Ancient Prints
not including broadsides
See also : Prints Rembrandt Political writing Origins of sports
Chronology : 1820-1829
See also : Prints Rembrandt Political writing Origins of sports
Chronology : 1820-1829
The Passion by REMBRANDT
1
1653 Christ crucified between Two Thieves
2022 SOLD for £ 1.46M by Christie's
The greatest painters such as Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya and Munch also aimed to create images. In 1653 Rembrandt manages to enlarge the format of his prints.
His solutions are innovative. The dry point was used until then in addition to etching and chisel for minor reworks of the drawing. Rembrandt attempts compositions entirely in dry point.
Applied obliquely like a pencil, his needle improves the variety of the line. The incision of the stylus in the copper is shallow, allowing a harmony between the drawing and the inkings left voluntarily on the plate to bring brightness and shadows.
His second work and first masterpiece in these improved techniques is The Three Crosses, also known as Christ crucified between the two thieves, 38 x 45 cm. The poignant scene also features a crowd of mourners including the fainted Mary, plus a centurion converted by the last breath of Christ.
The third state with a dramatically increased shade was considered as finished by Rembrandt who dated it 1653. Three impressions of that state are still in private hands. One of them on laid paper with the Strasbourg watermark was sold for £ 1.46M from a lower estimate of £ 800K for sale by Christie's on July 7, 2022, lot 17.
1653 was otherwise a very difficult year for the artist facing the consequences of Saskia"s death on his family life, financial issues close to bankruptcy and the continuation of the Anglo-Dutch war that slowed the demands of the customers.
The next state of the Three Crosses was a further technical development made necessary from the wear out of the plate. It was possibly made just before the 1655 Ecce Homo that does not use the same Strasbourg watermarked paper. Before that consideration, it had been dated ca 1661.
He worked differently for that fourth state, replacing on the same plate the subtle smoky contrasts by diagonal strokes. The scene is now closed like by two dark curtains that focus the viewer's eye on the figure of the dying Christ. The drawings are highly modified.
A richly inked impression from the fourth state was sold for £ 420K by Christie's on December 2, 2008, lot 49. A fine impression on Japan paper was sold for £ 470K on December 5, 2006, also by Christie's, lot 201.
These processes could not satisfy the artist because of the painstaking preparation of the ink shades and of the necessarily incomplete and frustrating repairs to the worn plates, after a mere 3 runs of low production. He will not reuse this technique, giving up the possible project of a dry point series on the Passion of Christ.
A fifth state was created after a local printer acquired the plate.
His solutions are innovative. The dry point was used until then in addition to etching and chisel for minor reworks of the drawing. Rembrandt attempts compositions entirely in dry point.
Applied obliquely like a pencil, his needle improves the variety of the line. The incision of the stylus in the copper is shallow, allowing a harmony between the drawing and the inkings left voluntarily on the plate to bring brightness and shadows.
His second work and first masterpiece in these improved techniques is The Three Crosses, also known as Christ crucified between the two thieves, 38 x 45 cm. The poignant scene also features a crowd of mourners including the fainted Mary, plus a centurion converted by the last breath of Christ.
The third state with a dramatically increased shade was considered as finished by Rembrandt who dated it 1653. Three impressions of that state are still in private hands. One of them on laid paper with the Strasbourg watermark was sold for £ 1.46M from a lower estimate of £ 800K for sale by Christie's on July 7, 2022, lot 17.
1653 was otherwise a very difficult year for the artist facing the consequences of Saskia"s death on his family life, financial issues close to bankruptcy and the continuation of the Anglo-Dutch war that slowed the demands of the customers.
The next state of the Three Crosses was a further technical development made necessary from the wear out of the plate. It was possibly made just before the 1655 Ecce Homo that does not use the same Strasbourg watermarked paper. Before that consideration, it had been dated ca 1661.
He worked differently for that fourth state, replacing on the same plate the subtle smoky contrasts by diagonal strokes. The scene is now closed like by two dark curtains that focus the viewer's eye on the figure of the dying Christ. The drawings are highly modified.
