Eugene Delacroix Jacob Wrestling with the Angel Original Etching Here we are offering a very fine and rare etched image of Eugene Delacroix "Jacob Wrestling with the  More »

Eugene Delacroix Jacob Wrestling with the Angel Original Etching Here we are offering a very fine and rare etched image of Eugene Delacroix "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel" Original Etching etched by Greuze, a practice totally accepted by Delacriox and other artist of the period for work in oils to be etched by well respected engravers working with the artist . This work measure 9 by 12.5 inches (plate mark) and in excellent condition, inscribed as shown. Among the subjects painted by Delacroix for the Chapelle des Saints-Anges (the Chapel of the Guardian Angels) at the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel is without doubt one of his most powerful compositions. The scheme for the chapel murals - also including Heliodorus Driven from the Temple, and St Michael Defeating the Devil - presents three Biblical scenes featuring angels as warrior-like messengers of the redeeming power of God. At first glance, Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (as related in Genesis: 32) celebrates the beauty of Nature, with its huge trees and twisted trunks. But its chief subject remains the strange pair of wrestlers, their struggle a symbol of Man’s spiritual quest, during which Jacob is injured but not defeated. In this late work, finished in 1861, Delacroix embarks on his own, ultimate aesthetic quest. Delacroix received the commission to decorate a chapel in the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris by decree of the Préfecture de Seine, on April 28, 1848, issued by the Fine Arts division and its director, Antoine Varcolliers. Unexpectedly, he changed the original theme to the Guardian Angels, noting in his diary that the decision was taken "on their very Feast Day," October 2, 1849. Interrupted by other more urgent projects - notably the central section of the ceiling in the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre (1850-51), the paintings for Paris City Hall (1852-54) and the great retrospective of his work for the Universal Exhibition of 1855 - and further complicated by the technical difficulty of the work, the decorations for the chapel (the first on the right entering through the West door) were finally inaugurated on July 31, 1861, two years before the artist’s death. The study for Jacob Wrestling with the Angel in the Musée Delacroix was probably executed in 1850, when the painter recorded that he was at work on "sketches for Saint Sulpice, to be submitted to the Préfecture" (Journal, February 27, 1850). Other preparatory studies are scattered in several different collections, including the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA), where the combatants are reversed, to the right of the picture; an ink transfer by Delacroix, now in the Musée Delacroix, shows the same arrangement. Here, Jacob’s frontal attack, with his knee raised high, shows his absolute courage and determination: the definitive composition retains the same attacking posture. The artist suggests the figures’ almost dance-like movement, using light, rapid pencil strokes: the lightly-sketched angel fends off the attack and wounds Jacob in the thigh. But this figure shows none of the serene, implacable equilibrium embodied by the nameless angel in the finished painting on the chapel wall, his wings held firmly upright after the long night’s struggle. Delacroix was maybe inspired by Lamartine’s Poetical Meditations, which describe the two beings entwined like the knotted trunks of the trees looming . The official opening of the chapel lasted a week, from July 31 to August 6, 1861, but not all of the invited guests responded. Delacroix’s artist friends came, however, prompting him to observe: "I was assured on all sides that I was not yet dead." (Correspondance générale, Joubin, 1935, IV, p.269-270). Articles of high praise by Théophile Thoré and Charles Baudelaire were countered by critical reviews from Emile Galichon or Louis Vitet. "This is a great religious subject," wrote Barrès, "the fury of the brave figure diving to wrestle with his ideal is a powerful exaltation of the human soul in all its mystery." It should be noted that Delacroix invariably favored scenes highlighting trials of Faith, evoking his own religious skepticism (numerous images of Christ on the Cross, Christ at the Column, and the Pilgrims at Emmaus; several versions of Christ on the Lake of Gennesaret). At the end of his life, this spiritual anguish, rooted in his agnostic youth, naturally led him to the celebrated but dark, mysterious episode of Jacob’s struggle with the Angel. Throughout his life, Delacroix engaged in the artist’s solitary struggle, constantly measuring and challenging his own creative powers, and - why not? - pitting himself against God the Creator, in the person of the Angel. Like Jacob on the night before crossing the ford over the Jabboq river, he