1930s Figurative Prints

Lithograph on vélin des Papeteries du Marais paper. Paper Size: 14 x 10.25 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Verve: Revue Art...

La pointe sèche etching on vélin de Rives filigrané à notre nom paper. Paper size: 9.5 x 7.5 inches; image size: 6.5 x 4.5 inches. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. No...

Héliogravure, collotype, metallic inks on vélin paper. Paper Size: 18.86 x 17.91 inches; image size: 12.09 x 12.2 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. ...

Héliogravure, collotype, metallic inks on vélin paper. Paper Size: 18.86 x 17.91 inches; image size: 12.01 x 12.09 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued....

Héliogravure, collotype, metallic inks on vélin paper. Paper Size: 18.86 x 17.91 inches; image size: 11.93 x 12.09 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued....

Edouard Benedictus, 'Poppy' from the portfolio 'Relais', plate 14, color pochoir, 1930. Signed in the matrix, in the center bottom margin. A superb, richly-inked impression, with fresh, vibrant colors, including metallic gold and silver inks, on heavy, cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 3/8 inches), in excellent condition. Published by Éditions Vincent, Fréal et Cie, Paris. The pochoir production is by Jean Saudé, the French printmaker known for his mastery of the technique and the author of the first how-to book on the pochoir process. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 14 3/8 x 11 inches (365 x 279 mm); sheet size 17 1/4 x 13 7/8 inches (438 x 352 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the following museum collections: Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library (Smithsonian), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, New York Public Library, Toledo Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. ABOUT THIS WORK The Pochoir process is a refined stencil-based technique employed to create multiples or to add color to prints produced in other mediums. Characterized by its crisp lines and rich color, the print-making process was most popular from the late 19th century through the 1930s, with its center of activity in Paris. The pochoir process began with the analysis of an image’s composition, including color tones and densities. The numerous stencils (made of aluminum, copper, or zinc) necessary to create a complete image were then designed and hand-cut by the 'découpeur.' The 'coloristes' applied watercolor or gouache pigments through the stencils, skillfully employing a variety of different brushes and methods of paint application to achieve the desired depth of color and textural and tonal nuance. The pochoir process, by virtue of its handcrafted methodology, resulted in the finished work producing the effect of an original painting, and in fact, each print was unique. ABOUT THE ARTIST Edouard Benedictus (1878 -1930), artist, designer, composer, and chemist, was born and died in Paris. A highly-regarded designer and art critic of the Art Nouveau era, Benedictus gained renown as a colorist and creator of Art Deco-inspired geometric and floral motifs. His work had a significant influence on international fashions in clothing, home furnishings, graphic design, and decorative objects of the period, earning him commissions from leading European design firms. In 1925 he was invited to represent Art Deco textile design...

Still Life is a Photolithograph print, reproducing the original watercolor by Giorgio Morandi created in 1932. The signature by the artist is perfectly reproduced on the plate and d...

Leon Bibel, 'Unemployed Marchers', 2-color lithograph, c. 1938, edition 25. Signed, titled, and numbered '2/25' in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression on off-white, wove paper, w...

Leon Bibel, 'Archway', color serigraph, 1939, edition 25. Signed, dated, titled, and numbered ' /25' in pencil. A rich, painterly impression, with fresh colors, on buff wove paper; ...

'Lot Cleaning, Los Angeles', wood engraving, edition 60, Zeitlin & Ver Brugge 69. Signed, titled and numbered '51/60' in pencil. A brilliant, black impression, on Kitakata Japan pape...

Fred Becker, 'Public Building', wood engraving, c. 1937, edition c. 25. Signed and titled in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream wove Japan...

Lynd Ward, 'Wild Pilgrimage', No. 26, wood engraving, 1932, edition not stated but very small. Signed in pencil. A fine, black impression, with full margins (1 1/16 to 3 3/16 inches), on tissue-thin cream Japan paper, in very good condition. A scarce, artist-printed, hand-signed proof impression before the published edition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Created by Lynd Ward for his narrative book of illustrations without words, 'Wild Pilgrimage', published by Harrison Smith...

