbon Heads", Art Deco Female Figurative by John Luke Eastman. 1984 Beautiful mid-1980's hand colored Art Deco style lithograph by Southern California artist John Luke Eastman (American, b.1929). In this 1984 version of Eastman's "Three Ribbon Heads", a delicate flowing line drawing of three consecutive women's faces in profile are framed by ribbons in a circular composition. As in many of the artist's works, Eastman captions the piece with the following phrase: " In this life we have three lasting qualities...faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of them is love." Hand signed and dated in pencil lower right, "John L. Eastman 84" artists proof. Displayed in a light grey mat and new art deco-style giltwood frame. Paper size: 20"H x 16"W. Framed size: 19.5"H x 23.25"W x 1"D. John Luke Eastman is a Southern California artist with a unique style. A graduate of UCLA with a degree in graphic arts, he was successful fashion illustrator and art director for prestigious department store in L. A. before turning his full attention to fine art. Over the part decade he has created and mastered the unique style that is currently found in his limited edition silk-screen graphics. A versatile artist, who has illustrated many record and book covers he refers to his style as "the 5th dimension" or "beautiful distortion". The qualities he seeks to impart through his works are fluidity of movement, a feeling of spatiality, weightlessness and beautiful color. His artworks have been in a lot of shows across the country. He recently had show at Celux (Louis Vuitton membership...

Aquatint with hand coloring in watercolor on watermarked, laid Arches paper, 8 1/16 x 5 9/16 inches (206 x 142 mm), full margins. Signed, titled, dated, and numbered 22/40 in pencil,...

English School, 19th century The Sunday Before Confirmation; Parson: What did your godfathers & godmothers then for you? Boy: Nothing sir, rot'em for I never had none. London: Thoma...

Marc Chagall "Darkness Over Egypt (Les Tenebres sur L'Egypte)" from the series The Bible, which consists of 105 original etchings. Original hand colored etching 1956 Hand initialed...

London: Thomas McLean, 1835. Etching with hand coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper. 6 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches (157 x 210 mm), full margins. Initialed in the plate by Cruikshank, a...

LESZEK RÓZGA (1924-2015) He studied painting at Maria Skarbek-Kruszewska private atelier in 1945-46. In 1948, he began studies at the art school in Łódź (later: Academy of Fine Arts) in the studios of professors Władysław Strzemiński, Adam Rychtarski, Stefan Wegner and Ludwik Tyrowicz. He graduated with special award from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in 1954. In 1958 he became a member of the Piąte Koło association ("Fifth Wheel...

Two minor villains from "Medley of Tales of Revenge" square off, as performed at the Kiri theatre, Tokyo, in May of 1794. Toyko: Tsutaya Juzaburo, 1794. Woodblock (nishiki-e) with ...

An excellent example of Rowlandson's visual commentary on the challenges of changing fashion for those with a less than ideal physique. Rowlandson, Thomas (after George Murgatroyd W...

An 18th century view of the first permanent water fountain in London. London: J.Boydell, 1753. Engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on white laid paper, laid down to a modern...

A rare early 19th century view of the Great Fire of London over Ludgate, enhanced with hand coloring. London: Robert Wilkinson, 1811. Copperplat...

Engraving with hand coloring and heightening in watercolor on two leaves of expertly conjoined handmade laid paper, one leaf with a large watermark a feathered dragon, 7 1/4 x 11 1/4...

Eight 18th century-era fashion plates from the portfolio Modes, by Madeleine Connat. Paris: Paris Etching Society, 1951. Each an engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on cream ...

This is an exclusive handprinted limited edition cyanotype. "Greek Beach Bliss" is a cyanotype of a woman's feet in the fresh water of a sandy beach shore...