is alone. Like the son of Isaac, Delacroix’s struggle is a form of exaltation: "In truth, painting taunts and torments me in a thousand ways, like the most demanding of mistresses," as he confided in his journal on January 1, 1861, in the midst of work on the chapel at Saint Sulpice. "For four months, I have scurried away at first light, rushing to continue this enchanting work, as if at the feet of the most beloved mistress; things that seemed - at a distance - to be the easiest to overcome in fact present appalling, interminable difficulties. How is it, then, that instead of casting me down, this eternal combat uplifts me; not discouraging, but consoling me Here we have a rare etching AFTER Delacroix work first executed in oil and etched with the artist approval by Jean-Baptiste Greuze was born at Tournus, Saône-et-Loire. He is generally said to have formed his own talent; this is, however, true only in the most limited sense, for at an early age his inclinations, though thwarted by his father, were encouraged by a Lyonnese artist named Grandon, or Grondom, who enjoyed during his lifetime considerable reputation as a Engraver of works by leading Artist of his day abd in his own right ,portrait-painter. Grandon not only persuaded the father of Greuze to give way to his sons wishes, and permit the lad to accompany him as his pupil to Lyon, but, when at a later date he-himself left Lyon for Paris — where his son-in-law Grétry the celebrated composer enjoyed the height of favour — Grandon carried young Greuze with him. Settled in Paris, Greuze worked from the living model in the school of the Royal Academy (Paris), but did not attract the attention of his teachers; and when he produced his first picture, "Le Père de famille expliquant la Bible a ses enfants," considerable doubt was felt and shown as to his share in its production. By other and more remarkable works of the same class Greuze soon established his claims beyond contest, and won for himself the notice and support of the well-known connoisseur La Live de Jully, the brother-in-law of Madame d'Epinay. In 1755 Greuze exhibited his "Aveugle trompé," upon which, presented by Pigalle the sculptor, he was immediately agréé by the Academy. Towards the close of the same year he left France for Italy, in company with the Abbé Louis Gougenot, who had deserted from the magistrature — although he had obtained the post of conseiller au Châtelet in order to take the petit collet. Gougenot had some acquaintance with the arts, and was highly valued by the Academicians, who, during his journey with Greuze, elected him an honorary member of their body on account of his studies in mythology and allegory; his acquirements in these respects are said to have been largely utilized by them, but to Greuze they were of doubtful advantage, and he lost rather than gained by this visit to Italy in Gougenot's company. He had undertaken it probably in order to silence those who taxed him with ignorance of great models of style, but the Italian subjects which formed the entirety of his contributions to the Salon of 1757 showed that he had been put on a false track, and he speedily returned to the source of his first inspiration. Greuze wished to be received as a historical painter, and produced a work which he intended to vindicate his right to despise his qualifications as a peintre de genre. This unfortunate canvas "Sévère et Caracalla" (Louvre) was exhibited in 1769 side by side with Greuze's portrait of "Jeaurat" (Louvre) and his admirable "Petite Fille au chien noir". The Academicians received their new member with all due honours, but at the close of the ceremonies the Director addressed Greuze in these words "Monsieur, l'Académie vous a reçu, mais c'est comme peintre de genre; elle a eu égard à vos anciennes productions, qui sont excellentes, et elle a fermé les yeux sur celle-ci, qui n'est digne ni d'elle ni de vous." (Sir, the Academy has accepted you, but only as peintre de genre; the Academy has respect for your former productions, which are excellent, but she has shut her eyes to this one, which is unworthy, both of her and of you yourself.) Greuze, greatly incensed, quarrelled with his confreres, and ceased to exhibit until, in 1804, the Revolution had thrown open the doors of the Academy to all the world. In the following year, on 4 March 1805, he died in the Louvre in great poverty. He had been in receipt of considerable wealth, which he had dissipated by extravagance and bad management (as well as embezzlement by his wife), so that during his closing years he was forced even to solicit commissions which his enfeebled powers no longer enabled him to carry out with success. The brilliant reputation which Greuze acquired seems to have been due, not to his accomplishments as a painter for his practice, but is evidently that current in his own debut to the character of the subjects which he treated. That return to nature which inspired Rousseau's attacks upon an artificial civilization demanded expression in art.   « Less

