Giovanni Battista Piranesi

View of Two Churches - Etching by G.B.Piranesi - Late 18th Century

Late 18th Century

Alington in Wiltshire (The First Swallow). 1927. Etching. Garton 2.iv. 6 3/4 x 8 7/8 (sheet 10 1/2 x 13 1/2). Final state published by in an editon of 12 by Garton & Cooke in 1982 (Nicolson published an edition of 40 in 1927). In states iii and iv, the swallow of the title was removed. In state iv, the sky was re-etched and the cross-hatching was slightly finer. Signed in pencil. Garton writes, page 11: "The design was based on the Anglican chapel-of-ease is the farmyard of Bulisge at Allinston near Chippenham....The print was originally entitled The First Swallow, but the swallow was burnished out before the 1927 edition....Fifty years later new work was effected in the worn-out areas of the sky and distance to produce prints which, in his opinion, were better than those of the original edition." Robin Tanner was an English artist, etcher, and printmaker. He followed the visionary tradition of Samuel Palmer and English neo-romanticism. His etchings began following night-school classes at Goldsmiths College, London. He had been inspired by the major Samuel Palmer retrospective exhibition organized by Martin Hardie...

Twixt Day and Dawn. 1919. Aquatint. Hardie catalog 165 state ii. Image 9 7/8 x 11 1/2 (sheet 13 9/16 x 16 7/8). A masterly inked impression produces subtle lighting variations throu...

William Walcot. R.E., R.I.B.A. San Marco. Etching with drypoint and aquatint. Dickins 66, Harvey-Lee 91. 3 7/8 x 5 7/8 (sheet 9 1/4 x 12 1/8). Venice set, # 2. Edition 415. A rich impression printed on cream wove paper. Fold in the margin, well outside the image; otherwise good condition. Signed in pencil. Housed in a 16 x 20-inch archival mat. Soon after Walcot's arrival in England, the Fine Art Society sponsored a trip sent to Italy. This scene is one of four small drypoints that resulted from the artist’s stay in Venice. When he was seventeen, he began to study architecture under Louis Benois at the Imperial Academy of Art in Saint Petersburg. He went to Paris where he continued his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Atelier Redon. He practiced as an architect briefly in Moscow, designing the Hotel Metropole...

Donald Shaw MacLaughlan's small, even 'miniaturist' etching, 'A Tuscan Farm,' features an idyllic view of a scene he would have encountered on his European...

Chelsea Old Church. 1924. Etching, drypoint, and aquatint. Dickins 94. 5 3/8 x 8 (sheet 8 1/2 x 9 3/4). Edition 100 for The Print Collector's Club. A fine proof with tonal wiping, printed on cream wove paper. Signed and dedicated "W.R. Button from W. Walcot London 1930" in pencil. Chelsea Old Church, also known as All Saints, is an Anglican church, on Old Church Street, Chelsea, London SW3, England, near Albert Bridge. It is the church for a parish in the Diocese of London, part of the Church of England. Inside the Grade I listed building, there is seating for 400 people. There is a memorial plaque to the author Henry James (1843–1916) who lived nearby on Cheyne Walk. To the west of the church is a small public garden containing a sculpture by Sir Jacob Epstein. When he was seventeen,William Walcot began to study architecture under Louis Benois at the Imperial Academy of Art in Saint Petersburg. He went to Paris where he continued his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Atelier Redon. He practiced as an architect briefly in Moscow, designing the Hotel Metropole...

Guardians of the Spire; Amiens Cathedral Number 2 New York: 1937. Etching and drypoint on watermarked F.J. Head cream-colored, antique laid paper, 6 3/4 ...

