Young Owls
WUANITA SMITH
American, (1866-1959)
White line woodcut with additional hand coloring and embossing, circa 1925-50, edition unknown. 10 7/8 x 7 1/4 in. Signed and titled in pencil. Here we have a fine impression with full margins. The colors are fresh. The condition is fine apart from a few subtle wrinkles in the lower margin from the printing process. Born in Philadelphia, Smith studied at the Drexel Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and later at the Art Students League in New York. She was a founding member of the American Color print Society along with Mary Mullineux. She exhibited in Provincetown in the 1920s and 1930s and maintained a studio in Nantucket during this era. Smith's work is included in Provincetown Printers, A Woodcut Tradition by Janet Flint (1983), page 46.
SOLD

Leaning Chimneys
WILLIAM E. SMITH
African American, (1913-1997)
Linoleum cut, 1939, edition unknown. 9 x 10 7/8 in. Signed, dated and titled in pencil. This is a fine, rich impression of this rare early work. The margins are full and the condition is fine. In the early 1930s, Smith met the founders of the Karamu School in Cleveland and he became actively involved studying painting and printmaking. Originally known as the Playhouse Settlement, Karamu stressed excellence and Smith ultimately taught there until 1940. He showed his work at the Cleveland Artists Exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art. He was one of the Karamu Artists, Incorporated which also included Hughie Lee-Smith and Charles Sallee. After World War II he studied at the Cleveland School of Art and in 1950 he moved to Los Angeles. This is a fine example of his work in linoleum cuts, for which he is best known.
$5,000

On the Crest
YNGVE E. SODERBERG
American, (1896-1971)
Drypoint, circa 1930, edition 85. 8 7/8 x 11 7/8 in. Signed and numbered in pencil. Here we have a fine impression with full margins. The condition is very good other than for old hinges at the top corners and a small repaired tear in the upper left corner margin. Soderberg was best known for his prints, watercolors and paintings pertaining to sailing. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League. He did much of his work around Mystic, Ct. and painted every America's Cup race from 1930-1937. During the depression, he worked for the WPA program and did a Post Office mural as well as posters related to shipyards.
$600

Young Model (The Model)
RAPHAEL SOYER
American, (1899-1987)
Lithograph, 1940, Cole 57, edition 250. 12 x 9 5/8 in. Signed on the stone, lower left. Signed and titled in pencil. This is a fine impression with full margins. The condition is excellent other than for the old, original hinges at the top corners. This is a fine example of Soyer as a traditional draughtsman "par excellence" and the model is one of his favorite subjects.
SOLD

Waitresses
RAPHAEL SOYER
American, (1899-1987)
Lithograph, 1954, Cole 71, edition 250. 11 1/2 x 9 3/8 in. Signed on the stone, lower left. Signed in pencil. Here we have a fine impression with wide margins. The condition is also fine. This is a nice example of Soyer's great skills as a draughtsman. Impressions are located at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
$1,400

City in the Rain
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph printed in colors, 1932, Fine/Looney 77, edition 30. 11 1/4 x 8 7/8 in. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. This is a superb impression with full margins. The condition is fine and the paper bears a GERMAN watermark. The edition was possibly printed by Theo Cuno according to the catalogue. This uncommon, dynamic color lithograph was done early in his career after he returned from Paris.
SOLD

Middle Germantown (PA)
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph, 1934, Fine/Looney 98, edition 30. 10 x 13 5/8 in. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. This is a superb impression on RIVES watermarked paper. The margins are full. The condition is fine. (There's s subtle soft wrinkle in the lower margin.) According to the catalogue raisonné, the subject of this print is the Spruance home in the Germantown section of Philadelphia.
SOLD

Bulldog Edition
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph, 1932, Fine/Looney 76, edition 30. 8 7/8 x 14 1/2 in. Signed, dated and titled in pencil. This is a fine impression with full margins. The condition is excellent.
SOLD

Changing City
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph, 1934, Fine/Looney 93, edition 36. 9 3/4 x 14 5/8 in. Signed, dated, titled and numbered in pencil. This is a fine impression of this rare early modernist print. The margins are full and the condition is excellent.
$7,000

Landscape with Figures
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph, 1940, Fine/Looney 179, edition 30. 10 x 13 3/8 in. Signed and dated on the stone (literally) lower right. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. This is a fine impression of this beautifully drawn print. The margins are full and the condition is fine. (There's a slight bit of toning along the lower edge of the sheet and a subtle streak (pencil?) in the upper left corner margin, well away from the image.) This somewhat divergent subject by Spruance reminds us of the regionalist tradition of Benton, Wood and others.
$2,500

