Polish artist Joseph Hecht went to live in neutral Norway at the outbreak of World War I. Immediately following the armistice, Hecht traveled to Italy; and two years later to Paris, where he maintained a studio until his death. Hecht became a member of the Salon d'Automne, thereby gaining an entrée into the Parisian art world and the opportunity to exhibit his work regularly. At his Paris studio, he taught burin-engraving, the classic copper-engraving technique, to many artists including British surrealist painter and printmaker Stanley William Hayter. In 1926 Hecht published his first suite of six prints, l'Arche de Noë, which included a preface by the French symbolist Gustave Kahn and was exhibited in December that year at the Paris gallery Le nouvel essor. Hecht’s future collaborator, mystical poet and critic André Suarès wrote a laudatory catalog article. The imagery that Hecht had developed found renewed vigor in 1928 when Suarès and Hecht collaborated on the folio, Atlas. In 1927 Hecht’s support of Hayter's printmaking explorations led to the founding of the printmaking cooperative Atelier 17, which was to become perhaps the most influential printmaking studio of the 20th century, and which endures to this day in Paris as Atelier Contrepoint. The collaborative atmosphere and experimental techniques developed at Atelier 17 influenced numerous artists including Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti and Joan Miró. In 1929, Hecht also became a founding member of another group, La Jeune Gravure Contemporaine, which staged annual group shows and was influential in maintaining a vibrant interest in printmaking. Between 1926–38, Hecht's engravings were published in various collections and his work was widely exhibited, gaining him critical acclaim. Hecht won two gold medals at the 1937 Paris World's Fair.
Lion Défendant sa Proie (Lion Defending Its Prey) — Atelier 17
By Joseph Hecht
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Joseph Hecht, 'Lion Défendant sa Proie (Lion Defending Its Prey)', engraving, 1931, edition 50, Tonneau-Ryckelynck & Plumart 215. Signed and numbered '18/50' in pencil. A fine impres...
Engraving
Asie (Asia) from the series Atlas — Atelier 17
By Joseph Hecht
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Joseph Hecht, 'Asie (Asia) from the series Atlas', engraving, 1928, edition c. 50, Tonneau-Ryckelynck & Plumart 162. Signed and annotated 'epreuve definitive' (final proof) in pencil...
Engraving
Page de Croquis: Tetes de Antilops
By Joseph Hecht
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed in pencil lower right recto Provenance: Elizabeth Carroll Shearer (1924-2014), Chesterland, Ohio, former President and Trustee of the Print Club of Cleveland which is an affiliate of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Her collectors mark of initials and a Sealyham Terrier...
Graphite
Snail in a Bowl (Artist Proof inscribed to Fritz Eichenberg)
Located in New Orleans, LA
Leonard Merchant's mezzotint, "Snail in Cup" is inscribed for fellow artist, Fritz Eichenberg. While a student at the Central School for Arts and Crafts in London, a young Leonard Marchant found an engraving rocker in a cupboard and proceeded to turn himself into a master of the painstaking art of mezzotinting. Marchant, who has died in Shrewsbury aged 70, grew up in Simonstown, the Royal Navy's enclave in South Africa. Though his first job was as a parliamentary messenger, he taught himself to paint and, aged 19, was given a one-man show in Cape Town. Fired by this success, he left for England to study painting and, he claimed, to escape the stifling home atmosphere created by his Catholic mother and aunts. (His father was killed in the second world war.) Without contacts in London, he phoned Jacob Epstein, whose recommendation resulted in a grant to study briefly at the Central School. It was later, when studying full-time at the Central, that he saw the mezzotints of the Japanese master, Yozo Hamaguchi, in a London gallery. He was hooked. Creating a mezzotint is tedious in the extreme. The copper plate must first be prepared with a "rocker" which roughens the surface. A plate may be "rocked" 30 or 40 times. The rough texture is then reduced with a burnisher and a scraper, allowing the print a range of tones from velvety black through the greys to white. Marchant's plates could be months in the making. But the technical demands were the least of his worries. In its 18th- and 19th-century heyday, mezzotint was solely a reproductive medium, for copying masters such as Reynolds and Turner. The development of photography rendered it unfashionable, and by the 1960s the technique, known as la manière anglaise, was a bygone medium. Marchant, by now a teacher in printmaking at the Central, began to create original mezzotints with a colleague, Radavan Kraguly. A perfectionist, he seemed to revel in the straitjacket procedure. Perhaps it was the metaphor of bringing darkness out of light that appealed to this straight-talking, sometimes sombre, man, who would suddenly relax and light up like a gleaming hue on one of his prints. His work was of squares and triangles with the occasional cat, black and ominous, and carefully arranged still lifes, featuring plants, a seed pod, a pot he might have bought at auction to celebrate the sale of a print. There were one-man shows, notably at the Bankside Gallery. He sold well at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, was a Florence Biennale prizewinner, spent a fellowship year at the British School in Rome, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. But making mezzotints was not a paying job. Marchant and his South African wife...
