Samuel Chamberlain

'Soaring Steel' — Vintage Chicago Cityscape

1929

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...

Gustave Baumann, 'Taos Placita', color woodcut, 1947, edition 125. Baumann 132. Signed, titled, and numbered '20-125' in pencil; with the artist’s Hand-in-Heart chop. A superb, richly-inked impression, with fresh colors, on fibrous oatmeal wove paper; the full sheet with margins (2 to 3 1/8 inches); slight rippling at the left sheet edge, in excellent condition. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 9 5/8 x 11 1/4 inches (244 x 286 mm); sheet size 13 1/4 x 17 inches (337 x 432 mm). Collections: New Mexico Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Wichita Art Museum. ABOUT THE ARTIST Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) was a renowned printmaker and a leading figure of the American color woodcut revival whose exquisite craftsmanship and vibrant imagery captured the essence of the Southwest. "A brilliant printmaker, Baumann brought to the medium a full mastery of the craft of woodworking that he acquired from his father, a German cabinetmaker. This craftsmanship was coupled with a strong artistic training that resulted in the handsome objects we see in the exhibition today. After discovering New Mexico in 1918, Baumann began to explore in his woodblock prints of this period the light. color, and architectural forms of that landscape. His prints of this period are among the most beautiful and poetic images of the American West." —Lewis I. Sharp, Director, Denver Art Museum Baumann, the son of a craftsman, immigrated to the United States from Germany with his family when he was ten, settling in Chicago. From 1897 to 1904, he studied in the evenings at the Art Institute of Chicago, working in a commercial printmaking shop during the day. In 1905, he returned to Germany to attend the Kunstwerbe Schule in Munich, where he decided on a career in printmaking. He returned to Chicago in 1906 and worked for a few years as a graphic designer of labels. Baumann made his first prints in 1909 and exhibited them at the Art Institute of Chicago the following year. In 1910, he moved to the artists’ colony in Nashville, Indiana, where he explored the creative and commercial possibilities of a career as a printmaker. In 1915, he exhibited his color woodcuts at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, winning the gold medal. Among Baumann’s ongoing commercial activities was his work for the Packard Motor Car Company from 1914 to 1920 where he produced designs, illustrations, and color woodcuts until 1923. In 1919, Baumann’s printmaking work dominated the important exhibition of American color woodcuts at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Twenty-six of his prints were included, far more than the works of any other artist. A set of his blocks, a preparatory drawing, and seven progressive proofs complemented the exhibition. That same year, Baumann worked in New York and, over the summer, in Provincetown, Massachusetts. His airy images of Cape Cod employed soft, pastel colors and occasionally showed the influence of the white-line woodcut technique. Many of his Chicago artist friends had traveled to the southwest, and Baumann became intrigued by their paintings, souvenirs, and stories of an exotic place named Taos, New Mexico. In the summer of 1918, he spent the summer in Taos sketching and painting before visiting Santa Fe. Paul Walter, the director of the Museum of New Mexico, offered him a studio in the museum's basement. Inspired by the rugged beauty of the Southwest—the vibrant colors and dramatic landscapes of the region became a central theme in his work, influencing his artistic style and subject matter for the remainder of his career. Later in the decade, he traveled to the West Coast and made prints of California landscape. Baumann's prints became synonymous with the Southwest, capturing the spirit of its place in America's identity with a unique sense of authenticity and reverence. His iconic images of desert vistas, pueblo villages, and indigenous cultures served as visual tributes to the region's rich cultural heritage, earning him a dedicated following among collectors and curators alike. A true craftsman and artist, Baumann completed every step of the printmaking process himself, cutting each block, mixing the inks, and printing every impression on the handmade paper he selected. His dedication to true craftsmanship and his commitment to preserving the integrity of his artistic vision earned him widespread acclaim and recognition within the art world. About the vibrant colors he produced, Baumann stated, “A knowledge of color needs to be acquired since they don’t all behave the same way when ground or mixed...careful chemistry goes into the making of colors, with meticulous testing for permanence. While complicated formulae evolve new colors, those derived from Earth and metal bases are still the most reliable.” In the 1930s, Baumann became interested in puppet theater. He designed and carved his own marionettes and established a little traveling company. From 1943 to 1945, the artist carved an altarpiece for the Episcopal Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe. In 1952, a retrospective exhibition of his prints was mounted at the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts. Throughout his prolific career, Baumann executed nearly four hundred color woodcuts. Baumann’s woodcuts...

Luigi Kasimir, 'Brooklyn Bridge', color etching with aquatint, 1927, edition 100. Signed in pencil. A superb impression, with fresh colors, on heavy, cream wove paper; with margins...

Werner Drewes brought his modernist vision to this subject but created, in my opinion, a great work of the Etching Revival. The reference is Rose 183. It...

Such an innovative image on the classic 'Riders in the Park' theme! Further, the use of drypoint and the rather direct -- even aggressive -- drawing style, bring it into the German E...

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...

Signed in pencil. This scene is a hundred years old but if we have snow this year it can easily be recreated.