Open Cut - 6th Avenue Subway (New York)
CHARLES KELLER
American, (1914-2006)
Lithograph, 1938, edition 20. 11 1/2 x 14 1/4 in. Signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil. This is a fine impression with full margins. The condition is fine apart from a small repaired tear at the top of the sheet and a soft wrinkle along the lower right side of the margin. Keller studied at the Art Students League with with Harry Sternberg and Will Barnet. "Open Cut" is one of his finest lithographs and it's from the series Sandhogs which shows builders working on the 6th Avenue subway. Keller was active politically and helped to run the left-wing Artist's League of America. The Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell organized a retrospective of his work in 1976.
$3,500

Weltschmertz
ROCKWELL KENT
American, (1881-1940)
Lithograph, 1947, Burne Jones / Rightmire 141; edition 100. 13 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. Signed in pencil. Here we have a fine impression printed on wove paper. The margins are wide and the condition is fine. There are preliminary sketches and a tracing in the Kent collection at Columbia University. Weltschmertz translated from the German means "world weariness." It's about melancholy and pensive thoughts. Impressions are cited in five museum collections.
$2,500

Saratoga Springs Victorian
LAWRENCE KUPFERMAN
American, (1909-1982)
Drypoint, probably 1940, AAA catalogue 899, edition 250. 13 7/8 x 9 5/8 in. Signed in pencil. This is a superb impression printed on a sturdy wove paper. The margins are full and the condition is excellent. This print was published by Associated American Artists in 1947. This is a stellar example of the drypoint medium. The artist did at least one other print in the architecturally rich Saratoga Springs, NY area.
$750

On the Thames (Sur la Tamise)
JEAN-EMILE LABOUREUR
French, (1877-1943)
Woodcut, 1914, Laboureur 696, edition 35. 11 5/8 x 14 5/8 in. Initialed in the block, lower left corner. Signed and numbered in pencil. This is a superb impression of this large woodcut. The margins are full and the condition is excellent.
$3,500

Corner Shadows
MARTIN LEWIS
American, (1881-1962)
Drypoint and sand ground, 1930, McCarron 83 (ii/II), edition 242. 8 3/8 x 9 in. Signed in the plate, lower left. Signed in pencil. This is a fine, luminous impression with full margins. The condition is fine apart from two small indiscreet hinges on the verso, top corners. This stellar work is included in at least twenty-five museum collections. This work was commissioned by the Print Club of Cleveland and the preparatory drawings and proofs are now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The edition was printed by Charles S. White.
$12,500

Derricks at Night
MARTIN LEWIS
American, (1881-1962)
Drypoint, 1927, McCarron 62 (i/II); edition 104. 7 7/8 x 11 3/4 in. Signed in the plate, lower right. Signed in pencil. This is a superb impression with full margins. The paper is ARCHES and the condition is excellent. According to McCarron, "'Derricks at Night' is the only Lewis print with such extensive changes between states. The second state was begun two years after he had essentially finished the composition, an exception to Lewis's usual procedure in completing a plate." Both versions are exceptionally fine and a casual glance at museum collections which own this print show an almost equal number of museums own the first or the second states. First state impressions are owned by the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, among others. This engaging print has a compelling sense of geometry and a single worker walks along on the street at night, conveying the solitude of the evening.
$10,000

Manta's Wharf (Provincetown)
TOD LINDENMUTH
American, (1885-1976)
Linoleum cut, circa 1920, edition unknown. 13 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. Signed and titled in pencil. This is a superb impression of this extremely rare and masterful print. The margins are full and the condition is fine. Lindenmuth is one of the original members of the Provincetown Printers and one of the earliest artists to work almost exclusively in the linoleum cut medium. Manta's Wharf was built in the mid 19th century off of Commercial Street. It was badly damaged in a 1917 storm and was gone by 1929. This is arguably Lindenmuth's finest print and it's extremely rare. (The print is beautifully framed to museum standards.)
SOLD

