Thomas Nast

He Wants a Change Too, from "Harper's Weekly"

1876

Thomas Nast is one of America’s great illustrators and is responsible for creating the image of Santa Claus as we know him today. This is a hand-colored wood engraving from the cover...

Raid On A Sand-Swallow Colony " How Many Eggs?" is an original wood engraving from Harper’s Weekly June 13, 1874 in very good condition. One of Am...

Here we go again is an original hand colored wood engraving from a January 1878 Harpers Weekly. Here we see Thomas Nast's ever enduring interpretation of Santa Clause modeled from Clement Moore's Visit from Saint Nicholas. Drawing inspiration from his native German Saint Nicholas, Nast helped the American people believe in a Santa Clause who kindness and generosity brought with it elves, reindeer pulling sleds, Santas workshop, using chimneys...

Fisherman Three is an original 1939 signed etching by the American artist John E. Costigan ( 1888-1972 ) a self-taught painter and printmaker. The locale for Costigan...

Engelina (Engelien) Reitsma-Valença (3 May 1889 - 11 July 1981) Amsterdam, Netherland. The portrait is of a violinist playing what appears to be an enervating piece. An engraver, st...

"EROTIC DREAM" (1976) by Norbert Matzdorf Woodcut print on paper Limited Edition, numbered (10.3), dated and hand-signed by the artist 27,9 x 38,3 cm Norbert Matzdorf (1951 – 2013) ...

Gaston Suisse (1896-1988) Panthère noire dans les bambous, 1927 Gravure sur bois, sur papier Velin de Van Gelder. Rehaussé aux lavis d’encre de Chine par l’artiste Signé en bas à gauche et daté 1927 en bas à droite Black panther in a forest of bamboos, 1927 A handcolored woodcut on Velin de Van Gelder paper Signed and dated 1927 Bibliographie /Literature Gaston Suisse, splendeur du laque art déco. Emmanuel Bréon. Somogy Éditions d'art, Paris 2013, reproduite page 105 (un autre exemplaire reproduit) The artist made a wood engraving of which he made about twenty prints himself. These proofs were not marketed as is, Gaston Suisse reworked each of the proofs using Indian ink washes in order to obtain different effects for each proof, which are thus unique original works. Born in 1896 in a family of artists, his father Georges was a close friend of Siegfried Bing and a great lover of Japanese art and a bibliophile. He passed his taste for art to his son whom he often took to draw at the Botanic Garden . Around 1910, Gaston Suisse, who hasn't entered yet the artistic school, met Paul Jouve, then 18 years his elder, who was already famous. In 1911, at the age of 17, he entered the National School of Decorative Art where he followed the teachings of Paul Renouard. Thanks to his knowledge and taste for the Japanese art, he chose lacquer painting as his specialty. His practice of this noble and demanding subject were so much appreciated that he was awarded with two gold medals in 1913 and 1914. Mobilized during the war , he joined the army and go in Salonika where he found his friend Jouve. In 1918, he finished his studies at the School of Applied Arts in order to perfect his training. He learned in particular the techniques of gilding and oxidation of metals. The first productions of Gaston Suisse, furniture and objects in lacquer with geometrical patterns, were an instant success and Suisse was appointed as member of Salon d'Automne in 1924, the very year of his first exhibition. Considered as an artist-decorator, his sincere and deep friendship with Jouve linked him in parallel with the groups of the animaliers of the Jardin des Plantes and became a close friend of Edouard-Marcel Sandoz. When travelling to Maghreb and Middle-East between 1923 and 1925, he produced numerous drawings representing antelopes, apes and fennec foxes...

