Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (November 24, 1864 — September 9, 1901) was a French painter, printmaker,  More »

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (November 24, 1864 — September 9, 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draftsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colorful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an oeuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec is known along with Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist period. In a 2005 auction at Christie's auction house a new record was set when "La blanchisseuse", an early painting of a young laundress, sold for $22.4 million U.S. Throughout his career, which spanned less than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275 watercolors, 363 prints and posters, 5,084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of lost works. Toulouse-Lautrec is known along with Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Gaugin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist period. His debt to the Impressionists, in particular the more figurative painters Manet and Degas, is apparent. In the works of Toulouse-Lautrec can be seen many parallels to Manet’s bored barmaid at A Bar at the Folies-Bergère and the behind-the-scenes ballet dancers of Degas. He excelled at capturing people in their working environment, with the colour and the movement of the gaudy night-life present, but the glamour stripped away. He was masterly at capturing crowd scenes in which the figures are highly individualized. At the time that they were painted, the individual figures in his larger paintings could be identified by silhouette alone, and the names of many of these characters have been recorded. His treatment of his subject matter, whether as portraits, scenes of Parisian night-life, or intimate studies, has been described as both sympathetic and dispassionate. Toulous-Lautrec’s skilled depiction of people relied on his painterly style which is highly linear and gives great emphasis to contour. He often applied the paint in long thin brushstrokes which often leave much of the board on which they are painted showing through. Many of his works may best be described as drawings in colored paint. After Toulouse-Lautrec’s death, his mother, the Comtesse Adèle Toulouse-Lautrec, and Maurice Joyant, his art dealer, promoted his art. His mother contributed funds for a museum to be built in Albi, his birthplace, to house his works. As of 2005, his paintings had sold for as much as US$14.5 million. Lithographed AFTER the larger posters of by the renowned French artist, Toulouse Lautrec. In an edition of 999, Printed on special watermarked Arches paper and issued by the Albi Museum (Largest Collection of Latrec Works. Special edition supervised and published by the Estate of the artist and the Lautrec Museum, Albi, France in a limited Edition on Arches paper. The Image-sheet measure 19.50 by 14.25 inches and in good condition, This and others are all from the same portfolio and the Colophon can be downloaded for your purchase from this listing . NUMBERED only in the colophon … #839 out a edition of 999!   « Less

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, the first of the great modern landscapists working in oil , print-making ( etching , Lithography ) , was born in Paris. The son of a wealthy  More »

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, the first of the great modern landscapists working in oil , print-making ( etching , Lithography ) , was born in Paris. The son of a wealthy cloth merchant, Corot was a businessman before he became, at the age of twenty-six, an artist. Consequently, he was able to paint without the necessity of selling his work. After a period of study with two academic painters, Corot went to Italy in 1825 where he spent two years roaming the countryside outside Rome as had Claude Lorrain two centuries before. Unlike Claude, however, Corot did not sketch; he painted directly from nature upon small canvases, observing carefully, translating his visual experiences directly and concentrating on architectural clarity and the play of light upon volume. This process led to an entirely new concept of landscape painting. Corot kept his discoveries to himself, however, and sent only Neoclassical landscapes to the Paris Salons. Corot painted more than three thousand works: small sketches and paintings from nature done in Italy, France, Switzerland, and Holland; large Salon works on historical themes; figure paintings and; and after 1850, landscapes painted from memory in the misty green tonality with which his name is associated. Corot’s influence upon modern art was profound for he was the first to study nature and so was able to give his works that quality of the real that comes from direct and immediate visual experience. Here we have J. B. C. Corot “Italian Campagna” Etching, Un-signed, printed on laid paper, measuring 4.50 by 7.50 inches and printed in a brownish ink and in good condition.   « Less

Degas “Dancer on the Stage” Watercolor Original watercolor applied to the Lithograph AFTER the original work executed in oil. This was executed by the Artist  More »

