Lot 155
Lynd Ward (American, 1905-1985). "Undercliff." The Woodcut Society, New York. #34. 1948. Wood engraving on paper. James D. Havens (1900-1960). Including artist's foreward. Signed, dated in pencil on lower right margin. A fine woodcut engraving depicting a magical landscape of a rural town above the Palisades across the Hudson River. The piece is fitted in a quatrifold that features a narrative written by the artist. It begins, "For some fifteen years I lived in a small town whose many rural qualities, such as part-time mayor and volunteer fire departments, still belie its proximity to the big city. It stands atop the Palisades across from upper Manhattan, and a favorite walk of those of its residents who like walking, has for years been along paths that twist through trees and rocks close to the edge of the cliff." Size: 8" L x 6" W (20.3 cm x 15.2 cm)
Ward goes on to describe the view of the "jumbled parapets of New York, a view that in combining as it does so many elements of natural and man-made phenomena will, even after many years, still give a push to your basic metabolism." Three more paragraphs wax poetic about this locale.
According to his wife May Yonge McNeer, Ward first thought of becoming an artist when he discovered that the name Ward spelled Draw if turned backwards; he came to this realization in the first grade, and spent much of his childhood sketching. He attended Teachers College of Columbia University, majoring in Fine Arts, and married his classmate McNeer during the week of their graduation in 1926; the couple had two children. They honeymooned in Leipzig, Germany, where Ward studied at the State Academy of Graphic Arts until the spring of 1927.
Provenance: private Denver, Colorado, USA collection
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#129440
- Condition: Woodcut is taped onto portfolio at its upper corners, but the tape does not interfere with the image. Generally very good.
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