Original Works of Art

Italy, 1870. Book. Illus. by Giacomo Brogi. Very Fine. No Binding. Albumen Mammoth Print, c. 1870's , By Giacomo Brogi , 1822- 1881 Italian. Very rare photographic image by this artist , in the original restored frame . This is not one of the standard tourist pictures that you find but a true work of art by this master photographer. Both Brogi and the Alinari Brothers worked as photographers and took the standard architecture ruins photos in Italy most being small 8"x10" Albumen prints , but they did art photography also and to find one is a rare treat . This piece shows three men in a row boat on the Tiber River with Castel Saint`Angelo ( Mausoleum of Adrian ) on the right the Saint`Angelo bridge to the castle in the middle in the far distance you can see St. Peter's Dome . Looking around the photo the men in the boat you can see their reflection in the water. With sheep on the right shore and the clouds rolling by above it all this is a very importain photographic image by this… Read More

1947. Oil on composition board. 32" x 25". Dated December 25, 1947. Inscribed by Cummings on the rear of the painting: "For Marion/ love!/ Xmas/ 1947." This image was later used as a Christmas card that Cummings and Marion Morehouse had made. Corners abraded. Unframed. No Binding.

Oil on canvasboard. 19-3/4" x 15-3/4". No date. A cityscape looking out the back of Cummings' apartment in Greenwich Village. No Binding.

Undated. 16" x 13". Oil on wood. Framed. A portrait of Cummings' wife, Marion Morehouse, reclining on a bed in a position reminiscent, presumably deliberately, of Goya's "The Naked Maja." Goya's painting was considered scandalous in its day, in a way that some of Cummings' artwork -- especially his erotic paintings of strippers, lovers, and sensuous nudes -- were in his own time, or at least he seems to have intended them to be. A stylized image, foreshortening perspective and thus alluding to Cummings' origins as an abstract, rather than realist, painter. Fine. Letter of provenance provided. No Binding. Fine.

1935. Kent, Rockwell. Watercolor on paper measuring 13 by 9 1/4 inches, signed by Kent in the lower right margin, along with the inscription, "to his friend Charly Mortensen, 1935." Mortensen was the telegraph operator aboard the Hans Egede, the ship on which Kent made two of his three celebrated voyages to Igdlorssuit, Greenland, where he would live off and on between 1929 and 1935. His life and work among the native Greenlanders during these years resulted in two of his greatest books: Greenland Journal and Salamina. The present painting, a moving, somber work executed in the artist's typically realistic style, depicts a European sailor, presumably preparing to depart Greenland for home, comforting a native Greenlander who is weeping into her hands at the prospect of their parting. The watercolor is accompanied by Mortensen's autograph book, which contains numerous drawings and inscriptions by friends and Hans Egede passengers, including two drawings by Kent, both signed. One drawing, a charming,… Read More

1942. A portrait by Cummings of his mother, Rebecca Clarke Cummings, immortalized in Cummings' words: "if there are any heavens my mother will(all by herself)have one." Oil on canvas. 15" x 20". Dated on verso, September 1, 1942. No Binding.

1955. Oil on canvas. 15" x 20". Portrait of fellow Harvard alumnus and fellow New Hampshire painter William James, Jr. On the verso: "w.j." and "10-01-55." No Binding.

Probaly Venice, 1825. An exquisite suite of watercolours, including a beautiful series of scenes documenting a Venetian commedia dell'arte troupe, by the Italian artist Francesco Novelli. Francesco Novelli (1767-1836), one of the preeminent artists of his generation, lived in Venice where he was best known for his outstanding book illustration. He enjoyed a long and successful career that culminated in the landmark editions of Don Quixote (1819) and Gil Blas (1820). Novelli is also known for illustrating works such as the Fasti Veneziani (1794), hinting at his abiding interest in the theatre and the performing arts. In this unmatched collection of Novelli's watercolours, the greatest number are piquant images of a troupe of the commedia dell'arte, with especially fine depictions of Pierrot himself, as well as other key figures such as Columbine and Harlequin. There is a remarkable series of scenes from a play, as well as studies of individual performers, many so precisely rendered that it is almost… Read More

ca. 1928. A large portrait by Cummings of his stepdaughter, Diana Barton, with one of her dogs at Joy Farm in New Hampshire, sometime between 1927 and 1930. Diana was born in 1921; Cummings met Anne Barton in 1925 and they spent several summers at Joy Farm beginning in 1927. Diana is standing outside, with her dog at her side and Mount Chocorua in the background. One of the best-loved American poets of the 20th century, Cummings was also a prolific visual artist: he considered writing and painting to be his "twin obsessions." He exhibited his work in the annual Society of Independent Artists shows from 1916-1927, and he was the art editor of The Dial magazine, the preeminent Modernist literary journal in the U.S., in the 1920s. In 1933, Cummings published a book of his artwork in a limited edition. Called CIOPW, it took its title from the media he used in his art: charcoal, ink, oil, pencil and watercolors. In his early years he emphasized abstract painting; from the 1930s on he tended toward… Read More

Oil on canvas. 43" x 20". No date. No Binding.

