Rare James Tissott “Mon Jardin a S John’s Wood” Etching on Japon Paper This is a great impression of James Tissot “Mon Jardin a S. John’s  More »

Rare James Tissott “Mon Jardin a S John’s Wood” Etching on Japon Paper This is a great impression of James Tissot “Mon Jardin a S. John’s Wood” Etching-Drypoint, plate signed from an edition of 100. This is a RARE edition on Japon, laid work measures 4 3/8 inches by by 7 1/2 inches on antique JAPON (tissue laid paper) paper in good condition .   « Less

Here we have on from a collection of rare Portraits, Saint-Mémin “President Thomas Jefferson” Portrait, printed on antique wove paper measuring 2.50 by 3  More »

Here we have on from a collection of rare Portraits, Saint-Mémin “President Thomas Jefferson” Portrait, printed on antique wove paper measuring 2.50 by 3 inches approximate and in good clean condition with good margins. These works are rare and are to be found in the collections of the National gallery of Art and The New York Public Library. Historical Notes: When the French emigre Charles Fevret de Saint-Memin introduced physiognotrace portraits to the United States in 1797 Jefferson was already acquainted with the use of a mechanical device to trace a sitter's profile. Eight years earlier in Paris, Jefferson sat for a life-size crayon physiognotrace portrait by the machine's inventor, Gilles-Louis Chrietien. Using a pantograph, Chretien then reduced the original profile to a miniature copperplate from which multiple engravings could be printed. Jefferson was probably the first American to have his profile taken by the physiognotrace. He and Gouverneur Morris went together to the Palais Royal on April 22, 1789 to purchase tickets for sittings. The next day Jefferson sat for Chretien and his partner Edme Quenedey (1756-1830) at their studio. Six days later Jefferson picked up the copperplate of his portrait and twelve prints taken from it. Curiously, Jefferson made no further reference to these prints, and none are known to survive with his family. On the other hand, the portrait of Jefferson done by Saint-Memin in 1804 was widely distributed both by the artist and Jefferson, and it became one of the best-known likenesses of Jefferson in his day. Saint-Memin came to the United States from Dijon, France in 1793. The cost and size of Saint-Memin's engravings made them immensely popular gifts among friends, relatives, and colleagues. Jefferson's print collection included at least a dozen of the artist's miniatures, many of which were exhibited in the Tea Room. For twenty-five dollars ($250 today) a gentleman could purchase his original crayon drawing, the engraved copperplate, and twelve engravings. The cost for ladies was ten dollars more, and an additional twelve prints cost only one dollar and fifty cents. Jefferson's children entreated their father to have his portrait taken by the Frenchman. In February 1804, Maria Jefferson , the younger of Jefferson's two daughters, wrote to her father in Washington from her sickbed: "We had both thought you had promised us your picture if ever St. Mimin went to Washington. If you did but know what a source of pleasure it would be to us while so much so separated from you to have so excellent a likeness of you you would not I think refuse us. It is what we have allways most wanted all our lives and the certainty with which he takes his likenesses makes this one request I think not unreasonable." Maria did not live long enough to see her father's portrait, but her sister Martha was very fond of the likeness. Both she and her eldest daughter, Anne Cary Bankhead, requested additional prints for friends and associates near Monticello. Jefferson purchased a total of forty-eight prints from Saint-Memin after his November sitting, which he gave to his family, members of his Cabinet, and friends, including the comte de Volney and the marquis de Lafayette Saint-Memin produced additional prints in an oval frame on the eve of Jefferson's second inauguration for sale to the public. Between 1796 and 1810, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770—1852) created some of the most memorable images in the history of American portraiture. Nearly a thousand Americans sat for portraits, among them Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, Mother Seton, Meriwether Lewis, and Charles Willson Peale. Saint-Mémin’s popularity rested on a growing appreciation for profiles as a particularly truthful form of portraiture, and his distinctive images have come to epitomize Federal America. A member of the French hereditary nobility, Saint-Mémin came to New York City in 1793, at the age of twenty-three. He was a former military officer exiled by the events of the French Revolution. In New York, Saint-Mémin turned to the arts to support himself, his parents, and his sister. With some training in drawing and an aptitude for precision, he taught himself the art of engraving. First, he made a few landscapes and city plans. Then, in 1796 he took up the profession of portraitist. His partner was Thomas Bluget de Valdenuit (1763-1846), also of the French military. Saint-Mémin and Valdenuit followed the same practice in their New York partnership. Their first advertisement appeared in the New York Daily Advertiser in January 1797. Valdenuit made the drawings, usually on a buff- or cream-colored paper that measured about 50 by 38 cm. (20 by 15 in.) and was coated with a pink wash. Next, Saint-Mémin made the engravings. The sitter received the drawing, the plate, and a dozen engravings, a unique portrait package offered in the United States only