Raphael Sanzio (Italian: Raffaello April 6 or March 28, 1483 — April 6, 1520) usually known by his first name alone, was an Italian painter and architect of the  More »

Raphael Sanzio (Italian: Raffaello April 6 or March 28, 1483 — April 6, 1520) usually known by his first name alone, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance, celebrated for the perfection and grace of his paintings and drawings. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop, and despite his death at thirty-seven, a large body of his work remains. Many of his works are found in the Apostolic Palace of The Vatican, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. After his early years in Rome, much of his work was designed by him and executed largely by the workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael’s more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (from 1504—1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. RAPHAEL’S VATICAN FRESCOES; Plate 22, engraved by Giovanni Ottaviani after Gaetano Savorelli and Pietro Camporesi. These magnificent plates depict the decorations in the private loggia of Pope Leo X in the Vatican, designed and executed (with some assistance) in 1517—19 by Raphael. Each contain a large, well-realized biblical scene at the top center, depicting Old Testament moments (the influence of Michelangelo’s recently completed Sistine chapel is obvious) plus the Last Supper. In addition to these scenes, the decorations constitute an extraordinarily delightful repository of various figures and motifs, ranging from grotesques, mythological characters, and fabulous beasts to luscious clumps of fruit and naturalistic depictions of birds and other animals, with many of the designs being taken from ancient gems and statues, or inspired by the wall paintings of Nero’s Golden House. Our engravings are of particular interest today because the frescoes they depict are now damaged beyond recognition, the loggia walls having been for many years exposed to the elements. (In fact, for the present work, the decision was made to appropriate certain elements from Raphael’s Vatican tapestries to “fill in” areas of the original frescoes that were no longer visible.) The “Logge di Rafaele nel Vaticano” was published in three parts, with a first volume issued in 1772 and a third in 1777 (a fourth part, said to be printed in 1790. Here we have RAPHAEL’S VATICAN FRESCOES; (Jacob and Rachel) Plate 22, engraved by Giovanni Ottavia. Engraving from a early impression on antique Laid paper. The work measure 8.75 by 11.50 inches (plate mark measurement) with wide margins. Approximately one to one and a quarter inch margins. There is a partial watermark in the paper of a “Crown of Lorraine” watermark (attributed to ), 17th century Impression (NO IMAGE available of the partial watermark). Published as inscribed in the lower corner of the engraved work (see second image) This is In good condition with minor foxing on verso NOT effecting the engraved work.   « Less

Pablo Picasso “The Lovers” Lithograph 
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (October 25, 1881 — April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter, draughtsman etcher,  More »

Pablo Picasso “The Lovers” Lithograph 
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). The work measures 12 by 9.75 inches approximate (image in the mat open). Framed in a lovely brown carved frame. Single matted with plexiglass. Frames size is 26 by 22 inches. This is published during the artist’s lifetime with his supervision and in good condition. This and the other four are 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.   « Less

Christian Schussele, artist, born in Guebvillers, Alsace, 16 April, 1824; died in Merchantville, New Jersey, 20 August, 1879. He studied under Adolphe Yvon and Paul  More »

Christian Schussele, artist, born in Guebvillers, Alsace, 16 April, 1824; died in Merchantville, New Jersey, 20 August, 1879. He studied under Adolphe Yvon and Paul Delaroche in 1842-’8, and then came to the United States. Here, for some time, he worked at chromo-lithography, which he had also followed in France, but later he devoted himself almost entirely to painting. His best known works are “Clear the Track” (1851) ; “Franklin before the Lords in Council” (1856); “Men of Progress “ (1857), in Cooper institute, New York ; “Zeisberger preaching to the Indians “ (1859) ; “The Iron-Worker and King Solomon” (1860); “Washington at Valley Forge” (1862) ; and “Homo on Furlough” and “McClellan at Antietam “(1863) About 1863 he was attacked by palsy in the right hand, and in 1865 he went abroad, undergoing severe treatment, with no apparent benefit On his return, in 1868, he was elected to fill the chair, then founded, of drawing and painting in the Pennsylvania academy, which he held until his death. During this period he produced “ Queen Esther denouncing Haman,” owned by the academy (1869), and “The Alsatian Fair” (1870). Most of the paintings that have been named became widely known through the large prints by John Sartain and other engravers. “Washington And His Family” Original engraving on steel AFTER the oil executed by G. Schussele and published in Philadelphia: Bradley & Co., 1884. Engraved image measure 19.25 inches by Mezzotint by William Sartain. Excellent impression with little even discoloration of the paper with good margins. Inscribed: “Washington And His Family” in the center, LEFT IS "PINX G. Schussele" and on the right is "Published in Philadelphia: Bradley & Co., 1884" A large steel mezzotint engraving by William Sartain of George Washington and his family. The “Father of the Country” sits in uniform surrounded by his family and symbols of American life. On a table, center, lies a copy of the official plan of the City of Washington. To the right the General has laid aside his sword, and to the left is an olive plant representing peace. Martha sits across the table of Washington and her two grandchildren flank their step-grandfather. Coming in the door is Washington’s servant, William Lee. The handsome figures with calm demeanors, rich clothing and furniture, and many symbols graphically illustrate the ideals of American life in the nineteenth century.   « Less

