Levon West Prints and Multiples

A nostalgic image of a bucolic farmyard and thatched cottage, hearkening to a bygone era. Etching with drypoint on laid watercolor paper, 9 7/8 x 11 3/4 inches, (251 x 229 mm), full...

Etching with drypoint on cream wove paper, 7 x 8 3/4 inches (177 x 223 mm); sheet 10 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches (267 x 300 mm), full margins. Signed V. E. Chapel and numbered 62/250 in penc...

This artwork titled "Arch Beach, California" c.1910 is an original etching on Wove paper by American artist Harley DeWitt Nichols, 1859-1939. It is hand signed and titled in pencil by the artist. The plate mark (image) size is 6.5 x 9.5 inches, framed size is 13 x 17 inches. it is custom framed in a wooden silver frame, with off white matting. It is in excellent condition, especially considering the age. About the artist: Born in the small rural Wisconsin town of Barton, Harley lived a peripatetic life. As a young child, he accompanied his family to Lincoln, Nebraska where he found great excitement in the roaming herds of buffalo and Native Americans. It was in these years that a talent for drawing was discovered. In 1870, after several years of hardship, his father moved the family back to Wisconsin. At the age of 11 he became a water boy...

Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), The Gate, Chelsea; etching and drypoint, 1889-1890, signed on the tab and inscribed imp [also signed in the plate lowere right]. Reference: Hausberg 33, fourth state (of 4), from the total printing of about 43 impressions. In excellent condition, trimmed by the artist all around on the plate mark except for the tab, 8 1/8 x 6 1/2 inches. A fine impression, printed on a light cream wove paper with plate tone (wiped to brighten the gate and doorway area) and substantial burr in the drypoint work. According to Hausberg, “The gate and house behind it still stand today at No. 4 Cheyne Walk...

James Whistler (1834-1903), The Mill, 1889, etching and drypoint, signed in pencil with the butterfly on the tab and inscribed “imp”, and inscribed “first state” (twice) and annotated “Wunderlich” and signed again with the butterfly verso. Reference: Kennedy 413, first state (of 5). Glasgow 457, second state (of 6; see discussion below) (cf. Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2011) On laid paper, in very good condition, trimmed just outside of the platemark all around except for the tab by the artist, 6 1/4 x 9 3/8 inches. A very fine impression of this great rarity, printed in black/brown ink with a slight veil of plate tone. provenance: H. Wunderlich & Co., New York Louis B. Dailey, New York (Lugt 4500) sale, Sotheby’s, New York, October 31, 2003, lot 69 literature; Neue Lagerliste 122: James McNeill Whistler – Etchings...

James Whistler (1834-1903), J.H. Woods’ Fruit Shop, Chelsea, etching and drypoint, 1887-88. Signed with the butterfly on the tab and annotated “imp,” also signed with the butterfly in pencil verso and numbered “1”. References: Kennedy 265 second state (of 2), Glasgow 327 second state (of 4). Trimmed by the artist around the plate mark except for the tab, in excellent condition. Printed in black ink on ivory laid paper, 3 3/4 x 5 1/8 inches. A fine impression of this great rarity; the print was never published. Glasgow accounts for four impressions. watermark: partial arms of Amsterdam(cf. Spink/Stratis/Tedeschi, watermark nos. 12ff.) This is before the third state in which heavy shading was added around the woman at the center, and the heads of figures at right and left of the figure are defined. In Glasgow’s fourth state the shading and the figure were removed; no impression is known of this state, but the state is inferred from the cancelled plate. According to Glasgow “Joseph Henry Wood had a greengrocer’s shop at 1 Park Walk...

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Paysanne au Puits (Peasant Woman at the Well), etching and aquatint, 1891, signed, titled and numbered (3 etat no 2). Refer...

Etching and drypoint in black on laid paper, with wide margins Signed in the plate From La Vie Artistique by Gustave Geffroy Literature: Delteil 8; Stella 8 Le Chapeau...

Etching printed in dark brownish black ink on cream laid paper, 6 x 8 7/8 inches (152 x 226 mm); full margins. Extremely minor and unobtrusive band of toning along the top sheet edg...