by French émigré artists. By the time the two men ended their partnership in September 1797, when Valdenuit returned to France, they had made about sixty large profile portraits, most of which were engraved, and they had also engraved five silhouettes. Saint-Mémin continued the business on his own, making an additional sixty portraits in New York City in the following year, a pace that he maintained throughout his American career. In 1798 he moved the portrait business to Philadelphia, and his parents and sister settled in nearby Burlington, New Jersey. In Philadelphia, and later in Washington, D.C., Saint-Mémin’s sitters often included senators, congressmen, and cabinet members in the federal government. He also attracted local merchants and landowners, French émigrés like himself, and members of the United States Army, Navy, and Marines. Most of his patrons were men; when women were portrayed, they were usually the wives or other close relatives of his sitters. William Barton, a Philadelphia lawyer, described Saint-Mémin in 1802 as an “ingenious artist.” He continued: “M. St. Mémin’s profiles are, generally, striking likenesses; and, considering the excellence of the workmanship, his price is very moderate.” By 1802, Saint-Mémin’s drawing technique had evolved from the light touch characteristic of his New York portraits to a more emphatic style, with strong contrasts. Saint-Mémin rarely signed his drawings; his engravings include his name and address under the image, a practice he later discontinued, perhaps because it became too time-consuming. The artist stated his terms in a newspaper advertisement that appeared in the Philadelphia Aurora and General Advertiser from December 22, 1801, through March 11, 1802: “The original portrait, plate and twelve impressions, shall be delivered for the moderate price of twenty five dollars for gentlemen, and thirty five dollars for ladies; the portrait without engraving may be had for 8 dollars.” (The engravings of women were undoubtly more expensive because the intricate details of their clothing and hair required more work.) Saint Mémin also provided frames for some of the protraits. Many drawings are still in these frames, which were gilded and included a glass decorated with black paint and gold leaf. After making about 270 portraits in Philadelphia, including two memorial images of George Washington, Saint-Mémin became an itinerant artist in 1803. That year witnessed a heightened interest in all types of profile portraits, a phenomenon that painter Charles Willson Peale described as the “rage for profiles.” By this time Louis Lemet (circa 1779-1832), a French émigré who had served as Saint-Mémin’s assistant, was making portraits in Philadelphia, in a style very similar to Saint-Mémin’s. From 1803 until 1809, Saint-Mémin traveled south, working in Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C., Richmond,Virginia; and Charleston, South Carolina; and returning to Burlington during the hot summer months to engrave the copperplates and print the engravings. He also offered watercolor portraits for the first time, perhaps in response to competition from other artists. Between 1803 and 1807, he made about 100 portraits in Baltimore and about 130 in Washington. One of his sitters was Massachusetts congressman Nahum Mitchell, who sent an engraving of his portrait to his wife on February 26, 1804. Saint-Mémin also portrayed several Indian visitors to Washington, most of whom came to the capital after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Saint-Mémin’s visit to Richmond in 1807—1808 was particularly successful. He made more than 120 portraits in less than a year, a record number for him. His arrival in the summer of 1807 was undoubtedly timed to coincide with the trial of Aaron Burr for treason, which began on August 3; Burr was acquitted in September. During this period, the population of the city almost doubled with witnesses, Burr partisans, and curious spectators. Many of them commissioned the artist to make their portraits, including John Marshall, the presiding judge at the trial. In the winter of 1808 -1809, Saint-Mémin made a brief visit to Charleston. After his return to Burlington in 1809, he made very few portraits. Saint-Mémin returned to France in 1810 but came back to New York in 1812. He and his family returned permanently to France in 1814, after the overthrow of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. When Saint-Mémin finally left the United States, he destroyed his physiognotrace and ended his career as an artist. He did not abandon his interest in the arts, however. In 1817, after he and his family were reinstated on their property in Dijon, he was named director (conservateur) of the Dijon Museum. He held this position for the rest of his life, except for one brief, politically motivated interruption in 1848, when, during the second French Republic, he was dismissed because of his royalist political views. In France, Saint-Mémin proudly displayed the duplicate engravings that he had kept from his years in America. Several large sets of engravings were later compiled from the hundreds of duplicates that the artist owned. The two largest sets—at the National Portrait Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art—have inscriptions that provide the identifications for many of the portraits. Within the restricted format of the profile portrait, Saint-Mémin’s drawings and engravings offer an immediacy and realism that is, simultaneously, a stylized and a literal account of many of the residents of Federal America.   « Less

