Jean-Emile Laboureur

La Receveuse (Bill Collector) —French Cubism

1919

Le Tir Forain, engraving, edition 108, 1920-21, Sylvain Laboureur 191. Signed and numbered '19/85 ép' in pencil. Initialed 'L' and dated 1920 in the matrix, upper right. A superb, ri...

Raoul Dufy, 'La Danse' (Dance), woodcut, 1910. A proof impression before the second edition of 220 in 1953; with the estate stamp 'ATELIER RAOUL DUFY' in the lower right margin; the blind stamp 'GG' in the lower left sheet corner. Annotated 'E/Z' in pencil, beneath the estate stamp; and 'bois original' in the margin, lower left. Titled in the block, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper; the full sheet with wide margins (3 1/2 to 6 3/4 inches); slight toning at the bottom and right sheet edges, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 12 5/16 x 12 1/2 inches (313 x 318 mm); sheet size 19 3/4 x 25 3/4 inches (502 x 654 mm). Collections: Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia), Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Art Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Nasher Museum of Art (Duke University), Toledo Art Museum. From the suite of four woodcuts entitled 'Les Plaisirs de la Paix' (The Pleasures of Peace), published by Éditions de La Sirène, Paris in 1926. The other three works in the series are 'La Peche' (Fishing), 'La Chase' (The Hunt), and 'L'amore' (Love). See our other listings for 'La Peche' and 'L'amore'. Collections: Brooklyn Museum, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Minneapolis Art...

Raoul Dufy, 'La Pêche' (Fishing), woodcut, 1910, from the second edition of 220 printed in 1953. With the estate stamp 'ATELIER RAOUL DUFY' in the lower left margin. Numbered '106/220' in pencil, lower right. Titled in the block, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper, the full sheet with wide margins (3 to 5 inches), slight toning at the sheet edges, well away from the image; otherwise in excellent condition. Archivally sleeved, unmatted. Image size 12 1/2 x 15 13/16 inches (318 x 402 mm); sheet size 19 9/16 x 25 3/4 inches (497 x 654 mm). From the suite of four woodcuts entitled 'Les Plaisirs de la Paix' (The Pleasures of Peace), originally published by Éditions de La Sirène, Paris in 1926. The other three works in the series are 'La Danse' (The Dance), 'La Chase' (The Hunt), and 'L'amore' (Love). See our other listings for 'La Danse' and 'L'amore'. Collections: Cleveland Museum of Art, Minneapolis Art...

Otto Kuhler, 'Cargo Carriers', etching and drypoint, c. 1932, edition 10, Kennedy 44. Signed in pencil. A superb, atmospheric impression with rich burr and selectively wiped overall plate tone, in dark brown ink, on Arches cream laid paper; wide margins (2 to 2 3/4 inches), in very good condition. Printed by the artist. Original Kennedy Galleries mat and label. Scarce. "On my trips up and down N.Y. harbor on the Weehawken Ferry, the late evening sun playing on the side of the big liners has always intrigued me... The liner shown I believe to be the Vaterland of the North German Lloyd...

Lawrence Kupferman, 'Fantasia Americana – 1880', drypoint etching with sandground, 1943. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Series A, 1971 2/6' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches); the paper slightly lightened within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition. One of only 6 impressions printed in 1971, with the added sandground grey background tint. Image size 11 13/16 x 14 3/4 inches; sheet size 18 x 20 1/4 inches. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Collections: National Gallery of Art, Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University). ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and participated in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb. He returned briefly to the Museum School in 1946 to study with the influential expressionist German-American painter Karl Zerbe. Kupferman held various jobs while pursuing his artistic career, including two years as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During the 1930s he worked as a drypoint etcher for the Federal Art Project, creating architectural drawings in a formally realistic style—these works are held in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1940s he began incorporating more expressionistic forms into his paintings as he became progressively more concerned with abstraction. In 1946 he began spending summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met and was influenced by Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and other abstract painters. At about the same time he began exhibiting his work at the Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston. In 1948, Kupferman was at the center of a controversy involving hundreds of Boston-area artists. In February of that year, the Boston Institute of Modern Art issued a manifesto titled 'Modern Art and the American Public' decrying 'the excesses of modern art,' and announced that it was changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The poorly conceived statement, intended to distinguish Boston's art scene from that of New York, was widely perceived as an attack on modernism. In protest, Boston artists such as Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and David Aronson formed the 'Modern Artists Group' and organized a mass meeting. On March 21, 300 artists, students, and other supporters met at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ICA retract its statement. Kupferman chaired the meeting and read this statement to the press: “The recent manifesto of the Institute is a fatuous declaration which misinforms and misleads the public concerning the integrity and intention of the modern artist. By arrogating to itself the privilege of telling the artists what art should be, the Institute runs counter to the original purposes of this organization whose function was to encourage and to assimilate contemporary innovation.” The other speakers were Karl Knaths...

