Another nice but unidentified print and printmaker: Help !

Before returning to some more regular postings in printmakers starting this weekend here's another fresh puzzle and enigma. 

This print showed up recently and I do not have the faintest idea who made it. It has a certain Hugo Noske (1886-1960) "feel" about it and I would love to know and give this artist his entry in my to be published relief printmakers index. 

Also very neglected printmaker Viktor Pirkhoff (1875-1962) came to my mind but these artists do not come near the signature R. C............ There's simply no artist matching in my archive. 

Please send in any suggestions for sharing. 

Viktor Pirkhoff (IV) the flower bouquets

Viktor Pirkhoff

(Prag 1875-1962 Brno)

Part IV

The Flower Bouquet Prints

(Larger pictures by V. Pirkhoff, smaller ones for comparison)

I hope, from a woodblock enthousiast's (and flower prints in particular) viewpoint, I have kept the best for the last. Here they are !

Hugo Noske (1886-1960)

Martin Erich Philipp (1887-1978)

These first two prints I found last year in different auctions in the USA and became the start of these postings and the rediscovery of the Art of Viktor Pirkhoff

This above print is probably Pirkhoffs most impressive one. More then 15 blocks were used to create all colors. Using so many blocks created John Hall Thorpe's (1887-1975) fame as a woodblock printer in his 1922 "the Country Bunch" (below) and resulted in one of the most loved prints in the Art Deco Style.

John Hall Thorpe (1874-1947)

Hugo Noske (1886-1960)

Martin Erich Philipp (1887-1978)

As you can judge now for yourselfs I think it is fair to say that Viktor Pirkhoff could match the most renowned flower woodblock printers of the twentieth century. The way he was treated by the successive authorities and later becoming completely forgotten and obscured is very sad.

I hope through this postings Viktor Pirkhoff shall be known and appreciated again amongst the great European woodblock printers of the twentieth century.

Thank you Miroslav for trusting me with his legacy and creating this four postings.

Please, honor Viktor Pirkhoff with a comment on (one of) these postings .

Cacti and the Color Woodblockprint; 3/3

Adolph Dietrich Swiss

(1877-1957)

a Swiss naive painter

painted this gothic arrangement of flowering cactusses. Strangely this snake cactus (also not a cactus but considered a tropical rainforest epiphyte) is very a widespread and respected houseplant. In Switserland. Very common in farmhouses. The exuberant style he used to paint these flowers is characteristic for all block-printers who decided to show-(off) their efforts on this plant.

To my surprise researching this posting, I discovered that cacti on woodblock prints are almost exclusively prints of Epiphyllums. The exotic and exuberant flowers and symmetrical leafforms clearly very inspiring to Arts and Crafts printers.

I've found only one print of the Christmas or Easter cactus on a woodblock print. Charles Rennie MacKintosh’s (1868-1928) Scottish artist and architect made this watercolor painting (right) which I consider maybe the most delicate rendering of such a plant. Hugo Noske did the print (left).


Epiphyllums are a family of leaf-cacti. Not real cacti but epiphytes, native to the Amazon rainforest. Very much a grand-mothers plant. They grow in trees, like ferns and orchids. Not parasitizing but often in symbiosis. Easy in care, exotic and giving color in Northern houses in the darker seasons: grannies kind of plants. Just like the other family of leaf-cacti: the Christmas and Easter Cacti or Zygocacti. To lure them into flowering (yes, around Xmas and Easter, you have to store them cold for a period of time. Thriving on neglect they are both easy and very rewarding house plants.

Hugo Noske (1886-1960) gave his best. He tried four (!) times, all of them very exuberant and extravagant prints. Almost overstated renderings. Stunning. Like the plants themselves. But also very much the trademark of all of Noske prints. I love them. Desirable, covetable art. And I am not alone: rare, sought after and expensive nowadays!

The orange flowering with-a-seaview print (below) is often misnamed Tigerlillies. I wonder if Noske made this mistake himself. It looks like he owned the plant, and decided to do a remake of the earlier print later in life. He changed many things, the composition, the colors, maybe re-using some of the old blocks, maybe he started all over. It shows also his development in the printmaking. A nice puzzle. The first version is nice, the remake: Great Art.



Paul Jacoulet’s (1896-1960) art and life is widely reviewed and his Cacti are a marvel of technique, color and composition. He moved at a young age with his parents from Paris to Japan and was trained by Kazou Yamagishi. It is said that he used as many as 300(!) blocks for his color-prints using special papers that were made for him exclusively and he personally pulled every print. And only on subscription. Royal, Papal and Presidential class and owned only by such. Not art for the mortal collector. His prints (not only the cacti) are without any comparison and unbelievably beautiful.


Shirley Ximena Hopper Russel (1886-1885) an American artist living most of her life on Hawaii had just before WWII her prints published by Japanese publisher Watanaba Shozaburo and is mostly know for her Hawaii flowers prints. Also Great Art.


Alison Huston Lockerby Newton (1890-1967) born in Scotland and moved at a young age to Canada was trained at the Winnipeg Art School and by Walter Joseph Phillips, the man himself.


Martin Erich Philipp (1887-1978) besides famous for his erotic etchings and ex-libris' created some 65 all very wonderful prints. Hard to believe there is no book or cataloque on his work. He did mostly flowers and birds. This Epiphyllum, aloë, blue bowl and newspaper one of his more complex compositions. His prints vary in price from bargains to more exclusive depending on subject and/or seller.



Ernst Rötteken (1882-1845), the artist who decorated almost every house in the province of Lippe (Germany) with his prints also did the night-blooming Cereus: Queen of the Night. Greenhouses were opened to the public at night times to see this marvel. High quality art at affordable prices was his device. And he lived up to it printing all his life. Memorable. He more than earned his exhibition and catalogue in 2005 in the Landesmuseum in Detmold Germany holding a great collection of his prints.

Many of his illusive prints are never seen on the market and others every week. Some 50 are known and accounted for although even experts aren't quite sure. There is this little pre-WWII (ordering)cataloque showing 30 of his first prints in miniature but full-colors. It's offered on Ebay regularly. Go find it, it's on of those must have items!


Again, I know this oversight must be incomplete. But there is no other effort or example on this topic known to me. So please leave a comment or email me if you have knowledge of more color woodblock or linocut-prints showing cacti .
Or better pictures with higher resolution.

The list of black and white prints with cacti must be endless.

This compilation was made only for my personal and mutual amusement and without any scientific or scolarly pretentions.

And please take also in account that English is not my native language. Please correct me when I've made avoydable mistakes.