Kawase Hasui, 'Chihan no Ame, Matsue' (Lakeside Shower, Matsue), color woodblock print, 1932. A fine, atmospheric impression, with fresh colors; the full sheet, from a postwar editio...

Mariette Lydis, 'Four Women' from the suite 'The Beggar's Opera', lithograph, edition unknown but small, 1937. Signed in pencil; initialed in the stone, low...

Dancers Georges Rouault, French (1871–1958) Date: 1936 Woodcut, initialed in the stone Size: 3 x 2 in. (7.62 x 5.08 cm) Frame Size: 9.5 x 8.25 inches

Lithograph and stencil on vélin d'Arches paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good Condition. Notes: From the volume, Le Peseur d'âmes, précédé d'un frontispice et suivi de hui...

Lithograph on Van Gelder Zonen Bütten paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, Der Mensch ist kein Haustier, 1937. Published by...

Etching and drypoint on japanese paper applied on cardboard.  One of 10 artist's proofs, numbered I/X, aside of the edition of 100. Hand signed and numbered. Very Good condition.

A man raises his hand to his chin, his neck tilted and face turned to look at a dilapidated farmhouse, barely held together by planks of wood and exposed to the elements. Behind him ...

Artist: Henri Matisse Title: Teeny Portfolio: Other Portfolios Medium: Linocut Date: 1938 Edition: Unnumbered Frame Size: 19" x 16 1/4" Sheet Size: 12 1/4” x 9 1/2” Image Size: 11 7/...

Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) signed lithograph. Pencil signed and dated "S. Simkhovitch 1933" lower center. Title "Island Beach,"...

Paul Cadmus, 'Two Boys On A Beach, No. 1', etching, 1938, edition 75, Johnson & Miller 85. Signed in pencil and initialed in the plate in the lower right image corner. Annotated by t...

Art Deco Etching and Aquatint "Jeunesse" (Youth) Signed by Louis Icart Iconic figurative of woman and horse titled "Jeunesse" (Youth) by famous Art Deco artist Louis Icart (French, ...

Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, XXe Siècle, n°5-6, 1939. Published and printed under the direction...

An indigenous teacher, surrounded by her multi-generational students, sits at the edge of a field, open book in hand. In the distance, we see campesinos working the fields with their horses. A lone, armed horseman watches over the class, locating the lithograph in its historical setting, the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution...

Lithograph on vélin des Papeteries du Marais paper. Paper Size: 14 x 10.25 inches. Inscription: Signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Notes: From the album, Verve: Revue Art...

Violets is a modern artwork realzied by Luigi Bartolini in 1936 Black and white etching. Hand signed, titled and numbered on the lower margin. Includes frame Edition of 13/50 Go...

Bowling on the Green (from the Bicentennial Pageant of George Washington) 'Bowling on the Green', by printmaker Frederick Childe Hassam, depicts George Washington and friends lawn b...

A modernist fantasy winter scene created by Werner Drewes, this print brings key aspects of the period together. His cubist-inspired woodcut technique is utilized here to bring the s...

Lithograph on vélin Saint-Vincent-de-Blanzat des Papeteries Navarre paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the album, Sources du vent 1915-1929, avec ...

James Allen, 'Spiderboy', 1937, etching, edition 40, Ryan 86. Signed in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream laid paper, with full margins (1 1/4 to 2 7/8 inches). A s...

artist: Adrien Barrere (1877-1931) title: Passing the Bar medium: Lithograph paper size: 19.75 x 25.50 image size: 18 x 24.25 French caricaturist...

This striking serigraph by Erté (Romain de Tirtoff) exemplifies the elegance and fluidity of the Art Deco style. Known for his iconic depictions of movement and couture, Erté capture...

In this charming regionalist lithograph, Benton captures a classic Midwestern American scene: two men talking, drinking, and smoking together in a bar. Titled 'Discussion', the artwo...

Lithograph and stencil with hand coloring on vélin d'Arches paper. Inscription: unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: from the folio, Le Livre blanc, précédé d'u...

JOSE CLEMENTE OROZCO (1893 - 1949) PROLETARIANS (aka Basurero, Scavengers ) 1935 (Orozco 27) lithograph, One of 88 signed and numbered of a total edition of 133, (+ 42 unnumbered a...

