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Returnable Items Only
Preliminary drawing for the sculpture Catacombs
By Seymour Lipton
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Preliminary drawing for the sculpture Catacombs
Black crayon on paper, 1971
Signed and dated lower right (see photos)
Provenance:
Estate of the artist
Michael and Alan Lipton (sons)
...
Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Oil Crayon
Meduse
By Stanley William Hayter
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Meduse
Etching and aquatint printed in colors, 1958
Signed, titled, numbered and dated in pencil
(see photos)
Edition: 50 (25/50)
Etching and aquatint printed in colors
...
Category
1950s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Plate VI, Le Cocu Magnifique
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Plate VI, Le Cocu Magnifique
etching & aquatint, 1968
Unsigned as usual
From the unsigned edition of 200 impressions printed on Rives BFK paper
There is also a signed edition of 30 i...
Category
1960s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Nightfear
By Karel Appel
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Nightfear
Color lithograph, 1958
From: Rhapsodie de ma nuit, (seven plates)
Signed, dated and numbered in pecnil lower left (see photos)
Edition: E.A. edition of 25, (there were a...
Category
1950s Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
La Tasse et la Pomme (The Cup and the Apple)
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La Tasse et la Pomme (The Cup and the Apple)
Wash drawing and gouache transferred to lithograph stone, 1947
One of four unsigned proofs
Edition: a proof outside the edition of 50 pri...
Category
1940s French School Still-life Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Portrait of Gladys Anne Hoskyns
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Portrait of Gladys Anne Hoskyns
Collotype after a Wyndham Lewis drawing, 1923
Singed in the plate and reinforced in pencil
Published by The Dial Publishing Company in Living Art...
Category
1920s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Homme couche et femme accroupie
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Homme couche et femme accroupie
Lithograph on Arches paper, 1956
Signature stamp lower right )see photo)
Annotated in pencil lower left: "epreuve d'artiste" (see p[hoto)
Edition: 50...
Category
1950s Cubist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Portrait de D. H. Kahnweiler I
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Portrait de D. H. Kahnweiler I
Lithograph, 1957
Estate Signature Stamp lower right
Provenance: Picasso Estate
Marina Picasso, her stamp on reverse
Annotated in ...
Category
1950s French School Portrait Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Untitled (Moulin Rouge and other Paris landmarks)
By Robert Delaunay
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Moulin Rouge and other Paris landmarks)
Lithograph, 1926
Rare signed in pencil proof on chine paper (see photo)
Lithograph from Joseph Delteil's "Allo, Paris," published by...
Category
1920s Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Ile de la Cite, Paris
By Robert Delaunay
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Le Palais de Justice (Ile de la Cite, Paris)
Lithograph printed on chine paper, 1926
Signed in pencil; Atelier blindstamp l.l. (see photo)
Edition: Rare proof on chine, outside of th...
Category
1920s Cubist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Untitled (Standing Woman)
By Léopold Survage
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Leopold Survage (1879-1968)
Untitled (Woman Standing)
Graphite on paper, 1933
Signed in pencil by the artist: Survage
Signed with the estate stamp lower right
Signed in pencil "LS" f...
Category
1930s Cubist Nude Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite
The Bridge
By James Allen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Bridge (New York Harbor)
Lithograph, 1936-7
Signed in pencil l.r., (see photo)
titled lower left edge of sheet
Reference: Not in Ryan
Edition: Very small
Note: Extremely rare. ...
Category
1930s Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Garden of Love (after Peter Paul Rubens [1577-1640]
By Christoffel Jegher
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Garden of Love (after Peter Paul Rubens [1577-1640])
Woodcut diptych, c. 1633-1636
Each of the two sheets is signed in the plate lower right
A posthumous impression with tiny wor...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Untitled 5 (Woman Resting Against a Chair)
By George Segal
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled 5 (Woman Resting Against a Chair)
Signed and dated in the lower right corner (see photo)
Edition: 100 (43/100 in the lower left corner)
Published by Poligrafa, Spain
Proven...
Category
1970s Abstract Nude Prints
Materials
Lithograph
La Place de la Concorde
By Robert Delaunay
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La Place de la Concorde
Depicts La Place d la Concorde, Tour Eiffel and Sacre-Couer on Montmarte Hill in the back left
Lithograph, 1926
Unsigned. as issued
From the book edition, Jos...
Category
1920s Orphist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
7th Avenue Canyon
By Anton Schutz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
7th Avenue Canyon
Etching, 1927
Signed and titled in pencil by the artist (see photo)
Depicts what was then referred to s the Garment Disctrict in New York City.
