Thomas French Fine Art Prints and Multiples
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The Century Magazine
By Edward Henry Potthast
Located in Fairlawn, OH
After Edward Henry Potthast
The Century Magazine
Chromolithograph, July 7, 1896
Printed by W.B. Orcutt Co., NY
Note: This image won an honorable mention in a poster contest sponsored...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Portrait Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Annual Edition, 1994
By Richard Anuszkiewicz
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Annual Edition, 1994
Screen print, 1994
Signed and dated in pencil by the artist.
Small edition
Dedicated in pencil by the artist "For Bart and Ann"
Created as a gift to the artist'...
Category
1990s Op Art Abstract Prints
Materials
Screen
The Dutiful Youth of Mino Province Collecting Wood to Warm His Old Father
By Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Dutiful Youth of Mino Province Collecting Wood to Warm His Old Father
Color woodcut, c. 1842-43
Signed and sealed lower right (see photo)
From the Series: "Honcho nijushi-ko" (Tw...
Category
1840s Other Art Style Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
An Eagle Ceremony at Tesuque Pueblo
By Gustave Baumann
Located in Fairlawn, OH
An Eagle Ceremony at Tesuque Pueblo
Woodcut printed in two colors, 1932
Unsigned as usual; initialed in the plate lower left (see photo)
As published by Elmer Adler in "The Colophon:...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Veduta dell'esterno della gran Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano
By Giovanni Battista Piranesi
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Veduta dell'esterno della gran Basilica di S. Pietro in Vaticano (View of the Exterior of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican)
Etching, 1748
From the first printing of the "Vedute di Roma"
An early impression with strong contrasts
Before the price and the addition of numbers in the later states.
A view of Michelangelo's done from behind the Piazza, redesigned in 1547
Condition: Excellent
Plate size: 15 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches
Reference: Robison 5 a/g
Hind 5 i/VII
Focillon 54.789
Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is the most renowned work of Renaissance architecture and the largest church in the world. While it is neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome (these equivalent titles being held by the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran in Rome), St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic shrines...
Category
1740s Old Masters Landscape Prints
Materials
Etching
Ecce Homo VII
By Werner Drewes
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ecce Homo VII
Woodcut, 1921
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil by the artist
One of only three known impressions
Created while the artist was studying at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany.
Extreme rarity-One of three know impressions
Note: In 1921 Drewes went to the Bauhaus in Weimar, where, after completing the compulsory preliminary course with Johannes Itten, he continued to study with Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer and Georg Muche and initially went to the wall painting workshop. He then traveled extensively through Europe, North America and Asia. After returning to Germany in 1927, he went back to the Bauhaus, this time to his new location in Dessau, where he studied in the classes of László Moholy-Nagy and Wassily Kandinsky. He was one of the first artists to introduce the groundbreaking concepts of the Bauhaus School in the United States through his painting, printmaking, and teaching.
Condition: Excellent
Missing small voids in the upper margin from removal of the original hinges.
Image size: 9 7/8 x 8 3/16 inches
Reference: Rose 30
Provenance: From the estate of Drewes's teacher at the Bauhaus. During the pasot WW2 the professor lived in East Germany.
WERNER DREWES
1899-1985
Werner Drewes initially studied architecture before enrolling, in 1921-22, at the Bauhaus in Weimar under Klee, Kandinsky, Itten and Feininger. For four years - 1923 to 1927 - he travelled the world with his bride, before completing his Bauhaus training in Dessau in 1929. He immigrated to the United States in 1930, documenting that move to New York through series of woodcuts. In 1936/37 he was an active founder of the American Abstract Artists and participated in the Federal Arts Project in New York before moving on to a teaching career at Washington University in St. Louis.
As an artist for over sixty five years, he employed various media from drawing and watercolor, through woodcut and etching, to painting and collage. Translating an early interest in subjective cubistic forms, his work evolved into nonobjective abstraction. He was creative until the day of his death.
Courtesy: Toby C. Moss
Werner Drewes (1899–1985) was a painter, printmaker, and art teacher. Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, he was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. His mature style encompassed both nonobjective and figurative work and the emotional content of this work was consistently more expressive than formal. Drewes was as highly regarded for his printmaking as for his painting. In his role as teacher as well as artist he was largely responsible for bringing the Bauhaus aesthetic to America.
Early life and education
Drewes was born in 1899 to Georg Drewes, a Lutheran pastor, and Martha Schaefer Drewes. The family lived in the village of Canig within Lower Lusatia, Germany. From age eight to eighteen he attended the Saldria Gymnasium, a boarding school in Brandenburg an der Havel. There, he showed talent both for painting and woodblock printing. Graduating from Saldria in 1917, he was drafted by the German army and served in France from then until the close of the war. About this period of his life he is reported to have said that the horrors of life at the front were only made tolerable by his sketchbook, a copy of Goethe's Faust and a volume of Nietzsche.
For a decade following the close of the war he studied, made paintings and prints, and traveled widely. His friend, Herwarth Walden, helped shape his appreciation for expressionist literature and art. Walden produced the quarterly magazine, Der Sturm and ran a gallery of contemporary art, Galerie Der Sturm, from which, in 1919, Drewes purchased an expressionist painting by William Wauer titled Blutrausch (Bloodlust). In the same year he made the acquaintance of Heinrich Vogeler and participated in Vogeler's socialist utopian artists' commune, Barkenhoff, at Worpswede, Lower Saxony. In 1919 Drewes also enrolled at the Königlich Technischen Hochschule Charlottenburg to study architecture and the following year he studied the same subject at the Technischen Hochschule Stuttgart. Preferring art over architecture, he then enrolled in Stuttgart's school of applied arts (Kunstgewerbeschule) where he studied life drawing and learned to work with colored glass. At this time he joined a group of artists and architects associated with the newly formed Merz Akademie, a college of design, art, and media in Stuttgart.
In 1921 his friendship with a French artist, Sébastien Laurent, led him to begin studies in Weimar at Bauhaus, then a new school which taught an integrated approach to the fine and applied arts. His instructors were Johannes Itten and Lyonel Feininger, whose paintings were expressionist and abstract, and Paul Klee, who taught bookbinding, stained glass, and murals. While at Bauhaus Drewes produced a portfolio of ten woodblock prints entitled "Ecce Homo."
In 1923 and 1924 he studied art during travels throughout Italy, Spain, the United States, and Central America and in 1926 he traveled to San Francisco, Japan, and Korea, thence taking the Trans-Siberian railway to Manchuria, Moscow, and Warsaw. He later said the El Grecos he saw proved to be most influential in his work. While traveling, he exhibited: (1) etchings in Madrid (1923) and Montevideo (1924), oils and etchings in Buenos Aires and St. Louis (1925), and (3) etchings in San Francisco (1926). He paid his way by the sales these exhibits produced and by taking commissions to paint portraits. While in San Francisco he set up a shop from which he sold prints he had made in Spain and South America.
