Max Beckmann

Spring (Fruling) (also known as Street in Frankfort)

1918

Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Antwerp, drypoint, 1914, signed and dated in pencil lower right margin. Reference: Dube 123. In excellent condition, the full sheet on a cream/ivory wove pa...

James Whistler (1834-1903), The Bridge, Santa Marta, 1879-80, etching with drypoint, printed in sepia on fine laid paper. Signed with the butterfly and inscribed imp on the tab (also with an exceedingly light butterfly lower right in the plate). Kennedy 204, probably eighth (final) state; Glasgow 201, probably state 9 (of 9) (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011), Lochnan 199. Trimmed to the platemark by the artist, h: 11.8 x w: 7.9 in / h: 30 x w: 20.1 cm. A fine impression, printed with subtle tone. The bridge theme occurs repeatedly in Whistler’s vistas. It is also the main focus of more than one of the Venetian prints. While some bridges are seen from below, from where one would see it if approaching in a gondola (for example Ponte del Piovan, Kennedy 209), The Bridge depicts the scene from a high perspective, opening up the view into the far distance. The small boat approaching the arch in the foreground is again, as in the earlier Thames prints, a stock motif that is probably ultimately derived from the Japanese woodcuts of Hokusai and Hiroshige. The bridge here is the Ponte de le Terese over the Rio de l’Arzere in the Santa Marta quarter. The early biography of Whistler by Elizabeth and Joseph Pennell is essential for its “immense quantity of information” but also notorious for “the inherent hyperbole and misinformation” (Eric Denker, Annotated Bibliography, in Fine, p. 184). Still, it is worth quoting from the Pennels’ appraisal of The Bridge: “Simplicity of expression has never been carried further. Probably the finest plate, in its simplicity and directness, is The Bridge. Whistler now obtained the quality of richness by suggesting detail, and also by printing. In The Traghetto...

A contemporary of David Hockney and Peter Blake, Colin Self is an important British printmaker whose innovative etching techniques and novel use of found materials have defined his diverse oeuvre. Yet unlike most artists associated with Pop Art, Self eschewed glossy, colorful bombast for nuanced drawings in a limited palette. Self's imagery has ranged from the geopolitical -- nuclear bombers, fallout shelters; to American icons -- hot dogs, Coca Cola cans; to the everyday -- intimate scenes of animals and plants, and whimsical figure drawings as seen here. The title of this print, Microwave Oven...

Etching with drypoint on Japan paper, 9 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches (245 x 322 mm), full margins, from an edition of approximately 50. Signed by the artist in pencil, lower center margin, t...