Richard Houston Art

This very rare, first edition, folio hand-colored engraving of an eagle is plate 215 from Ulisse Aldrovandi’s 'Opera Omnia', published between 1599 a...

This very rare, first edition, folio hand-colored woodcut engraving of a bird of prey is plate 219 from Ulisse Aldrovandi’s 'Opera Omnia', published ...

Edwards, George Parrots, a group of twelve. London, For the author, at the College of Physicians in Warwick-Lane. 1747-1751 Decorative plates for “A Natural History of Birds” one ...

paper: 22 x 15 in. printed image: 4 3/4 x 6 in. english translation: Long Hand Crab Latin

this impression is #46 from edition of 50 Mezzotint artist Mikio Watanabe was born in 1954 in Japan and currently lives in France. He is most known for his elegant, evocative black ...

This very rare, first edition, folio hand-colored engraving of an eagle is plate K2 from Ulisse Aldrovandi’s 'Opera Omnia', published between 1599 an...

'La Brebis' Copper-line engraving, circa 1765 From Buffon's "Histoire Naturelle, Generale et Particuliere Avec la Description du Cabinet du Roi" which was published in Paris. 24c...

This is a hand-colored engraving of male and female woodpeckers entitled "1. Le Petit Pie varie, 2. Sa Femelle" by Francois Nicolas Martinet, plate 598 from 'Histoire Naturelle des O...

'Shooting - Plate II', engraving from George Stubb's famous set of four shooting engravings. Copper-line engraving with later hand-colouring by William...

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...

The Sparrow Hawk is an aquatint and drypoint print on chine from one of the deluxe copies of Picasso's 1942 Histoire Naturelle - Textes de Buffon series. The image size is 10.5 x 8 inches, unsigned as issued, and framed in a contemporary silver and gray moulding. One of about 36 prints that exist with Picasso's remarqued title in French, from the edition of 262 (there were 226 portfolios, some with additional sets on varying papers). Catalogue - Cramer #37 The exceptional etchings from Picasso’s Histoire Naturelle – Textes de Buffon are a masterful combination of sugar-lift aquatint and drypoint, showcasing a full range of gray tonalities. The etchings of animals, birds and insects are considered some of the most beautiful and most unusual examples of Picasso’s graphic work. Roger Lacourière, Picasso’s master printer, pulled the prints for each etching between 1939-1942. It was Lacourière who taught Picasso the sugar-lift aquatint technique which allowed him to mimic the effect of brushstrokes in these etched images. Picasso first explored the technique in his plates for the Vollard Suite, but it was in the creation of the Buffon images that he fully realized its stunning, painterly potential. For the edition, 226 portfolios were produced with the first thirty-six counting as deluxe compilations. These rare deluxe sets were on diverse papers (chine, japon or vergé ancien) and each included a complete additional suite showing Picasso’s title remarques along the bottom. As such, the remarqued versions of the prints are quite rare with just thirty-six of each produced for the edition (with the exception of The Wolf which is never remarqued – the image always fills the entire etching plate). These prints are based on the writings of French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, who extensively documented the natural world in his monumental work Histoire Naturelle. Picasso’s association with the project to illustrate parts of the Buffon came during a tumultuous time in European history – the prelude to, and early years of, World War II. As the continent was ravaged, Picasso lived through the disaster in Paris, which the Germans occupied in 1940. These prints could be seen as a political statement – Picasso channeling his artistic expression into a form of resistance art...

This is a rare 18th Century hand-colored large folio-sized copperplate engraving entitled "Ardea Ciconia" (White Stork) by Cornelius Nozeman in volume II of his publication 'Nederlan...