References And Exhib...
Category
1920s American Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Etching
Bucolique Moderne
By Auguste Louis Lepère
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Bucolique Moderne
Color woodcut, 1901
Edition of 550 impressions on Holland paper (as here) and an edition of 200 impressions printed on Japan paper signed in pencil by the artist.
References And Exhibitions:
Published in Di Gesellschaft fur vervielfältigende Kunst à Vienne
Reference: Lotz Brissonneau 271 v/V
Illustrated: Musee D'Orsay, Auguste Lepere ou lerenouveau de bois grave, No. 20
Vital, Auguste Lepere 1849-1918, No. 171.
Illustrated:
Musee de le Vendee, no. 171 (see photo)
Musee D'Orsay, Auguste Lepere ou lerenouveau de bois grave, No. 20
Vital, Auguste Lepere 1849-1918, No. 171.
Auguste Louis Lepère...
Category
Early 1900s Impressionist Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Lido (Venice)
By Otto Henry Bacher
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Lido (Venice)
Etching on chine collee, 1880
Part of the artist's "Venice Set"
Signed upper right in plate :Otto H Bacher" (see photo)
Signed with the estate stamp, Lugt 2002 recto lower right beneath image. (see photo)
Created October 20, 1880
Reference: Andrew Venice No. 29
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Otto H. Bacher (1856-1909)
Otto Henry Bacher was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to a family of German descent. He first studied art at the age of sixteen with local genre trompe l'oeil still-life artist, DeScott Evans. Although he studied with Evans for less than one year, Bacher's early work, comprised mainly of still lifes, betrays Evans's influence. After a short period in Philadelphia, where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Bacher returned to Cleveland and met Willis Seaver Adams, an artist from Springfield, Massachusetts, who had just recently arrived upon the Cleveland art scene. Soon the two artists were rooming together. Adams was instrumental in the founding of the Cleveland Art Club, as well as the establishment of the Cleveland Academy of the Fine Arts, to the board of which Adams had Bacher appointed. Also during this time, Bacher began to learn the process of etching from local etcher and landscape painter Sion Longley Wenban.
In 1878, Bacher and Adams left for Europe. After stopping briefly in Scotland, Bacher went on to Munich, where he enrolled at the Royal Academy. He quickly tired of the rigors of the academy, and soon he was studying with Cincinnati artist Frank Duveneck, the prime American exponent of the Munich School. In 1879, Bacher made a trip to Florence with Duveneck as one of the celebrated "Duveneck Boys." Early the following year, the group proceeded to Venice, where Bacher and several other artists established studios in the Casa Jankovitz.
By this time an avid printmaker, Bacher had his etching press sent from Muni ch, and it was in his Venice studio that he taught Duveneck the rudiments of etching. Soon Bacher, Duveneck, and other members of the Duveneck circle were experimenting in printmaking. Among the group's contributions were some of the first American examples of monotypes, which they called "Bachertypes" because they were printed using Bacher's press.
It was also in Venice that Bacher met the venerable American expatriate artist, James McNeill Whistler. On learning of Bacher's press and his collection of etchings by Rembrandt, Whistler made himself a regular visitor to Bacher's studio, and he eventually took his own room in the Casa Jankovitz. Bacher spent much of the rest of 1880 with Whistler, the two artists sharing etching techniques. From Whistler, Bacher learned tone and line graduation; from Bacher, Whistler learned his etching techniques, including better ways of using the acid bath which produced less tedious and more efficient work. Bacher visited Whistler occasionally in the years that followed, and in 1908 he published With Whistler in Venice, his famous recollections of his time with the great artist.
Bacher spent the next two years traveling extensively throughout Italy, with Venice as the center of his operations, and he produced a number of important etchings of Italian subjects. Bacher sent several of these works to America in 1881 to be included in the Society of American artists exhibition that year, and had a similar group of works shown at the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers' first exhibition at the Hanover Gallery in London. Following the exhibition, Bacher, along with several other of the American contributors, was elected a Fellow of the Society. Bacher collected twelve of his etchings of Venetian subjects and sold them in bound volumes through his New York dealer, Frederick Keppel.
Bacher returned to Cleveland in January 1883 as a fully cosmopolitan artist. He set up a lavish studio furnished with exotic items and objets-d'art he had collected on his travels, and began to hold art classes as a means to supplement his income. He soon joined with Joseph De Camp in forming a summer sketch class in Richfield, Ohio. Bacher and De Camp also planned the Cleveland Room for a major loan exhibition in Detroit that year. During this period, Bacher increasingly painted in oil, and he began to produce sun-dappled canvases in an impressionistic mode.