Title: Hopi ca. 1920s Artist: Lon Megargee Medium: Block Print Size: 11 x 11 inches (Sight Measurement) SHIPPING CHARGES INCLUDE SHIPPING, PACKAGING & INSURANCE Creator of Stetson's hat logo "Last Drop from his Hat" Image of Lon Megargee not included in purchase. Lon Megargee 1883 - 1960 At age 13, Lon Megargee came to Phoenix in 1896 following the death of his father in Philadelphia. For several years he resided with relatives while working at an uncle’s dairy farm and at odd jobs. He returned to Philadelphia in 1898 – 1899 in order to attend drawing classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Back in Phoenix in 1899, he decided at the age of 16 to try to make his living as a cowboy. Lon moved to the cow country of Wickenburg, Arizona where he was hired by Tex Singleton’s Bull Ranch. He later joined the Three Bar R. . . and after a few years, was offered a job by Billy Cook of the T.T. Ranch near New River. By 1906, Megargee had learned his trade well enough to be made foreman of Cook’s outfit. Never shy about taking risks, Lon soon left Cook to try his own hand at ranching. He partnered with a cowpuncher buddy, Tom Cavness, to start the El Rancho Cinco Uno at New River. Unfortunately, the young partners could not foresee a three-year drought that would parch Arizona, costing them their stock and then their hard-earned ranch. Breaking with his romantic vision of cowboy life, Megargee finally turned to art full time. He again enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art and then the Los Angeles School of Art and Design during 1909 – 1910. The now well-trained student took his first trip to paint “en plein air” (outdoors) to the land of Hopi and Navajo peoples in northern Arizona. After entering paintings from this trip in the annual Territorial Fair at Phoenix, in 1911, he surprisingly sold his first oil painting to a major enterprise – the Santa Fe Railroad . . . Lon received $50 for “Navajos Watching the Santa Fe Train.” He soon sold the SFRR ten paintings over the next two years. For forty years the railroad was his most important client, purchasing its last painting from him in 1953. In a major stroke of good fortune during his early plein-air period, Megargee had the opportunity to paint with premier artist, William R. Leigh (1866 – 1955). Leigh furnished needed tutoring and counseling, and his bright, impressionistic palette served to enhance the junior artist’s sense of color and paint application. In a remarkable display of unabashed confidence and personable salesmanship, Lon Megargee, at age 30, forever linked his name with Arizona art history. Despite the possibility of competition from better known and more senior artists, he persuaded Governor George Hunt and the Legislature in 1913 to approve 15 large, historic and iconic murals for the State Capitol Building in Phoenix. After completing the murals in 1914, he was paid the then princely sum of roughly $4000. His Arizona statehood commission would launch Lon to considerable prominence at a very early point in his art career. Following a few years of art schooling in Los Angeles, and several stints as an art director with movie studios, including Paramount, Megargee turned in part to cover illustrations for popular Western story magazines in the 1920s. In the 1920s, as well, Lon began making black and white prints of Western types and of genre scenes from woodblocks. These prints he generally signed and sold singly. In 1933, he published a limited edition, signed and hard-cover book (about 250 copies and today rare)containing a group of 28 woodblock images. Titled “The Cowboy Builds a Loop,” the prints are noteworthy for strong design, excellent draftsmanship, humanistic and narrative content, and quality. Subjects include Southwest Indians and cowboys, Hispanic men and women, cattle, horses, burros, pioneers, trappers, sheepherders, horse traders, squaw men and ranch polo players. Megargee had a very advanced design sense for simplicity and boldness which he demonstrated in how he used line and form. His strengths included outstanding gestural (action) art and strong figurative work. He was superb in design, originality and drawing, as a study of his prints in the Hays collection reveals. In 1944, he published a second group of Western prints under the same title as the first. Reduced to 16 images from the original 28 subjects, and slightly smaller, Lon produced these prints in brown ink on a heavy, cream-colored stock. He designed a sturdy cardboard folio to hold each set. For the remainder of his life, Lon had success selling these portfolios to museum stores, art fairs and shows, and to the few galleries then selling Western art. Drawing on real working and life experiences, Lon Megargee had a comprehensive knowledge, understanding and sensitivity for Southwestern subject matter. Noted American modernist, Lew Davis...