?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
SCARCE EARLY WORK BEN SHAHN Levana and our Ladies Sorrows.
Portfolio with 10 lithographs printed in sepia on Papier Ancien, and accompanying text booklet, 1931. 13 1/8x9 7/8 inches (sheets), full margins, loose as issued.
One of only 12 numbered copies, of a total edition of 212. Each print signed in pencil, lower margin. Signed by the artist and the publisher and numbered "1" in ink on the accompanying text booklet. Countersigned, dated and dedicated "To Phil Stern" in ink on the inside cover. Published by Philip van Doren Stern.
Original blue pasteboard portfolio covers with gold lettering. Covers faded with scattered wear.
A scarce example of the artist's earlier work as a printmaker. According to Prescott, "Shahn recalled that only about 10 copies were sold and that he destroyed the remainder of the edition in anger and frustration. There are records of portfolios at the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Princeton University Library." Prescott 87-96.
