George Woolliscroft Rhead‘s etching, “Magnolia Grandiflora”, 1885

George Woolliscroft Rhead (1855-1920)

“Magnolia Grandiflora”, 1885, published in 1886 in New York by Dodd, Mead, and Co., as an original etching in George W. H Ritchie and Roger Riordan’s “Ten etchings: Examples of the etched work of Masse, Casanova, Rhead, Gravesend [sic], Jacomb-Hood, Ballin, L'hermitte, Jacquemart, Steele, Veyrassat.”

Following in the spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood with whom the artist is closely associated—mindful that Rhead is included in Percy Bate's (1890) "English Pre-Raphaelite Painters"—the portrayed lady in this very beautiful etching is not only a metaphorical personification of the majestic flower of the print’s title, but her long tresses and even the colour of the etching ink seem (at least to my eyes) to embody the curling locks of loose red hair that the Pre-Raphaelites have become identified.

Regarding this print, Ritchie & Riordan (1886) offer the following insights:

“The artist has found a superb living incarnation of the splendid flower of the South in the grand beauty whom he presents to us embowered in the floral splendor she is made to typify. Her loveliness has the abundant and expansive character of the great blossom she is wreathed and crowned with.” ([n.p.] descriptive text for “Magnolia Grandiflora”).

Etching (and drypoint?) with plate tone printed in brown ink on cream laid paper with full margins as published.

Size: (sheet) 42.5 x 31.1 cm; (plate) 28 x 21.5 cm; (image borderline) 26.2 x 20.4 cm.

Inscribed on plate within the image borderline: (on banderole) “MAGNOLIA/ [GRAND]IFLORA”. (Note that the artist’s name is not inscribed.)

Condition: a richly inked, superbly printed (near faultless) impression in exceptionally fine/museum quality condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or foxing.

I am selling this magnificently strong impression with a poetically rich subject exemplifying the spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood for AU$239 (currently US$175.77/EUR147.91/GBP131.65 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 expecially beautiful etching, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Dalziel Brothers’ wood-engraving, "Summer Snow", 1863

Wood-engravers: Dalziel Brothers (aka Camden Press; Dalziel and Co.) (1839–1905)

Designer: Edward Burne-Jones (1833–98)

“The Summer Snow”, 1863, illustration to Dora Greenwell’s poem, “Summer Snow”, published by Strahan & Co. (London and Edinburgh, 1863) in “Good Words for 1863” (opp. p. 380), after the design drawn (but not engraved) on the printing plate by Edward Burne-Jones.

__________

Extract from Greenwell’s poem:

“Once in a garden fair,

Huddling close their heads together,

Flowers were heard to whisper there,

‘Oh the changeful April weather!

…

Soft falls the summer snow,

On the springing grass drops light,

Not like that which long ago,

Fell so deadly cold and white;

This wears the Rose's flush,

Faint, ere bloom hath quite foregone her,

Soft as maiden's timid blush,

With the looks she loves upon her.’" (p. 380)

­­­­__________

Wood-engraving on wove paper with letterpress title, trimmed with small margins and backed with a support sheet.

Size: (sheet) 16.4 x 12.2 cm; (image borderline) 14.6 x 10.7 cm

Signed on plate within the image borderline: (lower-left corner) “DALZIEL”.

Titled with letterpress text below the image borderline: “THE SUMMER SNOW.”

Amanda-Jane Doran (2017) offers excellent insights about this print:

https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/how-to-read-it-edward-burne-jones

Interestingly, Doran proposes that there is a possibility that Georgiana (Burne-Jones’ wife) may have been involved in the engraving of this plate.

This print is discussed in the Dalziel Brothers’ (viz. G & E Dalziel) 1901 publication, “The Brothers Dalziel: A Record of Fifty Years’ Work ...1840–1890”, Camden Town, Camden Press, p. 162. In this discussion, William Holman Hunt’s letter (1861) to Alexander Strahan regarding the choice of illustrators for “Good Words” proposes that Edward Burne-Jones “… is perhaps the most remarkable of all the younger men of the profession for talent”. Holman Hunt then advises that Burne-Jones: “… has yet, I think, made but few if any drawings on wood, but he has had much practice in working with the point both with pencil and pen and ink on paper, and so would have no difficulty with the material” (p. 162).

See the description of this print at the British Museum; https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1566782&partId=1&searchText=The+Summer+Snow&page=1

See also the description at the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne):

https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/29242/

Condition: crisp and well printed impression on wove paper with small margins and laid on a support sheet of archival (millennium quality) washi paper. The sheet is in an excellent/near pristine condition.

I am selling this famous wood engraving—in the sense that it is often reproduced with reference to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and features in the current exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), “Love and Desire: Pre-Raphaelite Masterpieces from the Tate”—for AU$130 (currently US$92.48/EUR82/GBP72.10 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 extraordinarily beautiful wood-engraving featuring “a portrait of Jane Morris in the early years of her marriage to the artist’s close friend and artistic collaborator, William Morris” (Doran [2017]), please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

Unidentified artist working in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites

“Angel Study”, late 19th century (?)

Chalk on reddish-brown tinted paper

Framed with a simple natural/unvarnished wood edge and an ivory/cream archival mount under a Perspex/acrylic sheet

Size: (frame) 59.5 x 49 cm; (image) 28.5 x 21 cm

Condition: the drawing appears to be in very good condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds or foxing) based on examining it in its frame only. The frame is untreated natural wood with minor signs of age.

I am selling this framed magnificent drawing by an unidentified master in the manner of the Pre-Raphaelites for AU$550 AUD (currently US$395.18/EUR355,52/GBP270.26 at the time of posting this drawing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

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

This very beautiful drawing is a mystery to me and the dealer from whom I purchased it with regard to who drew it and when it was executed. The drawing is clearly by a highly skilled, technically aware and sensitive artist. At a guess the drawing exhibits some of stylistic attributes (i.e. the choice of subject, medium and colour) of the Pre-Raphaelites. I am not proposing that this drawing was made by one of this brotherhood of artists—such an attribution is as likely as finding a Rembrandt in the attic—rather, I wish suggest that the drawing is by a follower/admirer of this group and executed around the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.