Hendrik Goltzius (January or February 1558 — January 1, 1617, Haarlem), was a Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early  More »

Hendrik Goltzius (January or February 1558 — January 1, 1617, Haarlem), was a Dutch printmaker, draftsman, and painter. He was the leading Dutch engraver of the early Baroque period, or Northern Mannerism, noted for his sophisticated technique and the “exuberance” of his compositions. According to A. Hyatt Mayor, Goltzius “was the last professional engraver who drew with the authority of a good painter and the last who invented many pictures for others to copy”. In middle age he also began to produce paintings. Goltzius was born near Venlo in Bracht or Millebrecht, a village then in the Duchy of Julich, now in the municipality Brüggen in North Rhine-Westphalia. His family moved to Duisburg when he was 3 years old. After studying painting on glass for some years under his father, he learned engraving from the Dutch polymath Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert, who then lived in Cleves. In 1577 he moved with Coornhert to Haarlem. In the same town, he was also employed by Philip Galle to engrave a set of prints of the history of Lucretia. Goltzius had a malformed right hand from a fire when he was a baby (his drawing of it is below), which turned out to be especially well-suited to holding the burin; “by being forced to draw with the large muscles of his arm and shoulder, he mastered a commanding swing of line”. His portraits, though mostly miniatures, are masterpieces of their kind, both on account of their exquisite finish, and as fine studies of individual character. Of his larger heads, the life-size portrait of himself is probably the most striking example. His masterpieces, so called from their being attempts to imitate the style of the old masters, have perhaps been over praised. Goltzius brought to an unprecedented level the use of the “swelling line”, where the burin is manipulated to make lines thicker or thinner to create a tonal effect from a distance. He also was a pioneer of “dot and lozenge” technique, where dots are placed in the middle of lozenge shaped spaces created by cross-hatching to further refine tonal shading. Hollstein credits 388 prints to him, with a further 574 by other printmakers after his designs. In his command of the burin Goltzius is said to rival that of Dürer‘s. He made engravings ofBartholomeus Spranger‘s paintings, thus increasing the fame of the latter - and his own. Goltzius began painting at the age of forty-two; some of his paintings can be found in Vienna. He also executed a few chiaroscuro woodcuts. He was the stepfather of engraver Jacob Matham. Hendrik Goltzius “The Shepard and His Flock” Engraving. This is an original antique print of the Shepherd and his flock, by M. de Vos (Invent) and Goltzius (sculp from the very rare Bible Theatrum Biblicum Hoc est historiae Sacrae — veteris et novi testamenti tabulis aeneis expressae, published by Nicolaum Johannis Piscatorum (N. J. Visscher). This antique copper engraving was printed in 1674 and is in fine condition. The engraved work measures 14 x 12 inches. The image size is print is 10 x 8 1/4 inch.   « Less