Thomas Girtin “Landscape With a Study of Clouds” Etched Mezzotint Thomas Girtin (February 18, 1775 — November 9, 1802), was an English painter and  More »

Thomas Girtin “Landscape With a Study of Clouds” Etched Mezzotint Thomas Girtin (February 18, 1775 — November 9, 1802), was an English painter and etcher, who played a key role in establishing watercolor as a reputable art form. He was born in Southwark, London, the son of a well-to-do brushmaker of Huguenot descent in. His father died while Thomas was a child, and the widow married a Mr. Vaughan, a pattern-draughtsman. Girtin learnt drawing as a boy (attending classes with Thomas Malton), and was apprenticed to Edward Dayes (1763—1804), a topographical watercolorist. He is believed to have served out his seven year term, although there are unconfirmed reports of clashes between master and apprentice, and even that Dayes had Girtin imprisoned as a refractory apprentice. Certainly Dayes did not fully appreciate his pupil’s talent, and he was to write dismissively of Girtin after his death. While still a youth Girtin became friends with J. M. W. Turner and the two teenagers were employed to color prints with watercolor. Girtin exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1794. His architectural and topographical sketches and drawings soon established his reputation, his use of watercolor for landscapes being such as to give him the credit of having created Romantic watercolor painting. He went on several sketching tours, visiting the north of England, North Wales and the West Country. By 1799 he had acquired influential patrons such as Lady Sutherland, and the art collector Sir George Beaumont. He was the dominant member of the Brothers, a sketching society of professional artists and talented amateurs. In 1800 Girtin married Mary Ann Borrett, the sixteen year old daughter of a well-to-do City goldsmith, and set up home in St George’s Row, Hyde Park, next door to the painter Paul Sandby. By 1801 he was a welcome houseguest at his patrons’ country houses such as Harewood House and Mulgrave Castle, and was able to charge 20 guineas for a painting, but his health was deteriorating. In late 1801 to early 1802 he spent five and a half months in Paris, where he painted watercolors and made a series the pencil sketches which he engraved on his return to London. They were published as Twenty Views in Paris and its Environs after his death. In the spring and summer of 1802, Girtin produced a panorama of London, the “Eidometropolis”, 18 feet high and 108 feet in circumference which was exhibited with success that year. It was notable for its naturalistic treatment of urban light and atmosphere. That November Girtin died in his painting room; the cause was variously reported as asthma or “ossification of the heart.” Girtin’s early landscapes are akin to 18th-century topographical sketches, but in later years he developed a bolder, more spacious, Romantic style, which had a lasting influence on English painting. The scenery of the North encouraged him to create a new watercolor palette of warm browns, slate greys, indigo and purple. He abandoned the practice of undershadowing in grey wash and then adding pastel patches of color, in favor of broad washes of strong color, and experimented with the use of pen, brown ink and varnish to add richer tones. Girtin’s early death from consumption led indeed to Turner saying, “had Tom Girtin lived I should have starved.” The British Museum, Tate Britain, and the Victoria and Albert Museum have collections of his work. Samuel William Reynolds (July 7, 1773—1835) was mezzotint engraver and painter. His son had the same name and followed the same profession. Reynolds was a popular engraver in both Britain and France and he has over 400 examples in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Here is a rare Thomas Girtin “Landscape With a Study of Clouds” Etched Mezzotint based on his work in watercolor and etched by S, W. Reynolds. Etching-mezzotint on watermarked (W KING) watermark laid paper measuring 6 by 9 inches (plate mark) and in good condition. This is one of a series of 12 plates from drawings by Thomas Girtin. They were engraved by S. W. Reynolds in 1823 — 1824. Except for a few proof proofs these were not published until 1883 by Neill & Son London for the Fine Art Society. 250 impressions were printed and the plates were then destroyed.   « Less

Jean Raffaelli “Le Marchand D’Habits” Etching Jean-François Raffaëlli (April 20, 1850 - February 11, 1924) was a French realist painter,  More »

Jean Raffaelli “Le Marchand D’Habits” Etching Jean-François Raffaëlli (April 20, 1850 - February 11, 1924) was a French realist painter, sculptor, and printmaker who exhibited with the Impressionists. He was also active as an actor and writer. He was born in Paris, and showed an interest in music and theatre before becoming a painter in 1870. One of his landscape paintings was accepted for exhibition at the Salon in that same year. In October 1871 he began three months of study under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris; he had no other formal training. Raffaëlli produced primarily costume pictures until 1876, when he began to depict the people of his time—particularly peasants, workers, and rag-pickers seen in the suburbs of Paris—in a realistic style. His new work was championed by influential critics such as J.-K. Huysmans, as well as by Edgar Degas. Degas invited Raffaëlli to participate in the Impressionist exhibitions of 1880 and 1881, an action that bitterly divided the group; not only was Raffaëlli not an Impressionist, but he threatened to dominate the 1880 exhibition with his outsized display of 37 works. Monet, resentful of Degas's insistence on expanding the Impressionist exhibitions by including several realists, chose not to exhibit, complaining, “The little chapel has become a commonplace school which opens its doors to the first dauber to come along.” After 1890 Raffaëlli shifted his attention from the suburbs of Paris to city itself, painting street scenes that were well received by the public and the critics. In the later years of his life, he concentrated on color printmaking. He died in Paris in 1924. Jean-Francoise Raffaelli “Le Marchand D’Habits” original etching. A nice impression in excellent condition, with no aging or foxing, printed on laid paper. Executed in 1895; catalogue reference Delteil 24, final state on laid paper. Not signed. Plate size: 5.50 x 3 .75 inches.   « Less

