Degas, Millet, Rivera: Prints & Drawings at Swann on March 5

New York — 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings on Thursday, March 5 at Swann Galleries is set to bring forth a remarkable set of works on paper from the Modern period including important examples from Gustave Baumann, Jean-François Millet, Diego Rivera and more.

Works from the nineteenth century lead the sale with Jean-François Millet’s circa 1871­–72 charcoal-on-canvas study for the artist’s oil painting La Famille du Payson, estimated at $40,000 to $60,000. James A. M. Whistler is available with the etchings The Garden, 1880, and Balcony, Amsterdam, 1889, expected to bring $30,000 to $50,000 and $40,000 to $60,000, respectively. Edgar Degas’s rare etching and aquatint Loges d’Actrices, circa 1879–80, is set to come across the block in the fifth state, one of approximately eight impressions in this state, at $15,000 to $20,000. Also by Degas is La Danse Espagnole, a bronze circa–1885 sculpture based on the wax model the artist executed in the same year. The sculpture carries an estimate of $5,000 to $8,000. Further works of note include an artist’s proof of Mary Cassatt’s drypoint Gathering Fruit, circa 1893, and the etching In the Opera Box (No. 3), circa 1880, estimated at $8,000 to $12,000, and $20,000 to $30,000, respectively.

An exceptional offering of Latin American art features Diego Rivera’s a 1923 pencil study for Un Maestro Protegido por Soldados Revolucionarios, an image in the artist’s mural at the Secretería de Educación Pública in Mexico City ($7,000-10,000). The revolutionary in the study can be seen in the background of the 1932 lithograph Escuela al Aire Libre, also featured in the sale ($12,000-18,000). From Francisco Toledo’s transatlantic period comes Formes Surréalistes, a circa 1965 watercolor ($15,000-20,000). Roberto Matta’s 1958 two-part bronze sculpture with black patina Crucifixión is available ($15,000-20,000) along with a run of color aquatints by Rufino Tamayo: Cabexa Sobre Fondo Rosa, Personaje de Perfil, and Cabeza sobre fondo verde ($3,000-5,000 apiece).

Works by Gustave Baumann, Stuart Davis, Martin Lewis, Louis Lozowick and Grant Wood stand out among Modern American printmakers, with Lewis’s 1931 drypoint Rainy Day, Queens leading the group at $15,000 to $20,000. Baumann’s 1917 color woodcut Provincetown, and Davis’s 1931 lithograph Two Figures and El are offered at $10,000 to $15,000 each; Lozowick’s Through Brooklyn Bridge Cables, lithograph, 1938, and Wood’s Approaching Storm, lithograph, 1940, are set to bring $5,000 to $8,000 apiece.

Modern European masters include a scintillating run of examples by Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte, among others. Notable works include Der Spaziergang I, 1922, an early etching by Chagall ($10,000-15,000); Miró’s 1967 color etching Le Rebelle ($25,000-35,000); Nature Morte à la Pastèque, a 1962 color linoleum cut by Picasso ($40,000-60,000); and Magritte’s Paysage de Baucis (Self Portrait with a Hat), etching, 1962 ($15,000-20,000).

A selection of stalwart German Expressionists features Edvard Munch with Den Sinnssyke, lithograph, 1908–09, with only six other impressions found at auction in the past 30 years ($10,000-15,000); Max Pechstein is on offer with Yali und sein Weisses Weib, 1923, a complete set of eight etchings ($5,000-8,000); and Wassily Kandinsky’s Erste Katnadel fur die Editions Cahiers d’Art, drypoint, 1930 ($7,000-10,000). Lyonel Feininger, Erich Heckel, Paul Klee and Käthe Kollwitz round out the assortment.

Further highlights include Henry Moore’s Two Figures, an abstract 1935 watercolor with charcoal and color pastels ($15,000-20,000); Jean Dubuffet’s L’enfle-chique II, a 1963 color lithograph ($15,000-20,000); and Françoise Gilot with Composition, gouache and watercolor ($5,000-8,000).

Exhibition opening in New York City February 29. The complete catalogue and bidding information is available at www.swanngalleries.com and on the Swann Galleries App.