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Alphonse Mucha's Decorative Panels

February 25, 2014, 9:41 am
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The name Alphonse Mucha is synonymous with extravagant Art Nouveau depictions of beautiful women. And, while he is known for his posters advertising the talents of actresses such as Sarah Bernhardt or for JOB rolling papers, he also produced elaborate decorative panels--collectible works of art, rather than billboards. 

These popular bell epoch lithographs were produced on a number of themes, such as the seasons and the zodiac.

The lot with the highest pre-sale estimate in today's auction of Vintage Posters is a set of four decorative panels by Mucha depicting the Times of the Day. These are: Morning Awakening, Daytime Dash, Evening Reverie and Nightly Rest. Poster experts have said that, "the borders are worked out in such an exquisite pattern that each picture appears to be mounted in an elaborate frame of its own, or else seen through a decorated window." In fact, each panel has identical borders, lending the set a cohesiveness, while at the same time Mucha brilliantly adds a flourish of different floral patterns behind each border.

Once an affordable way to own a lovely work of art by the Art Nouveau master, decorative panels can now fetch a pretty penny. Times of the Day is estimated at $50,000 to $75,000.
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They're All Ears: Folsom Prison Mugshots

February 26, 2014, 11:22 am
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Before the system of identifying individuals by fingerprint was developed, the authorities relied on the distinct, intricate hollows and folds of a person’s ear in order to positively link them to a crime. Lot 16 in tomorrow's Photographs & Photobooks auction is an album from Folsom Prison brimming with criminals, with each man arranged into a three-quarters profile pose. From this angle, their ears are prominently positioned to allow for the eyes of the viewer to focus in on their identifying feature before being drawn to grave countenances, bold ID numbers, and then oftentimes down to sordid criminal histories inked on the page in flowing cursive script.
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A captivating study on its own, this album is made even more so by the three binders of information that accompany it. Inspired by their children, who used to request to be shown the mugshot album as a special treat and would make up scary stories to accompany the macabre faces within, the collectors tapped into a strong background as professional researchers and unearthed articles detailing the nature of the crimes for the majority of the men included in this rogue’s gallery. 

The binders are stuffed with copies of original newspaper clippings with drawings and photo reproductions, as well as transcriptions of the articles. The majority of the articles are from West Coast sources, but some men were committing their crimes as far east as Chicago. The articles detail the specifics of the crimes and, at times, follow the perpetrator’s background history all the way to trial and onward. Many different writing styles are employed, juxtaposing the terse, formal accounts with the more dramatic and splashy tales.

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This album is a remarkable piece of criminal history, but the massive amount of research and information included puts it on a much higher level. It is very uncommon to find the backstories of the men pictured within, and unheard of to have this information for nearly every single inmate.

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Thanks to Alex Van Clief of our Photography Department for this post.
  
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American Modernism: John Marin's Brooklyn Bridge

February 26, 2014, 2:03 pm
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Lot 268 is John Marin's Brooklyn Bridge and Lower New York, etching and drypoint, 1913.
Swann's March 6 auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings features a run of etchings by John Marin that capture the dynamism of New York City and the ever familiar arches of the Brooklyn Bridge. Not only are these striking views of the city we love, they also have a fascinating association: the prints were published by Alfred Steiglitz, the pioneering photographer and modern art gallery owner. Stieglitz focused on the European avant-garde and also fostered and propelled the careers of important American Modernists.
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Lot 269 is Marin's Brooklyn Bridge No. 6, etching and drypoint, 1913.


Marin, who became renowned for his abstract watercolors, was closely associated with Stieglitz. Their rapport began when Marin met Stieglitz's agent Edward Steichen in 1908, and was followed by a visit to Marin's Parisian apartment from Stieglitz himself. Stieglitz was extremely impressed and subsequently held an exhibition for the artist at his 291 Gallery the following year. 
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Lot 270 is Marin's Brooklyn Bridge, No. 6 (Swaying), etching, 1913.

Upon Marin's return to America in 1911, Stieglitz supplied him with a yearly stipend to support and encourage his artistic output and continued to exhibit his work prominently--an arrangement that undoubtedly pushed Marin to pursue art to a greater degree than he would have on his own. When 291 closed in 1917, Stieglitz continued to promote Marin's work and facilitated his recognition as a forerunner of American Modernism.