After his return to Germany in 1927 he resumed study at Bauhaus, which had been forced to relocate in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt. His instructors at that time were László Moholy-Nagy (metal work), Wassily Kandinsky, and (painting), and Lyonel Feininger (prints). At this time he also worked and exhibited in Frankfurt. With the rise of Nazism abstract artists found it increasingly difficult to sell their work and, in 1930, Drewes, finding the political pressure unbearable, emigrated to the United States. There, despite the world economic crisis, Drewes was able to earn a living as a professional artist.
Mature style
After Drewes moved to New York, Kandinsky, who was both friend and mentor, continued to exert a strong influence over his style. Later in life he said he had a hard time getting away from Kandinsky's influence as he developed his own style. In time he was able to bring a more emotional approach to his work and to base it, more than Kandinsky did, on natural forms.
In 1930 Drewes had a solo exhibition at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library and a two-person show at the S.P.R. Penthouse Gallery...
Category
1920s Expressionist Abstract Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Man Sounding Horn (Psalm 150)
By Ben Shahn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Man Sounding Horn (Psalm 150)
Lithograph, 1969-1970
Estate signed: "Ben Shahn/by B.B. Shahn" in pencil lower center
Stamped signature lower right (see photo)
Signed by Mourlot Lith. in pencil lower right (see photo)
Edition: 125 (67/125) see photo
Psalm 150, "A Hallelujah Chorus"
Published by Kennedy Graphics, Ltd., New York, NY
Printed by Mourlot Graphics, Ltd., New York, NY
Reference: Prescott 255
Kennedy Galleries, The Kennedy Graphics, 380, reproduced
Condition: Very good
Image/sheet size: 20 1/8 x 25 3/8 inches
A posthumous print
"This was the final project completed by Ben Shahn (1898-1969), leading American realist painter and muralist widely recognized for his socially conscious works. Born in Lithuania to Jewish parents, Shahn emigrated to the United States in 1906 and became a popular and versatile artist who worked in a variety of media and on a range of projects. His credits are as varied as assistant to muralist Diego Rivera, photographer for the Resettlement Administration (alongside the likes of Dorothea Lange and his friend, Walker Evans), maker of posters for the Office of War Information during WWII, and commercial artist for CBS. He is best known, however, for artwork depicting left-leaning political ideals and highlighting social concerns, such as his series of gouache paintings known as "The Passion of Sacco and Vanzetti...
Category
1960s American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Ecce Homo Plate X
By Werner Drewes
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ecce Homo Plate X
Woodcut, 1921
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil by the artist (see photos)
Edition: One of two known impressions
This image wwas unknown to the catloger Ingrid Rose in 1984 when she published the catalog raisonne of Drewes prints.
Done while Drewes was studying at the Bauhaus.
Reference: Ingrid Rose, Werner Drewes: A Catalogue Raisonne of His Prints (Munich: Verlag Kunstgalerie Esslingen, 1984), 33, one of two known impressions.
Provenance: Gift of the artist to one of his Bauhaus professors.
Held in East Germany until the opening of the wall
Jorg Maas Kunsthandel, Berlin
Other image from the suite of Ecce Homo images are available.
Extremely early, rare Bauhaus works.
n 1921 Drewes went to the Bauhaus in Weimar, where, after completing the compulsory preliminary course with Johannes Itten, he continued to study with Paul Klee, Oskar Schlemmer and Georg Muche and initially went to the wall painting workshop. He then traveled extensively through Europe, North America and Asia. After returning to Germany in 1927, he went back to the Bauhaus, this time to his new location in Dessau, where he studied in the classes of László Moholy-Nagy and Wassily Kandinsky. He was one of the first artists to introduce the groundbreaking concepts of the Bauhaus School in the United States through his painting, printmaking, and teaching.
Werner Drewes (1899–1985) was a painter, printmaker, and art teacher. Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, he was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. His mature style encompassed both nonobjective and figurative work and the emotional content of this work was consistently more expressive than formal. Drewes was as highly regarded for his printmaking as for his painting. In his role as teacher as well as artist he was largely responsible for bringing the Bauhaus aesthetic to America.
Early life and education
Drewes was born in 1899 to Georg Drewes, a Lutheran pastor, and Martha Schaefer Drewes. The family lived in the village of Canig within Lower Lusatia, Germany. From age eight to eighteen he attended the Saldria Gymnasium, a boarding school in Brandenburg an der Havel. There, he showed talent both for painting and woodblock printing. Graduating from Saldria in 1917, he was drafted by the German army and served in France from then until the close of the war. About this period of his life he is reported to have said that the horrors of life at the front were only made tolerable by his sketchbook, a copy of Goethe's Faust and a volume of Nietzsche.
For a decade following the close of the war he studied, made paintings and prints, and traveled widely. His friend, Herwarth Walden, helped shape his appreciation for expressionist literature and art. Walden produced the quarterly magazine, Der Sturm and ran a gallery of contemporary art, Galerie Der Sturm, from which, in 1919, Drewes purchased an expressionist painting by William Wauer titled Blutrausch (Bloodlust). In the same year he made the acquaintance of Heinrich Vogeler and participated in Vogeler's socialist utopian artists' commune, Barkenhoff, at Worpswede, Lower Saxony. In 1919 Drewes also enrolled at the Königlich Technischen Hochschule Charlottenburg to study architecture and the following year he studied the same subject at the Technischen Hochschule Stuttgart. Preferring art over architecture, he then enrolled in Stuttgart's school of applied arts (Kunstgewerbeschule) where he studied life drawing and learned to work with colored glass. At this time he joined a group of artists and architects associated with the newly formed Merz Akademie, a college of design, art, and media in Stuttgart.
In 1921 his friendship with a French artist, Sébastien Laurent, led him to begin studies in Weimar at Bauhaus, then a new school which taught an integrated approach to the fine and applied arts. His instructors were Johannes Itten and Lyonel Feininger, whose paintings were expressionist and abstract, and Paul Klee, who taught bookbinding, stained glass, and murals. While at Bauhaus Drewes produced a portfolio of ten woodblock prints entitled "Ecce Homo."
In 1923 and 1924 he studied art during travels throughout Italy, Spain, the United States, and Central America and in 1926 he traveled to San Francisco, Japan, and Korea, thence taking the Trans-Siberian railway to Manchuria, Moscow, and Warsaw. He later said the El Grecos he saw proved to be most influential in his work. While traveling, he exhibited: (1) etchings in Madrid (1923) and Montevideo (1924), oils and etchings in Buenos Aires and St. Louis (1925), and (3) etchings in San Francisco (1926). He paid his way by the sales these exhibits produced and by taking commissions to paint portraits. While in San Francisco he set up a shop from which he sold prints he had made in Spain and South America.
