James David Smillie

Late 19th Century Engraving -- "A Hot Bargain" Painting by Frederick Bridgman

Circa 1900

Dueling with Cherry Blossoms - Tales of Genji - Japanese Woodblock Rightmost panel a triptych, depicting a group of children and a samurai watching a "duel" with cherry blossoms. Th...

Figurative landscape capturing dock workers' afternoon break by John Theodore Edward Stoll (b. Germany; 1889, d. California; 1974). Signed "John Stoll" lower right. Titled "Drowsy Bu...

Parisian Café Eiffel Tower Paris France Limited Edition Print by British Artist. A high quality limited edition print of Angela's European Series, incorporating the Eiffel Tower - on...

Jörg Olberg (*1956 Dresden), Agony, 1987. etching, E.A. (edition of 30), 24 x 17 cm (image), 46 x 37 cm (sheet), each signed in pencil lower right "Olberg" and dated "IX [19]87", inscribed lower left "E.A. [Epreuve d'Artiste]". - minimal crease and dust stains in the broad margin - The architecture of decay - About the artwork Jörg Olberg draws here the sum of his artistic study of the Berlin ruins, which were still present in the cityscape well into the 80s. With his work "Agony" he creates an allegory of decay. Positioned in the landscape of ruins, a ruined house grows before the viewer, rising like the Tower of Babel into the sky, its roof and gable brightly illuminated by the sun. But already the roof shows mostly only the rafters, and as the gaze is drawn further down, the building visibly disintegrates, the beams protruding in all directions looking like splintered bones. Slowly but inexorably - in agony - the house will collapse in on itself and become nothing more than the burial mound of itself. At the same time, the small-scale stone composition and the plaster form a pattern-like ornamentation of decay. The tension in the picture is fed by the counter-movement of growth and collapse, which is heightened by the dramatic formation of clouds. The swirls of clouds are reminiscent of a world landscape...