Shan Merry Art

Old Master An Oil Print after a Painting by Jusepe de Ribera in the Museo del Prado, Spain. This is an early print after the original.

A very good, dark and evenly-printed impression of this etching with strong contrasts. Biörklund's second state (of 3); Usticke's third state (e) (of 6), with the vertical scratch th...

Artist: Malo-Renault (French, 1870-1938) Title: "Portrait de Fanny Charrin" Portfolio: Gazette des Beaux-Arts *Issued unsigned Year: 1909 Medium: Original Etching and Drypoint on wov...

Jacques Callot (French, 1592-1635) ‘ Ne voila pas de braves messagers qui vont errants par pays étrangers ? / Are these not fine messengers, straying through foreign lands ? ‘ • A...

Johann Friedrich Bause (1738 Halle a. d. Saale - 1814 Weimar). Half-length portrait of a man with beard and cap after a drawing by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich. Etching and coppe...

Bernard Picart, 'The Death of Hercules' from 'The Temple of the Muses', engraving, 1730. Signed in the plate, lower left. Titled in French, English, German, and Dutch. A superb, rich...

Bernard Picart, 'The Deluge' from 'The Temple of the Muses', engraving, 1730. Signed in the plate and dated '1730' lower left. Titled in French, English, German, and Dutch. A superb...

Fine 18th century engraving by French artist Jean-Jacques Lagrenée. Presented with hand cut mount and gilt filet in fine wood and gilt 'ribbon and reed' frame. Very charming renditi...

"Sister Water" - St Francis of Assisi Linocut Wood Black pring of St Francis by Italian artist (printer of Assisi) Gastone Vignati (Italian, 20C)...

Study of a female nude in the Baroque style, by acclaimed California artist Ben Messick (American, 1891-1981). Signed "Ben Messick 40" in plate and pencil lower left, by the estate. Unframed. Image size, 4.75"L x 10.5"H; overall mat size is, 16"L x 20"H. Some foxing to over-mat. The following is submitted by Jim Lafferty whose sources include the autobiography of the artist: William Washington Messick married Sarah A. Bristow January 2,1889 and from this marriage a son, Benjamin Newton Messick was born on January 9, 1891 on a farm near Strafford, Missouri. His art talent was apparent from the time he was a child and later recognized by his commanding officer in World War I. He completed his training in Los Angeles at Chouinard in the late-1920s and is well-known for his Regionalist scenes and Modernist paintings. He was an instructor at Chouinard through the 1950s & influenced a generation of LA Modernists. Little is recorded in his autobiography about Messick's life from his teen years and service during the War. He enrolled at Chouinard Institute in the Fall of 1925, and was given a three-year scholarship by Mrs. Chouinard. In 1925 he won a cash award at the Los Angeles County Fair for a group of pen and charcoal drawings done in the parks and streets of Los Angeles. These works give the appearance of being spontaneous and fluid. In 1930 Messick left Chouinard as a full-time student and rented an apartment on West Eighth Street to use as a studio and living quarters. He had his own ideas on what he was trying to accomplish in art. "If you should ask what is the message of my drawings, I should say that they may explain themselves or may be just a technical exercise." By the mid 1940s, Messick's position in the art world had been well established as a teacher, painter, printmaker, writer and critic. Over his life time he had over 400 shows and exhibitions. Starting in 1939 he produced a number of stone lithographs that appear to the untrained eye as original drawings. To Messick the image was the most important aspect of his lithographs, and his signature in the plate was sufficient. Hand signing each lithograph did not seem necessary to him. He exhibited prints widely including the Albany Print Club and the Metropolitian Museum. To further substantiate the authenticity of Messick's prints the Eclectic Gallery under the authority of the Messick family posthumously pencil signed each estate-acquired stone lithograph. Messick had a childhood fascination with the circus and started drawing and painting the circus in 1935. His circus work, especially his clown studies, and his lithographs became his trademark work for in the 1940s and 1950s. A critic for ART REVIEW described his Big Top work this way: "His circus canvases...

The original design for the top half was formally attributed to William Hogarth, according to the Met Museum, and published by John Bowles in 1728. The edition here has a second half...

The Martyrdom of Saint Agatha after the painting by his father, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (see photo) Etching, c. 1780 Signature: unsigned Watermark: Let...