Marin's abstractions of various buildings and structures of New York City capture the awe that the artist felt among the city's groundbreaking modern architecture. The Brooklyn Bridge (completed in 1883) was an icon of modern architecture and engineering, the longest suspension bridge (and the first constructed of steel-wire) ever built, and a sublime symbol of change as well as the optimism of new technology. Marin repeatedly returned to imagery of the Bridge, abstracting and manipulating it to capture the energy, anxiety and excitement of the city.
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His Lover Sleeps: Picasso's Nocturnal Scene from the Vollard Suite

February 27, 2014, 12:32 pm
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Among the highlights of our March 6 auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings is Pablo Picasso's 1934 aquatint and etching Garçon et Dormeuse a la Chandelle. 
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This print is one of 100 different etchings from the Vollard Suite, a series Picasso produced from 1930 to 1937 for Parisian publisher Ambroise Vollard. While over 300 sets were printed, complete suites are exceedingly rare, instead the prints from this series now are often found individually. 

The suite spans Picasso's passionate, sometimes tumultuous affair with his teenage model and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter. Many of the earlier works in the series portray a sculptor in his studio among his work--alluding to the classical myth of Pygmalion. The later prints become increasingly dark as both his relationship with Marie-Thérèse waned and Europe marched toward World War II. 

This particular print marks a turning point in Picasso's relationship with Marie-Thérèse, as it was made when Picasso learned she was pregnant with his child in 1934. Her pregnancy marked the end of Picasso's then marriage to the Ballet Russe dancer Olga Khokhlova and also the beginning of the end for his relationship with his young model (just one year later he would meet Dora Maar--with whom Marie-Thérèse would become embattled over Picasso's affection). 

This print, however, portrays a tranquil scene of the sleeping woman, her fertile feminine features illuminated by candlelight, with a young man (likely intended to symbolize Picasso himself) sitting and thoughtfully watching her at rest. A single candle lighting the scene creates a stillness and chiaroscuro reminiscent of Rembrandt's nocturnal scenes. 

The onset of World War II and the sudden death of the publisher Vollard in a car crash in the south of France in 1939 delayed the distribution of this seminal suite, certainly one of the most important print series ever created by a single artist, until the 1950s.
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Open Orange: A New Juried Art Exhibition

March 3, 2014, 1:34 pm
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From time to time, we like to tell you about arts-related happenings in the NYC area, so when our African-American Fine Art specialist Nigel Freeman told us about a new juried exhibition in Orange and West Orange, New Jersey, we wanted to help get the word out.

Open Orange, organized by the non-profit ValleyArts, will hold its inaugural juried exhibition May 9 through June 8 at the Firehouse Gallery--on the border of Orange and West Orange--and other nearby spaces. 

Artists from New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area are invited to submit two-dimensional works, which will be evaluated and selected by nationally prominent jurors: Antonio Sergio Bessa, director of curatorial and educational programs, Bronx Museum, Diedra Harris-Kelley, co-director of the Romare Bearden Foundation and Naima J. Keith, assistant curator, the Studio Museum in Harlem. The deadline for submissions is March 9.

The best in show award will be a one-person exhibition at the Firehouse Gallery in the 2014-15 season. 

For more information, visit: http://www.valleyartsnj.com/openorange/

To submit, go to: callforentry.org
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Camille Pissarro: Prolific Impressionist Printmaker

March 4, 2014, 9:48 am
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Pissarro's Bathers, etching and drypoint, 1895 is a highlight of our March 6 auction.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was among the most significant players in the Impressionist movement, and co-wrote the manifesto for the Société Anonyme Coopérative des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs et Graveurs. Of the eight exhibitions held by the Impressionists between 1874 to 1886, Pissarro was the only artist included in all eight. 
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Pissarro also employed lithography, as with this print, Femmes Nues, circa 1896.

And, of the Impressionists, Pissarro was the most prolific printmaker--producing approximately 200 etchings and lithographs in the years from 1863 to 1902. Technically, he pushed the medium to its limits through his manipulation of etching plates. In fact, Pissarro was so enthusiastic about the medium he purchased his own printing press in 1894. He experimented with Edgar Degas to produce prints with impressionistic effects and Degas also printed color proofs of some of Pissarro's etchings. 
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Pissarro's collaboration with George W. Thornley resulted in several prints, including Le Vieux Quartier de Rouen, lithograph on Chine appliqué, circa 1900.