Unable to sell any paintings from this early period, however, Bacher left Cleveland for Paris in 1885, where he planned to undertake further studies. Stopping first in London to visit Whistler, Bacher stayed only briefly in Paris before heading to Venice, where he spent the remainder of the year. In January 1886, Bacher returned to Paris and enrolled at the Académie Julian, and also entered the atelier of Emile-Auguste Carolus-Duran. The life of the student seems never to have suited Bacher, as he stayed in Paris only through June, before departing again for Venice. For the next six months he, Robert Blum, and Charles Ulrich...
Category
1880s American Impressionist Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Untitled
By Leon Kelly
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled Cubist Abstraction
Signed and dated lower right
Watercolor, charcoal and gouache on paper, 1922
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Schroeder, Romero & Sh...
Category
1920s Cubist Abstract Paintings
Materials
Charcoal, Watercolor, Gouache
Untitled
By Dan Christensen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled
Monotype printed in colors, c. 1980
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Condition: Excellent
Sheet size: 42 x 30 inches
Provenance: Distinguished Midwest Private Collection
SELECTED MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, St. Joseph, Missouri Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio Art...
Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Monotype
Playing with Lives (First Responder)
By Darius Steward
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Playing with Lives (First Responder)
Watercolor on Arches paper, 2020
Signed with the artist's initials lower right
Signed with the artist's embossed "Yummy" blindstamp lower right
One of several works with a Covid inspired composition.
A masterpiece of American watercolor.
Condition: Excellent
Archival framing with OP3 Acrylic
Image size: 26 1/16 x 19 1/8 inches
Frame size: 33 x 25 inches
“First Responder” is a piece that celebrates the hard working doctors and nurses that are working around the clock, risking their lives for others. My daughter dresses up in her doctor custom everyday. Doc McStuffins is her favorite cartoon to watch, she carries her doctor kit...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Boulder Dam
By Adolf Dehn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Boulder Dam
Lithograph, 1946
Signed and dated in pencil lower right (see photo)
Titled in pencil lower left (see photo)
Printed by Lawrence Barrett, Colorado Springs
Edition of 40 or...
Category
1940s American Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Rittersporn und Fingerhut (Larkspur and Foxglove)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Rittersporn und Fingerhut
(Larkspur and Foxglove)
Color woodcut, printed on wove paper with mica flecks, 1916
Signed lower right (see photo)
Inscribed lower left (see photo)
Reference: Merx 276
Condition: good-very good
One spot of staining on the far left edge of the composition (see photo)
Color very fresh and vibrant
Full sheet as issued
Image size: 19 x 13 3/8 inches
Carl Thiemann...
Category
1910s Vienna Secession Still-life Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Standing Female Nude in Profile, hand on hip
By Paul Cadmus
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Female Nude in Profile, hand on hip
Colored chalks on Strathmore Charcoal grey paper, c. 1980
Signed in chalk lower right (see photo)
In 1941, Fidelma Cadmus (Paul’s sister)...
Category
1980s American Realist Nude Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Chalk
untitled (Mt. Desert Narrows)
By Greta Allen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
untitled (Mt. Desert Narrows)
Watercolor on paper, c. 1945-1955
Unsigned
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
Condition: Excellent
Image/sheet size: 11 1/4 x 15 3/8 inches
Regarding the ...
Category
1940s American Impressionist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Lino Litho BR, Planche IX
By Pierre Alechinsky
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Lino Litho BR, Planche IX
Linocut and lithograph, 1970
Signed lower right of central image (see photo)
Edition: 99 (56/99) (see photo)
Published by London Arts Group, Detroit
Conditi...
Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Linocut
untitled Woman by the Windows
By Karl Albert Buehr
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Woman by the Windows)
Unsigned.
Pastel on board, c. 1915
Created while the artist was in Giverny, France
Provenance:
Gift of the artist to his wife, Mary Hess Buehr
by Desc...
Category
1910s Abstract Impressionist Drawings and Watercolor Paintings
Materials
Pastel
Landscape with Figures in the English Countryside
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Landscape with Figures in the English Countryside
Pen, ink and graphite with gray and brown washes on laid watermarked paper, c. 1740
Signed by the artist lower left of image: "Chate...
Category
1740s Romantic Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Non-Objective Drawing (Double sided composition)
By Rudolf Bauer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Non-Objective Drawing (Double sided composition)
Graphite on paper, 1938
Initialed "B" by the artist lower right corner
Created while the artist was imprisoned in a Gestapo Prison fo...