A richly inked impression from the fourth state was sold for £ 420K by Christie's on December 2, 2008, lot 49. A fine impression on Japan paper was sold for £ 470K on December 5, 2006, also by Christie's, lot 201.
These processes could not satisfy the artist because of the painstaking preparation of the ink shades and of the necessarily incomplete and frustrating repairs to the worn plates, after a mere 3 runs of low production. He will not reuse this technique, giving up the possible project of a dry point series on the Passion of Christ.
A fifth state was created after a local printer acquired the plate.
#AuctionUpdate Rembrandt's 'Christ crucified between two Thieves: ‘The Three Crosses’' sells above estimate for £1,482,000. pic.twitter.com/PihbcLToDI
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) July 7, 2022
2
1655 Ecce Homo
2018 SOLD for £ 2.65M by Christie's
After his Christ crucified, Rembrandt prepares in the same size another scene of the Passion, Ecce Homo (Christ presented to the people). The Japan paper is smaller than his copperplate and he adds a narrow extra stripe at the top of the image.
A 38 x 45 cm impression of the first state of Ecce Homo was sold for £ 2.65M by Christie's on July 5, 2018, lot 22. It is the only copy remaining in private hands from the first four states of this image.
The copper plates wear out, preventing large printing. The artist deliberately blurs some damaged areas of Ecce Homo after its fourth state. The eighth and last state is dated 1655.
A 38 x 45 cm impression of the first state of Ecce Homo was sold for £ 2.65M by Christie's on July 5, 2018, lot 22. It is the only copy remaining in private hands from the first four states of this image.
The copper plates wear out, preventing large printing. The artist deliberately blurs some damaged areas of Ecce Homo after its fourth state. The eighth and last state is dated 1655.
Rare Rembrandt Print at Christie’s London in July https://t.co/99TSYVaBkp pic.twitter.com/wwG1KoLWE4
— Art Market Monitor (@artmarket) May 2, 2018
1761 Philadelphia by Heap and Scull
2020 SOLD for $ 970K including premium by Arader
narrated post sale in 2020
Pennsylvania, an English colony in North America, is owned by its founder William Penn. On his death in 1718 his three sons succeed him as co-proprietors. The geodesian Nicholas Scull spent his entire career in Philadelphia and became surveyor general of the province in 1748.
At that time the pioneer of perspective views of North America was William Burgis, who published the port cities of New York in 1719 and Boston in 1725. Philadelphia became the most populous city in the colonies, with 20,000 inhabitants. The Penn family appreciates the value of such documents in attracting investors and entrusts their preparation to Scull. The surveyor is helped by an artist named George Heap, who was probably related to his wife.
On October 10, 2020 Arader Galleries sold for $ 490K including premium an engraved map of the Philadelphia area prepared in 1752 by Scull and drawn by Heap, lot 147 here linked on the LiveAuctioneers bidding platform. This document is illustrated with a perspective view of the State-House. This 55 x 32 cm copy is the only one known on silk.
The same team also prepared in 1754 the panoramic view of the Philadelphia river front for a length of about a mile. The image is embellished with boats and mills which give an impression of intense commercial and naval activity.
Heap dies in 1760 and Scull in 1761. Between these two events, the view is printed in London in four separate sheets for a total size of 50 x 210 cm plus the separation margins. A slightly smaller version is published in October 1761 by London Magazine.
A copy of the large version was sold for $ 970K including premium by Arader in the same sale as above, lot 141.
At that time the pioneer of perspective views of North America was William Burgis, who published the port cities of New York in 1719 and Boston in 1725. Philadelphia became the most populous city in the colonies, with 20,000 inhabitants. The Penn family appreciates the value of such documents in attracting investors and entrusts their preparation to Scull. The surveyor is helped by an artist named George Heap, who was probably related to his wife.
On October 10, 2020 Arader Galleries sold for $ 490K including premium an engraved map of the Philadelphia area prepared in 1752 by Scull and drawn by Heap, lot 147 here linked on the LiveAuctioneers bidding platform. This document is illustrated with a perspective view of the State-House. This 55 x 32 cm copy is the only one known on silk.
The same team also prepared in 1754 the panoramic view of the Philadelphia river front for a length of about a mile. The image is embellished with boats and mills which give an impression of intense commercial and naval activity.