The present hand-colored lithograph was produced as part of the funeral and mourning culture in the United States during the 19th century. Images like this were popular as ways of remembering loved ones, an alternative to portraiture of the deceased. This lithograph shows a man, woman and child in morning clothes next to an urn-topped stone monument. Behind are additional putto-topped headstones beneath weeping willows, with a steepled church beyond. The monument contains a space where a family could inscribe the name and death dates of a deceased loved one. In this case, it has been inscribed to a young Civil War soldier: William W. Peabody Died at Fairfax Seminary, VA December 18th, 1864 Aged 18 years The young Mr. Peabody probably died in service for the Union during the American Civil War. Farifax Seminary was a Union hospital and military headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The hospital served nearly two thousand soldiers during the war time. Five hundred were also buried on the Seminary's grounds. 13.75 x 9.5 inches, artwork 23 x 19 inches, frame Published before 1864 Inscribed bottom center "Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier. 2 Spruce St. N.Y." Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and TruVue Conservation Clear glass, housed in a gold gilded moulding. Nathaniel Currier was a tall introspective man with a melancholy nature. He could captivate people with his piercing stare or charm them with his sparkling blue eyes. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27th, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble yet spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel’s father unexpectedly passed away leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a life-long career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton. A Bavarian gentleman named Alois Senefelder invented lithography just 30 years prior to young Nat Currier’s apprenticeship. While under the employ of the brothers Pendleton, Nat was taught the art of lithography by the firm’s chief printer, a French national named Dubois, who brought the lithography trade to America. Lithography involves grinding a piece of limestone flat and smooth then drawing in mirror image on the stone with a special grease pencil. After the image is completed, the stone is etched with a solution of aqua fortis leaving the greased areas in slight relief. Water is then used to wet the stone and greased-ink is rolled onto the raised areas. Since grease and water do not mix, the greased-ink is repelled by the moisture on the stone and clings to the original grease pencil lines. The stone is then placed in a press and used as a printing block to impart black on white images to paper. In 1833, now twenty-years old and an accomplished lithographer, Nat Currier left Boston and moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. With the promise of good money, Currier hired on to help Brown prepare lithographic stones of scientific images for the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. When Nat completed the contract work in 1834, he traveled to New York City to work once again for his mentor John Pendleton, who was now operating his own shop located at 137 Broadway. Soon after the reunion, Pendleton expressed an interest in returning to Boston and offered to sell his print shop to Currier. Young Nat did not have the financial resources to buy the shop, but being the resourceful type he found another local printer by the name of Stodart. Together they bought Pendleton’s business. The firm ‘Currier & Stodart’ specialized in "job" printing. They produced many different types of printed items, most notably music manuscripts for local publishers. By 1835, Stodart was frustrated that the business was not making enough money and he ended the partnership, taking his investment with him. With little more than some lithographic stones, and a talent for his trade, twenty-two year old Nat Currier set up shop in a temporary office at 1 Wall Street in New York City. He named his new enterprise ‘N. Currier, Lithographer’ Nathaniel continued as a job printer and duplicated everything from music sheets to architectural plans. He experimented with portraits, disaster scenes and memorial prints, and any thing that he could sell to the public from tables in front of his shop. During 1835 he produced a disaster print Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives. The public had a thirst for newsworthy events, and newspapers of the day did not include pictures. By producing this print, Nat gave the public a new way to “see” the news. The print sold reasonably well, an important fact that was not lost on Currier. Nat met and married Eliza Farnsworth in 1840. He also produced a print that same year titled Awful Conflagration of the Steamboat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Evening, January 18, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over One Hundred Persons Perished. This print sold out very quickly, and Currier was approached by an enterprising publication who contracted him to print a single sheet addition of their paper, the New York Sun. This single page paper is presumed to be the first illustrated newspaper ever published. The success of the Lexington print launched his career nationally and put him in a position to finally lift his family up. In 1841, Nat and Eliza had their first child, a son they named Edward West Currier. That same year Nat hired his twenty-one year old brother Charles and taught him the lithography trade, he also hired his artistically inclined brother Lorenzo to travel out west and make sketches of the new frontier as material for future prints. Charles worked for the firm on and off over the years, and invented a new type of lithographic crayon which he patented and named the Crayola. Lorenzo continued selling sketches to Nat for the next few years. In 1843, Nat and Eliza had a daughter, Eliza West Currier, but tragedy struck in early 1847 when their young daughter died from a prolonged illness. Nat and Eliza were grief stricken, and Eliza, driven by despair, gave up on life and passed away just four months after her daughter’s death. The subject of Nat Currier’s artwork changed following the death of his wife and daughter, and he produced many memorial prints and sentimental prints during the late 1840s. The memorial prints generally depicted grief stricken families posed by gravestones (the stones were left blank so the purchasers could fill in the names of the dearly departed). The sentimental prints usually depicted idealized portraits of women and children, titled with popular Christian names of the day. Late in 1847, Nat Currier married Lura Ormsbee, a friend of the family. Lura was a self-sufficient woman, and she immediately set out to help Nat raise six-year-old Edward and get their house in order. In 1849, Lura delivered a son, Walter Black Currier, but fate dealt them a blow when young Walter died one year later. While Nat and Lura were grieving the loss of their new son, word came from San Francisco that Nat’s brother Lorenzo had also passed away from a brief illness. Nat sank deeper into his natural quiet melancholy. Friends stopped by to console the couple, and Lura began to set an extra place at their table for these unexpected guests. She continued this tradition throughout their lives. In 1852, Charles introduced a friend, James Merritt Ives, to Nat and suggested he hire him as a bookkeeper. Jim Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Jim was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. He was also a plump and jovial man, presenting the exact opposite image of his new boss. Jim Ives met Charles Currier through Caroline Clark, the object of Jim’s affection. Caroline’s sister Elizabeth was married to Charles, and Caroline was a close friend of the Currier family. Jim eventually proposed marriage to Caroline and solicited an introduction to Nat Currier, through Charles, in hopes of securing a more stable income to support his future wife. Ives quickly set out to improve and modernize his new employer’s bookkeeping methods. He reorganized the firm’s sizable inventory, and used his artistic skills to streamline the firm’s production methods. By 1857, Nathaniel had become so dependent on Jims’ skills and initiative that he offered him a full partnership in the firm and appointed him general manager. The two men chose the name ‘Currier & Ives’ for the new partnership, and became close friends. Currier & Ives produced their prints in a building at 33 Spruce Street where they occupied the third, fourth and fifth floors. The third floor was devoted to the hand operated printing presses that were built by Nat's cousin, Cyrus Currier, at his shop Cyrus Currier & Sons in Newark, NJ. The fourth floor found the artists, lithographers and the stone grinders at work. The fifth floor housed the coloring department, and was one of the earliest production lines in the country. The colorists were generally immigrant girls, mostly German, who came to America with some formal artistic training. Each colorist was responsible for adding a single color to a print. As a colorist finished applying their color, the print was passed down the line to the next colorist to add their color. The colorists worked from a master print displayed above their table, which showed where the proper colors were to be placed. At the end of the table was a touch up artist who checked the prints for quality, touching-in areas that may have been missed as it passed down the line. During the Civil War, demand for prints became so great that coloring stencils were developed to speed up production. Although most Currier & Ives prints were colored in house, some were sent out to contract artists. The rate Currier & Ives paid these artists for coloring work was one dollar per one hundred small folios (a penny a print) and one dollar per one dozen large folios. Currier & Ives also offered uncolored prints to dealers, with instructions (included on the price list) on how to 'prepare the prints for coloring.' In addition, schools could order uncolored prints from the firm’s catalogue to use in their painting classes. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives attracted a wide circle of friends during their years in business. Some of their more famous acquaintances included Horace Greeley, Phineas T. Barnum, and the outspoken abolitionists Rev. Henry Ward, and John Greenleaf Whittier (the latter being a cousin of Mr. Currier). Nat Currier and Jim Ives described their business as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures" and produced many categories of prints. These included Disaster Scenes, Sentimental Images, Sports, Humor, Hunting Scenes, Politics, Religion, City and Rural Scenes, Trains, Ships, Fire Fighters, Famous Race Horses, Historical Portraits, and just about any other topic that satisfied the general public's taste. In all, the firm produced in excess of 7500 different titles, totaling over one million prints produced from 1835 to 1907. Nat Currier retired in 1880, and signed over his share of the firm to his son Edward. Nat died eight years later at his summer home 'Lion’s Gate' in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Jim Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895, when his share of the firm passed to his eldest son, Chauncey. In 1902, faced will failing health from the ravages of Tuberculosis, Edward Currier sold his share of the firm to Chauncey Ives...

