Salinas River - California
Woodcut printed in colors, 1927-28, edition 100. 12 3/4 x 16 7/8 in. Signed and titled in pencil. This is a good impression printed on Japanese paper. The margins are full and the condition is good. (There are three small areas touched in with gouache(?) certainly by the artist, and faint traces of soiling in the water.) The importance of Fletcher both in England and later in America cannot be overstated. His seminal publication, Wood-Block Printing, published in 1916, had a lasting impact on many printmakers who explored the color woodcut medium. He came to America in 1923 and settled in Santa Barbara where he taught at the Santa Barbara School of Art. He became a naturalized citizen in 1926. This large print is an iconic arts and crafts California woodcut.
SOLD

Wiston River
Woodcut printed in colors, circa 1900-1905, edition 100. 8 3/8 x 14 1/2 in. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. This is a superb, luminous impression with probably full margins. The condition is fine apart from very thin pieces of brown paper tape along the edges of the sheet. This stellar early work was done in his native Lancashire, England. Color variations exist with this and his other prints which add much diversity to his rather limited oeuvre. There's no formal catalogue raisonné of his woodcuts but there's an excellent article by Nancy Green in the following: Second Impressions; Modern Prints and Printmakers Reconsidered, edited by Clinton Adams, volume 16 of the Tamarind Papers, 1996, University of New Mexico Press, pages 37-48.
SOLD