Category
1930s Abstract Abstract Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite
Untitled (Plate 4)
By Terry Haass
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Plate 4)
Engraving, sugar-lift, and aquatint, 1970
Signed and numbered in pencil
From: Variations (8 plates)
Signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 100 (29/100)
Printed by ...
Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Engraving
Mere
By Stanley William Hayter
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Mere
Etching and soft ground, 1970
Signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil
Printed in colors by Hector Saunier on BFK Rives paper
Published by Georgetown Graphics, Washington, D...
Category
1970s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Etching
Neon
By Carlos Davila 1
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Neon
Intaglio Etching, c. 1970
Signed, titled and numbered in pencil
Edition: 99 (76/99)
Image size: 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches
Sheet size: 22 x 17 inches
Condition: Excellent
Carlos Dávil...
Category
1970s Abstract Geometric Abstract Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Italian Cityscape
By Victoria Hutson Huntley
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Italian Cityscape
Pastel on Strathmore paper, 1968
Signed and dated lower right with the estate signature with the initials RH
Image size: 13 3/4 x 10 inches
Condition: Excellent
Pro...
Category
1960s Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Pastel
Le Rêve (The Dream)
By Théophile Alexandre Steinlen
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Le Rêve (The Dream)
Color gillotage poster, 1890
Signed in the image lower right corner (see photo)
This poster for a ballet at the Académie nationale de musique in Paris is typical ...
Category
1890s Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
La Terrasse de la Villa Brancas, Sevres (The Terrace of the Villa Brancas)
By Félix Bracquemond
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La Terrasse de la Villa Brancas, Sevres (The Terrace of the Villa Brancas)
etching & drypoint, 1876
Signed in the plate bottom right corner (see photo)
in plate, at lower left: xbre ...
Category
1870s Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Portrait of a resting young lady (Marjorie Organ)
By Robert Henri
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Portrait of a resting young lady (Marjorie Organ)
Black chalk on paper. c. 1907
signed in ink by Henri's nephew, John C. LeClair, the executor of the Henri estate
"Robert Henri JLC"
Note: The sitter for this portrait is depicted in two drawings of similar size, illustrated in Chapellier Galleries Inc., Robert Henri 1865-1929, 1976, nos. 15 & 16.
Please see the attached photo of Marjorie Organ, Henri's second wife
Condition: Excellent
Image/Sheet size: 10 3/8 x 7 1/2 inches
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
John C. LeClair, Estate Adminitrator
Private Collection, Pawling, New York
Biography
Robert Henri was born Robert Henry Cozad in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 24, 1865, the son of a professional gambler and real estate developer. The family lived in Nebraska and Colorado, but fled east when the father shot and killed a rancher over a land dispute and was indicted for manslaughter. They changed their last name because of the ensuing scandal and eventually settled in Atlantic City, New Jersey, during the early 1880s.
In 1886 Henri enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied under Thomas Anshutz, Thomas Hovenden...
Category
Early 1900s American Impressionist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite
Bullfight
By Yasuo Kuniyoshi
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Bullfight
Lithograph, 1928
Signed and dated in pencil lower right (see photo)
Numbered lower left (see photo)
Edition: 41 (22/41)
Reference: Davis L37
Printed chine applique on wove ...
Category
1920s American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Prelude de Lohengrin (2e planche) (The Appearance of the Holy Grail)
By Henri Fantin-Latour
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Prelude de Lohengrin (2e planche) (The appearance of the Holy Grail)
Lithograph, 1898
Signed and dated in the stone lower left (see photo)
Printed on chine collee paper
Condition...
Category
1890s Romantic Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
La butte de Montmartre et le Sacre-Couer (Sacre Coeur from a Distance)
By Robert Delaunay
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La butte de Montmartre et le Sacre-Couer (Sacre Coeur from a Distance)
Lithograph, 1926
From Joseph Delteil's "Allo, Paris," published by Quatre Chemins, Paris, 1926
Rare signed proo...
Category
1920s Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
January 1982
By Samia Halaby
Located in Fairlawn, OH
January 1982
Color Xerox Print, 1982
Signed and dated in pencil (see photo)
Titled and dated lower left (see photo)
Condition; Excellent
Image size: 17 x 15 1/2 inches
Frame size: 2...
Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Inkjet
Side View Seated Female Nude
By Frank Duveneck
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Side View Seated Female Nude
Graphite on paper, c. 1890's
Unsigned
Provenance:
Rookwood Pottery Factory Collection, Cincinnati
Spanierman Gallery, New York (label)
Drawings from the...