Heap dies in 1760 and Scull in 1761. Between these two events, the view is printed in London in four separate sheets for a total size of 50 x 210 cm plus the separation margins. A slightly smaller version is published in October 1761 by London Magazine.
A copy of the large version was sold for $ 970K including premium by Arader in the same sale as above, lot 141.
1795 Large Color Print by William Blake
2004 SOLD for $ 3.9M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
From his childhood and throughout his life, William Blake claims to have visions of God and the Angels. To please the archangels, he writes poems on the other world, illustrated in hand-colored engravings. That world shelters the dead, with whom he also communicates.
Of modest origin, son of a hosier, he follows an original path, wishing the union of all religions, in hostile reaction against the philosophers of Reason. To prepare his illuminated books, he develops in 1788 a technique of relief etching.
In 1795 Blake is tempted by using engraving techniques for images in larger format. He takes up twelve themes from his previous works, inspired by the Bible, Shakespeare and Milton, without forgetting the famous figures of Newton and Nebuchadnezzar. This set is known as the Large Color Prints. He reworked the finishing of several prints around 1805.
For this series he is preparing his drawings on gessoed cardboard, with perhaps one exception on copper. Each matrix can be used two to four times. The technique was not documented in period, but these images should not be assimilated to monotypes. The watercoloring is often very different between works from the same matrix.
The total surviving production for the 12 themes is 30 copies, three of which are in private hands. On May 5, 2004, Sotheby's sold a Large color print for $ 3.9M including premium, lot 5. Its theme of Good and Evil Angels struggling for possession of a child is inspired from Swedenborg. This image 44 x 58 cm is vividly colored.
Of modest origin, son of a hosier, he follows an original path, wishing the union of all religions, in hostile reaction against the philosophers of Reason. To prepare his illuminated books, he develops in 1788 a technique of relief etching.
In 1795 Blake is tempted by using engraving techniques for images in larger format. He takes up twelve themes from his previous works, inspired by the Bible, Shakespeare and Milton, without forgetting the famous figures of Newton and Nebuchadnezzar. This set is known as the Large Color Prints. He reworked the finishing of several prints around 1805.
For this series he is preparing his drawings on gessoed cardboard, with perhaps one exception on copper. Each matrix can be used two to four times. The technique was not documented in period, but these images should not be assimilated to monotypes. The watercoloring is often very different between works from the same matrix.
The total surviving production for the 12 themes is 30 copies, three of which are in private hands. On May 5, 2004, Sotheby's sold a Large color print for $ 3.9M including premium, lot 5. Its theme of Good and Evil Angels struggling for possession of a child is inspired from Swedenborg. This image 44 x 58 cm is vividly colored.
1799 The Sleep of Reason
2014 SOLD 1.45 M$ including premium
Painter to the King of Spain, Goya lives a successful career, long interrupted in 1793 by a serious illness. This encounter with death, that just missed him out, led him to unleash his social caricature. Inspired by philosophers, he wants to issue a strong message against corruption, stupidity and bestiality.
In his detailed view, civilization is a collection of physical and moral horrors. Goya chooses to print these images by himself. The aquatint enables a beautiful sepia tone that made him from his first trials one of the best imagemakers of his time. He will be also up to the end of his life a passionate experimenter with all modern printing techniques.
Composed of 80 plates 30 x 20 cm, the Caprichos series is designed and prepared in 1797 and 1798. The famous image "El sueño de la razón produce monstruos" was not chosen as the title of the whole, but is a guide to open our eyes to the fact that the nightmare of attitudes or the abjection of heads and bodies are not only in the dream.
He went too boldly for his time in this amalgam of religion, nobility and witchcraft. Yet he hoped for success and prepared 300 copies in 1799, but hurriedly decided to suspend the sale after a few days because of the disgrace of his patron Godoy.
On January 28 in New York, Christie's sells a complete set of proof prints of Los Caprichos, before the original edition, including five plates that will be slightly modified in the published version. This collection in a binding of that time is estimated $ 400K, lot 9 of the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding complete set which preceded the first issue was sold for $ 1.45 million including premium.