After his return to Germany in 1927 he resumed study at Bauhaus, which had been forced to relocate in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt. His instructors at that time were László Moholy-Nagy (metal work), Wassily Kandinsky, and (painting), and Lyonel Feininger (prints). At this time he also worked and exhibited in Frankfurt. With the rise of Nazism abstract artists found it increasingly difficult to sell their work and, in 1930, Drewes, finding the political pressure unbearable, emigrated to the United States. There, despite the world economic crisis, Drewes was able to earn a living as a professional artist.
Mature style
After Drewes moved to New York, Kandinsky, who was both friend and mentor, continued to exert a strong influence over his style. Later in life he said he had a hard time getting away from Kandinsky's influence as he developed his own style. In time he was able to bring a more emotional approach to his work and to base it, more than Kandinsky did, on natural forms.
In 1930 Drewes had a solo exhibition at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library and a two-person show at the S.P.R. Penthouse Gallery...
Category
1920s Bauhaus Nude Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Isaiah's Prayer
By Marc Chagall
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Isaiah's Prayer
Etching, c. 1931-1939
Signed in the plate (see photo)
Plate No. 99
From: La Bible. L'Ancien Testament (105 plates)
Edition of 275 unsigned (there were an additional 2...
Category
1930s French School Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Haystack #5
By Roy Lichtenstein
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Haystack #5
Color lithograph and screen print, 1969
Signed and dated in pencil (see photo)
From: Haystack Series (seven plates) see photo of entire portfolio
Signed and dated in pencil
Edition: 100 (74/100)
Publisher: Gemini G.E.L., Los Angeles, CA, with their blaindstamp
Reference: Paul Bianchini No. 33e
Corlett and Fine 69
Condition: Excellent
Fresh colors
Small paper imperfection in bottom margin near the edge of the sheet
Image size: 13 1/4 x 23 3/8 inches
Sheet size: 20 ¾ x 30 ¾ inches
Frame size: 23 ½ x 33 ¾ inches
This is one of the finest images in the portfolio, inspired by Claude Monet's famous series of Haystack paintings...
Category
1960s Pop Art Landscape Prints
Materials
Screen
Meditation and Minou
By Will Barnet
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Meditation and Minou
Color lithograph and serigraph, 1980
Signed and numbered in pencil (see photo)
Printer Styria Studio, Inc. New York
Publisher: Harry Abrams...
Category
1980s American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
The Draped Figure, Seated
By James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Draped Figure, Seated
Lithograph on fine japanese paper, 1893
Signed in pencil with the butterfly (see photo)
Signed in the stone with the butterfly on the sofa (see photo)
Numbered: "No. 20" in pencil
Printed by Thomas Way, London
A beautiful impression with tonal variations in the stump work (shading)
As published in: L'Estampe Originale, Paris, 1893, Album IV
Edition: 107 impressions, this No. 20
There were an additonal 24 impressions printed by Way for Whistler and 20 impressions printed for the Fine Art Society, London
Lacking the huge support sheet and embossed series stamp by Charpentier
With the letterpress lower left: "T. Way. Imp London"
The stone erased in 1904
The majority of the lifetime impressions are in public collections
Condition: Excellent condition
Hinges from original issuance of L'Estampe Originale verso at top as described in Spink
Three hinges residue along right edge of the sheet from a later matting of the print
Image size: 8 1/4 x 6 3/8 inches
Sheet size: 11 3/8 x 9 1/16 inches
Reference: Spink/Tadeschi 72, published edition
Levy 74
Way 46
A superb Neoclassical lithograph...
Category
1890s American Impressionist Nude Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Bare Arms (The Practice #2)
By Darius Steward
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Bare Arms (The Practice #2)
Drypoint on Aluminum, 2019
Signed with initials lower right
Edition: 8 impressions (all uncolored), this “6 out of 8”
There are also 4 AP, 2 with hand coloring
Printed on Twinrocker all purpose paper
Published by Thomas French Fine Art...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Drypoint
Flower and Pot
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Flower and Pot
Color mezzotint, 1983
Signed, numbered, and dated in pencil
John Szoke Graphics blindstamp, lower right
Edition: 150 (100/150)
Image si...
Category
1980s Contemporary Still-life Prints
Materials
Mezzotint
Five Ideas for Sculpture
By Henry Moore
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Five Ideas for Sculpture
Lithograph, 1981
Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist lower margin. (see photos)
Edition: (35/50) 50
There were also 15 Roman Numeral artist's proofs....
Category
1950s Modern Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Niagara Falls
By Adolf Arthur Dehn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Niagara Falls
Lithograph, 1931
Signed lower right (see photo)
Titled/edition lower left. (see photo)
Edition of 25
Provenance: the Estate of the Artist
Condition: Excellent
Image si...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Les Jardin des Tuileries
By Edouard Vuillard
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed by the artist in pencil upper right; Annotated in pencil by the artist below signature: "no 58"
Edition: Intended edition of 100 for Vollard's "Album des Peintres-Gravures" o...
Category
Late 19th Century Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
La Naissance d’Annette (Birth of Annette)
By Edouard Vuillard
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La Naissance d’Annette (Birth of Annette)
Color llithograph, 1899
Unsigned (as usual)
Edition: 100
Publisher: Ambrose Vollard
Printer: Auguste Clot, Paris
Condition: Excellent with f...
Category
1890s French School Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Trees (Trees in Circle)
By Louise Nevelson
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Trees (Trees in Circle)
Etching & drypoint with monotype inking, 1953-1955
Signed in pencil
An unrecorded trial proof, printed on heavy wove proofing paper at Atelier 17, before the ...
Category
1950s Abstract Landscape Prints
Materials
Drypoint, Etching, Monotype
Cahiers d'art, Surrealist Composition 1
By Joan Miró
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Cahiers d'art, Surrealist Composition 1
Pochoir, 1934
Unsigned as issued in Cahier's edition
Published in Cahier's d'art, 1934
Unsigned Edition of 1200
There was also a pencil signed...
Category
1930s Surrealist Abstract Prints
Materials
Stencil
Dames charmante et charmante a tous egard
By Marc Chagall
Located in Fairlawn, OH
(A charming lady chatting with a lady perfect in every possible way)
Signed in the plate. No pencil signed impressions are existent.
Edition: 368 (including 50 imps on japan) includi...
Category
1920s French School Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art 1968/ 1983
By James Rosenquist
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art 1968/ 1983
Off-set lithographic poster, 1983
Signed in ink by the artist in the bottom margin (see photo)
Poster celebrating the 15 year anniver...
Category
1980s American Modern Abstract Prints
Materials
Offset
Plate I, Le Cocu Magnifique
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Plate I, Le Cocu Magnifique
Etching, 1968
From: Le Cocu Magnifique
Unsigned as issued in the portfolio
The set of 12 etching & aquatints is signed by Picasso on the justification pa...
Category
1960s French School Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Untitled
By Larry Rivers
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Untitled (Picasso)
Screen print, 1974
Signed, numbered and dated in red pencil lower right (see photo)
from Homage to Picasso (Hommage à Picasso)
Publisher: Propyläen-Verlag, Berlin
...