After Gustav Klimt, Max Eisler #1, Die Freundinnen II; multi-color collotype after 1916/17 painting in oil on canvas which was destroyed by fire in May 1945 at Immendorf Castle Lower Austria. Eisler’s choice to begin his 1931 portfolio of works by Klimt with Girlfriends II was both bold and prescient. Just 14 years later, the painting was tragically destroyed in a fire. With such a loss, this rare and exquisite image is all the more valuable by virtue of having been made in color. In works from his late period, Klimt continued his fascination with exploring female dynamics and their various forms of love. Girlfriends II is a fine example of how space, color and ornament play a noticeable role in the evolution of his symbolic language. Wide swaths of space in the background as well as the two female forms create the structure. Klimt’s strong brushstrokes show a painterly quality and a new move toward abstraction which feels very far away from his earlier work. Nor should Klimt’s economy of line be overlooked. His draughtsmanship is what infuses the female bodies with movement, emotion and a profundity of life. Both women confront the viewer’s gaze unselfconsciously, as if they are modern-day Viennese women stepping out of a Klimtesque ukiyo-e print. Characteristic of this late period, Klimt uses ornament...

LOTERIE NATIONALE des PARFUMS. Original vintage French poster, 1939 lithograph. Professional acid-free archival linen-backed, fine condition. Read...

James Allen, 'Pipe and Brawn,' 1937, lithograph, edition 40. Signed and annotated 'Ed/40' in pencil. A superb, richly inked impression on cream wove paper, the full sheet with margin...

After Gustav Klimt, Max Eisler #10, Ausschnitt aus dem Bilde “Medizin”; multi-color collotype detail from Medicine, one of the faculty paintings for the Uni...

Reginald Marsh, 'Erie R.R. Locos Watering (Locomotives Watering)', etching, 1934, edition 100 (Whitney, 1969), Sasowsky 155. Unsigned as published; numbered '68/100' in pencil. A su...

Etching on vélin Canson et Montgolfier paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Published by L'Imprimerie Daragnès, Paris; printed by Jean Gabriel Daragnès, Paris, ...

Original poster Italian lithograph. Tira Al Piccion - Roma. Skeet Shooting. VII World Championship “Tiro a Piccione” pre-World War II Olympic style poster. Powerful pre-world War II poster. This shows the American flag flying next to the Nazi flag for the skeet shooting championship in Italy. Note that the year 1935 corresponds with the fascist year date of XIV-XV. Museum linen backed. The USA flag is sitting right next to the German Nazi...

Howard Cook, 'Financial District', lithograph, 1931, edition 75, Duffy 155. A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper, the full sheet with wide margins (2 3/4 to 5 5/8 inches), in excellent condition. Image size 13 5/16 x 10 3/8 inches (338 x 264 mm); sheet size 23 x 16 inches (584 x 406 mm). Matted to museum standards, unframed. Literature: 'American Master Prints from the Betty and Douglas Duffy Collection', the Trust for Museum Exhibitions, Washington, D.C., 1987. Collections: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST Howard Norton Cook (1901-1980) was one of the best-known of the second generation of artists who moved to Taos. A native of Massachusetts, he studied at the Art Students League in New York City and at the Woodstock Art Colony. Beginning his association with Taos in 1926, he became a resident of the community in the 1930s. During his career, he received two Guggenheim Fellowships and was elected an Academician in the National Academy of Design. He earned a national reputation as a painter, muralist, and printmaker. Cook’s work in the print mediums received acclaim early in his career with one-person exhibitions at the Denver Art Museum (1927) and the Museum of New Mexico (1928). He received numerous honors and awards over the years, including selection in best-of-the-year exhibitions sponsored by the American Institute of Graphics Arts, the Brooklyn Museum, the Society of American Etchers, and the Philadelphia Print Club. His first Guggenheim Fellowship took him to Taxco, Mexico in 1932 and 1933; his second in the following year enabled him to travel through the American South and Southwest. Cook painted murals for the Public Works of Art Project in 1933 and the Treasury Departments Art Program in 1935. The latter project, completed in Pittsburgh, received a Gold Medal from the Architectural League of New York. One of his most acclaimed commissions was a mural in the San Antonio Post Office in 1937. He and Barbara Latham settled in Talpa, south of Taos, in 1938 and remained there for over three decades. Cook volunteered in World War II as an Artist War Correspondent for the US Navy, where he was deployed in the Pacific. In 1943 he was appointed Leader of a War Art Unit...

