Auction Highlights: Old Master Through Modern Prints

At Auction Thursday, October 17 at 10:30 AM ET

Swann continues its tradition of presenting a premiere selection of important prints in our October 17 auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints. Highlighting examples in printmaking from the late fifteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, the auction includes works by significant artists who championed a myriad of printmaking techniques.

The sale opens with early German printmakers, including an impression of St. Eustace by Albrecht Dürer. The artist’s largest engraving is an example of his virtuosic engraving skills through the delicately rendered flora, fauna, and landscape. Also featured is a rare etching by Rembrandt van Rijn, The Sleeping Herdsman, of which we have found fewer than eight impressions at auction in the past 30 years. The Old Master section ends with a rare proof of Bailando en una Cuerda Floja by Francisco José Goya, before the text was added to the plate and the image was published in L’Art.

Albrecht Dürer, *St. Eustace*, engraving, circa 1501. Estimate $30,000 to $50,000.

Rembrandt Van Rijn, *The Sleeping Herdsman*, etching and drypoint, circa 1644. Estimate $15,000 to $20,000.

Francisco José De Goya, *Bailando en una Cuerda Floja*, etching, aquatint and drypoint on Japan, circa 1824. Estimate $7,000 to $10,000.

Another rare proof is included in the nineteenth-century section. Many collectors may be familiar with Renoir’s iconic etching Sur la Plage. Swann is happy to present this print in its first state before the plate was reduced and the larger edition was pulled, showing the working process of the Impressionist artist. Other highlights in this section include a large color lithograph by Renoir, Le Chapeau Épinglé (2e planche), and a lifetime impression of the zincograph Pastorales Martinique by Paul Gauguin.

(left) Pierre-Auguste Renoir, *Sur la Plage, à Berneval*, drypoint, circa 1892. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000; (right)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, *Le Chapeau Épinglé (2e planche)*, color lithograph, 1898. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

Paul Gauguin, *Pastorales Martinique*, zincograph on canary yellow wove paper, 1889. Estimate $20,000 to $30,000.

Leading the twentieth-century section are works by American printmakers such as Edward Hopper, Martin Lewis, Gustave Baumann and Thomas Hart Benton, including iconic New York scenes such as Hopper’s Night Shadows and Regionalist lithographs like Benton’s large Huck Finn. A selection of prints by Henri Matisse, Sybil Andrews’ color woodcut Skaters, and an impression from the deluxe edition of Chagall’s large color lithograph Romeo and Juliet illustrate the best of European and British printmaking of the twentieth century. The sale concludes with American artists who embraced abstraction in the early and mid-twentieth century with works by Stanley William Hayter, Louise Nevelson and Robert Motherwell.