Category
1970s Pop Art Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
La Pique (The Pike)
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La Pique (The Pike)
Lithograph, 1950
Original lithograph drawn with chalk and "frottage textures" transferred to stone, 1950.
Unsigned printer's proof
Inscribed on the verso in Mourl...
Category
1950s French School Animal Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Claude Renoir, la Tete Baisee (Claude Renoir, Head Lowered)
By Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Claude Renoir, la Tete Baisee
(Claude Renoir, Head Lowered)
Lithograph, 1904
Edition 1,000, this one of 950 on wove paper with the stamp signature (there were also 50 impressions pri...
Category
Early 1900s Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Les Laveuses, 2e Pensee (The Washerwoman)
By Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Les Laveuses, 2e Pensee (The Washerwomen)
Lithograph, c. 1910
Unsigned (as issued)
Edition: c.30-50 impressions
Condition: Rust spot, associated with pape...
Category
1910s Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Beauty on a Veranda with Fan and Mirror
By Suzuki (Hozumi) Harunobu
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed: Harunobu ga
Series: Series: Eight Fashionable Parlor Views (Furyu zashiki hakkei)?
Format Japanese: chuban
Provenance:
Private Collection, Philadelphia
Collection of McCleaf
...
Category
Mid-18th Century Edo Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
The Web
By Ray H. French
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Web
Engraving and soft ground, 1950
Signed, titled, dated and numbered by the artist
Edition: 35 (26/35)
Printed by Master Printer, Jon Clemens, 2000
Provenance:
Estate of the ar...
Category
1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Engraving, Etching
El Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate III
By Wifredo Lam
Located in Fairlawn, OH
El Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate III
Color lithograph, 1976
Signed and numbered in pencil
From: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Ultimo viaie del buq...
Category
1970s Surrealist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Drole de Drame
By Karel Appel
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Drole de Drame
Lithograph, 1960
Signed, dated and numbered in pencil lower right
(see photos)
Edition: 120 (91/120)
Published by L’Ouevre Grave, Geneve (blindstamp recto)
Printed by ...
Category
1960s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
J. Becquet, Sculptor
By James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Located in Fairlawn, OH
J. Becquet, Sculptor
Etching & drypoint, 1859
Unsigned as issued
From: The Thames Set
Printed on this Japanese tissue
Rich impression
Condition: Excellent
Plate/Image size: 9 7/8 x 7...
Category
19th Century Impressionist Portrait Prints
Materials
Drypoint, Etching
Chinois inventa, dit-on, la poudre a canon, nous en fit don
By Georges Rouault
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Chinois inventa, dit-on, la poudre a canon, nous en fit don
(The Chinese invented gunpowder, they say, and made is a gift of it)
Aquatint, roulette, drypoint, acid bite, and scorper, 1926
From: Miserere, Plate 38
Initially started by Ambrose Vollard, this portfolio was published in 1948 by Editions de l'Etoile Filante, Paris
This image is the cover illustration for the 1938 MOMA catalog...
Category
1920s French School Portrait Prints
Materials
Drypoint, Aquatint
The Golden Gate
By Adolf Arthur Dehn
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Golden Gate
Lithograph on wove paper watermarked GC, 1940
Signed in pencil by the artist (see photo)
Publisher: Associated American Artists
Edition: 189, unnumbered
The image depicts The Golden Gate Bridge which connects San Francisco and Marin County, California
References And Exhibitions:
Illustrated: Adams, The Sensuous Life of Adolf Dehn, Fig. 13.17, page 324
Reference: L & O 325
AAA Index 391
Adolf Dehn, American Watercolorist and Printmaker, 1895-1968
Adolf Dehn was an artist who achieved extraordinary artistic heights, but in a very particular artistic sphere—not so much in oil painting as in watercolor and lithography. Long recognized as a master by serious print collectors, he is gradually gaining recognition as a notable and influential figure in the overall history of American art.
In the 19th century, with the invention of the rotary press, which made possible enormous print runs, and the development of the popular, mass-market magazines, newspaper and magazine illustration developed into an artistic realm of its own, often surprisingly divorced from the world of museums and art exhibitions, and today remains surprisingly overlooked by most art historians. Dehn in many regards was an outgrowth of this world, although in an unusual way, since as a young man he produced most of his illustrative work not for popular magazines, such as The Saturday Evening Post, but rather for radical journals, such as The Masses or The Liberator, or artistic “little magazines” such as The Dial. This background established the foundation of his outlook, and led later to his unique and distinctive contribution to American graphic art.
If there’s a distinctive quality to his work, it was his skill in introducing unusual tonal and textural effects into his work, particularly in printmaking but also in watercolor. Jackson Pollock seems to have been one of many notable artists who were influenced by his techniques.
Early Years, 1895-1922
For an artist largely remembered for scenes of Vienna and Paris, Adolf Dehn’s background was a surprising one. Born in Waterville, Minnesota, on November 22, 1895, Dehn was the descendent of farmers who had emigrated from Germany and homesteaded in the region, initially in a one-room log cabin with a dirt floor. Adolf’s father, Arthur Clark Dehn, was a hunter and trapper who took pride that he had no boss but himself, and who had little use for art. Indeed, during Adolf’s boyhood the walls of his bedroom and the space under his bed were filled with the pelts of mink, muskrats and skunks that his father had killed, skinned and stretched on drying boards. It was Adolf’s mother, Emilie Haas Dehn, a faithful member of the German Lutheran Evangelical Church, who encouraged his interest in art, which became apparent early in childhood. Both parents were ardent socialists, and supporters of Eugene Debs. In many ways Dehn’s later artistic achievement was clearly a reaction against the grinding rural poverty of his childhood.
After graduating from high school in 1914 at the age of 19—an age not unusual in farming communities at the time, where school attendance was often irregular—Dehn attended the Minneapolis School of Art from 1914 to 1917, whose character followed strongly reflected that of its director, Munich-trained Robert Kohler, an artistic conservative but a social radical. There Dehn joined a group of students who went on to nationally significant careers, including Wanda Gag (later author of best-selling children’s books); John Flanagan (a sculptor notable for his use of direct carving) Harry Gottlieb (a notable social realist and member of the Woodstock Art Colony), Elizabeth Olds (a printmaker and administrator for the WPA), Arnold Blanch (landscape, still-life and figure painter, and member of the Woodstock group), Lucille Lunquist, later Lucille Blanch (also a gifted painter and founder of the Woodstock art colony), and Johan Egilrud (who stayed in Minneapolis and became a journalist and poet).
Adolf became particularly close to Wanda Gag (1893-1946), with whom he established an intense but platonic relationship. Two years older than he, Gag was the daughter of a Bohemian artist and decorator, Anton Gag, who had died in 1908. After her husband died, Wanda’s mother, Lizzi Gag, became a helpless invalid, so Wanda was entrusted with the task of raising and financially supporting her six younger siblings. This endowed her with toughness and an independent streak, but nonetheless, when she met Dehn, Wanda was Victorian and conventional in her artistic taste and social values. Dehn was more socially radical, and introduced her to radical ideas about politics and free love, as well as to socialist publications such as The Masses and The Appeal to Reason.
