G.H. Rothe Art

Leonard Merchant's mezzotint, "Snail in Cup" is inscribed for fellow artist, Fritz Eichenberg. While a student at the Central School for Arts and Crafts in London, a young Leonard Marchant found an engraving rocker in a cupboard and proceeded to turn himself into a master of the painstaking art of mezzotinting. Marchant, who has died in Shrewsbury aged 70, grew up in Simonstown, the Royal Navy's enclave in South Africa. Though his first job was as a parliamentary messenger, he taught himself to paint and, aged 19, was given a one-man show in Cape Town. Fired by this success, he left for England to study painting and, he claimed, to escape the stifling home atmosphere created by his Catholic mother and aunts. (His father was killed in the second world war.) Without contacts in London, he phoned Jacob Epstein, whose recommendation resulted in a grant to study briefly at the Central School. It was later, when studying full-time at the Central, that he saw the mezzotints of the Japanese master, Yozo Hamaguchi, in a London gallery. He was hooked. Creating a mezzotint is tedious in the extreme. The copper plate must first be prepared with a "rocker" which roughens the surface. A plate may be "rocked" 30 or 40 times. The rough texture is then reduced with a burnisher and a scraper, allowing the print a range of tones from velvety black through the greys to white. Marchant's plates could be months in the making. But the technical demands were the least of his worries. In its 18th- and 19th-century heyday, mezzotint was solely a reproductive medium, for copying masters such as Reynolds and Turner. The development of photography rendered it unfashionable, and by the 1960s the technique, known as la manière anglaise, was a bygone medium. Marchant, by now a teacher in printmaking at the Central, began to create original mezzotints with a colleague, Radavan Kraguly. A perfectionist, he seemed to revel in the straitjacket procedure. Perhaps it was the metaphor of bringing darkness out of light that appealed to this straight-talking, sometimes sombre, man, who would suddenly relax and light up like a gleaming hue on one of his prints. His work was of squares and triangles with the occasional cat, black and ominous, and carefully arranged still lifes, featuring plants, a seed pod, a pot he might have bought at auction to celebrate the sale of a print. There were one-man shows, notably at the Bankside Gallery. He sold well at the Royal Academy summer exhibition, was a Florence Biennale prizewinner, spent a fellowship year at the British School in Rome, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. But making mezzotints was not a paying job. Marchant and his South African wife...

A play on words provides the title for this image -- a circle created out of the deconstructed parts of Singer IV This image is #37 from an edition of only 50, referenced as Firos 78...

Rio Osmarin shows boats on the canal Rio de S. Provolo o de l'Osmarin in Venice) It was created in 2006 and this impression is #31 of 75 It is signed, titled, numbered and dated by...

This is an original 19th century 1st edition octavo hand-colored McKenney and Hall lithograph of a Native American entitled " Shar-I-Tar-Ish, A Pawnee Chief", lithographed by J. T. Bowen after a painting by Charles Bird King and published by Rice and Hart in Philadelphia in 1848. Shar-I-Tar-Ish's portrait has a reddish hue from the feathers in his headdress and amulet chain, with a brownish taupe color of the upper trim of his costume. He is wearing his presidential peace medal. He has a very serious and thoughtful expression. This original McKenney and Hall hand-colored lithograph is printed on a sheet measuring 10.38" high and 7" wide. There are faint smudges in the margins. The print is otherwise in very good condition. The original descriptive text pages, 33-34, from McKenney and Hall's 19th century publication are included. A famous Pawnee chief, Shar-I-Tar-Ish led his people during the early part of the 19th century. He was descended from a line of chiefs. Shar-i-tar-ish was a young man when he went to Washington in 1822 at the invitation of President James Monroe...

In "Still Night", Frederick Mershimer depicts a row of brownstone houses on Seventh Avenue near Flatbush Avenue between Park and Stirling Places. Mershimer remembers that as he was ...

This is an original 19th century hand-colored folio-sized lithographic portrait of a Native American entitled "Tah-Chee, A Cherokee Chief", from McKenney and Hall's 'History of the Indian Tribes of North America'. It was lithographed by J. T. Bowen after a painting by Charles Bird King and published by E. C. Biddle in Philadelphia in 1838. Tahchee's name translates to Dutch in Cherokee, and he became known as William Dutch. He was born in 1790 in the Cherokee Nation, which is now in a portion of Alabama. Tahchee became known as a skilled warrior and leader among his people, and he was eventually appointed as a chief of the Cherokee Nation "Old Settlers". During his time as chief, Tahchee was a rival of the Osage people and he worked to protect the Cherokee people and their land from encroachment by white settlers. He was a strong advocate for maintaining Cherokee sovereignty and cultural traditions, even as pressure mounted from the United States government to remove the Cherokee from their ancestral lands. In 1838, Tahchee and many other Cherokee people were forcibly removed from their homes in what is known as the Trail of Tears...

This is an original 19th century hand-colored McKenney and Hall lithograph of a Native American entitled "Not-Chi-Mi-Ne, An Ioway Chief ",...

This hand-colored botanical mezzotint and line engraving by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741) is entitled "Pisum Mapis flore pupureo". It is plate 818 in Weinmann's monumental publ...

This Holiday wreath adorns the door of a Brooklyn Mansion Frederick Mershimer (American, b. 1958) Moody, mysterious, majestic – these are some of the ways to describe the mezzotint...

This is an original 19th century hand-colored McKenney and Hall lithograph of a Native American entitled "Tah-Ro-Hon, An Ioway Warrior", lithographed by J. T. Bowen after a painting by Charles Bird King and published by Rice and Hart & Co. in Philadelphia in 1848. For his portrait Tah-Ro-Hon is wearing a feathered multicolored headdress, long ornamental earrings, a chain necklace, a presidential piece medal on a ribbon necklace and he holds a multicolored staff with feathers. This original McKenney and Hall hand-colored lithograph is printed on a sheet measuring 10" high and 7" wide. There is a tiny spot of red paint adjacent to a red feather hanging...

This is an original 19th century hand-colored folio-sized lithographic portrait of a Native American entitled "Qua-Ta-Wa-Pea, A Shawanoe Chief", from McKenney and Hall's 'History of the Indian Tribes of North America'. It was lithographed by J. T. Bowen after a painting by Charles Bird King and published by E. C. Biddle in Philadelphia in 1836. Quatawapea wears a maroon head covering, a white ruffled shirt and blue shawl with gray trim. His presidential peace medal is attached to a maroon fabric...

This is an original 19th century hand-colored McKenney and Hall lithograph of a Native American entitled "Ap-Pa-Noo-Se, A Saukie Chief", lithographed by J. T. Bowen after a painting by Charles Bird King and published by Rice and Hart & Co. in Philadelphia in 1848. For his portrait Ap-Pa-Noo-Se (A Chief When a Child) is wearing a feathered headdress, long ornamental earrings, multiple chain necklaces...