Category
1890s American Impressionist Nude Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Graphite
L'heure de Berger (Hour of the Shepherd)
By Hans Christiansen (b.1866)
Located in Fairlawn, OH
L'heure de Berger (Hour of the Shepherd)
Color lithograph, 1898
Signed in the stone lower right
As published in L'Estampe Moderne, Paris, March, 1898
Edition: 2000 (there was also a ...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Nude Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Corinne
By Maurice Réalier-Dumas
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Corinne
Color lithograph, 1898
Signed in the stone lower left (see photo)
Published in L’Estampe Moderne with their blindstamp lower right corner, Lugt 2790 (see photo)
Edition 2000
...
Category
1890s Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Easy Rider Blues
By Stephen Longstreet
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Easy Rider Blues
Paper collage, post 1969
Inspired by the Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper movie of the same title
Signed lower right (see photo)
Titled lower left (see photo)
Condition...
Category
1960s Abstract Mixed Media
Materials
Magazine Paper
Untitled
By Myron Kozman
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled
Screen print, 1941
Signed and dated in pencil lower right
From an unnumbered edition of 6
Condition: Excellent
Image size: 7 1/4 x 5 3/4 inches
Sheet size: 10 x 8 inches
Pr...
Category
1940s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Screen
Woman's Head in Profile - Woman's Head in Profile (left) (Havard)
By Elie Nadelman
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Woman's Head in Profile - Woman's Head in Profile (left) (Havard)
Drypooint, 1920
Unsigned (as usual)
From: The Drypoints of Elie Nadelman, 21 unpublished prints by the sculptor, pro...
Category
1920s American Modern Portrait Prints
Materials
Drypoint
Wire Haired Girl and Cat
By William Sommer
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Wire Haired Girl and Cat
Pen and ink with watercolor, c. 1930
Signed with the Estate stamp "B"
Provenance: Estate of the Artist
By descent to his son Edward
...
Category
1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
En bouche qui fut fraîche, goût de fiel (In the mouth that was once fresh, ...
By Georges Rouault
Located in Fairlawn, OH
En bouche qui fut fraîche, goût de fiel (In the mouth that was once fresh, the taste of bitterness)
Aquatint, drypoint, roulette and burnishing over heliogravure, 1922
Unsigned as ...
Category
1920s French School Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Fire Island Behavior-Will It Spread to the Mainland?
By Jack Roth
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Fire Island Behavior-Will It Spread to the Mainland?
Collage and oil paint on luan board, n.d., c. 1970's
Signed in ink lower center edge (see photo)
Signed with the estate stamp ver...
Category
1970s Abstract Expressionist Mixed Media
Materials
Mixed Media
The River Barge
By David Cox
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The River Barge
Pen and ink on paper on laid paper, mounted in English drum mount , c. 1810
Unsigned
Condition: Slight sun staining to sheet and mount in the window (see photo)
Image/sheet size: 5 1/4 x 6 11/16 inches
Sight: : 5-3/4 x 7-1/4"
Frame: 13-3/8 x 14-3/8"
Provenance: Colnaghi, London (see photo of label)
David Cox (29 April 1783 – 7 June 1859) was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism.
He is considered one of the greatest English landscape painters, and a major figure of the Golden age of English watercolour.
Although most popularly known for his works in watercolour, he also painted over 300 works in oil towards the end of his career, now considered "one of the greatest, but least recognised, achievements of any British painter.
His son, known as David Cox the Younger (1809-1885), was also a successful artist.
Early life in Birmingham, 1783–1804
Cox's birthplace in Deritend, Birmingham, illustrated by Samuel Lines
Cox was born on 29 April 1783 on Heath Mill Lane in Deritend, then an industrial suburb of Birmingham. His father was a blacksmith and whitesmith about whom little is known, except that he supplied components such as bayonets and barrels to the Birmingham gun trade. Cox's mother was the daughter of a farmer and miller from Small Heath to the east of Birmingham. Early biographers record that "she had had a better education than his father, and was a woman of superior intelligence and force of character." Cox was initially expected to follow his father into the metal trade and take over his forge, but his lack of physical strength led his family to seek opportunities for him to develop his interest in art, which is said to have first become apparent when the young Cox started painting paper kites while recovering from a broken leg.
By the late 18th century Birmingham had developed a network of private academies teaching drawing and painting, established to support the needs of the town's manufacturers of luxury metal goods, but also encouraging education in fine art, and nurturing the distinctive tradition of landscape art of the Birmingham School. Cox initially enrolled in the academy of Joseph Barber in Great Charles Street, where fellow students included the artist Charles Barber and the engraver William Radclyffe, both of whom would become important lifelong friends.