Never very interested in oil painting, in Minneapolis Dehn focused on caricature and illustration--often of a humorous or politically radical character. In 1917 both Dehn and Wanda won scholarships to attend the Art Students League, and consequently, in the fall of that year both moved to New York. Dehn’s art education, however, ended in the summer of 1918, shortly after the United States entered World War I, when he was drafted to serve in the U. S. Army. Unwilling to fight, he applied for status as a conscientious objector, but was first imprisoned, then segregated in semi-imprisonment with other Pacifists, until the war ended. The abuse he suffered at this time may well explain his later withdrawal from taking political stands or making art of an overtly political nature. After his release from the army, Dehn returned to New York where he fell under the spell of the radical cartoonist Boardman Robinson and produced his first lithographs. He also finally consummated his sexual relationship with Wanda Gag.
The Years in Europe: 1922-1929
In September of 1921, however, he abruptly departed for Europe, arriving in Paris and then moving on to Vienna. There in the winter of 1922 he fell in love with a Russian dancer, Mura Zipperovitch, ending his seven-year relationship with Wanda Gag. He and Mura were married in 1926. It was also in Vienna that he produced his first notable artistic work.
Influenced by European artists such as Jules Pascin and Georg Grosz, Dehn began producing drawings of people in cafes, streets, and parks, which while mostly executed in his studio, were based on spontaneous life studies and have an expressive, sometimes almost childishly wandering quality of line. The mixture of sophistication and naiveté in these drawings was new to American audiences, as was the raciness of their subject matter, which often featured pleasure-seekers, prostitutes or scenes of sexual dalliance, presented with a strong element of caricature. Some of these drawings contain an element of social criticism, reminiscent of that found in the work of George Grosz, although Dehn’s work tended to focus on humorous commentary rather than savagely attacking his subjects or making a partisan political statement. Many Americans, including some who had originally been supporters of Dehn such as Boardman Robinson, were shocked by these European drawings, although George Grocz (who became a friend of the artist in this period) admired them, and recognized that Dehn could also bring a new vision to America subject matter. As he told Dehn: “You will do things in America which haven’t been done, which need to be done, which only you can do—as far at least as I know America.”
A key factor in Dehn’s artistic evolution at this time was his association with Scofield Thayer...
Category
1940s American Realist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
WO RO SI IA ZIN Russian Soldier with His Family
Located in Fairlawn, OH
WO RO SI IA ZIN Russian Soldier with His Family
Color woodcut, 1861 2nd month
Signed upper left (see photo)
Titled upper right in black cartouche (see photo)
Format: oban
Style: Yokohama-e
Publisherr: Sagamiya Tokichi (Marks #435) active 1955-1866
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, has an impression of this image
RARE
Condition: with usual aging
Image size: 13 7/8 x 9 3/8 inches
Rebecca Salter in her Japanese Popular Prints... on page 18 gives a different take on the situation that Yoshifuji found himself in.
"A giant of the period, however, was Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-861). Although best known for warrior prints which reflected the militaristic undercurrents of the time, he was also responsible for some of the most light-heartend and humorous works in this book. His followers in the Utagawa school, Utagawa Yoshitsuya...
Category
1860s Other Art Style Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Ontario St. Grading and Temporary Ramps
By Louis Conrad Rosenberg
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Ontario St. Grading and Temporary Ramps
Drypoint, August 1929
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
From: The Cleveland Set (23 plates), this being No. 13
Edition: Small
A brilliant example of American industrial art. A wonderful, rich impression, with lots of burr and contrasts.
Louis Conrad Rosenberg
1890-1983
An American architectural etcher and engraver of the 1920's and 1930's era, Louis Conrad Rosenberg first studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then enrolled at the Royal College of Art, London, to study etching techniques under Malcolm Osborne...
Category
1920s American Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Drypoint
Rue Caulaincourt
By Louis Marcoussis
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Rue Caulaincourt
Etching and engraving, 1931
Initialed in the plate (see photo)
Edition: 77
Plate 10 from "Plaches de Salut"
Published by Aux Editions Jeanne Bucher, Paris
Rue Caulaincourt is a street in Montmatre where Marcoussis lived from 1913 to c. 1939. The inscription translates to "You, me and this White Rabbit"
Condition: Excellent
Image/plate size: 8 x 9 1/2 inches
Sheet size: 12 3/8 x 15 7/8 inches
Louis Marcoussis, formerly Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus or Ludwig Casimir Ladislas Markus, (1878 or 1883, Łódź – October 22, 1941, Cusset) was a painter and engraver of Polish origin who lived in Paris for much of his life and became a French citizen.
Early life
After studying law briefly in Warsaw he went to the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts, where his teachers included Jan Stanislawski...
Category
1930s Cubist Abstract Prints
Materials
Engraving, Etching
Moon Rays
By Ray H. French
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Moon Rays
Graphic Construction (three sheets layered in a shadow box presentation), 1967
Signed lower right. Editioned lower left. (see photos)
Edition: 60 f...
Category
1960s Op Art Abstract Prints
Materials
Other Medium
Light Struck
By Sandro Chia
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Light Struck
Etching & Drypoint, 1984
Signed, dated and numbered in red pencil (see photos0
The artist's chop stamp (CS) lower right corner
Edition: 25 (18/25), 5 artist's proofs, B....
Category
1980s Contemporary Nude Prints
Materials
Etching
Le Groupe
By Alexander Archipenko
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Le Groupe
Lithograph, 1963
Signed and numbered in pencil, lower right
Edition: 75 (68/75) see photo
Publisher: Erker Presse, St. Gallen blindstamp lower left. see photo
From the suit...
Category
1960s Cubist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Western Hills Viaduct Under Construction
By Louis Conrad Rosenberg
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Western Hills Viaduct Under Construction
Drypoint, June 1931
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Initialed and dated in the plate lower right above pencil signature (see photo)
From: Cincinnati Series, 1930-1931, 8 plates, this No. 5
Small edition, not specified
From Greenfield Hill
Condition: Excellent
Image/Plate size: 8 1/2 x 15 1/4 inches
Sheet size: 11 1/4 x 18 1/2 inches
Louis Conrad Rosenberg
1890-1983
An American architectural etcher...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Drypoint
Cincinnati Union Terminal, Perspective From East
By Louis Conrad Rosenberg
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Cincinnati Union Terminal, Perspective From East
Drypoint, 1930-1931
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Initialed and dated the the plate above the pencil signature
From: Cincinnati Series (8 Plates), this No. 2
Edition: 155, completed May 4, 1931
Delivered to Fellheimer & Wagner, 1931
Louis Conrad Rosenberg
1890-1983
An American architectural etcher and engraver of the 1920's and 1930's era, Louis Conrad Rosenberg first studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
Category
1930s American Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Drypoint
Woods
By Louisa Chase
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Woods
Etching and aquatint printed in colors, 1985
Signed, titled & numbered in pencil
Edition: 15 (12/15)
Printed on BFK RIVES paper
Provenance: GE Art Program, (label included), se...