In 1883, following the advice of Claude Monet, Pissarro visited Rouen for the first time. The capital city of Normandy charmed the artist and it was there that he produced several etchings and drawings of the Seine, including serial views of the quays (inspired by Monet's Rouen Cathedral series). Pissarro worked primarily en plein air during his initial visit to Rouen, before an eye condition worsened in 1893, leaving him unable to paint outdoors. In 1895, 1896 and 1989, during his three subsequent trips to Rouen, Pissarro adopted the practice of painting indoors in front of the windows of his hotel, where he had panoramic views and could capture the changing light and atmosphere of the city. 
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Le Pont de Pierre, à Rouen, lot 111 in Swann Galleries' March 6 auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings, is an etching and drypoint  from 1887. There are approximately 32 lifetime impressions (and no posthumous impressions) of this print in its two states. And, it has only appeared at auction eight times in the past 25 years. 

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The Vernacular Eye

March 5, 2014, 12:48 pm
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Swann has seen some impressive results for vernacular photography in recent months, and now our Photographs department is launching a sale devoted to rare 19th and 20th century albums, exceptional commercial images, eye-grabbing photographs by documentary or scientific practitioners, as well as fun three-dimensional photo objects.

The sale, scheduled for April 17, is titled The Vernacular Eye: Photographic Albums, Snapshots & Objects, and is the first auction devoted to vernacular photography.
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From a diverse and compelling collection of 97 real photo postcards, circa 1910-12.

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Album with 51 cyanotypes depicting gardens, parks and the harbor in Boston, 1900-05.

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Album with 250 photographs of window displays at Kleinhams mens clothing store in Buffalo, 1919-26.

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U.S. Air Force album of "high altitude balloons" made by Firestone Tire and Rubber, 1942-44.

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Album with approximately 200 charming cyanotype snapshots, 1899.

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Group of 10 whimsical anthropomorphic studies of fruit and vegetable sculptures, 1930s-40s.

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13 matchboxes with sepia-toned images of prima ballerinas in the Bolshoi Ballet, from a larger group of items relating to smoking, 1900s-50s.
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Mini-archive of photographs and ephemera relating to transvestism and gay rights in New York City in the early 1970s.

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A choice group of 34 delightful snapshots featuring men and women bending over, mugging, mooning,and otherwise facing away from the camera, 1920s-1950s.
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Archimedes: Pi Man

March 14, 2014, 12:20 pm
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Here at Swann Galleries we couldn't help but notice a certain trend on every social media feed this morning. Pi! Pies everywhere: Pantone posted a Radiant Orchid pie emblazoned with a π, the Brooklyn Public Library celebrated the opening of their cafe today with pies galore, and the American Antiquarian Society found some great 19th-century pie-centric graphics. We couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon with a Pi post.

But March 14 is more than just an excuse to eat one of the best desserts ever invented (seriously, send us pie if you have it). It's also a rare populist celebration of a complicated but well-known mathematical concept. In the spirit of celebrating math and science, here is a closer look at the top lot in our April 3 Astronomy & Science Books auction.

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These views of Archimedes's Opera Omnia are from the first printed edition in the original Greek of the works of Archimedes (287-212 B.C.), published in Basel, 1544. Archimedes' contributions to the approximation of π were dominant for nearly a millennium, and as such, everyone's favorite irrational number is still occasionally referred to as "Archimedes' Constant". The book contains writings on the measurement of circles and spirals, the quadrature of the parabola, conoids and spheroids and even the possibility of numbering the sands. 
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For more on this antiquarian book, read the catalogue entry for this lot. And happy Pi Day!

PS - Swann Specialists were more than happy to supply additional Pi Day fodder. After sending around an email asking who had the most decimals of Pi memorized (sadly, no one could get past 3.14159) we came up with the following Swann-specific Pie trivia:
>Photographs Department specialist Alex Van Clief operated an award-winning made-to-order pie shop in Miami a few years ago.
>Wayne Thiebaud's Pies, a 1964 etching, sold November 14, 2013 Contemporary Art auction for $8,125, well above its presale estimate. The market for pie is strong!