At the age of about 15 Cox was apprenticed to the Birmingham painter Albert Fielder, who produced portrait miniatures and paintings for the tops of snuffboxes from his workshop at 10 Parade in the northwest of the town. Early biographers of Cox record that he left his apprenticeship after Fielder's suicide, with one reporting that Cox himself discovered his master's hanging body, but this is probably a myth as Fielder is recorded at his address in Parade as late as 1825. At some time during mid-1800 Cox was given work by William Macready the elder at the Birmingham Theatre, initially as an assistant grinding colours and preparing canvases for the scene painters, but from 1801 painting scenery himself and by 1802 leading his own team of assistants and being credited in plays' publicity.
London, 1804–1814
In 1804 Cox was promised work by the theatre impresario Philip Astley and moved to London, taking lodgings in 16 Bridge Row, Lambeth. Although he was unable to get employment at Astley's Amphitheatre it is likely that he had already decided to try to establish himself as a professional artist, and apart from a few private commissions for painting scenery his focus over the next few years was to be on painting and exhibiting watercolours. While living in London, Cox married his landlord's daughter, Mary Agg and the couple moved to Dulwich in 1808.
David Cox Travellers on a Path, pencil and brown wash.
In 1805 he made his first of many trips to Wales, with Charles Barber, his earliest dated watercolours are from this year. Throughout his lifetime he made numerous sketching tours to the Home Counties, North Wales, Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Devon.
Cox exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1805. His paintings never reached high prices, so he earned his living mainly as a drawing master. His first pupil, Colonel the Hon.H. Windsor (the future Earl of Plymouth) engaged him in 1808, Cox went on to acquire several other aristocratic and titled pupils. He also went on to write several books, including: Ackermanns' New Drawing Book (1809); A Series of Progressive Lessons (1811); Treatise on Landscape Painting (1813); and Progressive Lessons on Landscape (1816). The ninth and last edition of his series Progressive Lessons, was published in 1845.
By 1810 he was elected President of the Associated Artists in Water Colour. In 1812, following the demise of the Associated Artists, he was elected as associate of the Society of Painters in Water Colour (the old Water Colour Society). He was elected a Member of the Society in 1813, and exhibited there every year (except 1815 and 1817) until his death.
Hereford, 1814–1827
In the summer of 1813 Cox was appointed as the drawing master of the Royal Military College in Farnham, Surrey, but he resigned shortly afterwards, finding little sympathy with the atmosphere of a military institution. Soon after that he applied to a newspaper advertisement for a position as drawing master for Miss Crouchers' School for Young Ladies in Hereford and in Autumn 1814 moved to the town with his family. Cox taught at the school in Widemarsh Street until 1819, his substantial salary of £100 per year requiring only two-day's work per week, allowing time for painting and the taking of private pupils.
Cox's reputation as both a painter and a teacher had been building over previous years, as indicated by his election as a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours and his inclusion in John Hassell's 1813 book Aqua Pictura, which claimed to present works by "all of the most approved water coloured draftsmen". The depression that accompanied the end of the Napoleonic Wars had caused a contraction in the art market, however, and by 1814 Cox had been very short of money, requiring a loan from one of his pupils to pay even for the move to Hereford. Despite its financial advantages and its proximity to the scenery of North Wales and the Wye Valley, the move to Hereford marked a retreat in terms of his career as a painter: he sent few works to the annual exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours during his first years away from London and not until 1823 would he again contribute more than 20 pictures.
Between 1823 and 1826 he had Joseph Murray Ince as a pupil.
London, 1827–1841
He made his first trip to the Continent, to Belgium and the Netherlands in 1826 and subsequently moved to London the following year.
He exhibited for the first time with the Birmingham Society of Artists in 1829, and with the Liverpool Academy in 1831. In 1839, two of Cox's watercolours were bought from the Old Water Colour Society exhibition by the Marquis of Conynha for Queen Victoria.
Birmingham, 1841–1859
Greenfield House in Harborne, Birmingham – where Cox lived from 1841 until his death in 1859 .