Robert Swain Gifford “Blakemoor” Etching on Japon Paper Robert Swain Gifford One of America’s most influential etchers of the nineteenth century,  More »

Robert Swain Gifford “Blakemoor” Etching on Japon Paper Robert Swain Gifford One of America’s most influential etchers of the nineteenth century, Robert Swain Gifford first studied art under Albert Van Beest in New Bedford. In 1864 he moved to Boston and two years later moved to New York where he established his studio. Gifford first exhibited his art at the prestigious National Academy of Design in 1864 and was elected an Associate in 1867 and an Academician in 1878. A leading educator, Robert Swain Gifford taught at New York’s Cooper Union from 1877 to 1896. Robert Swain Gifford was a full member of the Society of American Artists, the American Water Color Society, the National Arts Club, and the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers, London, England. Along with James D. Smilie, Robert Swain Gifford co-founded the long lived New York Etching Club in 1879. Robert Swain Gifford first experimented with the art of etching as early as 1857. During the following years Gifford traveled extensively and both painted and etched scenes in Oregon, Alaska, Europe and North Africa. Robert Swain Gifford “Blakemoor” Etching is plate signed. Etching measuring 8 by 6.50 inches on Japon paper and mounted onto a wove paper, deluxe edition of 250 and in mint condition.   « Less

Degas was born in Paris, France, the eldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas and Augustin De Gas, a banker. The family was moderately wealthy. At age eleven,  More »