Approach to the Station
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph, 1932, Fine/Looney 70, edition 28. 10 7/8 x 13 3/4 in. Initialed on the stone, lower right. Signed, titled, numbered and next to that, "imp. Theo Cuno." This is a superb impression in fine condition with full margins. George Bellows was a major inspiration for Spruance throughout his career, most notably in the early work from the 1930s and 1940s.
SOLD

Cat and Busybody
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph, 1933, Fine/Looney 85, edition 33. 11 x 13 3/8 in. Initialed and dated on the stone, lower right. Signed, numbered and titled in pencil. This is a fine impression of this uncommon print. The margins are full. The condition is fine apart from some handling creases in the wide margins and stray printers ink in upper right margin.
$2,800

Girl and Cat
BENTON SPRUANCE
American, (1904-1962)
Lithograph, 1935, Fine/Looney 121, edition 33. 10 3/8 x 13 5/8 in. Signed, titled and numbered in pencil. Here we have a fine impression with full margins. The condition is excellent. The edition was supposedly printed by Theodore Cuno. This is an uncommon print.
$3,500

Woman and Child
MAUD HUNT SQUIRE
American, (1873-1954)
Etching and aquatint printed in colors, 1907, from a very small edition. 4 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. Signed in pencil. Dated in pencil and inscribed "Paris." This is a fine impression printed on a wove paper. The margins are wide and appear to be untrimmed. Fine condition. Squire met Ethel Mars in Cincinnati and the couple went to Paris in 1903. They remained there together until the start of WW1. From there they went to Provincetown, MA and became active in the art scene there. The couple eventually returned to Paris and became great friends of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. They remained in France for the rest of their lives.
SOLD

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

Forest of Flame
HARRY STERNBERG
American, (1904-2001)
Lithograph, 1939, Moore 158, Warner 56; edition unknown. 12 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. Signed on the stone, lower right. Signed and titled in pencil. This is a fine impression with wide margins. The condition is excellent apart from a small, very faint spot of toning in the margin above the second smokestack on the left. This exemplary print from the period is illustrated and discussed in Graphic Excursions, American Prints in Black and White, 1900-1930, Selections from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams (1991), entry 81. Impressions are located in the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art, among other institutions.
SOLD

Blast Furnace #1
HARRY STERNBERG
American, (1904-2001)
Etching and aquatint, 1937, Moore 147, AAA 828; edition 250. 11 3/4 x 8 3/8 in. Signed in pencil. This is a superb impression with full margins. The condition is fine. Sternberg produced another such image in lithography which is in the opposite direction of this one (see Blast Furnace 2.) This print was not published by AAA until 1946. It was included in American Prize Prints of the 20th Century by Albert Reese (see page 194).
$1,400

The Bridge, Sunday
PRENTISS TAYLOR
American, (1907-1991)
Lithograph, 1952, Rose/Quiroz 82, edition 25. 12 x 16 3/4 in. Initialed and dated in the plate, lower left. Signed, dated, numbered and titled in pencil. This is a fine impression with full margins. The condition is very good apart from two old paper tape hinges at the top and a small stain in the lower margin well below the image. This is one of his best known prints and is located in the Boston Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Library of Congress, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among others.
$1,600

Along the Ohio
FLOYD LESLIE THOMPSON
American, (1889-1965)
Etching and aquatint printed in colors, circa 1940, edition unknown but certainly less than 100. 11 7/8 x 14 7/8 in. Signed and titled in pencil. "Imp." follows his name which means the artist printed the work himself. Thompson was a Chicago artist who specialized is color intaglio printmaking and his subjects are generally landscapes. He is quite skilled but not that well known.
SOLD

Abraham
DOX THRASH
African American, (1893-1965)
Drypoint with etching, circa 1937, Ittmann 15, edition unknown. 5 x 3 15/16 in. Signed and titled in pencil. This is a superb, rich impression of this very rare print. The margins are full and the condition is fine. (There's a faint residue of an old adhesive along the top edge of the sheet, verso.) This early, Rembrantesque portrait includes the label of the Pennsylvania WPA program. This is the first version of Abraham and the second version, (Ittmann 72), was a carborundum mezzotint and etching. Thrash joined the WPA Federal Art Project in 1937 and he began working at the Fine Print Workshop of Philadelphia. In 2001, the artist was honored with a major retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
SOLD