Camille Corot "Boetzel" Plate signed Etching-Drypoint on antique Laid paper titled in the center, plate signed COROT, published by Cadart in good condition and a rare image  More »

Camille Corot "Boetzel" Plate signed Etching-Drypoint on antique Laid paper titled in the center, plate signed COROT, published by Cadart in good condition and a rare image to find. Plate size 6" x 9.5" on full sheet measuring 11.25" x 15". Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (July 17, 1796[1] – February 22, 1875) was a French landscape painter and printmaker in etching. Corot was the leading painter of the Barbizon school of France in the mid-nineteenth century. He is a pivotal figure in landscape painting and his vast output simultaneously references the Neo-Classical tradition and anticipates the plein-air innovations of Impressionism.   « Less

Rare James Whistler “Yellow House” #2 Lithotint We are privileged to offer, “The Yellow House, Lannon” (Way 101; Levy 196) Lithograph printed in  More »

Rare James Whistler “Yellow House” #2 Lithotint We are privileged to offer, “The Yellow House, Lannon” (Way 101; Levy 196) Lithograph printed in black, grey, green and ochre, 1893, one of a small number of impressions printed in Paris , on Laid light beige paper with a small nick on the outer side of the sheet. Image measures 5 by 8 inches on a sheet measuring 7 6/8 inches by 10 1/4 inches. Lovely image in good condition and signed with the artist monogram (the Butterfly) and the “K” from the 1914 Kennedy Edition , New York City in a edition of 400. This and others are all from a bound portfolio with the library collection of the Frick library, NYC. James McNeill Whistler (1834—1903), a towering figure in nineteenth-century art, is also one of the most important and beloved of American artists. He was first introduced to the lithographic medium in 1855 before leaving America. He returned to the medium and explored its full range in London in 1878-79, but abandoned it after finding that the market was undermined by prejudice against lithography as a commercial rather than a fine art medium. Most of his lithographs were done in London and Paris between 1887 and 1897, with an extraordinary concentration of works accomplished from 1894 to 1896. In 1890 he began to experiment with color lithography, probably to produce prints that resembled drawings colored with chalk, pastel, or watercolors. The years of Whistler’s greatest interest in lithography correspond to the beginning of the lithographic revival in Britain and to the happy period of his marriage to Beatrix Philip (from 1888 until her death in 1896) and their sojourn in Paris. 
In the late 1880s and 90s Whistler made numerous pastel drawings and lithographs of dancers and figures draped in transparent fabric. He was partly inspired by Greek ‘Tanagra’ figurines, which his friends were collecting around 1890. Whistler made seven colour lithographs in Paris with the printer Henry Belfond in 1891—3. This image was developed as a colour print using first three and then up to six additional stones, but impressions like this were printed using only the main stone (keystone); missing elements (such as the feet) were added in the colour stones or in later states of the keystone. Between 1878 and 1897 Whistler developed a growing enthusiasm for and commitment to this delicate, evanescent medium. He challenged himself and the medium to create the most distilled images of his career, works that capture the unfettered essence of his subject matter. At a time when lithography was generally associated with commercial printing and the garish hues of chromolithography, Whistler’s airy “drawings,” as he thought of them, were as innovative as his nearly abstract painted nocturnes. His work encompassed direct and transfer lithography as well as litho-tint.   « Less

A rare Charles Meryon Portrait of De Casimir Le Conte Plate inscribed work as C. MERYON DEL AQUA FORTE 1856, APRE G.B.(Boulanger). This large work measures 10.5" x 13.5" on  More »