Degas was born in Paris, France, the eldest of five children of Célestine Musson De Gas and Augustin De Gas, a banker. The family was moderately wealthy. At age eleven, Degas (as a young man he abandoned the more pretentious spelling of the family name) began his schooling with enrollment in the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, graduating in 1853 with a baccalauréat in literature. Degas began to paint seriously early in his life. By eighteen he had turned a room in his home into an artist’s studio, and had begun making copies in the Louvre, but his father expected him to go to law school. Degas duly registered at the Faculty of Law of the University of Paris in November 1853, but made little effort at his studies there. In 1855, Degas met Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, whom he revered, and was advised by him to “draw lines, young man, many lines.” In April of that same year, Degas received admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied drawing with Louis Lamothe, under whose guidance he flourished, following the style of Ingres. In July 1856, Degas traveled to Italy, where he would remain for the next three years. There he drew and painted copies after Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, and other artists of the Renaissance, often selecting from an altarpiece an individual head which he treated as a portrait. It was during this period that Degas studied and became accomplished in the techniques of high, academic, and classical art. After returning from Italy in 1859, Degas continued his education by copying paintings at the Louvre; he was to remain an enthusiastic copyist well into middle age. In the early 1860s, while visiting his childhood friend Paul Valpinçon in Normandy, he made his first studies of horses. He exhibited at the Salon for the first time in 1865, when the jury accepted his painting Scene of War in the Middle Ages, which attracted little attention. Although he exhibited annually in the Salon during the next five years, he submitted no more history paintings, and his Steeplechase—The Fallen Jockey (Salon of 1866) signaled his growing commitment to contemporary subject matter. The change in his art was influenced primarily by the example of Édouard Manet, whom Degas had met in 1864 while copying in the Louvre. At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Degas enlisted in the National Guard, where his defense of Paris left him little time for painting. During rifle training his eyesight was found to be defective, and for the rest of his life his eye problems were a constant worry to him. After the war, in 1872, Degas began an extended stay in New Orleans, Louisiana, where his brother René and a number of other relatives lived. Staying in a house on Esplanade Avenue, Degas produced a number of works, many depicting family members. One of Degas’ New Orleans works, depicting a scene at The Cotton Exchange at New Orleans, garnered favorable attention back in France, and was his only work purchased by a museum (that of Pau) during his lifetime. Degas returned to Paris in 1873. The following year his father died, and in the subsequent settling of the estate it was discovered that Degas’ brother René had amassed enormous business debts. To preserve the family name, Degas was forced to sell his house and a collection of art he had inherited. He now found himself suddenly dependent on sales of his artwork for income. By now thoroughly disenchanted with the Salon, Degas joined forces with a group of young artists who were intent upon organizing an independent exhibiting society. The first of their exhibitions, which were quickly dubbed Impressionist Exhibitions, was in 1874. The Impressionists subsequently held seven additional shows, the last in 1886. Degas took a leading role in organizing the exhibitions, and showed his work in all but one of them, despite his persistent conflicts with others in the group. He had little in common with Monet and the other landscape painters, whom he mocked for painting outdoors. Conservative in his social attitudes, he abhorred the scandal created by the exhibitions, as well as the publicity and advertising that his colleagues sought. He bitterly rejected the label Impressionist that the press had created and popularized, and his insistence on including such comparatively traditional artists as Jean-Louis Forain and Jean-François Raffaëlli in their exhibitions created rancor within the group, contributing to their eventual disbanding in 1886. As his financial situation improved through sales of his own work, he was able to indulge his passion for collecting works by artists he admired—old masters such as El Greco and such contemporaries as Manet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. Three artists he idolized, Ingres, Delacroix, and Daumier, were especially well represented in his collection. In the late 1880s, Degas also developed a passion for photography. He photographed many of his friends, often by lamplight, as in his double portrait of Renoir and Mallarmê. Other photographs, depicting dancers and nudes, were used for reference in some of Degas’ drawings and paintings. As the years passed, Degas became isolated, due in part to his belief that a painter could have no personal life. The Dreyfus Affair controversy brought his anti-Semitic leanings to the fore and he broke with all his Jewish friends. In later life, Degas regretted the loss of those friends. While he is known to have been working in pastel as late as the end of 1907, and is believed to have continued making sculpture as late as 1910, he apparently ceased working in 1912, when the impending demolition of his longtime residence on the rue Victor Massé forced a wrenching move to quarters on the boulevard de Clichy. He never married and spent the last years of his life, nearly blind, restlessly wandering the streets of Parisbefore dying in 1917. Degas’ last years were sad and lonely, especially as he outlived many of his closest friends. Hand colored Lithograph AFTER the original Hand Colored Rare Monotype. Published in Paris, of a limited edition and supervised-approved by the artist estate. Work measure: 6 by 9 inches, on wove paper and in good condition.   « Less

William M. Chase “Keying Up” Etching on Satin William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849 — October 25, 1916) was an American painter known as an exponent  More »

William M. Chase “Keying Up” Etching on Satin William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849 — October 25, 1916) was an American painter known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He was born in Williamsburg (now Nineveh), Indiana, to the family of a local merchant. Chase’s father moved the family to Indianapolis in 1861 and employed his son as a salesman in the family business. Chase showed an early interest in art, and studied under local, self-taught artists Barton S. Hays and Jacob Cox. After a brief stint in the Navy, Chase’s teachers urged him to travel to New York to further his artistic training. He arrived in New York in 1869, met and studied with Joseph Oriel Eaton for a short time, then enrolled in the National Academy of Design under Lemuel Wilmarth, a student of the famous French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1870 declining family fortunes forced Chase to leave New York for St. Louis, Missouri, where his family was then based. While he worked to help support his family he became active in the St. Louis art community, winning prizes for his paintings at a local exhibition. He also exhibited his first painting at the National Academy in 1871. Chase’s talent elicited the interest of wealthy St. Louis collectors who arranged for him to visit Europe for two years, in exchange for paintings and Chase’s help in securing European art for their collections. In Europe Chase settled at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, a long-standing center of art training that was attracting increasing numbers of Americans. He studied under Alexander Von Wagner and Karl von Piloty, and befriended American artists Walter Shirlaw, Frank Duveneck, and J(oseph) Frank Currier. Upon Chase’s death, in his Estate auction, he owned more works by Currier than any other artist. In Munich, Chase employed his rapidly burgeoning talent most often in figurative works that he painted in the loosely-brushed style popular with his instructors. In January, 1876, one of these figural works, a portrait titled “Keying Up” — The Court Jester (now in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts) was exhibited at the Boston Art Club; later that year it was exhibited and won a medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, and this success gained Chase his first fame. Chase traveled to Venice, Italy in 1877 with Duveneck and John Henry Twachtman before returning to the United States in the summer of 1878, a highly skilled artist representing the new wave of European-educated American talent. Home in America, he exhibited his painting Ready for the Ride (collection of the Union League Club) with the newly-formed Society of American Artists in 1878. He also opened a studio in New York in the Tenth Street Studio Building, home to many of the important painters of the day. He was a member of the Tilers, a group of artists and authors, among whom were some of his notable friends: Winslow Homer, Arthur Quartley and Augustus Saint Gaudens. This work, “Jester; Keying Up”, is an etching, rare proof on satin. The work is 4 by 6 inches and in great condition.   « Less