Noon Time Lull (Charleston, South Carolina) Etching, c. 1930 Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo) Note: An image done in South Carolina. An impression of this image...

Spring Night, Greenwich Village. 1930. Drypoint and sand ground. McCarron 85. 10 x 12 3/8 (sheet 13 1/4 x 15 5/8)). Edition 92. A rich, tonal impress...

Les Amans d'Arlequin is an artwork realized by Gino Severini in 1930. Pochoir from the Suite "Fleurs et Masques". Very good condition. Signed in plate on the lower right. Ref. Ca...

Charles Turzak, 'North Bank of the Chicago River', color woodcut, c. 1935, edition 50. Signed and titled in pencil. A fine, richly-inked impression, with...

Woodcut print from the Series "Der vreeselijke avonturen vas Scholastica" (The Terrible Adventures of Scholastica). Edition of 300, published by A. J. van Dishoeck. Unsigned, ass i...

Grand Tier at the Met Etching, 1939 From: Reginald Marsh, Thirty Etchings and Engravings Published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1969 Unsigned (as usual for the Whitney edit...

(after) Alexander Calder "Calder's Circus" offset lithograph on wove paper after drawings by the artist Published by Art in America and Perls gallery in 1964 (from drawings done in the 1930's) these range slightly in size but they are all about 13 X 17 inches (with minor variations in size as issued.) These have never been framed. The outer folio is not included just the one lithograph. James Sweeny from the introduction “The fame of Calder’s circus spread quickly between the years 1927 and 1930. All the Paris art world came to know it. It brought him his first great personal success. But what was more important, the circus also provided the first steps in Calder’s development as an original sculptor” Clive Gray wrote ”A visit to the studio of Alexander Calder led to the chance discovery of some hundred masterful circus drawings completed over thirty years ago. We publish, for the first time, a choice of sixteen from that group.” With signed introduction by Miro. These whimsical drawings, done in the style of wire sculpture, include acrobats, clowns, jugglers, trapeeze artists, an elephant, dog and lion. they are great. Alexander Calder is widely considered to be one of the most important American sculptors of the 20th century. He is best known for his colorful, whimsical abstract public sculptures and his innovative mobiles, kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents, which embraced chance in their aesthetic. Born into a family of accomplished artists, Calder's work first gained attention in Paris in the 1930s and was soon championed by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, resulting in a retrospective exhibition in 1943. Major retrospectives were also held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1964) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974). Calder’s work is in many permanent collections, most notably in the Whitney Museum of American Art, but also the Guggenheim Museum; the Museum of Modern Art; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Centre Georges Pompidou. He produced many large public works, including .125 (at JFK Airport, 1957), Pittsburgh (Carnegie International prize winner 1958, Pittsburgh International Airport) Spirale (UNESCO in Paris, 1958), Flamingo and Universe (both in Chicago, 1974), and Mountains and Clouds (Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., 1976). Although primarily known for his sculpture, Calder was a prodigious artist with a restless creative spirit, whose diverse practice included painting and printmaking, miniatures (such as his famous Cirque Calder), children’s book illustrations, theater set design, jewelry design, tapestry and rug works, and political posters. Calder was honored by the US Postal Service with a set of five 32-cent stamps in 1998, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously in 1977, after refusing to receive it from Gerald Ford one year earlier in protest of the Vietnam War. Calder moved to New York and enrolled at the Art Students League, studying briefly with Thomas Hart Benton, George Luks, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and John Sloan. While a student, he worked for the National Police Gazette where, in 1925, one of his assignments was sketching the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Calder became fascinated with the action of the circus, a theme that would reappear in his later work. In 1926, Calder moved to Paris, enrolled in the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, and established a studio at 22 rue