Bertha Landers

'Mountain Trees' — 1930s Southwestern Regionalism

c. 1938

Lawrence Nelson Wilbur (1897-1988), 'The East River', drypoint, edition 65, 1946. Signed, titled, and annotated 'A. Jones Proof 1946' in pencil. Signed and dated in the plate, lower ...

'St. Mark's Church on the Bowery', aquatint with etching, edition not stated but small, 1932. Signed in pencil. Signed in the plate lower left and titled in the plate lower right. A superb, atmospheric impression, on cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/8 to 2 inches), in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 9 3/4 x 7 3/8 inches (248 x 187 mm); sheet size 13 1/8 x 10 inches (333 x 254 mm). Impressions of this work are held in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum and the Five College Museums. ABOUT THE ARTIST Born in Vienna, Leon Dolice left a secure position in the family business to pursue his artistic interests. He began his art education in his teens and early twenties when he traveled through Europe to study the works of the Old Masters. He immigrated to America in 1920 and made his home in Manhattan. As a printmaker, he chose as his subjects the architecture, back streets, dock scenes, and other aspects of New York City life that were being overtaken by the modern world. In 1950, learning of the coming demolition of the Third Avenue El, Dolice created a series of Third Avenue and other New York City landmarks that were threatened with extinction. His images from that period provide a record of a New York that has passed into history. During his lifetime, Dolice exhibited throughout Europe and the United States. Retrospectives of his work include a one-man show of his graphic work at Tribeca Gallery, New York; the traveling exhibition ‘Vintage New York’ with the New Rochelle Council on the Arts; and the Hofstra Museum, Hempstead. Dolice's works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York, the National Gallery of Art, the New York Historical Society, Georgetown University, the Philadelphia Print Club, and the New York Public Library, as well as private and corporate collections. ABOUT ST. MARKS CHURCH St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery is a parish of the Episcopal Church located at 131 East 10th Street, at the intersection of Stuyvesant Street and Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The property has been the site of continuous Christian worship since the mid-17th century, making it New York City's oldest site of continuous religious practice. The structure is the second-oldest church building in Manhattan. In 1651, Petrus Stuyvesant, Director General of New Netherland, purchased land for a bowery or farm from the Dutch West India Company and, by 1660, built a family chapel at the present-day site of St. Mark's Church. Stuyvesant died in 1672 and was interred in a vault under the chapel. Stuyvesant's great-grandson, Petrus "Peter" Stuyvesant, sold the chapel property to the Episcopal Church for $1 in 1793, stipulating that a new chapel be erected to serve Bowery Village, the community which had coalesced around the Stuyvesant family chapel. In 1795, the cornerstone of the present-day St. Mark's Church was laid, and the fieldstone Georgian-style church, built by the architect and mason John McComb Jr., was completed and consecrated on May 9, 1799.[4] Alexander Hamilton provided legal aid in incorporating St. Mark's Church as the first Episcopal parish independent of Trinity Church in New York City. By 1807, the church had as many as two hundred worshipers at its summer services, with 70 during the winter. While the 19th century saw St. Mark's Church grow through its many construction projects, the 20th century was marked by community service and cultural expansion. Today, the rectory houses the Neighborhood Preservation Center, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, and the Historic Districts Council, as well as other preservation and community organizations such as the Poetry Project, the Millennium Film Workshop, and the Danspace Project. St Mark's has supported an active artistic community since the 19th century. In 1919, poet Kahlil Gibran was appointed a member of the St. Mark's Arts Committee, and the next year, the two prominent Indian statues, "Aspiration" and "Inspiration" by sculptor Solon Borglum...

Philadelphia-born Irving Guyer attended the Art Students League and worked in New York City before moving to California. This print is signed and titled i...

Palazzo dell'Angelo 1931 Etching and drypoint on cream-colored, handmade laid paper with deckle edges, 7 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches (185 x 171 mm), edition of 100, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered "Ed. 100" in pencil, lower margin, second state (of three). Printed by Henry Carling, New York. Extremely minor mat tone and some inky residue in the top right corner, all unobtrusive and well outside of image area. An exquisite impression of this intricate image, with astonishing detail, and all the fine lines printing clearly. The image represents the first print which Arms printed on his own handmade paper. Framed handsomely with archival materials and museum grade glass in a wood gilt frame with a flower and garland motif. Illustrated: Dorothy Noyes Arms, Hill Towns and Cities of Northern Italy, p. 180; Anderson, American Etchers Abroad 1880-1930; Eric Denker, Reflections & Undercurrents: Ernest Roth and Printmaking in Venice, 1900-1940, p. 116. [Fletcher 233] Born in 1887 in Washington DC, John Taylor Arms studied at Princeton University, and ultimately earned a degree in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1912. With the outbreak of W.W.I, Arms served as an officer in the United States Navy, and it was during this time that he turned his focus to printmaking, having published his first etching in 1919. His first subjects were the Brooklyn Bridge, near the Navy Yard, and it was during his wartime travel that Arms created a series of extraordinarily detailed etchings based on Gothic cathedrals and churches he visited in France and Italy. He used what was available to him, namely sewing needles and a magnifying glass, to create the incredibly rich and fine detail that his etchings are known for. Upon his return to New York after the war, Arms enjoyed a successful career as a graphic artist, created a series of etchings of American cities, and published Handbook of Print Making and Print Makers (Macmillan, 1934). He served as President of the Society of American Graphic Artists, and in 1933, was made a full member of the National Academy of Design. In its most modern incarnation, Palazzo dell'Angelo was constructed in or around 1570. The building, which has a rich and storied history, was erected upon the ruins of an earlier structure which predates the Gothic period. Some remnants of the earliest features of the residence were most certainly still visible when Arms visited, as they are today. Having a background in architecture, there's no question that Arms was moved by the beauty, history and ingenuity represented in the physical structure. One thing specifically gives away Arms's passion for the architecture, and that is the fact that he focused on the building's Moorish entranceway, balustrade, and two mullioned windows, and not on the curious Gothic era bas-relief of an angel nestled into the facade of the building, after which the structure is named. The sculpture itself doesn't appear in Arms's composition at all, despite the fact that it is the feature of the building that is most famous in its folklore. Arms instead focuses on the oldest portion of the architecture, even documenting some of the remnants of a fresco, and a funerary stele for the freedman Tito Mestrio Logismo, and his wife Mestria Sperata (visible above the water level, to the left of the door, behind the gondola), which was first described in 1436. Among the many notable bits of history regarding the Palazzo, it has been documented that Tintoretto painted frescos of battle scenes on the facade of the building. The paintings have been lost to time and the elements, but not entirely to history. The empty frame...