Category
1980s Abstract Abstract Prints
Materials
Etching
The Columns of Herakles
By Ossip Zadkine
Located in Fairlawn, OH
The Columns of Herakles
Lithograph in Grey printed Zerkall-Vellum paper, 1960
Signed in pencil by the artist 'O. Zadkine' at the lower right corner (see photo)
Numbered in pencil 102...
Category
1960s Surrealist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Burst of Sound
By Misako Shimizu
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Burst of Sound
Lithograph printed in colors
Signed and titled in pencil in Japanese (see photos)
Edition: 30 (5/30)
Provenance:
Ralph Drake, Cleveland, OH, noted collector of decorat...
Category
Mid-20th Century Abstract Still-life Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Dona Ascensione
By Kenneth M. Adams
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Dona Ascensione
Off set lithograph, 1932/published 1950
Signed in pencil by the artist lower right (see photo)
Titled in the stone, lower left
From: New Mexico Artist...
Category
1930s American Realist Portrait Prints
Materials
Offset
City Park, Winter
By Aaron Bohrod
Located in Fairlawn, OH
City Park, Winter
Lithograph, c. 1947
Signed in pencil lower right (see photo)
Published by Associated American Artists
Printed by George C. Miller, New York
Edition: c. 250
In the Bohrod papers at Syracuse University, the artist states that it is a view of Pittsburgh. It depicts the George Washington Monument in Allegheny Commons Park, dedicated in 1891. The sculptor f the monument is Edward Ludwig Albert Pausch (1856-1931).
Condition: Excellent
Image size: 9 1/4 x 13 7/16 inches
Frame size: 19 x 23 inches
Provenance: Estate of Adolf Dehn
Reference: AAA Index No. 848
Aaron Bohrod (21 November 1907 – 3 April 1992) was an American artist best known for his trompe-l'œil still-life paintings.
Education
Bohrod was born in Chicago in 1907, the son of an emigree Bessarabian-Jewish grocer. Bohrod studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League of New York between 1926 and 1930. While at the Art Students League, Bohrod was influenced by John Sloan and chose themes that involved his own surroundings.
Career
He returned to Chicago in 1930 where he painted views of the city and its working class. He eventually earned Guggenheim Fellowships which permitted him to travel throughout the country, painting and recording the American scene. His early work won him widespread praise as an important social realist and regional painter and printmaker and his work was marketed through Associated American Artists in New York. Bohrod completed three commissioned murals for the Treasury Departments Section of Fine Arts in Illinois; Vandalia in 1935, Galesburg in 1938 and Clinton in 1939. During World War II, Bohrod worked as an artist; first in the Pacific for the United States Army Corps of Engineers' Army War Art Unit...
Category
1940s American Realist Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Jolly Corner. A portfolio of 21 etchings.
By Peter Milton
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Portfolio of 21 photosensitive etchings and engravings on Rives Heavyweight Buff
Signed by the artist in pencil on frontispiece
Plate No. II:2; Signed by the artist
Numbered 27/150 in pencil on the colophon page along with chop marks of artist/printers Robert E. Townsend and Gretchen Ewert, and the chop of Impressions Workshop, Boston
Edition: 150
References And Exhibitions:
A portfolio edition of Henry James' ghost story first published by "The English Review" in December, 1908
Principal Portfolio Edition
Published by Aquarius Press Baltimore, MD
Reference:
Kneeland McNulty, Peter Milton: Complete Etchings 1960...
Category
1970s Contemporary More Prints
Materials
Etching
L'Angellus (The Angel)
By Alfredo Müller
Located in Fairlawn, OH
L'Angellus (The Angel)
Etching, engraving and acquatint on Arches paper, 1908
Signed lower right by the artist (see photo)
This is a first state impression printed in a brown/black ink
There was also a color edition of 50 impressions published by Sagot
Reference: Wurzer 27
Provenance: Edmund Sagot, the publisher
Sagot Heirs
Condition: Rich impression. Verso: print has staining. Printer's crease visibile from verso only.
Image/Plate size: 19 1/4 x 15 1/2" (48.9 x 39.37 cm)
Sheet size: 24 x 17 3/8 inches
From the British Museum:
"Colour etcher. Born in Livorno from a family of wealthy Swiss cotton merchants, studied with Giuseppe Ciaranfi and Michele Gordigiani in Florence. In 1886 exhibited with Fattori, Achille Lega and Tommasi in the Prima Esposizione delle Belle Arti in Livorno. In 1888 he and his family moved to Paris, where he studied first with François Flameng until 1892 and later with Carolus-Duran. Müller remained in the French capital until the outbreak of the First World War, taking French citizenship in 1913. He worked in the countryside at Barbizon, Suresnes and elsewhere, but also made frequent visits to his native country, where he exhibited regularly in Florence with the Promotrice Fiorentine. His early work was indebted to Fattori and Plinio Nomellini, but he soon became interested in the Impressionists and was credited by the critic Mario Tinti with introducing the luminism of Monet into Italian art.
Müller was a member of the Société des Artistes Indépendents and exhibited regularly in the Paris dealer...
Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Woman's Head
By Elie Nadelman
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Edition of 50 printed by Charles White in 1951 for the estate
Bibliography:
Lincoln Kirstein, Elie Nademan (New York: The Eakins Press, 1973),, 20
Elie Nadelman
Born 1882, Warsaw...
Category
1920s American Modern Prints and Multiples
Materials
Drypoint
Engraver's Tools
By Armin Landeck
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Engraver's Tools
Engraving, 1974
Signed and annotated in pencil by the artist (see photos)
This a "Trial Proof" impression with graphite additions
Regular Edition: 100
References And...
Category
1970s American Modern Still-life Prints
Materials
Engraving
Dejeuner sur l'Herbe
By After Paul Cezanne
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Dejeuner sur l'Herbe
Lithograph, c. 1914
Edition: c. 100
Unsigned as issued by Vollard
References And Exhibitions:
Commissioned from Cezanne by Ambrose Vollard in the late 1890s
Prin...