Oil on canvas. 24" x 20-1/2". Signed by Cummings on the back. No date. No Binding.

40 original drawings by Marie Baudet, ink brush with various washes and water colour heightening, all of them signed by the artist, some dated and with manuscript title, mostly ca 380 x 530 mm a few ca 220 x 290 mm pasted onto white paper mounts (565 x 515 mm). Each original drawing bound in facing the collotype plate of the published suite with 5 unnumbered leaves letterpress text, 40 collotype plates with a tinted background (315 x 225 mm or smaller – reduced in size compared to the original drawings), title and numbering printed on narrow paper labels pasted onto lower margin of plates. Cont. brown half calf on six raised bands with gilt title in second compartment. Fancy endpapers. Folio (575 x 430 mm). Extremeties worn, covers rubbed and slightly spotted. Bénézit (1976), I, p. 515. The book was published in 250 copies and "les planches de cet album ont été tirées par les procédés spéciaux de Fortier & Marotte" according to the imprint. Marie Ludivine Antoinette Dupuit known as Marie… Read More

Italy, 1825. Album of dynamic original drawings chronicling the Napoleonic era, with an emphasis on the Italian campaigns. Events depicted include sieges and battles (Mantua, Lodi, Trebbia, Marengo); the signing of treaties (Campo Formio, Tolentino); the deaths of generals (Duphot, Joubert); and the royalist attempt to assassinate Napoleon with a "macchina infernale." Later scenes include the battles of Wagram, Ligny, and Waterloo, and Napoleon's exile to St. Helena. The drawings vary in their level of finish: some precise and detailed, others with a more fluid line, but all united by a shared style and graphic weight. An optimistic early bookseller's note identifies the drawings as the work of Jacques-Louis David, which is certainly not true, but the unknown Italian artist was clearly inspired by neoclassical French history painting. "Fine dalla giornata di Marengo" expands a detail of a battle scene by Carle Vernet (1758-1836), and "Napoleone all' Isola de Lobau" echoes a painting of Charles… Read More

Leporello bound album; silk covers; inside of covers decorated with gold flitters; in original wooden box, inscribed and sealed by Seisetsu Seki.
12 paintings and 12 paired calligraphies. 2 double page calligraphies at beginning and at the end. Each painting with one or more of Seisetsu Seki`s seals. A large number of Seisetsu Seki`s seals were used throughout the album.
A unique masterwork by Seisetsu Seki. I have seen no comparable work by Seisetsu Seki.
Seki Seisetsu, 精拙 関 (1877 - 1945), was born on 18 January 1877 in Hyogo Prefecture. As a baby, he was given to Seki Soshun, a Zen priest of Tenrin-ji (temple) in a nearby village. Soshun raised him, and his entire life, until his death, a few months after the end of WWII, Seisetsu remained a Zen monk. When he was 30 he received his inka shômei (= formal acknowledgement of a student's completion of his Zen training). In 1922, when he was 45, he became head (Kanchô) of Tenryû-ji; next to his new duties he also found time for calligraphy and… Read More

Two volumes bound together; 12 nn, 24 numbered, 56 numbered, 1 nn pages; [Kyoto] 柳枝軒, Horeki 9 (1759). Binding is worn; some worming (see photos). Title slip is missing.
Volume 1: 和歌藻塩草 / Waka moshiogusa, 5 not numbered pages, 　12 number leaves (24 pages) with poems by Hahuin.
Volume 2: 畫讃搖艫船 / Gasan yōrosen, 1 not numbered leave (2 pages), 28 numbered leaves (56 pages) with 55 full pages woodblock illustratuin, 1 not numbered page.
This is one of the most remarkable and most rare works of Zen literature. Jack Hillier (The Art of the Japanese book) did not know this book. There exist only two more known copies of this book. One is at in the US at Stanford University Libraries and a second one is in Japan at Tohoku Universität Kano(東北大狩野).
Hakuin Ekaku (白隠 慧鶴, January 19, 1686 – January 18, 1769) was one of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as the reviver of the Rinzai school from a moribund period of stagnation,… Read More