Daguerre in the Montparnasse Quarter. In June 1929, while traveling by boat from Paris to New York, Calder met his future wife, Louisa James (1905-1996), grandniece of author Henry James and philosopher William James. They married in 1931. While in Paris, Calder met and became friends with a number of avant-garde artists, including Fernand Léger, Jean Arp, and Marcel Duchamp. Cirque Calder (on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art at present) became popular with the Parisian avant-garde. He also invented wire sculpture, or "drawing in space," and in 1929 he had his first solo show of these sculptures in Paris at Galerie Billiet. Hi! (Two Acrobats) in the collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art is an early example of the artist's wire sculpture. The painter Jules Pascin, a friend of Calder's from the cafes of Montparnasse, wrote the preface to the catalog. A visit to Piet Mondrian's studio in 1930, where he was impressed by the environment-as-installation, "shocked" him into fully embracing abstract art, toward which he had already been tending. Dating from 1931, Calder’s sculptures of discrete movable parts powered by motors were christened “mobiles” by Marcel Duchamp, a French pun meaning both "motion" and "motive." At the same time, Calder was also experimenting with self-supporting, static, abstract sculptures, dubbed "stabiles" by Jean Arp in 1932 to differentiate them from mobiles. Public commissions increasingly came his way in the 1960s. Notable examples are .125 for JFK Airport in 1957, Spirale for UNESCO in Paris 1958 and Trois disques, commissioned for Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Calder's largest sculpture at 25.7 meters high was El Sol Rojo, constructed outside the Aztec Stadium for the 1968 Summer Olympics "Cultural Olympiad" events in Mexico City. Many of his public works were commissioned by renowned architects; I.M. Pei commissioned his La Grande Voile (1966), a 25-ton, 40-foot high stabile for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Part of Calder's repertoire includes pivotal stage sets for more than a dozen theatrical productions, including Nucléa, Horizon, and most notably, Martha Graham’s Panorama (1935), a production of the Erik Satie symphonic drama Socrate (1936), and later, Works in Progress (1968). In addition to sculptures, Calder painted throughout his career, beginning in the early 1920s. He picked up his study of printmaking in 1925, and continued to produce illustrations for books and journals.As Calder’s professional reputation expanded in the late 1940s and 1950s, so did his production of prints. Masses of lithographs based on his gouache paintings hit the market, and deluxe editions of plays, poems, and short stories illustrated with fine art prints by Calder became available for sale. One of Calder's most celebrated and unconventional undertakings was a commission from Dallas-based Braniff International Airways to paint a full-size Douglas DC-8-62 four-engined jet as a "flying canvas." Calder created over 2,000 pieces of jewelry over the course of his career, many of them as gifts for friends and relatives. For his lifelong friend Joan Miró, he set a shard of a broken porcelain vessel in a brass ring. Peggy Guggenheim received enormous silver mobile earrings and later commissioned a hammered silver headboard...

Fritz Eichenberg, 'The Aquarium', wood engraving, 1933, edition 200. Signed and titled in pencil. Initialed in the block, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression, on pale yel...

Stoops in Snow. 1930. Drypoint and sandpaper ground. McCarron catalog 89.state ii. 9 x 14 7/8 (sheet 13 1/4 x 18 7/16 ). Edition 115 recorded impressio...

Geo Ham: 1900-1972. Well listed French artist who is best known for his posters of car racing. He has auction results over $32,000 for a single poster. This original lithographic pos...

Drypoint etching on white, buff laid paper with deckle edges, 8 13/16 x 12 inches (224 x 305 mm), full margins. One of only 25 proof impressions. In superb condition with excellent i...

Etching on vélin Canson et Montgolfier paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Published by L'Imprimerie Daragnès, Paris; printed by Jean Gabriel Daragnès, Paris, ...

Original vintage 1933 poster: Graphin. The silhouette of the man is sitting on a casket of wine with a big bottle of wine resting on the ground in front ...

James Allen, 'The Connectors', 1934, etching, edition not stated, Ryan 66. Signed in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on handmade, cream laid paper, with margins (1/2 to 1...