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What is vernacular photography?

March 24, 2014, 12:35 pm
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As we approach the first ever auction devoted to Vernacular Photography, Daile Kaplan, director of Photographs and Photobooks offers this explanation of a growing field of collecting.
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Vernacular imagery often encompasses pictures by lesser known or amateur makers, including itinerant photographers, studio practitioners and press photographers--many of whom work outside the scope of fine art practice. Evocative snapshots by hobbyists, accomplished commercial portraiture and product imagery, iconic news pictures, intimate occupational photographs (including tintypes), humorous travel or souvenir images (as well as albums), and fun family photo albums are prime examples associated with the genre.  In addition, three-dimensional decorative or functional photo objects, which have been described as "pop photographica," make an appearance. 
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Our purpose is not to define the genre, but to present a range of thought-provoking pictures and objects that contribute to an ongoing and important dialogue. As a result, Swann's inaugural sale casts a wide net. 
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Pioneering private and contemporary collectors have positioned this material as an exciting and expansive approach to the field of photography. Swann pays homage to the collectors, photographers and curators who are continuing a discussion that was initiated in the 1970s, when the marketplace for photography first emerged. Visionaries like Sam Wagstaff and John Szarkowski understood that photography is not a single, unilateral modality, but a hybrid form that continues to evolve and reinvent itself, reflecting cultural and popular currents. They envisioned a medium encompassing photography's many brilliant facets, and staked their reputations on the fact that, while collecting examples of fine art photography is a serious, rewarding endeavor, the art of appreciating all kinds of imagery is what distinguishes a true connoisseur.        



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Significant George Washington Carver Archive Coming to Auction

March 25, 2014, 9:56 am
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Among the highlights of Thursday's auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana is an extraordinary archive of letters written by George Washington Carver between 1925 and 1937. This lot contains 97 letters signed "G.W. Carver," to his friend Mrs. Sophie Liston, including 73 handwritten and 24 typed letters--most on "Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute" stationery--on various topics including agricultural lecture tours, racism, conditions during the Great Depression, Tuskegee Institute life, the Christian Science Church, national government policy, polio treatments, massage and oil therapy, painting and gardening. 

Carver's background is complex. Born into slavery and raised by a white family, he was comfortable as a member of both races. Sophie Emma St. John Liston (1861-1937) lived near Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa when she met Carver, whose desperate circumstances as a newly enrolled student moved her. She was one of the few white neighbors who helped the young Carver by driving business to his laundry service and by organizing donations of necessities. The two shared an interest in painting, gardening and scripture, and when Liston moved to Los Angeles, their friendship continued to develop through these letters, which descended through the Liston family.

In the letters Carver discusses his experiments with peanuts and peanut oil, among other subjects. He seaks of his work on the treatment of infantile paralysis at length, citing a problem he had with his knee and massages with peanut oil. One can trace the progress of Carver's career through in the letters, and the topic of his celebrity often appears. He writes of the Russians inviting him to come to the Soviet Union and a film documentary released to movie houses nationwide.

Only a couple of letters touch on race, though not as a focus, and contain poignant passages such as this one from 20 March 1935: ". . . There is no Christian Science Church nearer than 42 miles of us and it is a white church so you see I could not go if I was there. You, my great friend, cannot understand what a terrible blight this prejudice is, but God will take care of it in His own good time and way. . . ." 
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Into the Blue

March 25, 2014, 12:46 pm
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Lot 44: an album of 200 cyanotype snapshots mostly from Eastern Massachusetts, 1899
The cyanotype or blueprint process has a poetic quality that embodies a painterly aesthetic and is defined by particular visual characteristics, in this case, a distinctive and rich "prussian blue" monochromatic palette. 

Although the technique was invented at the outset of photography, in 1842, by the renowned British astronomer Sir John Herschel (a friend of Julia Margaret Cameron), its heyday was from the 1890s through the 1910s. Cyanotypes were employed by artists, scientists, commercial photographers and hobbyists alike. Today, the technique is experiencing something of a Renaissance and is embraced by new generations of artists and photographers. 

The simplicity of creating cyanotypes made this an ideal photographic process for the amateur intent on chronicling everyday life. A printing-out process, sheets of photo-sensitive paper were exposed to natural light (instead of pesky enlargers and darkroom chemicals) to create a photographic print. Cyanotype images were made by industrial photographers who recognized their strong visual appeal; college students intent on exploring photography as a mode of creative expression; and photographers who enjoyed the (fairly) immediate gratification of watching images manifest in daylight.