Palazzo dell'Angelo 1931 Etching and drypoint on cream-colored, handmade laid paper with deckle edges, 7 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches (185 x 171 mm), edition of 100, full margins. Signed, dated and numbered "Ed. 100" in pencil, lower margin, second state (of three). Printed by Henry Carling, New York. Extremely minor mat tone and some inky residue in the top right corner, all unobtrusive and well outside of image area. An exquisite impression of this intricate image, with astonishing detail, and all the fine lines printing clearly. The image represents the first print which Arms printed on his own handmade paper. Framed handsomely with archival materials and museum grade glass in a wood gilt frame with a flower and garland motif. Illustrated: Dorothy Noyes Arms, Hill Towns and Cities of Northern Italy, p. 180; Anderson, American Etchers Abroad 1880-1930; Eric Denker, Reflections & Undercurrents: Ernest Roth and Printmaking in Venice, 1900-1940, p. 116. [Fletcher 233] Born in 1887 in Washington DC, John Taylor Arms studied at Princeton University, and ultimately earned a degree in architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1912. With the outbreak of W.W.I, Arms served as an officer in the United States Navy, and it was during this time that he turned his focus to printmaking, having published his first etching in 1919. His first subjects were the Brooklyn Bridge, near the Navy Yard, and it was during his wartime travel that Arms created a series of extraordinarily detailed etchings based on Gothic cathedrals and churches he visited in France and Italy. He used what was available to him, namely sewing needles and a magnifying glass, to create the incredibly rich and fine detail that his etchings are known for. Upon his return to New York after the war, Arms enjoyed a successful career as a graphic artist, created a series of etchings of American cities, and published Handbook of Print Making and Print Makers (Macmillan, 1934). He served as President of the Society of American Graphic Artists, and in 1933, was made a full member of the National Academy of Design. In its most modern incarnation, Palazzo dell'Angelo was constructed in or around 1570. The building, which has a rich and storied history, was erected upon the ruins of an earlier structure which predates the Gothic period. Some remnants of the earliest features of the residence were most certainly still visible when Arms visited, as they are today. Having a background in architecture, there's no question that Arms was moved by the beauty, history and ingenuity represented in the physical structure. One thing specifically gives away Arms's passion for the architecture, and that is the fact that he focused on the building's Moorish entranceway, balustrade, and two mullioned windows, and not on the curious Gothic era bas-relief of an angel nestled into the facade of the building, after which the structure is named. The sculpture itself doesn't appear in Arms's composition at all, despite the fact that it is the feature of the building that is most famous in its folklore. Arms instead focuses on the oldest portion of the architecture, even documenting some of the remnants of a fresco, and a funerary stele for the freedman Tito Mestrio Logismo, and his wife Mestria Sperata (visible above the water level, to the left of the door, behind the gondola), which was first described in 1436. Among the many notable bits of history regarding the Palazzo, it has been documented that Tintoretto painted frescos of battle scenes on the facade of the building. The paintings have been lost to time and the elements, but not entirely to history. The empty frame...

Ludgate Hill. 1921. Etching, aquatint, and drypoint. Dickins 69. 5 5/8 x 5 1/8 (sheet 13 5/8 x 9 3/4). A fine proof with plate tone, printed on 'J Wha[tman] cream wove paper. Edition of 275 for the UK and 125 for the US. Signed in pencil. Ludgate Hill is a street that runs west from St. Paul's Churchyard to Ludgate Circus (built in 1864), and from there becomes Fleet Street. The Ludgate Hill railway station, between Water Lane and New Bridge Street, is a station of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. It was closed before World War II and the railway bridge and viaduct between Holborn Viaduct and Blackfriars stations was demolished in 1990 to enable the construction of the City Thameslink railway station in a tunnel. This also involved the regrading of the slope of Ludgate Hill at the junction. About halfway up Ludgate Hill is St Martin, Ludgate church. This was physically joined to the Ludgate. When he was seventeen, William Walcot began to study architecture under Louis Benois at the Imperial Academy of Art in Saint Petersburg. He went to Paris where he continued his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Atelier Redon. He practiced as an architect briefly in Moscow, designing the Hotel...

(New York: John Taylor Arms, 1930) Etching on antique cream laid paper with a fancy "G" watermark, 7 1/8 x 16 1/2 inches (182 x 442 mm), full margins. Signed, dated and inscribed "Ed. 70" in pencil, lower margin. From a total edirion of 81 plus 5 trial proofs. Printed by Henry E. Carling. Number 18 from the Italian Series. A superb impression of this scarce print, with all of the subtleties and details of the reflections in the water printing clearly. [Fletcher 232] [Illustrated: Page 192, Arms, Dorothy Noyes, "Hilltowns and Cities of Northern Italy"]. Along with his constant companion and wife, Dorothy Noyes, Arms spent decades exploring and documenting gothic structures throughout Europe. Noyes, an accomplished travel writer, had gifted Arms an etching set...

Make Fast, plate 2. 1929. Etching. Laver catalog number 146; Hurst catalog number 258. Plate: 14 3/8 x 9 13/16 (sheet 17 5/8 x 11 3/4). Trial proof 2, before the edition or 75. Ill...