Degas “Dancer on the Stage” Watercolor Original watercolor applied to the Lithograph AFTER the original work executed in oil. This was executed by the Artist and approved by the artist's Estate and with the Braun & Cie of Paris, of a limited edition, 1948. Work measures 4.50 by 6.25 inches, on wove watercolor paper and in good condition. This is one of four from the same collection. Prov: Helen Hayes 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. 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.   « Less

Original watercolor applied to the Lithograph AFTER the original work executed in oil. This was executed by the Artist and approved by the artist's Estate and with the  More »

Original watercolor applied to the Lithograph AFTER the original work executed in oil. This was executed by the Artist and approved by the artist's Estate and with the Braun & Cie of Paris, of a limited edition, 1948. Work measures 4.50 by 6.25 inches, on wove watercolor paper and in good condition. This is one of four from the same collection. Prov: Helen Hayes 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. 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.   « Less

Jacques Callot “Destruction of a Convent” Etching Callot (1592—1633), a native of Nancy, France, trained in Florence, “taking up etching and  More »

Jacques Callot “Destruction of a Convent” 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 may greater artists”. One of a large collection of engraved plates (ca. 8.2 x 18.5 cm.; 3.50 by 7.50 Inches), numbered 2-18 (including the title plate as issued). Each plate trimmed closely, else a very good impression on-trimmed LAID paper. Purchased recently from a Palm Beach Collection, Palm Beach Florida, formed in the 1950—60’s.   « Less

Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (December 3, 1755 — July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island. Gilbert Stuart is widely considered to be one  More »

Gilbert Charles Stuart (born Stewart) (December 3, 1755 — July 9, 1828) was an American painter from Rhode Island. Gilbert Stuart is widely considered to be one of America’s foremost portraitists. His best known work, the unfinished portrait of George Washington that is sometimes referred to as The Athenaeum, was begun in 1796 and left incomplete at the time of Stuart’s death in 1828. The image of George Washington featured in the painting has appeared on the United States one-dollar bill for over one century. Throughout his career, Gilbert Stuart produced portraits of over 1,000 people, including the first six Presidents of the United States. King George of England and various Statesman, Artists and members of high Society His work can be found today at art museums across the United States and the United Kingdom, most notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Here we have the “Portrait of Richard Earlom Esq” engraved by Thomas Lupton, London published in London in 1800. Image 5.5 by 5.5 inches with margins on 18 Century wove paper. The sheet has a light foxing in the other margins. It was a typical practice that engravers produced Engraved Mezzotints after the oils executed by the Leading Portrait painters of the period , Often the artist massed large sums of money from the sales of the Engravings of there works first executed in oil and also provided to make the artists famous , often best known by there engraved images. Richard Earlom (1742—1822), English mezzotint engraver, was born and died in London. His natural faculty for art appears to have been first called into exercise by admiration for the lord mayor’s state coach, just decorated by Giovanni Battista Cipriani. He tried to copy the paintings, and was sent to study under Cipriani. He displayed great skill as a draughtsman, and at the same time acquired without assistance the art of engraving in mezzotint. In 1765, Earlom was employed by Alderman Boydell, then one of the most liberal promoters of the fine arts, to make a series of drawings from the pictures at Houghton Hall; and these he afterwards engraved in mezzotint. His most perfect works as engraver are perhaps the fruit and flower pieces after the Dutch artists Van Os and Jan van Huysum. Among his historical and figure subjects are Agrippina, after West; Love in Bondage, after Guido Reni; the Royal Academy, the Embassy of Hyderbeck to meet Lord Cornwallis, and a Tiger Hunt, the last three after Zoffany; and Lord Heathfield, after Sir Joshua Reynolds. Earlom also executed a series of 200 facsimiles of the drawings and sketches of Claude Lorraine, which was published in 3 vols. folio, under the title of Liber veritatis (1777—1819). Thomas Goff Lupton was among one of the leading Mezzotint Engraver of his day . He was responsible for engraving many fine Mezzotints Engravings in his career and later engraved several of the Finest works of J. W. M. Turner R. A. “Liber Studiorum” works.   « Less