Our upcoming Vernacular photography auction offers many wonderful examples, including:

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Lot 23: A typological collage of 9 identical close-ups of an unidentified machine, 1890s.
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Lot 27: 63 cyanotypes documenting construction of a bridge in the French countryside, 1899-1902
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Lot 48: Snapshot album with 500 cyanotypes of Cornell University and Ithaca, NY, 1898-1905
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Lot 104 is a pop photographica item: a cotton pillowcase with 12 cyanotype views of a small town, circa 1900.

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Aviation and the Age of Invention

March 27, 2014, 12:52 pm
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There are many marvelous aspects of vernacular imagery but one, in particular, is essential: its chameleon-like identity. 
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Lot 56 is a group of 19 photographs, most from an album formerly in the collection of Wright brothers freight client Frank Hermes, comprising 15 vintage prints, nearly all of which were taken by Orville Wright. 

Vernacular photographs are often repurposed so that a picture made from one perspective (e.g., recording an experiment) may subsequently be adapted to another (a fine art gallery or museum wall). Although the original context remains meaningful, an interdisciplinary connection brings added relevance. 
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Lot 57 is a group of 25 photographs by William Preston Mayfield, depicting pilots and various Wright Bros. flying machines, 1910-1913.

For example, Orville Wright, was a prominent figure in the field of aviation, but not an especially well-known photographer. He and his older brother, Wilbur, who were proprietors of a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, dreamed of flying. Their early experiments with lighter-than-air crafts were carefully chronicled to prove the legitimacy of their claims of "We did it first!" 
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Lot 58 is a group of eight photographs of the Wright Bros. hydroplane, circa 1913.

When Wilbur piloted an early flyer, Orville captured the activity from the ground. The limited technical ability of the fixed focus lens did not impede his pictorial style. Indeed, one of Orville’s earliest photographs apparently inspired Alfred Stieglitz, whose own photograph The Aeroplane, was reproduced in the pages of Camera Work magazine--Lot 160.


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The April 17 auction also includes a selection of Camera Work photogravures by Alfred Stieglitz, which includes The Aeroplane, above.  


Related fields, such as, travel and exploration, ethnography, science, magic and spiritualism represent examples of the photograph’s readiness to cross over from one discipline to another.
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Gay New York

March 28, 2014, 8:00 am
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Among the highlights of our April 17 auction of Vernacular Photography is a small archive of photographs and ephemera relating to transvestism and gay rights in New York City from the early 1970s. 

The visual and printed materials pertain to the very public lives of Lee Brewster (hailed in his New York Times obituary as "Style Guru for World's Cross-Dressers") and Avery Willard (a.k.a. Bruce King) a photographer, filmmaker, publisher, performer and gay activist). There are 17 remarkable photographs and two contact sheets of Willard in drag that are likely self-portraits. 
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Also in the archive are 18 photographs of contestants at Wigstock 1973, more than 60 photos of the NYC Gay Pride parade in 1974 and 18 photos of the Queens Liberation Front parade in 1973, as well as assorted ephemera from 1971-1974. 
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Avery Willard (1921-1999) was a commercial photographer known for his theatrical portraits of Broadway's leading stars. In the 1970s, he began photographing the "gay scene," and published a newspaper of the same name. The pictures in this group are self-portraits in which he is dressed in historic and contemporary costumes. 
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Lee G. Brewster's (1943-2000) Greenwich Village boutique was legendary in the transvestite world. He staged elaborate balls for cross-dressers, both gay and straight, and, according to the Times, "financed a successful legal challenge to overturn a city ordinance that allowed people to be removed from public places for being gay."

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The Face of Picasso's Linoleum Cuts

April 3, 2014, 10:48 am
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This color lino cut of Jacqueline is one of approximately 20 artist's proofs aside from the edition of 50 and estimated at $100,000 to $150,000.
Among the highlights of our April 29 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints is Pablo Picasso's 1962 color linoleum cut Tête de Femme (Portrait de Jacqueline de Face, II).