In his detailed view, civilization is a collection of physical and moral horrors. Goya chooses to print these images by himself. The aquatint enables a beautiful sepia tone that made him from his first trials one of the best imagemakers of his time. He will be also up to the end of his life a passionate experimenter with all modern printing techniques.
Composed of 80 plates 30 x 20 cm, the Caprichos series is designed and prepared in 1797 and 1798. The famous image "El sueño de la razón produce monstruos" was not chosen as the title of the whole, but is a guide to open our eyes to the fact that the nightmare of attitudes or the abjection of heads and bodies are not only in the dream.
He went too boldly for his time in this amalgam of religion, nobility and witchcraft. Yet he hoped for success and prepared 300 copies in 1799, but hurriedly decided to suspend the sale after a few days because of the disgrace of his patron Godoy.
On January 28 in New York, Christie's sells a complete set of proof prints of Los Caprichos, before the original edition, including five plates that will be slightly modified in the published version. This collection in a binding of that time is estimated $ 400K, lot 9 of the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
This outstanding complete set which preceded the first issue was sold for $ 1.45 million including premium.
1816 The Beast won !
2013 SOLD 1.9 M$ including premium
Joselito in 1920, Manolete in 1947: in the corrida de toros, it happens even to the greatest matadores to be defeated by the bull. Goya has honored one of the most oustanding, Pepe Illo (or Hillo), killed by the toro Barbudo in the plaza of Madrid on 11 May 1801.
Goya himself had practiced bullfighting. He had admired Illo, who was with Pedro Romero one of the great reformers of that art. Horrified as we know by wars, Goya could not fail to devote a full set of prints to this deadly game in which the man was not always the winner.
La Tauromaquia is the saga of the corrida de toros, published in 33 prints by Goya in Madrid in 1816, and showing the feats and death of Illo. The aquatints were prepared by drypoint, and two of them are enhanced by a wash.
A complete original set, remarkably homogeneous, is estimated $ 400K, for sale by Christie's in New York on April 9. Images on an oblong sheet 28 x 40 cm are accompanied by a page on the same paper with the handwritten list of titles. The set is assembled in a binding of that time. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
For ancient and modern prints, perfect examples of the most prestigious editions have no price limit. They are works of art in their own right: $ 1.9 million including premium.
Goya himself had practiced bullfighting. He had admired Illo, who was with Pedro Romero one of the great reformers of that art. Horrified as we know by wars, Goya could not fail to devote a full set of prints to this deadly game in which the man was not always the winner.
La Tauromaquia is the saga of the corrida de toros, published in 33 prints by Goya in Madrid in 1816, and showing the feats and death of Illo. The aquatints were prepared by drypoint, and two of them are enhanced by a wash.
A complete original set, remarkably homogeneous, is estimated $ 400K, for sale by Christie's in New York on April 9. Images on an oblong sheet 28 x 40 cm are accompanied by a page on the same paper with the handwritten list of titles. The set is assembled in a binding of that time. Here is the link to the catalog.
POST SALE COMMENT
For ancient and modern prints, perfect examples of the most prestigious editions have no price limit. They are works of art in their own right: $ 1.9 million including premium.
1824 Facsimile of the US Declaration of Independence
2021 SOLD for $ 4.4M by Freeman's
On July 19, 1776, a resolution from the US Congress decided that a manuscript duplicate of the Declaration of Independence had to be prepared for signature by every Congress member. It was made on parchment with the title The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America. The original copy signed on July 4 by John Hancock and Charles Thomson had not resurfaced, probably lost or scraped in the process of preparation of the Dunlap broadside.
The duplicate signed by the 56 delegates in early August, 1776 was becoming a symbol of the American liberty. Unfortunately it was badly deteriorating. In 1820 the Secretary of State and future President John Quincy Adams commissioned the printer William J. Stone to print an exact facsimile.
The engraving was made with a wet ink process by which some of the original ink was transferred to a copper plate which was etched. The engraving was completed and dated in 1823 and the printing was made in 1824 in 200 copies on 80 x 70 cm vellum. Approximately fifty are located.
