William Joseph Eastman

William Joseph Eastman

(1888-1950)

American Painter. And maker of one woodblock print.

Browsing old internet catalogues on a rainy day I stumbled over this linocut (said the catalogue) by William Joseph Eastman. In the John Hall-Thorpe style. But furnished with two budgies. I think it's great. It sold for $230. It is good I was far to late and not even there. To know of its existance and having a good scan is OK too. William Joseph was a productive painter in oil, much to the american taste because everything that comes on the market is sold. No Rembrand but nice enough paintings. No other printed evidence to be found. Was he not satisfied with the result or was the one just enough ?

And then much later I stumbled over it again. A description in the Cleveland (Ohio, US) Museum catalogue, a color woodcut of a vase with marigolds with two budgerigars.

Maybe there are more examples of Williams' woodblock printing skills, I didn't find any so far. But he showed the world in this print he knew what he was doing. And could match even the specialists in this genre.

I Photoshopped the museum scan to make the blackground black again and revived colors just a wee bit.

As William Joseph played and experimented with colors, I guess he wouldn't mind too much.

Besides the many oil paintings, which are not really my cup of tea, I found this very nice little (9'' x 5,5'') qouache signed "Normandy" and dated 1946 (sold for $245). Surprisingly modern, very strong composition. Since my Photoshop was still running in just a few clicks I fumbled it into a holliday poster.

I am confident William will forgive my fooling around with his holliday souvenir. As he would have liked my sharing his art with you.