Tchao Yen-Nien, “La Course Contre le Temps”, c.1954

Tchao Yen-Nien (aka Zhao Yannian; 赵延年; Yen-nien Chao; Dshau Jän-njän) (1924–2014)—an influential to printmaker in China for his “innovative use of cutting and printing techniques” (see https://chineseposters.net/artists/zhaoyannian)

“La Course Contre le Temps” (The Race Against Time), c.1954, an original woodcut in two colours published in Peking (now Beijing) in 1956 by Éditions en Langues Étrangères (Foreign Languages Press) (fl.1952–) as plate 37 to the folio of 40 original woodcuts printed in the People’s Republic of China, “Gravures sur Bois de la Chine Nouvelle.” Note that this print was featured in the second National Exhibition of Fine Arts (China) in 1955 and was chosen from this exhibition for its inclusion in the 1956 folio of prints representing the achievements of “la Chine Nouvelle” (the new China).

Woodcut in two colours (olive and brown-black) printed on fine cream wove paper (China) with full margins and printed title as published.

Size: (sheet) 34.8 x 25 cm; (image borderline) 25.2 x 17.1 cm.

Dated vertically in plate at lower left, “1954 […]”.

Lettered below the image: (centre) “37. La course contre le temps  Tchao Yen-nien”.

Condition: a strong and well-printed (near faultless) impression in a pristine condition.

I am selling this superb two-colour woodcut designed to showcase the industrial advances in China in the mid-1950s—mindful that the artist belonged to the “All China Association of Anti-Enemy Woodcut Artists” and the folio in which this print features was published by a press that was later “owned and controlled by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Languages_Press)—for AU$174 in total (currently US $113.71/EUR 106.29/GBP 91.01 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this powerful image of industry in the erection of a tower block that has (at least to my eyes) resonance with similar images of construction by the almost legendary, Frank Brangwyn (1867–1956)—see, for example, “Building the Victoria and Albert Museum”, 1904 (https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/43387/), please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Abel Jamas, “Portrait of Chopin”, c.1938, after Delacroix

Abel Jamas (1862–c.1940)

“Portrait of Chopin” (aka “Frédéric Chopin”), c.1938, after the unfinished painting by Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), “Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand”, 1838—note that this painting was later cut in two so that the each section could be sold separately with the portrait of Chopin now in the Louvre (Paris) (see https://www.wikiart.org/en/eugene-delacroix/frederic-chopin-1838).

Etching and engraving on cream wove (Japon) paper with wide margins and a remarque of a man’s face facing to the front with curled long hair and a pointed beard.

Regarding the remarque (the tiny etching of a rather gaunt head with its Van Dyck styled “goatee” shown below the main image), I believe that the subject may be a likeness of Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), or at least, as the artist (Abel Jamas) imagined him. This idea (and it may be very flawed) is based on my understanding that Chopin suffered alopecia areata on the left side of his face. Going further, from my close examination of the image, only half a beard is shown and it is on Chopin’s right side. This stylistic arrangement of a half beard seems correct (for me), mindful that Chopin’s interest was all about his right side as that was the side his audience saw during a performance.

Size: (sheet) 55.8 x 43.8 cm; (plate) 39.8 x 29.9 cm; (image borderline) 33.2 x 26.8 cm.

See descriptions of this print offered by the Louvre and the Athens School of Fine Arts : https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl020529818 & https://digilib.asfa.gr/s/library-eng/item/2543.

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with generously wide margins in an excellent (near pristine) condition.

I am selling this large, rare and fascinating portrait of Chopin, with a tiny portrait remarque in the margin that may (if I am right and there is no certainty about this) show Chopin with a half-beard/“goatee” on his right side owing to his inability (because of a medical condition [alopecia areata]) to grow facial hair on his left, for AU$314 in total (currently US $205.54/EUR 191.45/GBP 164.24 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this marvellous portrait, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Bernard Picart, “Atlas Supports the Heavens on His Shoulders”, 1731

Bernard Picart (1673–1733)

“Atlas Supports the Heavens on His Shoulders”, 1731, Plate 43 (XLIII) from the series of sixty plates, “Le Temple des Muses” (Neu-Eröfneter Musen-Tempel), pages 119–120, published in 1733 by Zacharie Chatelain (fl.1700–50) and later in 1754 in Amsterdam and Leipzig.

Etching and engraving printed from two plates on laid paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 46 x 29.1 cm; (outer plate) 35.5 x 25.5 cm; (outer image borderline) 34.6 x 25 cm.

Inscribed on plate below the (inner) image borderline in four languages (French, English, German and Dutch): (left) “ATLAS PORTE LE CIEL SUR SES ÉPAULES./ Atlas supports the Heavens on his shoulders.// …./ …”.

LeBlanc 85-146 (J.Ch. Brunet & Ch. Leblanc 1854[–1889], “Manuel de l'amateur d'estampes, contenant un dictionnaire des graveurs de toutes les nations: ouvrage destiné à faire suite au Manuel du libraire”, vol. 3, Paris, p. 192, cat. nos. 85-146).