A rare Charles Meryon Portrait of De Casimir Le Conte Plate inscribed work as C. MERYON DEL AQUA FORTE 1856, APRE G.B.(Boulanger). This large work measures 10.5" x 13.5" on a larger sheet of thin antique Laid paper (17" x 23") in very good condition. Recored in the artist catalogue of Detail # 77. Eugène-Casimir Villatte, Comte d'Oultremont (14 April 1770 - 14 May 1834) fought in the French army during the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. He rose to command a division at many of the important battles in the Peninsular War. His is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe. Charles Méryon (23 November 1821 – 13 February 1868), was a French artist, who worked almost entirely in etching, as he suffered from colour-blindness. Although now little-known in the English-speaking world, he is generally recognised as the most significant etcher of 19th century France. He also suffered from mental illness, dying in an asylum. His most famous work is a series of views of Paris.   « Less

The work measures 13 by 9 inches approximate (sheet). Framed in a lovely gold frame, double matted with plexiglass. Frames size is 19 by 23 inches. This is published  More »

The work measures 13 by 9 inches approximate (sheet). Framed in a lovely gold frame, double matted with plexiglass. Frames size is 19 by 23 inches. This is published during the artist’s lifetime with his supervision and in good condition. This recorded works, in the Cramer catalogue Resume, Goeppert/Cramer, edition of 666. Printed-published by Cercle d’Art, Paris. Publication issued in 1970. There is no COA. Numbered 506 / 666 in pencil. Sold as is. Pablo Ruiz Picasso (October 25, 1881 — April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter, draughtsman etcher, lithographer and sculptor.

As one of the most recognized figures in twentieth-century art, he is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) and his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War, Guernica (1937).   « Less

Outstanding James Whistler “The Red House, Lannon” Lithotint We are privileged to offer, “The Red House, Lannon” (Way 156) Lithograph printed in  More »

Outstanding James Whistler “The Red House, Lannon” Lithotint We are privileged to offer, “The Red House, Lannon” (Way 156) Lithograph printed in black, grey, green and ochre. Published by the Kennedy Gallery in 1914 of an edition of 400. Sheet measures 7 6/8 inches by 10 1/2 inches. Lovely image in good condition and signed with the artist monogram (the Butterfly) and the “K” from the Kennedy Edition, New York City. This and others are all from a bound portfolio with the library collection of the Frick Library, NYC. James McNeill Whistler (1834—1903), a towering figure in nineteenth-century art, is also one of the most important and beloved of American artists. He was first introduced to the lithographic medium in 1855 before leaving America. He returned to the medium and explored its full range in London in 1878-79, but abandoned it after finding that the market was undermined by prejudice against lithography as a commercial rather than a fine art medium. Most of his lithographs were done in London and Paris between 1887 and 1897, with an extraordinary concentration of works accomplished from 1894 to 1896. In 1890 he began to experiment with color lithography, probably to produce prints that resembled drawings colored with chalk, pastel, or watercolors. The years of Whistler’s greatest interest in lithography correspond to the beginning of the lithographic revival in Britain and to the happy period of his marriage to Beatrix Philip (from 1888 until her death in 1896) and their sojourn in Paris. 
In the late 1880s and 90s Whistler made numerous pastel drawings and lithographs of dancers and figures draped in transparent fabric. He was partly inspired by Greek ‘Tanagra’ figurines, which his friends were collecting around 1890. Whistler made seven colour lithographs in Paris with the printer Henry Belfond in 1891—3. This image was developed as a colour print using first three and then up to six additional stones, but impressions like this were printed using only the main stone (keystone); missing elements (such as the feet) were added in the colour stones or in later states of the keystone. Between 1878 and 1897 Whistler developed a growing enthusiasm for and commitment to this delicate, evanescent medium. He challenged himself and the medium to create the most distilled images of his career, works that capture the unfettered essence of his subject matter. At a time when lithography was generally associated with commercial printing and the garish hues of chromolithography, Whistler’s airy “drawings,” as he thought of them, were as innovative as his nearly abstract painted nocturnes. His work encompassed direct and transfer lithography as well as litho-tint.   « Less

Francisco Goya Bein te se esta plate # 6 from Los Desastres de la Guerra,Later Edition and Inscribed with the Title and Plate Number outside of the engraved area with a good  More »