In May 1840 Cox wrote to one of his Birmingham friends: "I am making preparations to sketch in oil, and also to paint, and it is my intention to spend most of my time in Birmingham for the purpose of practice". Cox had been considering a return to painting in oils since 1836 and in 1839 had taken lessons in oil painting from William James Müller, to whom he had been introduced by mutual friend George Arthur Fripp. Hostility between the Society of Painters in Water Colours and the Royal Academy made it difficult for an artist to be recognised for work in both watercolour and oil in London, however, and it is likely that Cox would have preferred to explore this new medium in the more supportive environment of his home town. By the early 1840s his income from sales of his watercolours was sufficient to allow him to abandon his work as a drawing master, and in June 1841 he moved with his wife to Greenfield House in Harborne, then a village on Birmingham's south western outskirts. It was this move that would enable the higher levels of freedom and experimentation that were to characterise his later work.
The elderly Cox pictured by Samuel Bellin in 1855.
In Harborne, Cox established a steady routine – working in watercolour in the morning and oils in the afternoon. He would visit London every spring to attend the major exhibitions, followed by one or more sketching excursions, continuing the pattern that he had established in the 1830s. From 1844 these tours evolved into a yearly trip to Betws-y-Coed in North Wales to work outdoors in both oil and watercolour, gradually becoming the focus for an annual summer artists colony that continued until 1856 with Cox as its "presiding genius".
Cox's experience of trying to exhibit his oils in London was short and unsuccessful: in 1842 he made his only submission to the Society of British Artists; one oil painting was exhibited at each of the British Institution and the Royal Academy in 1843; and two oil paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844 – the last that would be exhibited in London during his lifetime.
Cox showed regularly at the Birmingham Society of Arts and its successor, the Birmingham Society of Artists, becoming a member in 1842.
Cox suffered a stroke on 12 June 1853 that temporarily paralysed him, and permanently affected his eyesight, memory and coordination.
By 1857 however, his eyesight had deteriorated. An exhibition of his work was arranged in 1858 by the Conversazione Society Hampstead, and in 1859 a retrospective exhibition was held at the German Gallery Bond Street, London. Cox died several months later. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peters, Harborne, Birmingham, under a chestnut tree, alongside his wife Mary.
Work
Early work
In the spring of 1811 Cox made a small number of notable works in oils during a visit to Hastings with his family. It is not known why he didn't continue working in this medium at the time, but the five known surviving examples were described in 1969 as "surely some of the most brilliant examples of the genre in England".
Mature work
Cox reached artistic maturity after his move to Hereford in 1814. Although only two major watercolours can confidently be traced to the period between Cox's arrival in the town and the end of the decade, both of these – Butcher's Row, Hereford of 1815 and Lugg Meadows, near Hereford of 1817 – mark advances on his earlier work.
Later work
Cox's later work produced after his move to Birmingham in 1841 was marked by simplification, abstraction and a stripping down of detail. His art of the period combined the breadth and weight characteristic of the earlier English watercolour school, together with a boldness and freedom of expression comparable to later impressionism. His concern with capturing the fleeting nature of weather, atmosphere and light was similar to that of John Constable, but Cox stood apart from the older painter's focus on capturing material detail, instead employing a high degree of generalisation and a focus on overall effect.
The quest for character over precision in representing nature was an established characteristic of the Birmingham School of landscape artists with which Cox had been associated early in his life, and as early as 1810 Cox's work had been criticised for its "sketchiness of finish" and "cloudy confusion of objects", which were held to betray "the coarseness of scene-painting". During the 1840s and 1850s Cox took this "peculiar manner" to new extremes, incorporating the techniques of the sketch into his finished works to a far greater degree.
Cox's watercolour technique of the 1840s was sufficiently different from his earlier methods to need explanation to his son in 1842, despite the fact that his son had been helping him teach and paint since 1827. The materials used for his later works in watercolour also differed from his earlier periods: he used black chalk instead of graphite pencil as his primary drawing medium, and the rough and absorbent "Scotch" wrapping paper for which he became well-known – both of these were related to his development of a rougher and freer style.
Influence and legacy
By the 1840s Cox, alongside Peter De Wint and Copley Fielding, had become recognised as one of the leading figures of the English landscape watercolour style of the first half of the 19th century. This judgement was complicated by reaction to the rougher and bolder style of Cox's later Birmingham work, which was widely ignored or condemned. While by this time De Wint and Fielding were essentially continuing in a long-established tradition, Cox was creating a new one.
A group of young artists working in Cox's watercolour style emerged well before his death, including William Bennett, David Hall McKewan and Cox's son David Cox Jr. By 1850 Bennett in particular had become recognised as "perhaps the most distinguished among the landscape painters" for his Cox-like vigorous and decisive style. Such early followers concentrated on the example of Cox's more moderate earlier work and steered clear of what were then seen as the excesses of Cox's later years. During a period dominated by sleek and detailed picturesque landscape, however, they were still condemned by publications such as The Spectator as "the 'blottesque' school", and failed to establish themselves as a cohesive movement.