Two copies were presented to one of the three surviving original signers, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, former delegate and senator of Maryland, aged 87. They were presented by Carroll to his grandson-in-law in 1826 after the death of the last two other signers, former Presidents John Adams and Jefferson.
One of them, inscribed by Carroll, went in 1844 to the Maryland Historical Society. The grandson-in-law copied this inscription on the other document with a reference to the autographed Carroll copy.
This second Carroll copy was discovered in a Scottish attic by Cathy Marsden, specialist of rare books at the Edinburgh auction company Lyon and Turnbull, and transferred for auction to their sister company Freeman's based in Philadelphia. It was sold by Freeman's on July 1, 2021 for $ 4.4M from a lower estimate of $ 500K, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by Freeman's.
The duplicate signed by the 56 delegates in early August, 1776 was becoming a symbol of the American liberty. Unfortunately it was badly deteriorating. In 1820 the Secretary of State and future President John Quincy Adams commissioned the printer William J. Stone to print an exact facsimile.
The engraving was made with a wet ink process by which some of the original ink was transferred to a copper plate which was etched. The engraving was completed and dated in 1823 and the printing was made in 1824 in 200 copies on 80 x 70 cm vellum. Approximately fifty are located.
Two copies were presented to one of the three surviving original signers, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, former delegate and senator of Maryland, aged 87. They were presented by Carroll to his grandson-in-law in 1826 after the death of the last two other signers, former Presidents John Adams and Jefferson.
One of them, inscribed by Carroll, went in 1844 to the Maryland Historical Society. The grandson-in-law copied this inscription on the other document with a reference to the autographed Carroll copy.
This second Carroll copy was discovered in a Scottish attic by Cathy Marsden, specialist of rare books at the Edinburgh auction company Lyon and Turnbull, and transferred for auction to their sister company Freeman's based in Philadelphia. It was sold by Freeman's on July 1, 2021 for $ 4.4M from a lower estimate of $ 500K, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by Freeman's.
A historic discovery! Our sister auction house, Freeman’s, is pleased to announce the sale of a signer’s copy of William J. Stone’s 1823 printing of the #DeclarationofIndependence recently rediscovered in Scotland by Lyon & Turnbull. Find out more: https://t.co/RiosDcVn4k pic.twitter.com/xSL20pV2Do
— Lyon & Turnbull (@LyonandTurnbull) June 24, 2021
1831 The Great Wave by HOKUSAI
Intro
Hokusai divided his own career into periods. He considered that his art had to improve continuously until it reached a divine level at the age of 110, which he obviously did not reach. In 1820 CE, when illustration became his main concern, he was Iitsu. The name of the next phase, which begins in 1834, shows his enthusiasm : he was Gakyo Rojin Manji, the Old man crazy about drawing.
Begun in 1831 at the age of 71, the series of 26 x 38 cm prints titled 36 Views of Mount Fuji is his most ambitious work, which will include not 36 plates but 46. The sacred mountain is shown on all its faces, at any time, in any weather, in all seasons, with an interpretation of perspective that is new in Japanese art. It occupies a larger or smaller section of the horizon and is almost always faced with human occupation. This series should not be confused with its continuation, the 100 Views of Mount Fuji, prepared from 1834 to 1840.
The woodcut was done by a specialized craftsman who chiseled the wood through the drawing. The original piece was lost and the prints weakened irreparably as production went on. The catalogers of the auction houses clearly fail to highlight the sharper impressions.
The first three opus of the first series are masterpieces, by the balance of the composition based on a strict geometry, the beauty of the Prussian blue recently imported to Japan, and the emotional dimension.
The very first is the Great Wave off Kanagawa. A gigantic wave surrounds fishing boats while rejecting its foam and spray over the entire surface of the image. It has the shape of a double comma simulating yin and yang, in the background of which Mount Fuji is posed like a deity impassive to the perdition of men.
The quiet boats wrapped in the wave are certainly intended to counter an Edo interdict to report on disasters. Hokusai is indeed never an illustrator of disasters.
This wave is a natural force that probably inspired van Gogh's Starry Night.
