Swann Galleries to Auction Old Master Through Modern Prints April 29
New York—On Tuesday, April 29, Swann Galleries will conduct an auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints that features works by Dürer, Rembrandt, Whistler, Hopper, Picasso and more.
A choice selection of prints by the Old Masters includes significant works by Albrecht Dürer, such as St. Anthony Reading, a richly-inked engraving from 1519, the height of Dürer’s career (estimate: $60,000 to $90,000). Also by Dürer are the woodcuts The Vision of the Seven Candlesticks, circa 1497 and The Four Angels Holding the Winds, 1498, from The Apocalypse ($7,000 to $10,000 and $8,000 to $12,000 respectively) and Coat of Arms with a Lion and a Cock, engraving, circa 1503 ($10,000 to $15,000).
Excellent examples by Rembrandt van Rijn include Christ Healing the Sick (The Hundred Guilder Print), etching, engraving and drypoint, circa 1643-49, with abundant burr ($80,000 to $120,000) and The Adoration of the Shepherds: with the Lamp, one of six horizontal-format etchings by Rembrandt from around 1654 that he may have intended as a series to illustrate scenes from Christ's childhood ($30,000 to $50,000).
Among a fine assortment of Rembrandt’s secular images are portraits of Jan Lutma, Goldsmith, a first state etching and drypoint, 1656, once owned by the renowned English collector John Barnard ($60,000 to $90,000) and Ephraim Bonus, Jewish Physician, etching and drypoint, 1647, one of only a few etched portraits by Rembrandt for which he also made oil studies ($50,000 to $80,000) and landscapes, The Omval, etching and drypoint, 1645, which is among Rembrandt's earliest attempts to render additional tones in his etching through built up use of drypoint ($40,000 to $60,000) and Landscape with a Milkman, etching and drypoint, circa 1650, a scarce work that relates to a pen and ink drawing by Rembrandt from around 1650, Farm Buildings beside a Road, now in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford ($30,000 to $50,000).
A modern work that exhibits the influence of Rembrandt and other Old Masters is Edward Hopper’s 1921 etching Evening Wind, which reflects the artist’s characteristic sense of stillness and isolation, which he dramatized with the use of dark hatching, and his recurring theme of a lone woman before a window ($80,000 to $120,000).
Also among American Art highlights is a run of Martin Lewis’s celebrated NYC views, including East Side Night, Williamsburg Bridge, drypoint, 1928 ($7,000 to $10,000); Shadow Dance, drypoint and sandpaper ground, 1930 ($20,000 to $30,000); and Arch, Midnight, drypoint, 1930 ($8,000 to $12,000); and urban depictions by other artists such as Raphael Soyer’s sympathetic view of Depression-era homeless men in a New York soup kitchen, The Mission, lithograph, 1933 ($12,000 to $18,000); Reginald Marsh’s crowded Coney Island Beach, etching, 1935 ($4,000 to $6,000); Ben Shahn’s first color print, Seward Park (New York), color lithograph, 1936, one of only six known impressions ($30,000 to $50,000); and Samuel L. Margolies’s Men of Steel, drypoint, circa 1940 ($7,000 to $10,000).
More bucolic are Frank W. Benson’s The Punter, etching, 1927 ($1,500 to $2,500); Grant Wood’s March, lithograph, 1939 ($5,000 to $8,000) and Thomas Hart Benton’s Running Horses, lithograph, 1955 ($7,000 to $10,000).
Featured works by James A.M. Whistler among the sale’s 19th-century highlights are Upright Venice, circa 1879-80, a crisp, early impression, with warm plate tone and every detail distinct and Nocturne, lithograph, 1878, aside from the edition of 100 printed on light blue paper ($30,000 to $50,000 each).
Also from that century are Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Mademoiselle Marcel Lender, en buste, color lithograph, 1895 ($15,000 to $20,000) and Femme qui sa lave, la Toilette, lithograph on Japan paper, 1896 ($10,000 to $15,000) and Odilon Redon’s Vieux Chevalier, lithograph on Chine appliqué, 1896 ($8,000 to $12,000).
The item with the highest pre-sale estimate is Pablo Picasso’s portrait of his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, Tête de Femme (Portrait de Jacqueline de Face, II), color linoleum cut, 1962, which is one of approximately 20 artist's proofs, aside from the edition of 50 ($100,000 to $150,000).
Also among a range of works by Picasso are Tête de Femme, etching, 1905, from a deluxe edition of approximately 28 on Japan paper ($7,000 to $10,000); the 1931 drypoint Homme dévoilant une Femme, one of 50 on grand papier vergé de Montval ($15,000 to $20,000) and after prints including Bouteille de Rhum, color collotype and stencil, circa 1965, based on the same-titled oil painting now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ($10,000 to $15,000).
Henri Matisse’s 1929 lithograph La Persane—so lovely it was chosen for the catalogue cover—is a very scarce and important print ($50,000 to $80,000) while other works by the artist include after prints such as Odalisque sur la Terrasse, color aquatint, 1922-23 ($10,000 to $15,000).
Highlights by artists working in etching include Giorgio Morandi’s extremely scarce, early etching Natura Morta con Tazzina e Caraffa, on India collé, 1929, which relates to one of three important oil still lifes that Morandi painted in the late 1920s and exhibited in the 1931 Quadriennale, Rome ($40,000 to $60,000); Marc Chagall’s Bible, portfolio with complete text and 105 etchings, 1931-39 ($80,000 to $120,000); and René Magritte’s Paysage de Baucis (Self Portrait with a Hat), 1966 ($15,000 to $20,000).
Also of note are two prints on Japan paper by Maurits C. Escher, Puddle, color woodcut, 1952 ($20,000 to $30,000) and Swans, wood engraving on Japan paper, 1956 ($15,000 to $20,000); and Bernard Buffet’s Mon Cirque, portfolio with complete text and 44 color lithographs and an additional suite of 44 pencil-signed and numbered color lithographs, 1968 ($30,000 to $50,000).
The auction will take place on Tuesday, April 29, in two sessions starting at 10:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
The works of art will be on public exhibition at Swann Galleries on Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, April 26, from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.; Monday, April 28, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
An illustrated catalogue, with information on bidding by mail or fax, is available from Swann Galleries, Inc., 104 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, and may be viewed online at www.swanngalleries.com.
For further information, and to make advance arrangements to bid by telephone during the auction, please contact Todd Weyman at (212) 254-4710, extension 32, or via e-mail at tweyman@swanngalleries.com.
Live online bidding is available via Invaluable.com.
First image: Pablo Picasso, Tête de Femme (Portrait de Jacqueline de Face, II), color linoleum cut, 1962, one of approximately 20 artist's proofs, aside from the edition of 50 (estimate: $100,000 to $150,000).
Second image: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Omval, etching and drypoint, 1645 (estimate: $40,000 to $60,000).
