Swann Galleries auction, Scenes of the City: Prints, Drawings & Paintings of New York 1900 2000, will offer some of the finest and most significant examples of printmaking depicting New York City in the first half of the 20th century on Thursday, September 16 A selection of rare drawings and paintings are also included.
The top lot is Edward Hopper’s Night Shadows, etching, 1921 (estimate: $30,000 to $50,000), an important print depicting the same location near the Hudson River as his 1913 painting, New York Corner, in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Etchings from the turn of the century, like Childe Hassam’s Fifth Avenue, Noon, 1916 ($10,000 to $15,000), and Washington’s Birthday, Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street, 1916 ($8,000 to $12,000), showcase American Impressionism and a divergence from the European tradition. John Sloan’s etchings, Sculpture in Washington Square, 1925 ($2,500 to $3,500), Fourteenth Street, The Wigwam, 1928 ($2,500 to $3,500), which illustrates the last physical address of Tammany Hall, and George Bellows’s lithograph, Solitude, 1917 ($1,500 to $2,500), exemplify the Ash Can School, where the gritty realism of Manhattan took center stage.
A run of works by Martin Lewis portrays Manhattan as both dark and elegant. His rare drypoints include Corner Shadows, 1930 ($7,000 to $10,000), Little Penthouse, 1931 ($15,000 to $20,000), Chance Meeting, 1940-41 ($10,000 to $15,000), Stoops in Snow, 1930 ($20,000 to $30,000), Shadow Dance, 1930 ($20,000 to $30,000), Spring Night, Greenwich Village, 1930 ($15,000 to $20,000), and Winter on White Street, 1934 ($18,000 to $22,000).
Lithographs by Raphael Soyer and Louis Lozowick represent the men and architecture of Depression-era Manhattan. Lozowick’s Mural Study: Lower Manhattan, 1936 ($7,000 to $10,000), and Mural Study: Triborough Bridge, 1936 ($4,000 to $6,000), relate to the artist’s commission from the Treasury Relief Art Project for two large oil paintings to adorn the walls of the Midtown Manhattan Post office at 33rd Street and 8th Avenue–they are still there. Soyer’s rare lithographs of people in the Lower East Side, The Mission, 1933 ($12,000 to $18,000), and Bowery Nocturne, 1933 ($10,000 to $15,000), each have hand coloring in watercolor.
A watercolor by George Grosz, Brownstone Houses, New York, circa 1937 ($8,000 to $12,000), stems from the time he immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1937. Additional watercolors include Reginald Marsh’s Tugboats Near the Brooklyn Bridge, 1938 ($12,000 to $18,000), and James Heseldin’s Fulton Street and Brooklyn Bridge, circa 1925 ($1,000 to $1,500).
Rounding out the sale are a selection of choice paintings, including Arthur Ernest Becher’s Drydock, New York, oil on canvas, 1912 ($2,500 to $3,500), Lydia Cooley’s oil on board Ringling Brothers, circa 1935 ($1,500 to $2,500), Don Freeman’s Meat Market, oil on wood panel, circa 1935 ($1,200 to $1,800), and Harry Gottlieb’s Winter Park Scene, New York, oil on canvas, circa 1930s ($2,000 to $3,000).
The auction will take place on Thursday, September 16 at 1:30 p.m.
The works will be on public exhibition Saturday, September 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday, September 13 to Wednesday, September 15, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Thursday, September 16, 10 a.m. to noon.