Picasso produced more than 150 color linoleum cuts in the 1950s and 60s, but none stood out more for their boldness of execution and sheer artistry than his colorful, semi-abstract portraits of his second wife, Jacqueline Roque (1927-1986). Picasso's entry into the medium coincided with his introduction to Jacqueline in the early 1950s. 
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The top lot in our March 2013 Prints & Drawings auction was Picasso's Tête de Femme (Portrait Stylisé de Jacqueline), a linoleum cut that brought $48,000

Abandoned by her father, Jacqueline was 18 years old when her mother died of a stroke. Following a short marriage to an engineer named André Hutin, Jacqueline settled in southern France and took a job at the Madoura pottery workshop in Vallauris. Picasso met Jacqueline, then 27 years old, in 1953 while he was beginning what would become a creative outburst of limited-edition pottery at the Madoura workshop. They were married in 1955, following the death of Picasso's first wife, Olga Koklova. 
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Our September 2012 auction featured Picasso's Tête de Femme (Portrait de Jacqueline de Face II), color linoleum cut, 1962, which brought $102,000, 

In these color linoleum cut portraits of Jacqueline, Picasso exaggerates her dark eyes, arching eyebrows and high cheekbones. These characteristics would become steadfast in his later portraiture. Picasso's series of paintings derived from Eugène Delacroix's The Women of Algiers was said to be inspired by Roque's beauty. Picasso declared that "Delacroix had already met Jacqueline," referring to his painting her into the famous series. Similarly inspired was Picasso's portrait of Jacqueline as Lola de Valence, an ode to her beauty playing on Édouard Manet's iconic portrait of the famed Spanish dancer. 
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In September 2011 Swann sold Picasso's Portrait de Jacqueline au bandeau accoudée, color linoleum cut, 1962 for $72,000.

Jacqueline's later years with Picasso were fraught with hardship and contention. After his death in 1973 she spent years in litigation with the artist's mistress Françoise Gilot and his children over his estate. Sadly, she committed suicide 13 years after Picasso's death, on the eve of the opening of an exhibition of her private collection of Picasso's work in Spain.
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Let the Spirit Move You: Spiritualism Photographs

April 3, 2014, 2:22 pm
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Back in December 2013, Swann auctioned an album of 27 spiritualist photographs from seances at Dr. Thomas Glendenning Hamilton's Psychic Room in Winnipeg, Canada in the early 1920s for $93,750--in fact, the album was the auction's highest priced lot.

Now, as part of our upcoming sale of Vernacular Photography--the first auction of its kind--we have more spooky spiritualism images to offer:


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Lot 31 is a group of five photographs depicting spirits appearing before an impervious bearded man taken by London spiritualists Richard Boursnell and J. Evans Sterling, 1895-96
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Lot 32 is a group of 10 cartes-de-visite of famous Victorian-era British medium
Georgiana Houghton by Frederick Hudson, each with copious handwritten
observations on the back, 1875-76.
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Lot 33 is a collection of eight 1930s photographs of seances and automatic writing, many credited to brothers
Craig and George Falconer, who were eventually arrested for fraud.
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What Do the Saints Read?

April 4, 2014, 10:56 am
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This superb, richly inked Meder a impression of Durer's St. Anthony Reading is estimated at $60,000 to $90,000.
Swann Galleries remains the only U.S. auction house to devote regular sales to Old Master Prints. We are pleased to offer important examples by Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn in our April 29 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints. These include Dürer's St. Anthony Reading from 1519. 

This engraving of St. Anthony dates from the height of Dürer's career, and shows the saint hunched, reading on the outskirts of a fortified city. The city--identified by art historian Tietze as combining elements of Trent, Innsbruck and Nuremberg--has also been recognized by Dürer scholar Thausing as adopted from a drawing titled Pvpila Avgvsta that Dürer had created some 20 years earlier. 

This depiction in stark contrast to other contemporaneous Renaissance images of St. Anthony, which more commonly showed the saint tormented by demons, under Satan's temptation. 

Dürer must have been particularly proud of this engraving, as he gave it as a gift--along with impressions of his more famous St. Jerome--to several prominent figures on at least six occasions during his 1520-21 trip to the low countries. In his diary entry for September 3, 1529 from Antwerp, he wrote, "I gave Wilhelm Hauenhut, equerry of Duke Frederick Palatine, an engraved St. Jerome and the two new half-sheets: The Virgin and Anthoni. 