Francisco Goya Bein te se esta plate # 6 from Los Desastres de la Guerra,Later Edition and Inscribed with the Title and Plate Number outside of the engraved area with a good plate mark. The etched work measures 7.25 by 5.75 inches and plate mark measures 6.50 by 8 inches and in good condition. The first edition Los Desastres de la Guerra was first printed posthumous in 1863, some 35 years after Goya's Death. The Second edition appeared in 1892, the third in 1903 and the fourth appeared in 1906. Several others appeared after till the Spanish Civil War in 1935, often with the Blind stamp of Goya profile in the print totaling seven editions. The Fourth Edition impressions are referred to being better quality than the third Edition. Printed by Calcografia, Madrid, Spain. The Disasters of War (Spanish: Los Desastres de la Guerra) are a series of 82 prints created between 1810 and 1820 by the Spanish painter and printmaker Francisco Goya (1746–1828). Although Goya did not make known his intention when creating the plates, art historians view them as a visual protest against the violence of the 1808 Dos de Mayo Uprising, the subsequent Peninsular War of 1808–14 and the setbacks to the liberal cause following the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. During the conflicts between Napoleon's French Empire and Spain, Goya retained his position as first court painter to the Spanish crown and continued to produce portraits of the Spanish and French rulers. Although deeply affected by the war, he kept private his thoughts on the art he produced in response to the conflict and its aftermath. He was in poor health and almost deaf when, at 62, he began work on the prints. They were not published until 1863, 35 years after his death. It is likely that only then was it considered politically safe to distribute a sequence of artworks criticising both the French and restored Bourbons. In total over a thousand sets have been printed, though later ones are of lower quality, and most print room collections have at least some of the set. Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Goya was a court painter to the Spanish Crown, and through his works was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era. The subversive and imaginative element in his art, as well as his bold handling of paint, provided a model for the work of later generations of artists, notably Manet, Picasso and Francis Bacon.   « Less

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 — May 8, 1903) was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. His bold experimentation with coloring led directly to the  More »

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 — May 8, 1903) was a leading Post-Impressionist painter. His bold experimentation with coloring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential exponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms. Paul Gauguin was born in Paris, France to journalist Clovis Gauguin and half-Peruvian Aline Maria Chazal, the daughter of proto-socialist leader Flora Tristan. In 1851 the family left Paris for Peru, motivated by the political climate of the period. Clovis died on the voyage, leaving three-year old Paul, his mother and his sister to fend for themselves. They lived for four years in Lima, Peru with Paul’s uncle and his family. The imagery of Peru would later influence Paul in his art. In 1891, Gauguin, frustrated by lack of recognition at home and financially destitute, sailed to the tropics to escape European civilization and “everything that is artificial and conventional.” Living in Mataiea Village in Tahiti, he painted “Fatata te Miti” (“By the Sea”), “Ia Orana Maria” (Ave Maria) and other depictions of Tahitian life. He moved to Punaauia in 1897, where he created the masterpiece painting “Where Do We Come From” and then lived the rest of his life in the Marquesas Islands, returning to France only once. His works of that period are full of quasi-religious symbolism and an exoticized view of the inhabitants of Polynesia. In Polynesia, he sided with the native peoples, clashing often with the colonial authorities and with the Catholic Church. During this period he also wrote the bookAvant et après (before and after), a fragmented collection of observations about life in Polynesia, memories from his life and comments on literature and paintings. It was during this period Paul Gauguin, executed his wood cuts of this series and several others. Paul Gauguin “Nave Nave Fenue” Limited Edition Woodcut, recorded in the catalogue Guerin Catalogue of Gauguin’s works #29. This rare work and others are woodcuts after the original edition, all published by The Grabhorn Press, 1943 in a limited edition of 250 copies. Bright and in fine condition. Each sheet measures 15.25 by 15 and the image is 8.25 by 14 and printed on a very fine japon-rice paper in excellent condition.   « Less