Herman Oliver Albright, 1876-1944, Ink wash drawing of trees near San Juan Bautista Mission, California, 1930s
Born Hermann Oliver Albrecht in Mannheim, Germany, Albright studied music and philosophy at Heidelberg University and traveled throughout Europe. Albright continued his travels upon his arrival in the United States around 1900, eventually settling in San Francisco in 1905. There he took a position at the Paul Elder Book Company, where he worked for the next 25 years.
Originally doing photography as a hobby, by 1915 Albright was studying art and exhibiting in San Francisco, at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915, and at the San Francisco Art Association from 1916 through the 1930s. In 1917, he married his art teacher, painter Gertrude Partington, at which time he legally changed his name from Albrecht to Albright. Albright was active in the San Francisco art community, and by the 1930s was able to devote full time to his art career. During the 1930s, Albright made a series of lithographs and a series of Chinese ink wash drawings depicting the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge during its construction, both of which were highly regarded and widely exhibited, including a show of the ink wash drawings at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1937.
Ink wash drawing, 1930s. The back of the mission
church is on the right-hand side of the drawing. In the 1990s when I last
visited the mission, the buildings behind the row of trees belonged to the
Gallo Brothers Winery.
Purchased in Monterey, California, early 1990s.
Gwendda Banks, 1920-2008, two aquatints
2. "Sub-Aqua I," aquatint. Size of sheet: 15 x 11.25; size of image 8 x 4.75. Signed in bottom in pencil: 8/50 Sub-Aqua I E-V Gwendda Banks
Banks was a printmaker working in Mendocino, California.
Purchased from Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino, Callifornia, 15 April 1991.
Rachel Carnegie, 1901-97, "Seated Woman in a Shawl," charcoal drawing
Carnegie, a portrait painter and etcher, was born and lived in London. She studied at the Slade School and Chelsea Polytechnic. She exhibited at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, the Royal Academy, the Royal Hilberman Academy, the Paris Salon, and the Women's International Art Club.
Charcoal drawing, signed lower left.
Purchased at Antiques Unlimited, Palo Alto, California, May 2, 1995.
John S. de Martelly, 1903-79, "Economic Discussion," 1939. American Artists Group. Lithograph, ed. 250 (copy not numbered)
John de Martelly was a lithographer, etcher, painter, illustrator, teacher, and writer. He was born in 1903 in Philadelphia and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, in Florence, Italy, and at the Royal College of Art in London. In the 1930s and 1940s, he taught printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute.
De Martelly became a close friend of Thomas Hart Benton was influenced by his Regionalist style. In 1943, de Martelly began teaching at Michigan State University, where he was named artist-in-residence in 1946. By the late 1940s, de Martelly abandoned Regionalism for Abstact Expressionism and closely studied Daumier.
De Martelly's lithographs, sold through the Associated American Artists Galleries in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, captured the essence of the rural American landscape. "Economic Discussion" was the first of de Martelly's lithographs to be published by the American Artists Group.
Purchased January 30, 1988, from Catherine E. Burns, Oakland, California
Stefan Eggeler, 1894-1969, Self-portrait, mezzotint, 1915
An Austrian painter, printmaker and illustrator, Stefan Eggeler studied art at the Vienna Academy. His first original etching was published in 1914 and during the following twenty years he created a number of outstanding engravings and etchings, most dealing with either figure studies or interior scenes. The seller described him as a member of the Austrian Successionist Movement
The mezzotint engraving, Selbstbildnis (Self Portrait), was created early in Stefan Eggeler's career. It is a master work of light and shade and tonal values expressing both the confidence of youth and the genius of artistry. Selbstbildnis (Self Portrait) was commissioned by the Viennese publisher, Vervielfaltigende Kunst, in 1915 when Stefan Eggeler was but twenty-one years of age. Printed upon Japon paper and with large, full margins as commissioned and published by Vervielfaltigende Kunst in 1915.
Purchased from Notan Graphics, Berkeley, California 6 November 1987 (joint receipt with Sterrer lithograph).
Leon Gilmour, 1907-96, "Let the Living Rise," wood engraving, 1937
Gilmour was born in Riga, Lativia, and emigrated to the United States in 1916. He was an artist, designer, teacher, illustrator, and laborer. He is best known for his social-realist wood engravings featuring laborers or California landscape and nature. His work is often associated with the Regionalist movement artists. For more on Gilmour, see his biography on Wikipedia.
Of this picture, Gilmour wrote, "Here I give vent to my outrage at the destruction of Guernica in Spain by Hitler's Luftwaffe. I viewed this not as an isolated act of horror but as an omen of things to come. Unless such atrocities were halted, then and there, -- the whole world would be involved." The title was borrowed from Irwin Shaw's play Bury the Dead, Let the Living Rise Singing.
Wood engraving, 1937, 46/50. Signed and dated on the lower right; numbered and title on the lower left.
Purchased from Kerwin Galleries, Burlingame, California, February 17, 1996.