Félicien Rops “La Fileuse” Etching Félicien Rops (July 7, 1833 — August 23, 1898) was a Belgian artist, and printmaker in etching and  More »

Félicien Rops “La Fileuse” Etching Félicien Rops (July 7, 1833 — August 23, 1898) was a Belgian artist, and printmaker in etching and aquatint. Rops was born in Namur in 1833, and was educated at the University of Brussels. Rops’s forte was drawing more than painting in oils; he first won fame as a caricaturist. He met Charles Baudelaire towards the end of Baudelaire’s life in 1864, and Baudelaire left an impression upon him that lasted until the end of his days. Rops created the frontispiece for Baudelaire’s Les Épaves, a selection of poems from Les Fleurs du mal that had been censored in France, and which therefore were published in Belgium. Rops’s association with Baudelaire and with the art he represented won his work the admiration of many other writers, including Théophile Gautier, Alfred de Musset, Stéphane Mallarmé, Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, and Joséphin Péladan. He was closely associated with the literary movement of Symbolism and Decadence. Like the works of the authors whose poetry he illustrated, his work tends to mingle sex, death, and Satanic images. Felicien Rops was one of the founding members of Les XX. Rops’s eyesight began to fail in 1892. He kept up his literary associations until his death. Félicien Rops was a freemason and a member of the Grand Orient of Belgium. Félicien Rops “La Fileuse” Etching AFTER the work first painted by J. F. Millet. Published by Cadart, Paris in the late 19 Century. The work is on laid paper and measure 5.50 by 4 inches Plus Lettering and margins inside of the plate mark. This is in good condition. The photo is showing yellowing THAT IS NOT PRESENT .   « Less

Benjamin West (October 10, 1738 — March 11, 1820) was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of  More »

Benjamin West (October 10, 1738 — March 11, 1820) was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence. He was born in Springfield, Pennsylvania, in a house that is now on the campus of Swarthmore College, as the tenth child of an innkeeper. The family later moved to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where his father was the proprietor of the Square Tavern, still standing in that town. West told John Galt, with whom, late in his life, he collaborated on a memoir, The Life and Studies of Benjamin West (1816, 1820) that, when he was a child, Native Americans showed him how to make paint by mixing some clay from the river bank with bear grease in a pot. Benjamin West was an autodidact; while excelling at the arts, “he had little [formal] education and, even when president of the Royal Academy, could scarcely spell” (Hughes, 70). From 1746 to 1759, West worked in Pennsylvania, mostly painting portraits. While in Lancaster, PA, in 1756, West’s patron, a gunsmith named William Henry, encouraged him to design a “Death of Socrates” based on an engraving in Charles Rollin’s Ancient History; the resulting composition, which significantly differs from West’s source, has been called “the most ambitious and interesting painting produced in colonial America.” Dr William Smith, then the provost of the College of Philadelphia, saw the painting in Henry’s house and decided to patronize West, offering him education and, more important, connections with wealthy and politically-connected Pennsylvanians. During this time West met John Wollaston, a famous painter who immigrated from London. West learned Wollaston’s techniques for painting the shimmer of silk and satin, and also adopted some of “his mannerisms, the most prominent of which was to give all his subjects large almond-shaped eyes, which clients thought very chic”(Hughes, 71). In 1760, sponsored by Smith and William Allen, reputed to be the wealthiest man in Philadelphia, West traveled to Italy where he expanded his repertoire by copying the works of Italian painters such as Titian and Raphael. West was a close friend of Benjamin Franklin, whose portrait he painted. Franklin was also the godfather of West’s second son, Benjamin. In 1763, West moved to England, where he was commissioned by King George III to create portraits of members of the royal family. The king himself was twice painted by him. He painted his most famous and possibly most influential painting, The Death of General Wolfe, in 1770, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1771. Although originally snubbed by Reynolds and others as over ambitious, the painting became one of the most frequently reproduced images of the period. In 1772, King George appointed him historical painter to the court at an annual fee of £1,000. West became friends with the English portraitist Sir Joshua Reynolds and founded the Royal Academy of Arts with Reynolds in 1768. He was the second president of the Royal Academy from 1792 to 1805. He was re-elected in 1806 and was president until his death in 1820. He was Surveyor of the King’s Pictures from 1791 until his death. West is known for his large scale history paintings, which use expressive figures, colors and compositional schemes to help the spectator to identify with the scene represented. West called this “epic representation”. Works by West, Reynolds, Gainsborough executed in oil were engraved by leading engravers of the day (many were members of the Royal Academy) commissioned by the artist to have these published as Engravings were very profitable for the artist and help to make the artists works better known for the collecting public. These were appreciated as a genuine art form in the 17 and 18 Centuries UNLIKE the poor quality of Engravings produced in the following Century. Here we have a Rare Engraving Benjamin West “William 1st Receiving the Crown of England” Engraving. Published of the work of Benjamin West. Engraved by Georges Noble (noted London Engraver) Published in Jan 1797 by R. Bowyer, Pall Mall, London. Engraved work measure 12.50 by 8.50 inches approximate. This is in good condition, with narrow margins on antique wove paper.   « Less