Sir Francis Seymour Haden Pencil Signed “Egham Lock” Etching Dry Point Sir Francis Seymour Haden (September 16, 1818 — June 1, 1910), was an English  More »

Sir Francis Seymour Haden Pencil Signed “Egham Lock” Etching Dry Point Sir Francis Seymour Haden (September 16, 1818 — June 1, 1910), was an English surgeon, best known as an etcher.

 He was born in London, his father, Charles Thomas Haden, being a well-known doctor and lover of music. He was educated at Derby School, Christ’s Hospital, and University College, London, and also studied at the Sorbonne, Paris, where he took his degree in 1840. He was admitted as a member of the College of Surgeons in London in 1842.

 Haden’s printmaking was invigorated by his much younger brother-in-law, James Whistler, at the Haden home in Sloane Street in 1855. A press was installed there and for a while Haden and Whistler collaborated on a series of etchings of the Thames. The relationship and project did not last.

 Haden followed the art of original etching with such vigor that he became not only the foremost British exponent of that art but brought about its revival in England. His strenuous efforts and perseverance, aided by the secretarial ability of Sir WR Drake, resulted in the foundation of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers. As president he ruled the society with a strong hand from its first beginnings in 1880.

 Notwithstanding his study of the old masters of his art, Haden’s own plates were very individual, and are particularly noticeable for a fine original treatment of landscape subjects, free and open in line, clear and well divided in mass, and full of a noble and dignified style of his own. Even when working from a picture his personality dominates the plate, as for example in the large plate he etched after J.M.W. Turner’s “Calais Pier,” which is a classical example of what interpretative work can do in black and white. Of his original plates, more than 250 in number, one of the most notable was the large “Breaking up of the Agamemnon.”

 An early plate, rare and most beautiful, is “Thames Fisherman”. “Mytton Hall” is broad in treatment, and a fine rendering of a shady avenue of yew trees leading to an old manor-house in sunlight. This is among one of the rarest and most beautiful of his plates is notable examples of his genius.

A catalogue of his works was begun by Sir William Drake and completed by Harrington in 1880. During later years Haden began to practice the sister art of mezzotint engraving, with a measure of the same success that he had already achieved in pure etching and in dry-point.

 “Egham Lock” measuring 5 7/8” x 8 7/8” image, 10” x 14” sheet, is pencil signed on lower right. Signed and titled in the plate on lower left. It is in good condition with very little foxing on verso.   « Less

Here have a lovely impression of what we believe to be a early impression of Lucas Van Leyden "Saint Michael" Etching-Engraving on antique laid paper trimmed outside of  More »

Here have a lovely impression of what we believe to be a early impression of Lucas Van Leyden "Saint Michael" Etching-Engraving on antique laid paper trimmed outside of the boarded and in the pate mark (NO PLATEMARK) measuring 9.25 by 6.75 inches and is plate signed L. Van Leyden F. Otherwise in good condition. Lucas van Leyden (Leiden, 1494 – 8 August 1533 in Leiden), also named either Lucas Hugenszor Lucas Jacobsz, was a Dutch engraver and painter, born and mainly active in Leiden. van Leyden was among the first Dutch exponents of genre painting and is generally regarded as one of the finest engravers in the history of art. In basic painting technique van Leyden was the pupil of his father, from whose hand no works are known] and of Cornelis Engelbrechtsz, but his precocious originality was paramount. Where he learnt engraving is unknown, but he took advantage of the works of Marcantonio Raimondi, whose motifs are reworked in Lucas' engravings and paintings, and became highly skilled in that art at a very early age: the earliest known print by him (Mohammed and the Murdered Monk) dates from 1508, when he was perhaps only 14, yet reveals no trace of immaturity in inspiration or technique.   « Less