The Rijksmuseum offers the following description of this print: (Transl.) “Titan Atlas carries heaven on his back, as punishment for his part in the revolt against Jupiter. Through Perseus he is turned into a mountain range. In the margin the title in French, English, German and Dutch. The image is decorated with an ornamental border” (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.302958).

All the plates (including this plate) illustrating “Le Temple des Muses” may be viewed at “Heidelberg historic literature – digitized”; see details about this plate: https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/picart1754/0177/image .

Art of the Print offers marvellous insights and technical details about this print and its publication: http://www.artoftheprint.com/artistpages/picart_bernard_atlasheavens.htm.

Condition: a strong and well-printed (near faultless) impression in a near pristine condition.

I am selling this stunningly beautiful engraving showing Atlas—a Titan from mythology—holding up the sky with the mountain range, The Atlas Mountains, of northwest Africa behind him, for AU$336 in total (currently US $218.81/EUR 204.26/GBP 175.47 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this museum quality engraving printed from two plates—an outer “frame” plate and the inner “image” plate—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Note that this is the second impression of this print that I have listed. The previous copy has been sold.

This print has been sold

Adriaen Collaert, “Neptune in a Decorative Frame with Grotesques”, c.1590

Adriaen Collaert (c.1560–1618)

“Neptune in a Decorative Frame with Grotesques” (aka “Medaillon waarin een stroomgod”; “Medallion Showing a River God”), c.1590 (1580–1600), plate 2 from a series of six engravings, “Medallions with Figures from the Judgment of Paris” (aka “Medaillons met figuren uit het Oordeel van Paris”); published by Adriaen Collaert (as inscribed on plate).

Engraving on laid paper trimmed along the platemark and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 13.9 x 9.9 cm.

Inscribed in plate along the lower edge: (centre) “Adrian. Collaert invent. sculp. et excud."

Orn Cat I 61.2 (Irene Margaretha de Groot 1988, “Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprentenkabinet”, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum Staatsuitgeverij); SKB 235; New Hollstein VI.308.1677; Guilmard 479.12a.

The Rijksmuseum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art offer descriptions of this print: http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.380900 & https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/425850. 

Condition: a slightly silvery impression, trimmed along the platemark and laid upon an archival support sheet of millennium quality washi paper. There are chips along the edges and a replenished loss of the lower right corner.

I am selling this sensitively rendered engraving featuring Neptune (or a mythological river god with the attribute of spilling a vase of water and fish) set within an extraordinarily complex frame of ornamentation—note that Zeus is shown on his eagle under a canopy in the lower area with snails advancing on cupids aiming their arrows at tongue-wagging dogs, for AU$310 (currently US $201.72/EUR 188.61/GBP 162.19 at the time of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this small and gem-like engraving, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Note that I have listed another engraving from the same series, “Mercury in a Decorative Frame with Grotesques”, that is currently still available: https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2019/09/adriaen-collaerts-engraving-mercury-in.html. 

This print has been sold 

Maxime Lalanne, “Le Matin”, 1882, after Théodore Rousseau

Maxime Lalanne (aka François Antoine Maxime Lalanne) (1827–1886)

“Le Matin” (title as inscribed in plate) (aka “Morning”; “La Mare” [Beraldi’s title]), 1882, after a painting by Théodore Rousseau (aka, Pierre Etienne Théodore Rousseau) (1812–1867), printed by Abraham Beillet (fl.1850–76/83) and published in the “Gazette des Beaux-Arts” in August 1883 as an insert between pages 118 and 119.

Interestingly, ten years before Lalanne executed “Le Matin”, Félix Bracquemond (aka Joseph Auguste Félix Bracquemond) (1833–1914) etched, “Bouquet d'Arbres près d'un cours d'Eau” (Bouquet of Trees near a Stream) (1872), that is also a translation of Rousseau's painting into line, but in the reverse direction to Lalanne's print: see https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1916-0411-23.

Etching on cream laid paper (watermarked “MBM” [Arches]) with a small margin around the platemark and backed with a support sheet providing wide margins.

Size: (sheet) 18.1 x 25.4 cm; (plate) 16 x 24 cm; (image borderline) 12.4 x 18.9 cm.

Lettered in plate above the image borderline: (centre) “EXPOSITION DES CEMT CHEFS – D’ŒUVRE.”

Inscribed in plate within the image borderline: (lower left) “TH ROUSSEAU”; (lower right) “[signature] M Lalanne”.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) Th. Rousseau pinx./ Gazette des Beaux-Arts.”; (centre) “LE MATIN./ (Collection de M^me la Baronne N. de Rothschild.}; (right) “M. Lalanne sc./ Beillet imp.”

State iii (of iii) final published state with height of plate reduced.

Villet 156 (Jeffrey M. Villet 2010, “The Complete Prints of Maxime Lalanne”, Washington, D.C., art@mone fine prints, n.p., cat. no. 156).

Condition: a strong and well-printed impression with a small margin around the platemark. Beyond a few surface marks, the sheet is in a very good condition and has been laid onto a support of archival (millennium quality) washi paper providing wide margins.

I am selling this marvellous etching that (to my eyes) sparkles with morning light, for AU$187 in total (currently US $120.62/EUR 112.96/GBP 97.46 at the time of this listing) including Express (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this very beautiful etching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.