John Ruskin in 1857 condemned the work of the Society of Painters in Water-colours as "a kind of potted art, of an agreeable flavour, suppliable and taxable as a patented commodity", excluding only the late work of Cox, about which he wrote "there is not any other landscape which comes near these works of David Cox in simplicity or seriousness".
An 1881 book, A Biography of David Cox: With Remarks on His Works and Genius, was based on a manuscript by Cox's friend William Hall, edited and expanded by John Thackray Bunce, editor of the Birmingham Daily Post.
There are two Blue Plaque memorials commemorating him at 116 Greenfield Road, Harborne, Birmingham, and at 34 Foxley Road, Kennington, London, SW9, where he lived from 1827. It can also be seen at the David Cox exhibition in Birmingham.
His pupils included Birmingham architectural artist, Allen Edward...
Category
1810s Romantic Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink
Jugentud (Youth)
By Jorge Dumas
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Jugentud (Youth)
Color lithograph, 1975
Signed, numbered and titled in pencil (see photos)
Edition: 250 (67/250)
Signed, titled and numbered in pencil
Published by Circle Gallery Ltd...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Plate 2
By Matt Phillips
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Plate 2
2 plate drypoint with hand coloring, 1984
Signed and numbered in pencil (see photos)
From: Barcelona Suite (6 plates)
Edition: A/P 8/10 in pencil lower left
Signed in pen...
Category
1980s American Modern Nude Prints
Materials
Drypoint
Holiday Greeting Card for Madame R. G. Michel & Family (Goldfish in bowl, vase
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Located in Fairlawn, OH
Holiday Greeting Card for Madame R. G. Michel & Family
(Goldfish in bowl, vase & red flowers)
Etching & aquatint printed in colors, 1989
Signed in pencil lower right
Folded Holiday c...
Category
1980s French School Still-life Prints
Materials
Etching
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By Leon Kroll
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Building New York
Watercolor on paper, c. 1915
Signed by the artist lower right (see photo)
Partial watermark: "MADE IN ENGLAND... LINEN FIBER"
Excellent, COLORS FRESH AND VIBRANT
Br...
Category
1910s American Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Watercolor
Irving Place Burlesk
By Reginald Marsh
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Irving Place Burlesque
Etching, 1930
Unsigned (as usual for the Whitney edition)
Numbered in pencil lower left
Blind stamp of the Whitney Museum (WM) lower right
From: Reginald Marsh...
Category
1930s Ashcan School Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Untitled (Nude in front of light house, Lake Erie)
By Charles Harris ( Beni Kosh )
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Nude in front of light house, Lake Erie)
Oil on board, 1970
Signed and dated lower right (see photo)
Estate Stamp verso, No. 359 (see photo)
Condition: Original untouched "...
Category
1970s American Modern Nude Paintings
Materials
Oil
Nashville in Winter
By Louis Oscar Griffith
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Nashville in Winter
Etching, c. 1928
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Very small edition
A rare image of early Nashville, Indiana
Excellent impression with plate tone in the sky
First state before the aquatint depicting a winter nocturne with fall snow
Printed on a fine laid paper with a Crown & Shield watermark
Provenance: Estate of the artist
By decent
Louis Oscar Griffith
(1875-1956)
Born in Greencastle, Indiana, Griffith grew up in Dallas, Texas where Texas artist and teacher Charles Franklin Reaugh recognized young “Griff’s” artistic talent. At age 18, Griffith moved to St. Louis where he attended the St. Louis School of Fine Arts.
In 1895, he moved to Chicago where he worked making color prints for the firm Barnes and Crosby. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and during a brief stay in New York, the National Academy of Design. A successful commercial artist with a studio in the Chicago Loop...
Category
1920s American Realist Landscape Prints
Materials
Etching
Heureux age! (Happy Age!)
By Victor Mignot
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Heureux age! (Happy Age!)
Etching and aquatint. c, 1900
Signed lower right in pencil
Edition; 50 (14/50)
Published by Edmund Sagot, Paris
Sagot blindstamp, Lugt 2254, lower right
Con...
Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Sevillanas
Located in Fairlawn, OH
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...
Category
Early 1900s Post-Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Standing Female Nude
By Aaron Bohrod
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Standing Female Nude
Ink on paper
Signed by the artist with his initials lower left "AB"
Related to numerous drawings of the same model illustrated in: Elliott and Wooden, Aaron Bohr...
Category
1950s American Realist Nude Drawings and Watercolors
Materials
Ink