Keying Up - The Court Jester Etching with drypoint, 1879 Signed in the plate lower left corner (see photos) Proof before engraved title and engraved names Printed on thin light golden Japanese tissue paper In the final state, with engraved titled and typeface engraved artist’s signature below the image Condition: excellent Plate size: 6-5/8 x 4-1/4" According to Pisano, this image was very popular during Chase’s life. It is based on his famous painting, Keying Up-The Court Jester, in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The painting was created in Munich during the artist’s studies there. It was exhibited in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia where it won a Medal of Honor and helped establish the artist’s reputation as a leading American painter. Chase, always conscious of self promotion, created the etching and had numerous impressions printed. He sold them for a modest price to increase his fame. The etching was later published in Sylvester R. Koehler, American Art Review, September 1878. It was for this American Art Review printing that the engraved titled and type face signature below the image were added to the plate. This example was part of a group of impressions that came down in the Chase family via his daughter Dorothy Bremond Chase, his third daughter. They were acquired at auction in a single auction lot, housed in a paper board folder. The consignor was Associated American Artist’s as they were liquidating their stock prior to closing the gallery. Dorothy was the subject of Chase’s painting, My Little Daughter Dorothy. C. 1894, in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts as well as numerous other portraits of her. Reference: Pisano/Bake, Volume 1, Pr. 3, illustrates the rare 1st state, this being a 2nd state before any other the engraved title and Chase's name in the bottom margin which are found in the third state. Artist bio in file (Chase) In 1883 Chase was involved in the organization of an exhibition to help raise funds for a pedestal for the Statute of Liberty. The exhibition featured loans of three works by Manet and urban scenes by the Italian Impressionist Giuseppe de Nittis. Both artists influenced Chase's Impressionistic style that gave rise to a series of New York park scenes. It is also thought that he was influenced by John Singer Sargent's In the Luxembourg Gardens (1879) which was exhibited in New York at this time. Indeed, Chase had met Sargent in Europe in 1881, the two men becoming lifelong friends with Sargent painting Chase's portrait in 1902. On another European trip in 1885, Chase met James McNeill Whistler in London. While Whistler had a reputation for being difficult, the two artists got along famously and agreed to paint one another's portrait. Eventually, however, Whistler's moods began to grate with Chase who wrote home stating "I really begin to feel that I never will get away from here". For his part, Whistler criticized Chase's finished portrait and, according to Hirshler, "complained about Chase for the rest of his life". While no record exists of Whistler's portrait of Chase; Chase's portrait of Whistler remains a well-known piece in his oeuvre. In 1887 Chase married Alice Gerson, the daughter of the manager of a lithography company. Though some fifteen years his junior (Chase was 37), he had known Alice for some time through her family's devotion to the arts. The pair, who would enjoy a happy marriage with Alice in full support of her husband's career, settled initially in Brooklyn where their first child was born. The couple would parent six daughters and two sons and it was only his family that could rival his devotion to his art. Indeed, Chase often combined his two loves by painting several portraits of his wife and children in Brooklyn parks before the couple relocated to Manhattan. Later Period Between 1891 and 1902, Chase and his family spent their summers at a purpose-built home and studio in Shinnecock Hills, a close suburb of the upmarket town of Southampton on the south shore of Long Island (roughly 100 miles east of New York). Chase set up, and taught two days a week, at the nearby Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art which benefitted from the financial backing of local art collectors. It was at Shinnecock that Chase, taken in by the region's striking natural surroundings, painted several Impressionistic landscapes. As Bettis put it, "There, among the dunes, in the bright sunlight and sea air his painterly impulse was given free sway, and he produced some of his freest and loveliest work". His passion for the area was so felt he even gave his daughter Hazel the middle name of Neamaug, in honor of the rich Native American history of Shinnecock. Chase was equally focused on the students that came to the School and who he encouraged to paint in the modern plein air style favored by the French Impressionists. Although Chase was making a name for himself as an Impressionist, he never abandoned his commitment to the sombre tones and academic tropes he had learned in Munich, though these he reserved for his portraits, and for his series of striking still lifes featuring dead fish. Chase was in fact a successful society portraitist - he painted fashionable women for a fee of $2,000 - and would paint his students as "samples" which he then donated to leading art institutions (such as Lady in Black (1888) which he donated to the Metropolitan Museum in 1891). In 1896, facing financial difficulties, Chase flirted with the idea of giving up his teaching in New York and traveled with his family to Madrid where he developed a passion for bullfighting. Chase returned however to Shinnecock in June to teach his yearly summer art class, and in the fall of that year, established his own art school in Manhattan: the Chase School which was modelled on the Académie Julian in Paris. Chase lacked business savvy, however, and the Chase School lasted only two years before it was placed under new management. It continued as the New York School of Art (changed to Parsons School of Design starting 1941) with Chase as head the School for eleven more years. Chase also taught during this period at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1902, following the premature death of his friend John Twachtman, Chase was invited to join the Ten American Painters group (who included amongst its members, Frank Weston Benson, Thomas Wilmer Dewing...

"Veduta del Sepolcro della Famiglia Plauzia per la Strada Che Conduce da Roma a Tivoli vicino a Ponte Lugano" from "Le Antichità Romane" (Roman Antiquities), one of the most famous works by Piranesi. "Antichita" illustrates the tombs along the Appian Way...

An exceptional original color aquatint etching by renowned American printmaker George Elbert Burr (1859–1939), depicting the iconic peaks of Longs Peak and Mount Meeker in Colorado's...