Kiyotsuka Noriko 清塚紀子, 1940- , "Image 15-7," ca. 1975
Kiyotsuka was born in Fushun, China, and returned with her family to Japan at the end of the war. She is a printmaker, illustrator, and sculptor. She graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Oil Painting in 1968. By producing composite images using various copperplate techniques, she focused on geometric expressions in the early 1970s. Later she began exploring new techniques, such as printing on lead foil to emphasize the sense of materiality and attaching condensers and tubes to add a third dimension. Her works are held at the British Museum, the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Etching, 19/20, signed at lower left, ca. 1975.
Purchased in Washington, D.C., 1995.
Renée
Lubarov, 1923-2017, “Mutation fongoïde” (Fungal mutation), color engraving,
1970
Lubarov was
a French painter and engraver, as well as a drawing teacher. She was born in
Grenoble and attended the Academy of Fine Arts there. She later lived and
worked in Paris. She received the First Prize for painting at the Concours
International of Vichy (1960) and awards at the International Triennale of
Engraving, Grenchen, Switzerland, and the International Biennale of Engraving,
Krakow, Poland, 1968.
Engraving, 22.4
x 29.9 in (entire sheet), printed in 1970 in an edition of 120 by Imprimeur Leblanc. Signed,
titled, and numbered in pencil at the bottom. This is impression 23/120.
This was
distributed by the New York Graphic Society, Ltd, in the United States and came
with a certificate of authenticity from the Society. The Society translated the
title as “Floral mutation”; perhaps it was felt that the connotations of “floral”
were more positive than those of "fungal."
Purchased from Los Robles Gallery, Palo Alto, California, early 1970s.
Herman Moll, 1654?-1732, hand-colored copperplate map of China, 1709
Moll was probably born in Germany but as an adult lived and worked in London. He published several atlases and geographies, the most famous being Atlas Geographus; or A Compleat System of Geography, 5 vols, 1707-17. Interestingly, this map of China shows the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) boundaries of China, not the contemporary Qing dynasty (1644-1911) boundaries. The map is much more accurate for the southern littoral area of China than it is for other sections, a reflection of the greater familiarity of Europeans with the coastal trading areas in southeast China. Other examples of this map that I have found online are not colored. The text at the bottom of the page continues on the reverse side.
Purchased from Manning's Antiquarian Books and Prints, San Francisco, California, 7 November 1987.
Otis Philbrick, 1888-1973, "Woman Sewing," 1945, lithograph
Philbrick was a painter, printmaker, and educator from Boston, Mass. He is known for landscape, figure, and portrait painting.
Lithograph. Signed lower left.
Purchased from Catherine S. Burns, Oakland, California, 24 September 1988.
QI Baishi 齊白石, 1864-1957, painting of two shrimp on gauze
Qi was born in Xiangtan, Hunan province, and lived in Beijing for much of his adult life. He is best known for his sprightly pictures of animals and plants. For an extensive article on Qi, see his biography on Wikipedia.
The painting proper was done on a thin, fine-grained gauze, which was then mounted in an ornate wooden frame. Overall the frame is 35.5 cm (14 in) tall. The central portion containing the picture is 18 cm (7 in) in diameter. The central portion swivels. The gauze is so translucent that the image is visible from both side. The two legs are removable. The piece came in a brocade-covered Chinese-style box. The artist’s signature, his given name 白石 Baishi, is written on the lower right, with his seal stamped in red.
I received this as a gift from a grateful author. If it is genuine, it is the most valuable piece in my collection.
Juan Quezada, 1940-2022, “Mis Animales,” double-plate intaglio etching, 1984
Juan Quezada Celado is best known as the potter who revived and re-interpreted the pre-Columbian pottery of Casas Grandes pottery and created Mata Ortiz pottery. This represents a rare venture for him into another medium. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, he was self-taught as an artist. For more on him, see his biography on Wikipedia.
“Mis Animales” (My animals) repeats many of the decorative themes found on Quezada’s pottery.
Published in an edition of 125 copies by Bluestone Press, Los Angeles, California, in 1984. The accompanying Certificate of Authenticity from Bluestone Press gives the particulars of the double-plate process used to produce this print. Paper size: 19/5 x 18 in; image size: 11-13/16 x 9-5/16. Signed and numbered in pencil at the bottom: 111/125 Mis Animales Juan Quezada. The chop of Bluestone Press was impressed into the paper on the lower left.
Purchased from Gallery 9, Los Altos, California, 1 November 1993.
E. B. Rothwell, 1926-2011, “Fear of Debasement,” etching, ca. 1993
Elaine Bartholomew Rothwell was born in Minneapolis and, as an adult, moved to Los Altos, California. She was a painter but switching to printmaking, particularly etchings. She liked to mimic the style and elements of famous painters into her works. Here, she is copying Goya.
Etching. Size of sheet: 19 x 13; size of image: 11.5 x 7.75. Written in pencil at bottom: Fear of Debasement 3/50 E. B. Rothwell
Purchased at Gallery 9, Los Altos California, 1 November 1993.