Category
1910s French School Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
El Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate IV
By Wifredo Lam
Located in Fairlawn, OH
El Ultimo viaje del buque fantasma, Plate IV
Color lithograph, 1976
Signed and numbered in pencil (see photos)
From: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, El Ultimo viaie del buque Fantasma
(The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship (1868), 12 illustration by Wilfredo Lam
Edition: 99 (6/99)
This one of an edition of 99 from the deluxe edition of the book of the same title
There was an additional edition of 200 books, signed and numbered on the justification page
Publisher: Poligrafa, Barcelona
Printer: Poligrafa, Barcelona
The Gabriel Garcia Marquez/Lam book is an illustrated version of the short story, a man recalls the night during his boyhood when an enormous passenger ship went aground in his small town on the shores of the Caribbean. It is considered a Latin American masterpiece of surrealism and transculturation. (See below analysis of the story)
Condition: slight yellows (aging) of paper
small paper scuffs verso from previous hinges
Sheet size: 22 x 29 7/8 inches
About the author and the storyline of the book by Marquez:
Gabriel García Márquez was born in 1927, he is a famous Colombian writer, novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist. In 1982 he received the Novel Prize for Literature. He is an author sometimes inherently related to magical realism and his best-known work is the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude in which we find this literary genre.
Summary of "The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship" (1868):
The novel by Gabriel García Márquez, The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship, written in 1968, is written in a single great sentence, which tells the surprising and amazing adventure that has changed the existence of a child living in a coastal town with a small port sunny, almost forgotten by civilization. The days are peaceful, the nights are silent and illuminated only by the rotating beacon that, every fifteen seconds, transforms the town into a lunar camp with phosphorescent houses. During one night in March, the boy saw an immense afterlife ship that sails through the seas with all the dead crew and sometimes appears to the living, silently crossing the deserted sea, a huge and unexpected mass whose trajectory suddenly it seems to drift, and then runs aground on the reefs. This cataclysm is accomplished without disturbing the night's silence, and the next day the boy found no traces of the shipwreck and no one believed it, not even his mother. Time passes, and the same shipwreck occurs again, every year, on the same night in March; the adolescent...
Category
1970s Surrealist Abstract Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Portrait De Cezanne
By Edouard Vuillard
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Portrait De Cezanne
Lithograph, 1914
Unsigned (as issued in 1914)
Edition: Either 100 (per Roger Marx) or 400 impressions on various papers
Published in, Cezanne, Bernheim Jeune, 1914
Reference:
Roger-Marx 51 ii/II, printed in greenish-grey ink on laid paper
Condition: Excellent
Image: 9 1/2 x 9"
Sheet: 14 3/4 x 11 1/8"
Edouard Vuillard
French, 1868 - 1940
Vuillard's work straddles two centuries: he was a major post-impressionist in the 1890s, as well as a participant in the renewal of decorative art before and after 1900. Vuillard was one of the central figures of "Les Nabis...
Category
1910s French School Portrait Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Female Nude - Standing Female Nude (Havard)
By Elie Nadelman
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Female Nude - Standing Female Nude (Havard)
Drypoint, 1920
Unsigned, as issued in the portfolio
No signed impression are known to exist
From: The Drypoint...
Category
1920s American Modern Nude Prints
Materials
Drypoint
En passant (Passing by)
By Louis Legrand
Located in Fairlawn, OH
En passant (Passing by)
Drypoint, 1909
Unsigned (as issued in the deluxe portfolio)
From the album "Les Bars" (8 plates plus cover illustration)
Edition: 30, this state with remarque
Published by Gustav Pellet, Paris
A very rich impression wwith burr
Condition: Excellent
Image/Plate size: 9 7/8 x 6 3/8 inches
Reference: Arwas 391a (remarque)
Exteens 277 i/II
IFF 148 (portfolio)
Louis Auguste Mathieu Legrand (29 September 1863 – 1951) was a French artist, known especially for his aquatint engravings, which were sometimes erotic. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur for his work in 1906.
Life
Legrand was born in the city of Dijon in the east of France. He worked as a bank clerk before deciding to study art part-time at Dijon's Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He won the Devosge prize at the school in 1883.[2] In 1884 Legrand studied engraving under the Belgian printmaker Félicien Rops.
Legrand's artworks include etchings, graphic art and paintings. His paintings featured Parisian social life. Many were of prostitutes, dancers and bar scenes, which featured a sense of eroticism. According to the Hope Gallery, "Louis Legrand is simply one of France's finest early twentieth century masters of etching." His black and white etchings especially provide a sense of decadence; they have been compared to those of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, though his drawings of the Moulin Rouge, the can-can dance and the young women of Montmartre preceded Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings of similar scenes. He made over three hundred prints of the night life of Paris. They demonstrate "his remarkable powers of observation and are executed with great skill, delicacy, and an ironic sense of humor that pervades them all."
Two of his satirical artworks caused him to be tried for obscenity. The first, "Prostitution" was a symbolic drawing which depicted a naked girl being grasped by a dark monster which had the face of an old woman and claws on its hands; the second, "Naturalism", showed the French novelist Émile Zola minutely studying the thighs of a woman with a magnifying glass. Defended by his friend the lawyer Eugène Rodrigues-Henriques (1853–1928), he was found not guilty in the lower court, but was convicted in the appeal court and then given a short prison sentence for refusing to pay his fine.
Legrand was made famous by his colour illustrations for Gil Blas magazine's coverage of the can-can, with text by Rodrigues (who wrote under the pseudonym Erastene Ramiro). It was a tremendous success, with the exceptional quantity of 60,000 copies of the magazine being printed and instantly sold out in 1891.
In 1892, at the instigation of the publishing house Dentu, Legrand made a set of etchings of his Gil Blas illustrations. The etchings were published in a book, Le Cours de Danse Fin de Siecle (The End of the Century Dance Classes).
Legrand took a holiday in Brittany, which inspired him to engrave a set of fourteen lithographs of simple country life called Au Cap de la Chevre (On Goat Promontory). It was published by Gustave Pellet who became a close friend of Legrand's. Pellet eventually published a total of 300 etchings by Legrand, who was his first artist; he also published Toulouse-Lautrec and Félicien Rops among others.
He did not only work in graphics; he exhibited paintings at the Paris salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts starting in 1902. In 1906 he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.
Legrand died in obscurity in 1951. A retrospective exhibition was held at the Félicien Rops museum in Namur, Belgium in 2006 to celebrate his graphic art. The art collector Victor Arwas published a catalogue raisonné for the occasion.
Books illustrated
de Maupassant, Guy: Cinq Contes Parisiens, 1905.
Poe, Edgar Alan: Quinze Histoires d'Edgar Poe...
Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Interior Prints
Materials
Drypoint
La Negresse (The Negress)
By Louis Legrand
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La Negresse (The Negress)
Etching & drypoint, 1909
Unsigned (as issued in the portfolio)
From the album "Les Bars" (8 plates plus cover illustration)
Editi...
Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Interior Prints
Materials
Etching
A L'Ombre (In Shadow)
By Louis Legrand
Located in Fairlawn, OH
A L'Ombre (In Shadow)
Etching & drypoint, 1905
Signed with the red stamp of the publisher Pellet (see photo)
Edition: 50 on velin paper, signed and numbered
Publisher: Gustav Pellet, Paris (his red stamp lower right, recto; Lugt 1193)
Condition: Excellent
Image/Plate size: 5-7/8 x 8-5/8" (14.8 x 21.8 cm.)
