Blanche Lazzell - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, October 24, 2023 | Phillips

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  • While living in Paris from 1912 to 1913, Blanche Lazzell would have been keenly aware of Henri Matisse and the Fauve-inspired modernism, generated by the liberation of color, practiced by the artist and his followers. Like others who flocked from Europe to Provincetown at the outbreak of World War I, Lazzell brought her modernist inspiration with her to the tip of Cape Cod. Her particular adaptation to the white-line woodcut methodology that came to define the Provincetown Print enabled her to produce impressions of varying colors and intensities, resulting in designs that share a commonality with Matisse and his own experimentations with color and form. The Red Quill is an exceptional reflection of the aesthetics Lazzell absorbed in France: the intricate pattern of the tablecloth, multitude of unnaturalistic colors, and utilization of a flattened perspective transform the still life composition into a cacophony of shape, color, and line similar to that of Matisse’s own 1908  painting The Dessert: Harmony in Red (The Red Room), both exhibiting triumphs of pattern and decoration. 

    • Exhibited

      Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, From Paris to Provincetown: Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, January 23 - April 29, 2002 (this impression)
      The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, From Paris to Provincetown: Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, May 19 - July 28, 2002 (this impression)
      Elvehjem Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, From Paris to Provincetown: Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, September 7 - November 3, 2002 (this impression)

    • Literature

      John Clarkson block 28
      Barbara Stern Shapiro, Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut, 2002, cat. no. 18, p. 16 (this impression)

Property from a Distinguished Maryland Estate

13

The Red Quill (C. bl. 28)

1920
White-line woodcut in colors, on laid paper, with margins.
I. 11 1/2 x 11 7/8 in. (29.2 x 30.2 cm)
S. 15 3/4 x 15 1/2 in. (40 x 39.4 cm)

Signed and titled in pencil, additionally signed and dated in the image, Clarkson records 2 impressions based on the artist's record book, framed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Sold for $9,525

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Editions@phillips.com
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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 24-26 October 2023