Franco Rognoni Prints and Multiples

Phrosine and Mélidore Etching, 1879 Signed in the polate lower left of image This etching is after the Dantan painting, a copy after the Pierre-Paul Prud’hom painting Published by Vv...

A 1928 woodcut on paper of a self-portrait of notable Chicago Modernist artist, Emil Armin. Artwork size: 10 1/2" x 8". Archivally matted to: 12 1/2" x 14 1/2. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. Edition 7/30. Emil Armin was born in Radautz, Austria in 1883. By the age of 10, Armin was orphaned and was raised by his older siblings. He supported himself by working in restaurants and drew in his spare time. In 1905, at the age of 21, Armin immigrated to Chicago. He began studying at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1907, but financial difficulties forced him to start and stop a number of times, finally graduating in 1920. He studied with George Bellows and Randall Davey. Armin was an integral part of Chicago’s 57th Street Art Colony and exhibited in both the more avant-garde Chicago No-Jury Society Shows, as well as the more formal and conventional Chicago Society of Artists Exhibitions, the Chicago Renaissance Society and Art Institute of Chicago (1922-1949) exhibitions. He taught at Hull House...

Keying Up - The Court Jester Etching with drypoint, 1879 Signed in the plate lower left corner (see photos) Proof before engraved title and engraved names Printed on thin light golden Japanese tissue paper In the final state, with engraved titled and typeface engraved artist’s signature below the image Condition: excellent Plate size: 6-5/8 x 4-1/4" According to Pisano, this image was very popular during Chase’s life. It is based on his famous painting, Keying Up-The Court Jester, in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The painting was created in Munich during the artist’s studies there. It was exhibited in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where it won a Medal of Honor and helped establish the artist’s reputation as a leading American painter. Chase, always conscious of self promotion, created the etching and had numerous impressions printed. He sold them for a modest price to increase his fame. The etching was later published in Sylvester R. Koehler, American Art Review, September 1878. It was for this American Art Review printing that the engraved titled and type face signature below the image were added to the plate. This example was part of a group of impressions that came down in the Chase family via his daughter Dorothy Bremond Chase, his third daughter. They were acquired at auction in a single auction lot, housed in a paper board folder. The consignor was Associated American Artist’s as they were liquidating their stock prior to closing the gallery. Dorothy was the subject of Chase’s painting, My Little Daughter Dorothy. C. 1894, in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts as well as numerous other portraits of her. Reference: Pisano/Bake, Volume 1, Pr. 3, illustrates the rare 1st state, this being a 2nd state before any other the engraved title and Chase's name in the bottom margin which are found in the third state. Artist bio in file (Chase) In 1883 Chase was involved in the organization of an exhibition to help raise funds for a pedestal for the Statute of Liberty. The exhibition featured loans of three works by Manet and urban scenes by the Italian Impressionist Giuseppe de Nittis. Both artists influenced Chase's Impressionistic style that gave rise to a series of New York park scenes. It is also thought that he was influenced by John Singer Sargent's In the Luxembourg Gardens (1879) which was exhibited in New York at this time. Indeed, Chase had met Sargent in Europe in 1881, the two men becoming lifelong friends with Sargent painting Chase's portrait in 1902. On another European trip in 1885, Chase met James McNeill Whistler in London. While Whistler had a reputation for being difficult, the two artists got along famously and agreed to paint one another's portrait. Eventually, however, Whistler's moods began to grate with Chase who wrote home stating "I really begin to feel that I never will get away from here". For his part, Whistler criticized Chase's finished portrait and, according to Hirshler, "complained about Chase for the rest of his life". While no record exists of Whistler's portrait of Chase; Chase's portrait of Whistler remains a well-known piece in his oeuvre. In 1887 Chase married Alice Gerson, the daughter of the manager of a lithography company. Though some fifteen years his junior (Chase was 37), he had known Alice for some time through her family's devotion to the arts. The pair, who would enjoy a happy marriage with Alice in full support of her husband's career, settled initially in Brooklyn where their first child was born. The couple would parent six daughters and two sons and it was only his family that could rival his devotion to his art. Indeed, Chase often combined his two loves by painting several portraits of his wife and children in Brooklyn parks before the couple relocated to Manhattan. Later Period Between 1891 and 1902, Chase and his family spent their summers at a purpose-built home and studio in Shinnecock Hills, a close suburb of the upmarket town of Southampton on the south shore of Long Island (roughly 100 miles east of New York). Chase set up, and taught two days a week, at the nearby Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art which benefitted from the financial backing of local art collectors. It was at Shinnecock that Chase, taken in by the region's striking natural surroundings, painted several Impressionistic landscapes. As Bettis put it, "There, among the dunes, in the bright sunlight and sea air his painterly impulse was given free sway, and he produced some of his freest and loveliest work". His passion for the area was so felt he even gave his daughter Hazel the middle name of Neamaug, in honor of the rich Native American history of Shinnecock. Chase was equally focused on the students that came to the School and who he encouraged to paint in the modern plein air style favored by the French Impressionists. Although Chase was making a name for himself as an Impressionist, he never abandoned his commitment to the sombre tones and academic tropes he had learned in Munich, though these he reserved for his portraits, and for his series of striking still lifes featuring dead fish. Chase was in fact a successful society portraitist - he painted fashionable women for a fee of $2,000 - and would paint his students as "samples" which he then donated to leading art institutions (such as Lady in Black (1888) which he donated to the Metropolitan Museum in 1891). In 1896, facing financial difficulties, Chase flirted with the idea of giving up his teaching in New York and traveled with his family to Madrid where he developed a passion for bullfighting. Chase returned however to Shinnecock in June to teach his yearly summer art class, and in the fall of that year, established his own art school in Manhattan: the Chase School which was modelled on the Académie Julian in Paris. Chase lacked business savvy, however, and the Chase School lasted only two years before it was placed under new management. It continued as the New York School of Art (changed to Parsons School of Design starting 1941) with Chase as head the School for eleven more years. Chase also taught during this period at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1902, following the premature death of his friend John Twachtman, Chase was invited to join the Ten American Painters group (who included amongst its members, Frank Weston Benson, Thomas Wilmer Dewing...

