Modern American & European Printmakers Lead Prints & Drawings at Swann

19TH & 20TH CENTURY PRINTS & DRAWINGS
Sale 2532; March 5, 2020

Sale total: $1,823,105
We offered 535 lots; 412 sold (77% sell-through rate by lot)
All prices include Buyer’s Premium.

New York—Swann Galleries’ Thursday, March 5 sale of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings saw success: “With more internet bidding, particularly via the Swann App, than any previous sale in the 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings category at Swann, with action from across the United States, Europe and Asia, and nearly 20% of buyers new to Swann. The most robust sections of the auction were the American prints and modern European prints and drawings,” noted Todd Weyman, the house’s director of prints and drawings. 

The American offering included Martin Lewis’ 1933 drypoint Circus Night garnering a record for the image at $22,500. Further drypoints by Lewis included Rainy Day, Queens, 1931 ($23,700), and Rain on Murray Hill, 1928 ($16,250). Additional American highlights featured Gustave Baumann with a 1917 color woodcut, Provincetown, and John Steuart Curry’s 1932 lithograph The Tornado, which each earned $13,750 (both records for the prints); and Stuart Davis’s 1931 lithograph Two Figures and El, which brought $23,750.

Twentieth-century European stalwarts delivered strong results, with Pablo Picasso leading the sale with Nature Morte à la Pastêque, a colorful 1962 still-life linoleum cut of a slice of watermelon and purple flowers, which sold for $39,000. Der Spaziergang I, a 1922 etching by Marc Chagall, brought a record for the image at $17,500. Surrealists proved popular among collectors, with René Magritte’s 1966 etching Paysage de Baucis (Self Portrait with a Hat) bringing $35,000, and Salvador Dalí’s 1935 etching Crânes mous et harpe crânienne, which sold for $20,000. Representing German Expressionism was Edvard Munch’s 1908–09 Den Sinnssyke, which garnered $16,250, a record for the lithograph, and Max Klinger’s 1897–98 Von Tode I. Theil und II. Theil, two portfolios with complete text and 22 drawings, which sold for $13,750.

Additional highlights featured Gathering Fruit, a circa–1893 drypoint by Mary Cassatt (sold for $35,000); and a circa–1925 oil-on-canvas painting of New York by Eduardo García Benito, which set a record for the artist at $20,000. The house’s burgeoning Latin American art offerings rounded out the sale, with Francisco Toledo’s circa–1965 watercolor Formes Surréalistes at $13,750.

Visit swanngalleries.com or download the Swann Galleries App for catalogues, bidding and inquiries.

Top lots Prices with buyer’s premium

322 Pablo Picasso, Nature Morte à la Pastêque, color linoleum cut, 1962. $39,000 D

42 Mary Cassatt, Gathering Fruit, drypoint, circa 1893. $35,000 D

469 René Magritte, Paysage de Baucis (Self Portrait with a Hat), etching, 1966. $35,000 C

165 Martin Lewis, Rainy Day Queens, drypoint, 1931. $23,750 C

211 Stuart Davis, Two Figures and El, lithograph, 1931. $23,750 D

171* Martin Lewis, Circus Night, drypoint and sandpaper ground, 1933. $22,500 C

289 Pablo Picasso, Les Saltimbanques, color aquatint and etching, 1922. $20,800 C

360† Eduardo García Benito, New York, oil on canvas, circa 1925. $20,000 C

459 Salvador Dalí, Crânes mous et harpe crânienne, etching, 1935. $20,000 D

438 Joan Miró, La Main, color solf-ground etching and aquatint, 1953. $18,200 C

449 Joan Miró, L’Enfance d’Ubu, portfolio with complete text and 20 pencil-signed color lithographs, $17,500 D

with four additional color lithographs, 1975.

483* Marc Chagall, Der Spaziergang I, etching and drypoint, 1922. $17,500 C

167 Martin Lewis, Rain on Murray Hill, drypoint, 1928. $16,250 C

304 Pablo Picasso, Femme qui Pleure devant un Mur, aquatint and drypoint, 1937. $16,250 C

398* Edvard Munch, Den Sinnssyke, lithograph, 1908-09. $16,250 C

281 Aristide Maillol, La Vague, woodcut, 1895-98. $15,000 C

509 Henry Moore, Two Figures, watercolor, charcoal and color pastel, 1935. $15,000 C

99 Max Klinger, Von Tode, I. Theil und II. Theil, two portfolios with complete text and 22 etchings, $13,750 C

1897–98.

121* Gustave Baumann, Provincetown, color woodcut, 1917. $13,750 D

194* John Steuart Curry, The Tornado, lithograph, 1932. $13,750 C

267 Francisco Toledo, Formes Surréalistes, watercolor, circa 1965. $13,750 C

298 Pablo Picasso, Sculpteur et Modèle debout, etching, 1933. $13,750 C

495 Marc Chagall, Les Coquelicots, color lithographs, 1949. $13,750 D

Key: † = Auction Record for the Artist; * = Record for Print; C = Collector; D = Dealer; I = Institution

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ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE, ADDL. IMAGES & COMPLETE PRICES REALIZED ON REQUEST

Swann Auction Galleries is a third-generation family business as well as the world’s largest auction house for works on paper. In the last 75 years, Swann has repeatedly revolutionized the trade with such innovations as the first U.S. auction dedicated to photographs and the world’s only department of African-American Fine Art. More than 30 auctions and previews are held annually in Swann Galleries’ two-floor exhibition space in Midtown Manhattan, and online worldwide. Visit swanngalleries.com for more information.