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Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Swann Galleries Set Auction Records Set for 19th and 20th Century Prints and Portfolios

Swann Galleries April 28 auction of Old Master through Modern Prints saw active bidding from collectors and dealers in the saleroom and via telephone. As a result, 10 new auction record prices were achieved for individual prints and portfolios.

The sale’s top lot was Marc Chagall’s Bible, 1931-39, with 105 etchings, one of 275 numbered copies signed in ink, which sold for $156,000*, a record price for the set without the hand-colored plates. An earlier record was set for the book in Swann’s November 2009 Art, Press & Illustrated Books sale, when it achieved $108,000.

Another record-setting set of prints was a copy of Du Cubisme, a portfolio with 11 etchings, engravings and aquatints by Duchamp, Gleizes, Laurencin, Picabia and others, 1947, which sold for $18,000. Also among the featured portfolios in the sale was Das Graphische Werk von Egon Schiele, portfolio with two lithographs, five drypoints, and one etching, 1914-18, $78,000.

Individual prints that brought record prices included several from the 19th century, such as James A.M. Whistler’s etching and drypoint The Beggars, 1879-80, $31,200; Charles Meryon’s La Morgue, etching and drypoint, 1854, and Claude Monet and George W. Thornley’s L’Abbaye dans la brume, lithograph printed in light blue, circa 1892, $28,800 each; and James Ensor’s La Vengeance de Hop-Frog, etching, 1898, which brought $22,800—a record for an impression without hand coloring.

Record prices were also realized for 20th- century prints, including two by M.C. Escher, Sky and Water I, woodcut on Japan paper, 1938, $22,800, and Three Worlds, lithograph, 1955, $19,200; Benton M. Spruance’s Riders of the Apocalypse, lithograph, 1943, $38,400; and Pablo Picasso’s L’Artiste et l’enfant, lithograph, 1949, $18,000.

Old Master prints of note included Rembrandt Van Rijn’s The Angel Appearing to the Shepherds, etching, engraving and drypoint, 1634, $24,000, and Three Heads of Women, One Asleep, etching, 1637, $18,000; and a fifth state impression of Giovanni B. Piranesi’s An Immense Interior, etching and engraving, 1749, $15,600.

Among the significant 19th century works were Whistler’s Nocturne, lithograph on cream laid appliqué, 1878, $21,600; and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Danse à la Campagne, 2e planche, soft-ground etching, circa 1890, $19,200.

American highlights included Bror J.O. Nordfeldt’s The Village Green, Twilight, color woodcut on Japan paper, 1906, $15,600; Gustave Baumann’s color woodcut The Bishop’s Apricot, circa 1930, $9,600; Diego Rivera’s Desnudo sentado con brazos levantados (Frida Kahlo), lithograph, 1930, $12,000; Martin Lewis’s Corner Shadows, drypoint, 1930, $10,800; and Samuel Margilies’s Men of Steel, drypoint, circa 1940, $9,600.

Rounding out the modern European prints were Georges Braque’s important Cubist etching Composition (Nature morte au verres), 1912, $31,200; Henri Matisse’s Danseuse au Miroir, lithograph on Japan paper, 1927, $15,600; Picasso’s Homme dévoilant une Femme, drypoint, 1931, $24,000; Alberto Giacometti’s Annette dans l’Atelier, lithograph, 1954, $10,800; and Joan Miró’s Tir à l’Arc, color etching, aquatint and carborundum, 1972, $11,400.

*All prices include buyer’s premium.

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