Gaiety Burlesque
REGINALD MARSH
American, (1898-1954)
Etching, 1930, Sasowsky 102, edition 39. 11 7/8 x 9 3/4 in. Signed and dated in the plate, lower left. Signed in pencil. This is a superb impression in fine condition. The margins are irregular and somewhat modest in the lower left corner but this is almost certainly the sheet Marsh printed on. The paper bears a WHATMAN watermark which is the paper used for most of the lifetime edition. This is one of Marsh's most famous prints and is found in many museum collections including: The Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fogg Art Museum and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Provenance: The Old Print Shop, NY (with their label on the back of the frame.)
$8,000

Spring Umbrellas
KATHARINE HOOD MCCORMICK
American, (1882-1960)
White line woodcut printed in colors, probably 1946-1947, edition unknown. 14 x 11 3/8 in. Initialed in the block, lower right. Signed and titled in pencil. This is a fine impression of this very rare print. The paper is a cream fibrous Japanese and the margins are full. The condition is fine apart from a wrinkle in the upper right corner of the sheet and remains of old tape on the verso along the top edge in three places. McCormick was one of the original Provincetown printers and her work was included in Janet Flint's seminal catalogue, "Provincetown Printers: A Woodcut Tradition." (1983). McCormick was a Philadelphia artist, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and was treasurer of the American Color Print Society. She was a regular visitor to Provincetown and became a frequent correspondent of Blanche Lazzell. Lazzell advised her to use colors freely and rely on inspiration at the time of printing. McCormick wrote, "It is not a paying business as far as price is concerned. I do them (blockprints) because I like to." There are six woodcuts by McCormick in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art including this one.
$6,500

City Hall, Haarlem (Stadhuis, Haarlem)
SAMUEL JESSURUN DE MESQUITA
Dutch, (1868-1944)
Etching, 1911, van Es D37; 5 impressions cited in the catalogue. 16 1/2 x 20 3/8 in. Signed, dated and titled in the plate, upper right. Signed in pencil. This is a fine impression of this large work printed on VAN GELDER ZONEN paper. The margins are full. The condition is fine apart from a few small repairs at the sheet edges. This exquisite architectural study is unusual for the artist and may have been some kind of commission. The building is still the site for marriage ceremonies and couples were once able to stand on the balcony above the door and greet their guests and onlookers.
$2,800

Bacchanal
HARRY MORLEY
British, (1881-1943)
Engraving, 1932, edition 60. 6 3/4 x 5 7/8 in. Initialed and dated in the plate, lower right. Signed in pencil. This is a fine impression with full margins. The condition is excellent. Morley was a gifted engraver in the tradition of Stanley Anderson and Robert Austin. He was commercially successful during the 1920s and 1930s and was represented by Colnaghi in London. A catalogue raisonné is planned by Robert Meyrick and Dr. Harry Heuser.
$650

Sprinters
JOHN J. A. MURPHY
American, (1888-1968)
Woodcut, circa 1924-31, Cole 155, edition less than 75. 11 1/8 x 13 in. Signed in pencil. This is a superb impression with full margins. The condition is fine apart from reside of two small hinges at the top of the sheet, far away from the image. Murphy's woodcuts are quite distinctive and this is considered by many to be his finest work. Sylvan Cole Gallery held an important retrospective of Murphy's work in 1990. The artist exhibited with the Leicester Gallery, London, while he was alive as well as with Frederick Keppel in New York. This print is illustrated on page 102 of Master Prints of Five Centuries; The Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection (1991). Murphy was born in Boston and studied at the Museum school. He also studied in London with Noel Rooke and exhibited his work there at the Leicester Gallery. He was married to fellow artist, Cecil Buller.
$3,500

The Gambrel-Roofed Barn
THOMAS NASON
American, (1889-1971)
Chiaroscuro wood engraving, 1947, Boston Public Library 393; edition 90. 5 5/8 x 10 1/8 in. Signed, dated and numbered in pencil. This is a superb impression printed on thin cream Japan paper. The margins are full and the condition is fine. For this outstanding and somewhat experimental print, Nason found it difficult to obtain boxwood blocks so he printed a tint with a copper plate. The black was printed from a woodblock and the olive was printed from the copper plate.
SOLD