Begun in 1831 at the age of 71, the series of 26 x 38 cm prints titled 36 Views of Mount Fuji is his most ambitious work, which will include not 36 plates but 46. The sacred mountain is shown on all its faces, at any time, in any weather, in all seasons, with an interpretation of perspective that is new in Japanese art. It occupies a larger or smaller section of the horizon and is almost always faced with human occupation. This series should not be confused with its continuation, the 100 Views of Mount Fuji, prepared from 1834 to 1840.
The woodcut was done by a specialized craftsman who chiseled the wood through the drawing. The original piece was lost and the prints weakened irreparably as production went on. The catalogers of the auction houses clearly fail to highlight the sharper impressions.
The first three opus of the first series are masterpieces, by the balance of the composition based on a strict geometry, the beauty of the Prussian blue recently imported to Japan, and the emotional dimension.
The very first is the Great Wave off Kanagawa. A gigantic wave surrounds fishing boats while rejecting its foam and spray over the entire surface of the image. It has the shape of a double comma simulating yin and yang, in the background of which Mount Fuji is posed like a deity impassive to the perdition of men.
The quiet boats wrapped in the wave are certainly intended to counter an Edo interdict to report on disasters. Hokusai is indeed never an illustrator of disasters.
This wave is a natural force that probably inspired van Gogh's Starry Night.
1
early print
2023 SOLD for $ 2.76M by Christie's
The early prints of The Great Wave have a sharper line and a visibility on a faint pink clouds in the sky.
A well preserved very early example 25.1 x 37.1 cm was sold for $ 2.76M from a lower estimate of $ 500K by Christie's on March 21, 2023, lot 122. It had been printed before the title cartouche was slightly worn, creating breaks at that place in most surviving examples. It had been kept in the same family since the early 1900s.
A well preserved very early example 25.1 x 37.1 cm was sold for $ 2.76M from a lower estimate of $ 500K by Christie's on March 21, 2023, lot 122. It had been printed before the title cartouche was slightly worn, creating breaks at that place in most surviving examples. It had been kept in the same family since the early 1900s.
Der bisherige Spitzenpreis wurde nach zwei Jahren überboten. #rekord #weltrekord #auktion #auktionsmarkt
— Barnebys.de (@Barnebysde) March 31, 2023
2
with right margin
2021 SOLD for $ 1.6M by Christie's
At Christie's, the sale of March 16, 2021 had two copies. The best one still has a narrow right margin. Its overall size is 26.0 x 38.4 cm. It was sold for $ 1.6M from a lower estimate of $ 150K, lot 144, The other example is smaller, 24.4 x 36.2 cm. It was sold for $ 440K, lot 138.
A copy of the second opus, the Red Fuji, was sold for $ 510K by Christie's on March 19, 2019 from a lower estimate of $ 90K, lot 235. Its size is 25.4 x 37.8 cm. The simple and effective geometry anticipates the Montagnes Sainte-Victoire by Cézanne.
A copy of the second opus, the Red Fuji, was sold for $ 510K by Christie's on March 19, 2019 from a lower estimate of $ 90K, lot 235. Its size is 25.4 x 37.8 cm. The simple and effective geometry anticipates the Montagnes Sainte-Victoire by Cézanne.
#AuctionUpdate Katsushika Hokusai's 'Kanagawa oki nami ura (Under the well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa)' sold for $1,590,000, setting a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist. pic.twitter.com/9NdSVPFB8q
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) March 16, 2021
3
27.5 x 31 cm
2020 SOLD for $ 1.1M by Christie's
A copy of the Great Wave was sold for $ 1.1M by Christie's on September 22, 2020 from a lower estimate of $ 150K, lot 117.
Its size is large, 27.5 x 38.1 cm, but with no margin visible on the photo in the catalogue.
Its size is large, 27.5 x 38.1 cm, but with no margin visible on the photo in the catalogue.
#AuctionUpdate Katsushika Hokusai, 'Kanagawa oki nami ura (Under the well of the Great Wave off Kanagawa)' achieved $1,110,000 -- over 7x its low estimate. https://t.co/jDM4CDE8tW pic.twitter.com/CkTEKOfW0S
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) September 22, 2020
