Golden Gate

 

Joseph Morris Raphael

  1869 - 1950 (biography)

c. 1937  

color whte line woodcut with additional hand coloring 

13 1/4 x 20 7/8" image and paper size 

pencil signed "Joe Raphael" in image, lower right; artist's monogram, right center 

edition not stated, each proof unique 

ink titled above signature; artist's red monogram above title 

 

fibrous wove 

proof 

artist 

23412 

SOLD

Joseph Morris Raphael created this woodblock print shortly after the completion of the Golden Gate Bridge, a one and three quarter mile suspension bridge connecting San Francisco with Marin County to the north. This view is from the San Francisco side looking east to the Berkeley Hills. The bridge was engineered by Joseph Strauss and is an Art Deco suspension bridge with truss arch and truss causeways. When it was built, the Golden Gate Bridge was the tallest and the longest suspension bridge in the world and, today, it is perhaps the most photographed bridge in the world. The ships west of the bridge have exited the San Francisco Bay and are heading out to the Pacific Ocean. Raphael used graphic, black and white images for his early woodcuts. At some point in the 1930s, he learned the white-line technique, possibly from Cora Boone or W.S. Rice and began utilizing it in a very expressionist way, painting directly on the block and adding watercolor highlights by hand. Each impression will vary in color. Raphael's color woodcuts are very scarce