Amston Pond
THOMAS NASON
American, (1889-1971)
Engraving, 1947, Boston Public Library 424, edition 250. 6 7/8 x 10 1/2 in. Signed in pencil. Here we have a fine impression with full margins. The condition is excellent. This copperplate engraving was published by the Society of Print Connoisseurs.
$475

Bal Tabarin (Paris)
JULES PASCIN
Bulgarian-American, (1885-1930)
Drypoint, 1926, Hemin 126, edition 100. 11 1/4 x 13 1/4 in. Signed and numbered in pencil. This is a fine, delicate impression printed on RIVES watermarked paper. The margins are full and the condition is fine. (There's a customs stamp on the back in the margin and two old hinges at the top corners.) Pascin was Bulgarian and moved to Paris in 1905. He exhibited at various Paris art shows and was also an exhibitor at the Armory Show in New York in 1913. He moved to New York with his lover, Hermine David, and they eventually married in 1918. Like Toulouse-Lautrec, Pascin drew upon his surroundings and his friends as subjects. Nightlife scenes, such as this one, were typical of his best work in printmaking.
$1,650

The Harvest, South Carolina
CHARLES POLLACK
American, (1902-1988)
Lithograph, undated (1930s), edition 35. 9 3/4 x 14 in. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil "E35." This is a fine impression of this very rare print. The margins are full with a deckle edge on all sides. The condition is fine apart from old hinges at the top of the sheet, recto. Charles was the oldest brother of Jackson Pollack. He worked with the Michigan WPA program and joined the art faculty at Michigan State University. He also studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League in New York. From the 1940s on, his work started changing to more abstraction. Ironically, Jackson Pollack also studied at the Art Students League with Benton and his earliest work is regionalist in nature. An impression of this print is found at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
$1,850

Landscape 2022-VII
GRIETJE POSTMA
Dutch, (b. 1961)
Woodcut printed in colors, 2022, edition 29. 13 x 22 7/8 in. Signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil. This is a fine, luminous impression with full margins. The condition is excellent. This exemplary work by Postma has an almost impressionist look to it. The composition is extremely well designed.
$900

Masked Ball (Bal Masqué)
RICHARD RANFT
Swiss, (1862-1931)
Etching and aquatint printed in colors, 1899, edition 30. 11 5/8 x 14 5/8 in. Signed in the plate, upper left corner. Signed and numbered in pencil. This is a fine impression printed on cream ARCHES watermarked paper. The margins appear to be full and untrimmed. This print was probably printed by Eugène Delâtre and published by Sagot. Ranft was born in Switzerland and later moved to Paris where he studied with Courbet and learned about engraving from from Augustin-Alexandre Dumont. He was a full member off the the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. Ranft produced about eighty-five etchings in color which are considered his finest medium. Ex-collection: Eric Carlson, New York.
SOLD

Copper Miners
LEWIS RUBENSTEIN
American, (1908-2003)
Lithograph, circa 1938, edition unknown. 14 x 11 3/4 in. Initialed in the plate, lower left. Signed in pencil and inscribed, "artist's proof." This is a fine impression of this rare print. The margins are full and the condition is fine. Rubenstein studied with Rico Lebrun and he was employed by the New York WPA program. He produced a mural for Harvard, his alma mater, at the Busch-Reisinger Museum, and a mural at the Jewish Center at his hometown, Buffalo, and at the Wareham, MA Post Office. He taught at Vassar from 1939 until 1974. An impression of this print is in the National Gallery Of Art.
$2,500

Dulcimer and Discord
BERNARD STEFFEN
American, (1907-1980)
Lithograph, 1939, edition unknown. 11 5/8 x 9 3/8 in. Signed, dated and titled in pencil. Here we have a fine impression of this extremely rare print. The margins are wide and the condition is fine. the paper is watermarked RIVES. Steffen was a WPA artist and studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Kansas City Art Institute. He was a founding member of the of the American Artists Congress, an association established in 1935 to encourage government support for artist's unions and to promote social realism in American art. Sadly, in 1977, Steffen's studio was destroyed by a fire and he lost "thousands" of paintings and prints. (See David Acton, "A Spectrum of Innovation, Color in American Printmaking," (1990), page 286.)
SOLD