19th, 20th & 21st Century Fine Prints
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The Gothic Spire (after Feininger) by Lyonel Feininger
The Gothic Spire (after Feininger)
Lyonel Feininger
The Gothic Spire (after Feininger)
Lyonel Feininger
1871 - 1956This screenprint was done on behalf of Feininger by artist and printer Esther Gentle for the Willard Gallery in New York in the early 1950's. Willard Gallery published a number of serigraphs of paintings by artists represented by the gallery and could be sold for between $10 and 25.00. The works were hand printed and, in many cases, were hard to distinguish from original watercolors without detailed examination. The prints were not editioned though appear to have been done in printings of between 100 and 200. All the prints were done with the permission and input from the artist, though they did not actually work on the matrix.
Esther Gentle (American: 1899 - 1991) studied art at the Art Students League of New York. Her first exhibited works of art were representational in nature, but by the end of the Second World War she emerged as one of New York’s leading abstractionists. In this regard, she was partly influenced by the famous abstract painter, Abraham Rattner (1895-1978), whom she married at this time. Gentle had worked in the screenprinting division of the WPA and, after the end of the WPA, reproduced artists' works in screenprint/pochoir for sale in gift stores, etc., through Esther Gentle Reproductions.
During the 1950’s, Esther Gentle was important not only as an artist of the New York scene but as a gallery director. The Esther Gentle Gallery opened in Manhattan in 1951. Among its more important shows was a 1954 one man exhibition of the watercolours and paintings of her friend, the author, Henry Miller.