Mar 05, 2020 - Sale 2532

Sale 2532 - Lot 163

Price Realized: $ 11,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 8,000 - $ 12,000
MARTIN LEWIS
Fifth Avenue Bridge.

Drypoint, 1928. 253x303 mm; 9 7/8x12 inches, full margins. Edition of 108. Signed and inscribed "imp." in pencil, lower right. A superb, luminous, richly-inked impression.

Lewis (1881-1962) produced 32 prints between 1915 and 1920 before leaving for Japan. He cut short his stay in 1922 due to difficulty learning the language and limited commercial success for his work. Though brief, this sojourn to Japan proved indispensable to his artistic development. His exposure to Japanese aesthetics influenced his printmaking after his return to America (he produced no prints in Japan, only watercolors and oils), as he honed his ability to imbue the mundane with the extraordinary--to take the simple moments he witnessed around New York City, as well as his country home in nearby Connecticut, and capture their profundity and beauty in etchings and drypoints. McCarron 72.