George Schreiber, 1904-77, "Three Clowns," ca. 1945, lithograph
Schreiber was born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, in what was likely a German family. He studied art in Germany before immigrating to the United States in 1928. Both as a painter and as a lithographer, Schreiber is known both for landscapes and city views. He was particularly taken by the poverty in the countryside and depicted brave Americans facing hard work on farms. His style is reminiscent of Thomas Hart Benton’s regionalism. While many of his images are deadly serious, some show a propensity similar to Benton’s for a layer of whimsy.
Lithograph, ca. 1945, Associated American Artists, edition of 250, signed lower left.
Purchased from Catherine E. Burns, Oakland, California, 24 September 1988.
Sowerby, three hand-colored steel engravings from Mineral Conchology of Great Britain, nineteenth century
Mineral Conchology of Great Britain appeared in seven volumes from 1812 to 1846. It was begun by James Sowerby (1757-1822) and continued by his sons, James de Carle Sowerby (1787-1871) and George Brettingham Sowerby I (1788-1854). Each shell is identified at the bottom of the page by its Latin scientific name in extremely small and faint type. For more on the Sowerbys and their book, see Wikipedia.
Purchased from Manning's Antiquarian Books and Prints, San Francisco, California, 7 November 1987.
Karl Sterrer, 1885-1972, "Abschied" (Farewell), lithograph, 1919
Karl Sterrer was the son of sculptor Karl Sterrer.
He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under Alois Delug and Christian Griepenkerl. He won the Prix de Rome in 1908. This was followed by many more awards, including the Reichel Prize in 1919.
Around 1910 Sterrer became intrigued by German Expressionism. Building upon the deep, dark lines of drypointing, Sterrer began to cut his landscape compositions to their essentials. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, Sterrer worked and traveled extensively in Germany and Austria. The seller described him as a member of the Austrian Secession.
In 1921, he accepted the post of Professor of Fine Arts at the Vienna Academy.
"Abscheid" was published by Die Graphischen Künste in 1919.
Purchased from Notan Graphics, Berkeley, California, 6 November 1987.
Yale University Press, The Artist and the Printer, a portfolio of four prints, 1965
In 1965, Yale University Press hosted the Seventeenth Congress of the International Publishers Association. To celebrate the event, the Press asked four artists, Joseph Albers, Antonio Frasconi, Gabor Peterdi, and Reginald Pollack, to create prints to be given to the delegates to the Congress. The intent was to showcase and illustrate the possibilities of printing. Each artist used a different technique to produce his print: Albers made a silkscreened print; Frasconi, a woodcut using five printing blocks; Peterdi, a copperplate etching using three plates; and Pollack, an offset lithograph.
Included with the prints was a sixteen-page oversize booklet (10 x 12 in) printed on heavy stock and prepared by Una E. Johnson, with an essay on the history of printmaking and introductions to each of the four artists and their print. The prints and the booklet were enclosed in a large slipcase (15 x 19 in). The portfolio was produced in an edition of 1200 copies. Mine is number 1072.
The paper size of each of the prints is 17.5 x 14.5 inches. The image sizes are noted below under each item. For fuller biographies of each of the artists and a discussion of their approach, see the booklet. Wikipedia also has an entry for each of them.
I received the portfolio as a gift from Yale University Press for some work I had done for them.
Joseph Albers, 1888-1976, “Allusive,” silk-screened print
Albers was born in Germany. He was trained in art in Berlin, Essen, and Munich and later joined the Bauhaus in Weimar. In 1933, Albers immigrated to the United States, eventually becoming chair of the Art Department at Yale.
This print is a continuation of Albers’s “Homage to the Square.” It was apparently screened by Richard H. Norton under Albers’s supervision in New Haven, Connecticut. Image size: 11 x 11 in.
Antonio Frasconi, 1919-2013, “Still Life with Pomegranate,” woodcut print
Frasconi was born in Uruguay of Italian parents. He came to the United States after World War II. He was a prolific printmaker, particularly woodcuts and lithographs.
This print was produced especially for the portfolio. It was printed in collaboration with Joseph Blumenthal at the Spiral Press (for Blumenthal, see Wikipedia article on him) from five original pine woodblocks on a flatbed press. Image size: 16 x 11.5 in.
Gabor Peterbi, 1915-2001, “Arctic Bird,” copperplate etching
Peterbi was born in Budapest, Hungary, and studied, among other places, in Paris. He immigrated to the United States in 1939. He specialized in engravings.
The print was produced using three copperplates. It was printed in New Jersey at the Photogravure and Color Company on a rotogravure press. Image size: 14 x 11 in. Signed in pencil on the lower left.
Reginald Pollack, “Circus Dressing Room,” lithograph
Pollack was born on Long Island, New York, and studied in New York and Paris, where he lived and worked for many years. Later he taught at Yale and worked at the Printing-Office of Yale University Press as a specialist in offset lithography.
This print was produced from a drawing made directly on a grained zinc plate. It was printed at the Carl Purington Rollins Printing-Office at Yale University Press. Image size: 12 x 15.
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