Heinrich Carl, unknown American printmaker

Every now and then a complete unknown printmakers emerges from the past. Recently some prints by one Heinrich Carl surfaced in American Ebay. They all seem to be in not to good condition, all suffering from severe cases of spotting: "foxing", due to cheap paper and/or mold. 

Other then his very German name, Heinrich Carl, there's nothing biographical to be found in the Internet. So maybe sharing all prints I was able to find in the Internet and asking the help of readers of this Blog will shed some light on this printmaker. 

Did he learn to make prints like this in Germany or in America ? Was he a native American or an immigrant ? 

I have a hunch he learned printmaking from Pedro the Lemos (above) who I discussed in the earlier years (2011) of this Blog (follow the label). His books after a century are still a must for every print enthousiast and are easily and cheaply available and obtainable (use: bookfinder.com)  

For the occasion and display I corrected the perspective distortions of the auction pictures, made color and exposure improvements with Photoshop and I removed the brown spots of one of the nicest, the three crows on ice.

He was able to create prints using different techniques but, personally, I like the penguins and crows best. 

  

Winslow Homer ?

Please send all information on Heinrich Carl for sharing. 

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All pictures embiggen by mouse-click

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.      

Pearce Bates: K.C. Pearce and Bob Bates

K.C. Pearce and Bob Bates

also known as

Pearce Bates 

(American printmakers couple) 

Going through some portfolios with prints to decide which may go and which may stay(*) I found this nice Pearce Bates (sparrow and swallows) print which I simply had forgotten. A fine  opportunity to try to find out some more about this printmaker on a rainy day.

Excavating the internet, other sources and my archive files for more examples I found this rather strange and seemingly incoherent collection of prints and styles but hardly anything personal about the makers. 

So here're all the examples I could find an scratch together. To be honest, some pictures I've pimped in Photoshop because they were either very small (auction house pay-site thumbnails: do you hate those as much as I do ?) or very  perspectively distorted. 

Pearce Bates in reality proofed to be two artists: K.C. Pearce (Mrs. Bates)  and Bob Bates working together, not only as a a couple but also as printmakers. Educated and trained in the 1930's and still working in the 1970's is all I was able to discover so far: hardly anything about their lives and careers. No dates or places and not even where the  initials K.C. might be standing for. 

Bob Bates had been a bird decoy woodcarver and both had been working in the advertising, magazine and newspaper illustration world. They choose to go their own way, flying their own plane and living in the woods in Dillsburg Pensylvania (USA) dedicated to producing graphic art. 

So maybe with the help of readers we can fill in and color the lives and careers of this American couple and joined printmaking venture. I particularly like these amusing titmouse (or is it a nuthatch or just a phantasy bird ?) 

The prints they've created reflect their personal interests in music (jazz), dogs (Irish water spaniels), traveling, flying and sailing. Their work is collected by  private collectors around the world as well in institutional collections like the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art and the Microsoft Art Collection. 

(*) As of today the narrowing down my collection to prints made by German Women Printmakers born 1860-1900 and active until WW2, has priority, preferably by swapping. So if you have any prints by this particular group and your focus of collecting or interests lies elsewhere you are invited to contact me.  

All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.                

Katharine Maria Gericke: a revelation !

 Katharine Maria Gericke

(Vienna 1893 - 1974 Boston USA)

Thanks to American reader and collector Tom today the revelation of some never before made public prints by this forgotten German-American printmaker.

Katharine was the daughter of Wilhelm Gericke (1845-1925) and grew up surrounded by the art and music of Europe and America. Her father was an accomplished conductor of symphony orchestras and choral groups in Austria, and a close friend of many of the musical geniuses of the day. 

Drawing of Katharine, showing probably her father conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 

Her family traveled extensively to the cultural centers of Europe and, even as a young child, Katharine demonstrated an early talent for sketching the picturesque sites they visited. 

In Brian Hannon's collection (see below) I've found the sketch for this woodblock print 

In 1898, five-year-old Katharine was first introduced to American culture when her father became, for the second time, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The family returned to Austria in 1906 when Katharine was thirteen. Katharine enrolled in art school in Vienna in about 1910, but her art education was disrupted by financial difficulties brought on by the First World War. 

In 1925 Katharine’s father died in Vienna. His obituary in The New York Times mentioned his surviving “loving wife and talented daughter”. Katherine and her mother traveled throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s, visiting London and New York in 1932, but more often returning to the Renaissance villages of Italy, or places like Salzburg and other famous centers of their musical past. 

When the Nazis annexed Austria, Katharine immigrated to the U.S. and returned to Boston. She became a U.S citizen in 1946, and worked most of her life as an art conservator until 1968. She never married, and died in 1974 at the age of 81. Known for her drawings but also working with woodblock printmaking. 

Votive Church and rooftops in Katharine's birthplace Vienna

(biography with courtesy: Brian Hannon New-York Fine Art Inc. (link) where you can find many examples of Katharine's fine drawings and sketches).

All pictures are mouse-clickable to embiggen.

All pictures (and text) borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.

Mabel Dwight, also in the old New York Aquarium

Mabel Dwight 

born Mabel Jaque Williamson

(1876 - 1955)

American lithographer 

Thank to Scottish reader James commenting this morning on Emma Bormann's Aquarium posting today a contribution dedicated to Mabel Dwight. Like Emma Bormann and Herbert Bolivar Tschudy in before postings she was in the old New York Aquarium too. It closed in 1941. "Queer Fish", above, happens to be her most popular print. She created many prints and in large editions. Modern copies often offered at a certain international internet auction site, original prints in Fine Print Galleries. And I found four of the New York Aquarium.

"Although Mabel Dwight studied painting in her youth at the Hopkins School of Art in San Francisco, she was fifty years old before she began to practice art seriously. Born in Cincinnati, she spent her childhood and youth in New Orleans and California and also traveled extensively in France, Italy, India, and Ceylon.  

She was married 1906-1917 to printmaker Eugene Higgins (1874-1958) who trained and studied in the "Academie Julian" and the "Ecole des beaux Arts" in Paris. While she was in Paris in 1927 she became interested in lithography. Dwight, who was deaf, was a keen observer of the human comedy, which she depicted with humor and compassion in her work.

Although considered a social realist (as was Eugene Higgins) like Emma Bormann she choose crowds, the aquarium, the circus, the beach and theater for her most popular and often very humorous prints. I found many examples of her work Googling and choose for this posting some (later?) colored examples.   

"Text: National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996).

This last example chosen because Herbert Bolivar Tschudy in before posting possibly choose the same New-York Ferry for his print. 

And this one "life class" (is that her among  all the boys ?) to make you curious enough to go out and do some internet searching for this wonderful artist.
  

All pictures are mouse-clickable to embiggen en were borrowed freely from the internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.