OVER 600 lots of ‘Old Master through Contemporary Prints’ were offered by Swanns on May 6 and in the former category, Dürer and Rembrandt figured prominently among the higher priced lots.
A superb, well-inked Meder b impression of Dürer's well-known
St. Eustace engraving of c.1501 that brought a bid of $80,000
(£45,200), while sold at $42,000 (£23,730) was a set of the 20
woodcuts that make up his Life of the Virgin. The set was produced
in the years 1502-10, but while the cuts in this set, formerly in
the collection of Friedrich August II, mostly bear a fish bladder
watermark that Meder dates to c.1580, the impressions are strong
and dark.
The best selling Rembrandt was a dark and richly inked, fifth
state example of his 1635 etching and drypoint, The Great Jewish
Bride, but the sale also included examples of the self portraits of
which he was so fond. A fine impression of the third state of his
1639 Self Portrait in Velvet Cap and Plume sold for $46,000
(£25,990). The Corot self portrait, top right, is the first example
seen at auction in 20 years of an 1858 cliché-verre, here printed
in bistre, that sold for $24,000 (£13,560). Below right: A second
state example of Toulouse-Lautrec's coloured lithograph, Au Moulin
Rouge, la Gouloue et sa Soeur, from an 1892 edition of 100 on cream
wove paper, that made $41,000 (£23,165).
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