Scholars from Panofsky onward have remarked on the "modern" aspect of the composition, in which the huddled form of Saint Anthony echoes that of the walled city behind him. "The scenery almost dominates the composition. It is here a 'cubistic' phenomenon, exclusively composed of such clear-cut stereometric solids as prisms, cubes, pyramids, and cylinders which bring to mind a cluster of crystals," Panofsky wrote in 1943. In this context, one cannot help but to recall Cezanne's pre-cubistic landscape renderings of Mont Sainte-Victoire, which in turn so profoundly influenced Picasso and Braque.
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A Fleeting Moment: Edward Hopper's Evening Wind

April 4, 2014, 12:58 pm
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Edward Hopper's evocative etching, Evening Wind, from 1921, is among the highlights of Swann Galleries' April 29 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints.

Hopper was born in Nyack, New York, just north of New York City. After briefly studying at the Correspondence School of Illustrating, he attended the New York School of Art from 1900 to 1906. Hopper studied painting and life drawing under Kenneth Hayes Miller, Robert Henri and William Merritt Chase alongside classmates George Bellows, Guy Pène du Bois and Rockwell Kent. 

At the age of 24, Hopper left for Paris, where he stayed for over a year, and subsequently returned to Europe in 1909 and 1910. These European trips were crucial to his development as an artist, and even though he never returned to Paris, he portrayed a romanticized ideal of the place in many of his works until 1924, at which time he ceased using overt French imagery altogether. While many American artists who visited Paris during this time were most struck by the avant-garde movements of Fauvism and Cubism, Hopper paid them little attention and instead studied Degas and Manet, as well as Rembrandt and other Old Masters. 
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Martin Lewis introduced Hopper to printmaking. Lewis' use of shadows and light to create mood, life and movement is most powerful in his New York prints, like Shadow Danceabove--also a highlight in the April 29 auction.
Hopper never chose to characterize himself as an illustrator or printmaker, preferring to be known as a painter, but he did find commercial success and a livelihood through both of these downplayed endeavors. He began working as an illustrator in 1905 with C.C. Phillips & Co., New York, and supplemented his income with illustration work through the early 1900s. He did not find sound financial footing through sales of his paintings until after 1924, following a sold-out exhibition of his work at the Rehn Gallery in New York. 

Hopper's first foray into printmaking came in 1915 at the encouragement of fellow illustrator Martin Lewis, who instructed him on the technical aspects of the medium. Their styles were markedly different: Lewis employed a variety of complicated techniques to obtain his desired tonal effects, while Hopper had a much simpler approach, only ever working in etching and drypoint. (Before he began etching in 1915, Hopper produced several monotypes, a medium viewed as an intermediary step between painting and printing.) Lewis focused on printmaking throughout his artistic career, while Hopper produced approximately 70 prints over a relatively short period of time. His career as an etcher was particularly short-lived and essentially ended in 1923--in 1928 he made his final prints, two drypoints, before abandoning printmaking altogether to focus on painting. 

Hopper quickly mastered etching and drypoint. He had a relatively simple and steadfast preference when it came to printmaking: very black ink on very white paper, plates that were deeply bitten and clean-wiped, which produced impressions that came out inky with brilliant contrasts. While creating seemingly straightforward, realist compositions, Hopper imbued his scenes with mood and emotion, aptly capturing the intangible quality of a fleeting moment. 
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An indirect depiction of a female figure by Degas, Au Louvre, la peinture, Mary Cassatt, is also featured in the auction. Degas had a great influence on Hopper.
His work is characterized by a sense of stillness and isolation, which he often dramatized with the use of heavy chiaroscuro and dark hatching, such as in Evening Wind, one of his most celebrated etchings. The image of a lone woman before a window appears repeatedly in his oeuvre, and is an arrangement employed by one of his greatly admired influences, Degas. Windows crop up frequently in Hopper's work, as symbols of the contrast between quiet interior moments and the busy outside world. Psychologically, Hopper's figures are often caught in moments of contemplation or seeming boredom--scenes of stillness indicative of loneliness and weariness. 