Mezzotint
$108Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.5 in W 7 in
British Chalk Pencil Sketch of Small White Sheep Lying Down
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
John Rabone Harvey ( 1966 - 1922) graphic and chalk deep green artist paper , unframed artist paper : 5.5 x 7 inches Provenance: private collection Condition: very good condition Ha...
Chalk, Graphite
$108Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.5 in W 7 in
British Chalk Pencil Sketch of Horse Tacked Up From Behind
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
John Rabone Harvey ( 1966 - 1922) graphic and chalk deep green artist paper , unframed artist paper : 5.5 x 7 inches Provenance: private collection Condition: very good condition Ha...
Chalk, Graphite
A Fierce Bull
By James McBey
Located in Plano, TX
A Fierce Bull. 1911. Drypoint. Hardie 108. 5 3/8 x 8 (sheet 8 5/16 x 11 7/8). Edition 8. An exceptional impression with rich drypoint burr printed on antique laid paper. A proof of t...
Drypoint, Etching
$108Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.5 in W 7 in
British Chalk Pencil Sketch of a Cow with Horns Side Profile
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
John Rabone Harvey ( 1966 - 1922) graphic and chalk deep green artist paper , unframed artist paper : 5.5 x 7 inches Provenance: private collection Condition: very good condition Ha...
Chalk, Graphite
$108Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.5 in W 7 in
British Chalk Pencil Sketch of a Cow with Horns In The Water Loche
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
John Rabone Harvey ( 1966 - 1922) graphic and chalk deep green artist paper , unframed artist paper : 5.5 x 7 inches Provenance: private collection Condition: very good condition Ha...
Chalk, Graphite
$126Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.5 in W 7 in
British Chalk Pencil Sketches of a Different Cows in Profiles In Field
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
John Rabone Harvey ( 1966 - 1922) graphic and chalk deep green artist paper , unframed artist paper : 5.5 x 7 inches Provenance: private collection Condition: very good condition Ha...
Chalk, Graphite
$108Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.5 in W 7 in
British Chalk Pencil Sketch Of A Cow's Body With White Features
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
John Rabone Harvey ( 1966 - 1922) graphic and chalk deep green artist paper , unframed artist paper : 5.5 x 7 inches Provenance: private collection Condition: very good condition Ha...
Chalk, Graphite
$500
H 3 in Dm 3 in
Deerflake (The artist's first work celebrating the Solstice / deer as snowflake)
By Carol Wax
Located in New Orleans, LA
Carol Wax describes her circular images as "most often quasi abstract works that refer to ancient islamic designs using the shapes and attributes of animals, in this case the deer. T...
Mezzotint
Night Time, Dieppe.
By Edmund Blampied
Located in Plano, TX
Night Time, Dieppe. 1926-27. Drypoint. Appleby 123. 7 7/8 x 11/ Edition 100. A fine impression printed on cream laid paper with full margins. Signed in penc...
Drypoint, Etching
Returning to the Stable.
By Edmund Blampied
Located in Plano, TX
Returning to the Stable. 1920. Drypoint. Appleby 64. 8 3/4 x 12 1/4 (sheet 11 7/16 x 16 1/8). Edition 100. A rich impression printed on cream laid paper wi...
Drypoint, Etching
The Matador.
By James McBey
Located in Plano, TX
The Matador. 1911. Drypoint. Hardie 109. 6 7/8 x 10 7/8 (sheet 7 7/8 x 12). Edition 15. A few scattered foxing marks and slight mat line; otherwise fine o...
Drypoint, Etching