William Brasse Hole A Scottish landscape etcher and painter, William B. Hole studied at the Royal Academy Schools, London. He began exhibiting his art there at the Royal  More »

William Brasse Hole A Scottish landscape etcher and painter, William B. Hole studied at the Royal Academy Schools, London. He began exhibiting his art there at the Royal Academy in 1873. Around 1875 the artist moved to Edinburgh and shortly thereafter became a member of both the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Scottish Watercolor Society. He was also a full member of the Royal Society of Painters and Etchers. As an etcher, William Brasse Hole was equally adept at landscape studies, architectural views and portraits. He was a frequent contributor to “The Portfolio”, a journal which concentrated upon the art of etching and he also illustrated a number of fine books with his original plates. “Self Portrait of James Whistler” Etching by William Hole published 1897 by “The Art Journal” measuring 7 by 10 inches and in good condition.   « Less

Albrecht Altdorfer “Madonna and Child” Engraving Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480 near Regensburg — February 12, 1538 inRegensburg) was a German painter,  More »

Albrecht Altdorfer “Madonna and Child” Engraving Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480 near Regensburg — February 12, 1538 inRegensburg) was a German painter, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era, the leader of the Danube School in southern Germany, and a near-contemporary of Albrecht Dürer. He is best known as a significant pioneer of landscape in art He most often painted religious scenes, but is mainly famous as the first frequent painter of pure landscape, and also compositions dominated by their landscape. Taking and developing the landscape style of Lucas Cranach the Elder, he shows the hilly landscape of the Danube valley with thick forests of drooping and crumbling firs and larches hung with moss, and often dramatic colouring from a rising or setting sun. His Landscape with footbridge (National Gallery, London) of 1518-20 is claimed to be the first pure landscape in oil. He also made many fine finished drawings, mostly landscapes, in pen and watercolour. His best religious scenes are intense, sometimes verging on the expressionistic, and often depict moments of intimacy between Christ and his mother, or others. His most famous religious artwork is the The Legend of St. Sebastian and the Passion of Christ that decorated the altar in the St. Florian monastery inLinz, Austria. He often distorts perspective to subtle effect. His donor figures are often painted completely out of scale with the main scene, as in paintings of the previous centuries. He also painted some portraits; overall his painted oeuvre was not large. He was a significant printmaker with numerous engravings and about ninety-three woodcuts. These included some for the Triumphs of Maximilian, where he followed the overall style presumably set by Hans Burgkmair, although he was able to escape somewhat from this in his depictions of the more disorderly baggage-train, still coming through a mountain landscape. However most of his best prints are etchings, many of landscapes; in these he was able most easily to use his drawing style. Here we have one of two impressions. Each image is trimmed to the border line (NO PLATE mark) of the work on lovely antique Laid paper. These measure 2.50 by 2.25 and are nice bright impressions from a later edition. This and others are all from a noted Coral Gables, FL Family Collection.   « Less