Hopper's rapidly-gained proficiency as an etcher, his unique style and perspective, and the number of masterful prints that he created over his short career as a printmaker earn him a place as one of the most important American graphic artists of the 20th century.
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Auction Highlights for Opening Day

April 7, 2014, 9:37 am
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Today is opening day at Yankee Stadium, which got us thinking about a few lots in tomorrow's auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana. Swann doesn't sell baseball cards, but we do have a special item related to "Honus" Wagner, known as the face of one of the rarest baseball cards around. Which, as Webb Howell, publisher of Fine Books & Collections, noted in a column last week, can top one or two million dollars. 

What Swann is offering is the watercolor artwork for a cigar box label rendering of Wagner, identified by his given name of Hans. The pose may look familiar, as it is identical to the famously rare baseball card, which was in turn taken from a 1905 photograph.
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Swann devoted the cover of the auction catalogue to one of the most attractive baseball prints of the 19th century, Representatives of Professional Base Ball in America, a promotional piece commissioned by P. Lorillard & Co. of Jersey City, NJ to promote their Climax Red Tin Tag Plug Tobacco, 1884. In the foreground are vignettes of 12 active players (most notably Buck Ewing, Tim Keefe, Dan Brouthers and Cap Anson) and four executives including Al Spalding and Harry Wright. In the background is a charmingly naive depiction of a game; the poor catcher is about to get brained, and we're not sure what draws the attention of the first baseman. 
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Also featured is a group of eight 1927-29 Associated News Service illustrated news posters, each featuring future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. These posters were issued on a variety of topics, promising "Latest World Events in Pictures." Two of them show Babe Ruth in mid-swing, one has Brooklyn's Dazzy Vance demonstrating his knuckleball grip and another shows the Cubs and Athletics on the eve of the World Series. An earlier bulletin shows Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees sliding in the 1927 World Series.
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A Look Inside the Birdman of Alcatraz

April 8, 2014, 9:44 am
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Crime material has been selling well at auction lately, and today's sale of Printed & Manuscript Americana offers a rare and fascinating lot related to Robert Stroud, known as the Birdman of Alcatraz.

This research archive contains many hundreds of items dating from 1906 to 1975 including Stroud's letters and publications, which were collected by biographer Thomas Gaddis as background research. 

Robert Stroud (1890-1963) was jailed in 1909 for killing an Alaskan bartender, and was given a life sentence in 1916 after he killed a prison guard. In solitary confinement at Leavenworth prison, he began tending and studying canaries, and made significant scientific contributions to avian pathology from his prison cell. He was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942, and was never allowed to keep birds again. He spent his last four years in Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri. 

Stroud achieved national celebrity via Thomas Gaddis's 1955 book The Birdman of Alcatraz, which was adapted into a 1962 film of the same name starring Burt Lancaster. 

Highlights of the lot in the auction include the original carbon-copied receipt to the deputy warden's office for a microscope, bearing Stroud's carbon-transferred signature. This 1936 gift allowed him to open new frontiers in his scientific research, and was discussed at length in The Birdman of Alcatraz. It is accompanied by a press photograph of Lancaster as Stroud receiving the microscope. 

Among the letters is a typed letter signed from Stroud discussing at length the breeding and coloration of his canaries. "It is strange, though, that for two hundred or more years zoologists the world over have known that robins, linits, etc lost their red color in captivity, but they have never had sense enough to figure out why. I knew why three months after I had hatch my first red chick."

Another letter to a different recipient reports on the making of the Birdman of Alcatraz film: "Lancaster is quoted as saying that he was playing the part just as I had lived it, without any varnish whatsoever, and of course, that is exactly what I've always wanted."

Also included are the printed 1951 Supreme Court petition, Stroud vs. Swope, in which Stroud protested the loss of his birds; manuscripts and typescripts by Gaddis from projects spanning several decades and much more.

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Swann Hosts Peter J. Cohen Discussion on Vernacular Photography

April 9, 2014, 1:01 pm
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We were very pleased to host a talk by preeminent snapshot collector Peter J. Cohen last night at Swann Galleries. A large audience of collectors, curators, artists, journalists and business people gathered for the informative and humorous slideshow featuring groups of snapshots within Cohen's important collection of more than 25,000 vernacular photographs. On view were highlights from Swann's upcoming auction, The Vernacular Eye: Photographic Albums, Snapshots & Objects, as well as several books related to Cohen's collection.


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