Sheet size: 11 5/8 x 17 1/8"
Reference: IFF 119
Exteens 229
Arwas 256 v/V
Louis Auguste Mathieu Legrand (29 September 1863 – 1951) was a French artist, known especially for his aquatint engravings, which were sometimes erotic. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur for his work in 1906.
Life
Legrand was born in the city of Dijon in the east of France. He worked as a bank clerk before deciding to study art part-time at Dijon's Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He won the Devosge prize at the school in 1883.[2] In 1884 Legrand studied engraving under the Belgian printmaker Félicien Rops.
Legrand's artworks include etchings, graphic art and paintings. His paintings featured Parisian social life. Many were of prostitutes, dancers and bar scenes, which featured a sense of eroticism. According to the Hope Gallery, "Louis Legrand is simply one of France's finest early twentieth century masters of etching." His black and white etchings especially provide a sense of decadence; they have been compared to those of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, though his drawings of the Moulin Rouge, the can-can dance and the young women of Montmartre preceded Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings of similar scenes. He made over three hundred prints of the night life of Paris. They demonstrate "his remarkable powers of observation and are executed with great skill, delicacy, and an ironic sense of humor that pervades them all."
Two of his satirical artworks caused him to be tried for obscenity. The first, "Prostitution" was a symbolic drawing which depicted a naked girl being grasped by a dark monster which had the face of an old woman and claws on its hands; the second, "Naturalism", showed the French novelist Émile Zola minutely studying the thighs of a woman with a magnifying glass. Defended by his friend the lawyer Eugène Rodrigues-Henriques (1853–1928), he was found not guilty in the lower court, but was convicted in the appeal court and then given a short prison sentence for refusing to pay his fine.
Legrand was made famous by his colour illustrations for Gil Blas magazine's coverage of the can-can, with text by Rodrigues (who wrote under the pseudonym Erastene Ramiro). It was a tremendous success, with the exceptional quantity of 60,000 copies of the magazine being printed and instantly sold out in 1891.
In 1892, at the instigation of the publishing house Dentu, Legrand made a set of etchings of his Gil Blas illustrations. The etchings were published in a book, Le Cours de Danse Fin de Siecle (The End of the Century Dance Classes).
Legrand took a holiday in Brittany, which inspired him to engrave a set of fourteen lithographs of simple country life called Au Cap de la Chevre (On Goat Promontory). It was published by Gustave Pellet who became a close friend of Legrand's. Pellet eventually published a total of 300 etchings by Legrand, who was his first artist; he also published Toulouse-Lautrec and Félicien Rops among others.
He did not only work in graphics; he exhibited paintings at the Paris salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts starting in 1902. In 1906 he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.
Legrand died in obscurity in 1951. A retrospective exhibition was held at the Félicien Rops museum in Namur, Belgium in 2006 to celebrate his graphic art. The art collector Victor Arwas published a catalogue raisonné for the occasion.
Books illustrated
de Maupassant, Guy: Cinq Contes Parisiens, 1905.
Poe, Edgar Alan: Quinze Histoires d'Edgar Poe...
Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Landscape Prints
Materials
Etching
L'Aieule (The Grandmother)
By Louis Legrand
Located in Fairlawn, OH
L'Aieule (The Grandmother)
Etching and aquatint printed in colors, 1904
Signed with the red stamp of the publisher, Gustave Pellet, Lugt 1193 and numbered (see photo)
Edition: 100 (81/100)
Reference: Arwas 202 iv/IV
IFF 98
Condition: Excellent, the sheet aged as usual
Image size: 14 1/4 x 18 5/8"
Sheet size: 16 15/16 x 24 1/4"
Louis Auguste Mathieu Legrand (29 September 1863 – 1951) was a French artist, known especially for his aquatint engravings, which were sometimes erotic. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur for his work in 1906.
Life
Legrand was born in the city of Dijon in the east of France. He worked as a bank clerk before deciding to study art part-time at Dijon's Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He won the Devosge prize at the school in 1883.[2] In 1884 Legrand studied engraving under the Belgian printmaker Félicien Rops.
Legrand's artworks include etchings, graphic art and paintings. His paintings featured Parisian social life. Many were of prostitutes, dancers and bar scenes, which featured a sense of eroticism. According to the Hope Gallery, "Louis Legrand is simply one of France's finest early twentieth century masters of etching." His black and white etchings especially provide a sense of decadence; they have been compared to those of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, though his drawings of the Moulin Rouge, the can-can dance and the young women of Montmartre preceded Toulouse-Lautrec's paintings of similar scenes. He made over three hundred prints of the night life of Paris. They demonstrate "his remarkable powers of observation and are executed with great skill, delicacy, and an ironic sense of humor that pervades them all."
Two of his satirical artworks caused him to be tried for obscenity. The first, "Prostitution" was a symbolic drawing which depicted a naked girl being grasped by a dark monster which had the face of an old woman and claws on its hands; the second, "Naturalism", showed the French novelist Émile Zola minutely studying the thighs of a woman with a magnifying glass. Defended by his friend the lawyer Eugène Rodrigues-Henriques (1853–1928), he was found not guilty in the lower court, but was convicted in the appeal court and then given a short prison sentence for refusing to pay his fine.
Legrand was made famous by his colour illustrations for Gil Blas magazine's coverage of the can-can, with text by Rodrigues (who wrote under the pseudonym Erastene Ramiro). It was a tremendous success, with the exceptional quantity of 60,000 copies of the magazine being printed and instantly sold out in 1891.
In 1892, at the instigation of the publishing house Dentu, Legrand made a set of etchings of his Gil Blas illustrations. The etchings were published in a book, Le Cours de Danse Fin de Siecle (The End of the Century Dance Classes).
Legrand took a holiday in Brittany, which inspired him to engrave a set of fourteen lithographs of simple country life called Au Cap de la Chevre (On Goat Promontory). It was published by Gustave Pellet who became a close friend of Legrand's. Pellet eventually published a total of 300 etchings by Legrand, who was his first artist; he also published Toulouse-Lautrec and Félicien Rops among others.
He did not only work in graphics; he exhibited paintings at the Paris salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts starting in 1902. In 1906 he was made a chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.
Legrand died in obscurity in 1951. A retrospective exhibition was held at the Félicien Rops museum in Namur, Belgium in 2006 to celebrate his graphic art. The art collector Victor Arwas published a catalogue raisonné for the occasion.
Books illustrated
de Maupassant, Guy: Cinq Contes Parisiens, 1905.
Poe, Edgar Alan: Quinze Histoires d'Edgar Poe...
Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
La Toilette
By Louis Legrand
Located in Fairlawn, OH
La Toilette
Drypoint, 1908
Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist (see photos)
Edition: 65 this state (35/65)
Published by Gustave Pellet (1859-1919),...
Category
Early 1900s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
Materials
Drypoint