Mary Nimmo Moran was born in Strathaven, Scotland in 1842. As a child she came to America, where she would later meet her husband and teacher, the well-known landscape  More »

Mary Nimmo Moran was born in Strathaven, Scotland in 1842. As a child she came to America, where she would later meet her husband and teacher, the well-known landscape painter Thomas Moran. They married in 1862. Mary did not emerge as an artist until learning painting from her husband. Although she was not well known for her paintings, she did develop a talent for capturing romantic landscape, which would later become her signature subject. Mary Nimmo Moran lived most of her adult life on the east coast, spending about a decade in Newark, New Jersey during the 1870s and 1880s. She and her husband often visited East Hampton, Long Island, where they purchased land in 1882. They built a summer home at East Hampton that they would use as a base while painting and etching the meadows and pastures they came to love. 1878 was a big year for Moran. During that year, her husband introduced her to the etching press and urged her to experiment with it while he was away on a trip to the west coast. When her husband returned, he was so impressed with her work that he sent four of prints etchings to the New York Etching Club, which later elected her as a member. Those same etchings also gained her acceptance into the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in London. Moran began to leave her mark on American art as a painter and especially as a printmaker. But Moran was more than an artist; she also managed her husbands’ career. Their daughter Ruth later said, “Without mother, father could never have become what he did. She never allowed any barrier to come between him and his destiny — which was to paint ceaselessly.” Moran also made etchings of many of her husband’s paintings “to help promote them and to serve as illustrations at exhibits, as well as managing all of her husband’s commissions.” Moran did leave the east coast on a few occasions. She traveled to California twice with her husband, once in 1874 when she painted “Yosemite Falls” and once in 1891 when she painted “Beached Whale Boat, Santa Barbara.” Both were painted with water colors. Moran died in East Hampton, New Jersey in 1899. She was buried in East Hampton by Goose Pond, a pond she had painted some nineteen years before. Mary Nimmo Moran “Twixt the Gloaming and the Mirk” original etching, roulette, mezzotint, and sandpaper in sepia ink. Executed in 1883, this impression is on wove paper. One of Mary Nimmo Moran’s nicest compositions. Signed in the plate measuring 8 x 11.50 inches (plate).   « Less

Jacques Callot “Escarmouche dans un Cirque; Les Caprices” Etching Callot (1592—1633), a native of Nancy, France, trained in Florence, “taking up  More »

Jacques Callot “Escarmouche dans un Cirque; Les Caprices” Etching Callot (1592—1633), a native of Nancy, France, trained in Florence, “taking up etching and introducing the technical innovation of using a very hard ground on the plate, thus making it possible to vary the thickness of the line, modeling it along its whole course with a dependable ground to work on, he became the first specialist virtuoso etcher … [this work provides] the first unromantic pictures of war, exposing its impersonal cruelty, casual violence, and senseless destruction his records of war-torture, rape, burning at the stake, the firing squad-are strikingly believable because he observed decorum, viewed events as dispassionately as only a Frenchman can, and made his figures move as delicately and precisely as deadly insects. Through his technical innovations and the excellence of his drawing he exerted an influence more profound than that of many greater artists” Jacques Callot, “Escarmouche dans un Cirque; Les Caprices” Etching, measures 2.25 by 3 inches approximate on early antique laid paper trimmed to the plate mark. Early and very fine impression of this most sought image from “Le Caprices”.   « Less

Mortimer Luddington Menpes (February 22, 1855 Port Adelaide, South Australia — April 1, 1938 Pangbourne), was a war artist and engraver, author, printmaker and  More »