Lynd Ward, 'Dogs of War' from the series 'Moriae Encomium (The Praise of Folly),' mezzotint, 1943, no edition, proofs only. Signed in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (1 3/8 to 1 7/8 inches) in excellent condition. A proof impression apart from the Limited Editions Club impressions. Matted to museum standards, unframed. Scarce. Image size 7 3/4 x 4 13/16 inches (197 x 122 mm); sheet size 10 11/16 x 8 1/16 inches (271 x 204 mm). Created by the artist for 'Erasmus's Moriae Encomium,' or 'In Praise of Folly,' published by the Limited Editions Club, 1943. A rare, signed, proof impression apart from the Limited Editions Club publication. ABOUT THE ARTIST Lynd Ward is acknowledged as one of America’s foremost wood engravers and book illustrators of the first half of the twentieth century. His innovative use of narrative printmaking as a stand-alone storytelling vehicle was uniquely successful in reaching a broad audience. The powerful psychological intensity of his work, celebrated for its dynamic design, technical precision, and compelling dramatic content, finds resonance in the literature of Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne. Like these classic American writers, Ward was concerned with the themes of man’s inner struggles and the role of the subconscious in determining his destiny. An artist of social conscience during the Great Depression and World War II, he infused his graphic images with his unique brand of social realism, deftly portraying the problems that challenged the ideals of American society. The son of a Methodist preacher, Lynd Ward, moved from Chicago to Massachusetts at an early age. He graduated from the Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, in 1926, where he studied illustration and graphic arts. He married May Yonge McNeer in 1936 and left for Europe for their honeymoon in Eastern Europe. After four months, they settled in Leipzig, where Ward studied at the National Academy of Graphic Arts and Bookmaking. Inspired by Belgian expressionist artist Frans Masereel's graphic novel ‘The Sun,’ and another graphic novel by the German artist Otto Nückel, ‘Destiny,’ he determined to create his own "wordless" novel. Upon his return to America, Ward completed his first book, ‘God's Man: A Novel in Woodcuts,’ published in 1929. ‘Gods’ Man’ was a great success for its author and publisher and was reprinted four times in 1930, including a British edition. This book and several which followed it, ‘Madman’s Drum,’ 1930, ‘Wild Pilgrimage,’ 1932, ‘Prelude to a Million Years,’ 1933, ‘Song Without Words,' 1936, ‘Vertigo,’ 1937; and ‘Last Unfinished Wordless Novel’ (created in the 1960s and published in 2001) were comprised solely of Ward's wood engravings. Ward designed each graphic image to occupy an entire page, the sequence of which conveys the story's narrative. In 1937, Ward was named Director of the Graphic Arts Division of the Federal Art Project, a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In the following years, Ward went on to illustrate more than one hundred books (some of which he wrote), including classics for the Limited Editions Club Goethe’s ‘Faust,’ Faulkner’s ‘A Green Bough,’ and Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein,’ and several children’s books. He also produced single-subject wood engravings, paintings, and drawings. His print ‘Sanctuary,’ 1939, was shown at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, and ‘Clouded Over,’ 1948, received the 1948 Library of Congress Award and was included in ‘American Prize Prints of the 20th Century’ by Albert Reese. He received the National Academy of Design Print Award (1949), the New York Times Best Illustrated Award (1973), and the Regina Award (Catholic Library Association, 1975). ‘The Biggest Bear,’ a children’s book with illustrations by Ward, was the recipient of the esteemed 1952 Caldecott Medal of the American Library Association. An Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, Ward was a member and board member of the National Academy of Design and the Artists’ League of America. He served several terms as president of the Society of American Graphic Artists and was a member of the American Artists Congress and the Society of Illustrators. Ward exhibited at the American Artists Congress; the National Academy of Design; the John Herron Art Institute; and the Library of Congress. He had a one-person show at Associated American Artists, NY, on the publication of his monograph 'Storyteller Without Words,' 1974; AAA mounted a memorial exhibition in 1986. The May 1976 issue of 'Bibliognost,' a book collector’s publication, was dedicated to Ward. ‘Lynd Ward, His Bookplate Designs,’ an article by Dan Burne Jones, was published in the American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers Yearbook, 1981/82. In 2001, sixteen years after his death, Rutgers University Libraries published ’Lynd Ward’s Last Unfinished Wordless Novel.’ The blocks were intended to be part of a novel in woodcuts, the first since Vertigo, but Ward did not live to complete the project. Master printer and book designer Barbara Henry collated and printed the twenty-six finished blocks out of the forty-four initially planned for the still unnamed narrative. In 2010 the Library of America honored Ward’s achievements with the meticulous production of a collection of Ward’s woodcut novels—the first time the Library had gone wordless. The publication replicated his original editions with a single full-size image printed on the right page of each double-page spread. In his introduction to the books, renowned cartoonist/illustrator Art...

Aquatint on wove paper. Hand signed and numbered by Pablo Picasso. Plate 106, from the serie "347 gravures" (B. 1586; BA. 1602 II B b 1). Published by Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris. ...

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Spain, 1881-1973) 'Visitante con nariz borbónica en casa de la Celestina', 1968 aquatint, sugarlift on oiled plate, dry point on paper 9.7 x 12.9 in. (24.6 x 32.6 cm.) Edition of 50 Conservation: The paper and the beards have been recently restored Unframed ID: PIC2001-007 Hand-signed by author The work is documented in the catalog raisonné Picasso Suite 347...

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Sur la Marne, engraving, 1924, signed in pencil lower right [with the initial lower right in the plate]. Reference: S. Laboureur 277, third state (o...

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Le Diner a L’Auberge, 1917-1922), engraving, signed in pencil lower left and numbered (45/55) lower right. Reference: Sylvain Laboureur 173, second ...

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), La Petite Plage, 1926, etching and engraving, signed in pencil lower left [inscribed lower margin as a trial proof; also wi...

Jean-Emile Laboureur (1877-1943), Negres Americains a Saint-Nazaire, 1917-1920, engraving on cream wove paper, signed in pencil lower left, titled lower left margin edge, and numbere...