An original mid century modern woodblock print. This work is hand signed illegibly and titled "Wedding Party".

An original woodblock print dated 1965, titled "Our Town" but signed illegibly.

Les deux tures coifffes d’un turban avec une aigrette (The two headdresses of a turban with a crest) Etching, 1618 From: Varie Figure (16 plates) Condition: Trimmed withing the plate...

A la Corrida Color aquatint, c. 1900 Signed "Osterlind" lower right in red pencil Annotated: "No. 96" in pencil lower left Edition: about 100 Published by Sagot, Paris: their blindst...

untitled (Shoeing the Mule, Charleston, South Carolina) Etching, c. 1930 Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo) Condition: Excellent Image/plate size: 8 x 10 inches S...

Sevillanas Etching and color aquatint on laid watermarked paper, c. 1900 Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo) Editioned in pencil lower left corner of sheet Publish...

Todros Geller (1889 – 1949) was a Jewish American artist and teacher best known as a master printmaker and a leading artist among Chicago’s art community.Geller was born in Vinnytsia, the Russian Empire (now Ukraine) in 1889.[2] He studied art in Odessa and continued his studies after moving to Montreal in 1906 where he immigrated to Canada. He married and moved to Chicago in 1918, where he studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago until 1923. Geller produced paintings, woodcuts, woodcarvings, and etchings. His work focused on Jewish tradition, often including moralistic themes and social commentary, shtetl, ghetto life, and the intersection of Jewish tradition with modern-day Chicago. He regarded art as a tool for social reform and he spent a large part of his career teaching art. His work was commissioned for stained glass windows, bookplates, community centers and Yiddish and English books. He was regarded as a leader in the field of synagogue and religious art. He designed stained glass window for synagogues in Omaha, Fort Worth, Dayton, Stamford, and Chicago Heights. Over the course of his career he illustrated more than 40 books. In addition to conducting classes in his studio, Geller was head of art at the Jewish People’s Institute (JPI), supervisor of art for the Board of Jewish Education and director of art for the College of Jewish Studies (which became the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership) and taught at Hull House. Many prominent Chicago artists studied drawing and painting under Geller. Geller was a source of inspiration to Aaron Bohrod and Mitchell Siporin, among others. Irene Gordon was also among his pupils. In 1926, Geller formed what would become a lengthy working relationship with Chicago publisher and cultural activist L. M. Shteyn (a pseudonym for Yitshak Leyb Fradkin, anglicized as L.M. Stein in his English language correspondence). Shteyn and Geller shared a similar ideology, were both considered radical progressives, were part of the Chicago Jewish Left who worked to promote the Yiddish language and they both supported the Soviet Union for its commitment to the Yiddish language and to the Jewish settlement in Birobidzhan. Shteyn's Yiddish press, the L. M. Shteyn Farlag, published at least eight monographs illustrated by Geller and four art albums dedicated to his work. Geller was one of the founding members of "Around the Palette" in Chicago in 1926, a club where artists shared their personal views of art and its role in society. The club became the "American Jewish Art Club", in 1940 and subsequently the "American Jewish Artists Club" in the early 1990s. Other founding members included Emil Armin, David Bekker, Aaron Bohrod, Fritzi Brod...

The Academy of Plato Plato and His Disciples Etching and drypoint c. 1662, printed c. 1710 Signed in the plate lower left Inscribed lower left: 'In villa ab Academo attributa sua[m]...

La Fête Nationale du Boulevard Clichy Etching, drypoint, and aquatint, 1878 Signed lower left in the plate (see photo) Printed chine collee, mounted on white wove paper Upper plate m...