Ruga, Pietro (after Luigi Magozza). Veduta della Piazza del Popolo. Rome: Giacomo Antonelli, 1825. Engraving with hand coloring in watercolor on cream wove paper with a "PM" watermar...

The Christ was a recurring image in Salvador Aulestia's artistic path. This is a particular two color litograph in a vertical format that was attached to a bigger red cardboard to fi...

This artwork titled "Interior" is an original watercolor on paper by Israeli artist Itzchac Tarkay 1935-2012. It is signed at the lower right corner. The image size is 11.5 x 9 inc...

Abstract black and white hand painted print of interior scene with dots, lines, shadow and painted brushstroke texture. Ideal for display in minimalist, modern and contemporary space...

Étienne DENISSE (1785-1861) Gombeau Edible and Trompette. Collection of the most remarkable Flowers and Fruits, natural size. Two lithographs enhanced with watercolor. Around 1830. F...

Original 1960s fashion design from a Northern Italian fashion house. Sketched and coloured by hand with a pencil sketch of the reverse. The name and description of the outfit is type...

Artist: Manuel Robbe (French, 1872-1936) Title: "Le Bouquet de Violettes (The Bouquet of Violets)" *Signed by Robbe in pencil lower right Year: 1903 Medium: Original Hand-Colored Etc...

18th-century celestial FLAMSTEED, John. Hydra Crater Corvus Sextans Virgo London, C. Nourse, 1753. A fine star chart from the Atlas Coelestis, the largest and most accurate star a...

"Juan Sebastian Barbera (Mexico, 1964) 'Personaje', 1991 Silkscreen and Watercolor on paper Velin Arches 300 g. 15.8 x 11.9 in. (40 x 30 cm.) ID...

This radiant purple pink poster was designed by Jim Dine for a production of Gilbert and Sullivan at New York City Center in 1968. The stripe down...

Luis Miguel Valdes (Cuba, 1949) 'Vecindario I' (Neighborhood I), 2020 woodcut and watercolor on paper 44.5 x 80.4 in. (113 x 204 cm.) Edition of 10 ID: VAL-599 Unframed Luis Miguel ...