Mortimer Luddington Menpes (February 22, 1855 Port Adelaide, South Australia — April 1, 1938 Pangbourne), was a war artist and engraver, author, printmaker and illustrator. Menpes was born at Port Adelaide on 22 February 1855, the second son of property developer James Menpes, who with his wife, Ann, had settled in Australia in 1839. Educated at a private school, he attended classes at the Adelaide school of design, but his formal art training began at the South Kensington School of Art in 1878, after his family had moved back to England in 1875. Edward Poynter was a fellow student at the school. Menpes first exhibited at a Royal Academy exhibition in 1880. Over the following 20 years 35 of his paintings and etchings appeared at the Academy. He set off on a sketching tour of Brittany in 1880 and thereby met James McNeill Whistler, becoming his pupil and at one stage sharing a flat with him at Cheyne Walk on the Embankment in London. Here he was taught etching by Whistler, whose influence, together with that of Japanese design, is evident in his later work. His 1887 trip to Japan led to his first one-man exhibition at Dowdeswell’s Gallery (1878-1912) in London. Menpes bought a property at 25 Cadogan Gardens in Sloane Square in 1888 and decorated it in the Japanese style. Whistler and Menpes quarreled in 1888 over the interior design of the house, which Whistler felt was a brazen copying of his own ideas. The house was sold in 1900, and Menpes retired to Kent. In 1900, after the outbreak of the Boer War, Menpes was sent to South Africa as a war artist for the weekly Black and White. With the war’s end in 1902 he travelled widely, visiting Burma, Egypt, France, India, Italy, Japan, Kashmir, Mexico, Morocco, and Spain and producing illustrated books of those countries. His book on the Delhi Darbar of illustrated Curzon’s grand spectacle of 1903. He married Rosa Mary Grosse in London in 1875. She too, was from Australia and died 23 August 1936. They produced a son, Mortimer James (b. 1879) and two daughters, Rose Maud Goodwin and Dorothy Whistler. Dorothy, Whistler’s godchild, married a Mr. Flower and died in Minehead in July 1973 aged 89. For the last 30 years of his life, Menpes retired to Iris Court, Pangbourne from where he managed his Purley-on-Thames business, “Menpes Fruit Farms”. He built 40 large greenhouses in which to grow carnations and 8 cottages to accommodate the farm workers. Here we have a are, example of the artist’s outstanding Oriental subject, etched while traveling to the Far East. “Cradle” Pencil Signed Etching original etching and drypoint. Signed in pencil. A seldom-seen Mortimer Menpes drypoint, this is a rich, dark impression on Japan paper. The etched work measure 11 3/4 x 7 13/16 inches (plate) with good margins.   « Less


Peter Moran One of America’s leading nineteenth century etchers of animals and landscapes, Peter Moran immigrated with his family to the United States at the  More »


Peter Moran One of America’s leading nineteenth century etchers of animals and landscapes, Peter Moran immigrated with his family to the United States at the age of three. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to the lithographic firm of Herline and Hersel, drawing mostly advertisements. A year later he began to study art under his elder brothers, Edward (1829 — 1901) and Thomas (1837 — 1926). Thomas Moran and his wife, Mary Nimmo Moran, both became very influential etchers. Peter Moran concluded his education by visiting England in 1863. He was particularly influenced there by the animal and landscape art of Edwin Landseer, Rosa Bonheur and Constant Troyon. Peter Moran was a full member of the New York Etching Club and the Philadelphia Art Club. He also served as President of the American Society of Etchers.

 Peter Moran first gained national recognition in 1864 when he visited the territory of New Mexico. He was in fact the first non-native artist to portray aspects of the life and culture of the Pueblo Indians. During the 1870’s and 1880’s he returned to both New Mexico and Arizona, creating a great legacy of both paintings and etchings of these areas. In 1890 Peter Moran traveled as the official artist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

 Here we have a very rare impression of Peter Moran “The Flock.” Published by Gebbie and Co. Executed in 1887. This is a rich impression on Japon paper of an earlier and very small edition. The etching measures 9.50 x 14.50 inches. 

There is slight discoloring (even foxing on verso and two tape stains, not effecting the work) with good margins, printed on Japon paper and attached on the wove paper with good plate mark, Pencil Signed, and with a second (remarque sketch in the plate of a beautiful dog) and signed below the work Plus plate signed. Signed in the plate and below the image by the artist. This is considered among one of Peter Moran’s masterpieces and rare to find in the pencil signed. This state with pencil signiture, on japon paper and a small etched sketch in the work below the main etching are very rare and published in a very small edition. Most dealers will tell you, most often in an edition of 150 or so.   « Less

Otto Bacher “Fondamenta delle Zattere — Venice” Etching Signed in the plate only, titled, and dated in the plate. Bacher left Cleveland for studies in  More »

Otto Bacher “Fondamenta delle Zattere — Venice” Etching Signed in the plate only, titled, and dated in the plate. Bacher left Cleveland for studies in Munich in 1878, and this etching represents his happy experience in Germany as a youth tramping along the Danube River from one small town to another. After his studies in Munich, Bacher went with Frank Duveneck’s “boys” to Venice in 1880 where he fell under the spell of Whistler. This etching is printed on laid, a delicate process much-loved in the 1880s. This is in beautiful condition. “View in Venice” also called “Fondamenta delle Zattere”; 7 x 10.25 inches. Etching in good condition and published by the American Art Review in 1880.   « Less