Alexander A. Blum “Dock Side” Pencil Signed Etching Blum, Alexander A. “Alexander Blum” (Cincinnati, 1888 — Philadelphia, 1969). A fine  More »

Alexander A. Blum “Dock Side” Pencil Signed Etching Blum, Alexander A. “Alexander Blum” (Cincinnati, 1888 — Philadelphia, 1969). A fine American painter, etcher and illustrator, Alex Blum studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and with the Art Students’ League of New York. During the 1920’s and 1930’s his art was included in many major exhibitions in Washington, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and Boston. After 1940 most of Alexander Blum’s artistic work was in the field of illustration. Among other museums, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts owns an extensive collection of Blum’s etchings and paintings. Alexander Blum’s artistic career may be roughly divided into two categories. Until 1930, most of his etchings were architectural views of major cities within the eastern United States. later, he turned more towards figure studies and more decorative compositions, which in turn inclined him to the illustrative arts. Here we have Alexander A. Blum “Dock Side” Pencil Signed Etching, of a small edition and signed in Pencil, measuring 12 by 8.25 inches and in good condition. Most of these were published by Associated American Artists, New York City, N.Y. in editions of 250. This is numbered 20 in the lower left below the etched work.   « Less

Claude Monet “Promenade Walk” Limited Edition Gravure Claude Monet born Oscar Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a founder of  More »

Claude Monet “Promenade Walk” Limited Edition Gravure Claude Monet born Oscar Claude Monet (November 14, 1840 – December 5, 1926) was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement’s philosophy of expressing one’s perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. The term Impressionism is derived from the title of his painting Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant). Here we have a rare “Monet Promenade Walk” a limited edition of 30 impressions published in 1910 by Georg Buxenstein of Berlin. This rare and beautiful work is on goo wove paper with a platemark measuring 7.50 by 9 inches and inscribed at the bottom with CLAUDE MONET, PROMENADE WALK; SPAZIERGANG, and Georg Bixenstein & Co., jel. u. imp. The original Colophon is included with the purchase.   « Less

Jacques Callot “Miseresetles of War Title Page” Etching Callot (1592—1633), a native of Nancy, France, trained in Florence, “taking up etching  More »

Jacques Callot “Miseresetles of War Title Page” 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 may greater artists”. One of a large collection of engraved plates (ca. 8.2 x 18.5 cm; 3.50 by 7.50 Inches), numbered 2—18 (including the title plate as issued). Each plate trimmed closely, else a very good impression on trimmed LAID paper. Purchased recently from a Palm Beach Collection, Palm Beach Florida, formed in the 1950—60’s.   « Less

James David Smillie (January 16, 1833 — September 14, 1909), American artist, was born in New York City. His father, James Smillie (1807—1885), a  More »

James David Smillie (January 16, 1833 — September 14, 1909), American artist, was born in New York City. His father, James Smillie (1807—1885), a Scottish engraver, emigrated to New York in 1829, was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1851, did much, with his brother William Cumming (1813—1908), to develop the engraving of bank-notes, and was an excellent landscape-engraver. The son studied with him and in the National Academy of Design; engraved on steel vignettes for bank-notes and some illustrations, notably FOC Darley’s pictures for Cooper’s novels; was elected an associate of the National Academy in 1865—the year after he first began painting and an academician in 1876; and was a founder (1866) of the American Water Color Society, of which he was treasurer in 1866—1873 and president in 1873—1878, and of the New York Etching Club. Among his paintings, in oils, are “Evening among the Sierras” (1876) and “The Cliffs of Normandy” (1885), and in water color, “A Scrub Race” (1876) and “The Passing Herd” (1888). He wrote and illustrated the article on the Yosemite in Picturesque America. His brother, George Henry Smillie was also a painter. Here we have an original etching entitled “The Sundial” by this talented artist measuring 4.50 by 6.50 inches, printed in a limited edition of 250 on Japon paper and attached to a support sheet as published. This is in good condition.   « Less