Thursday 24 April 2014

Mabel Dwight - part 2


For biographical notes on Mabel Dwight ( 1876-1955) and for earlier works, see part 1 also.

This is part 2 of a 2-part post on the works of Mabel Dwight:



1931 In the Crowd 
lithograph on stone 23.5  x 29.7 cm 
Edition of 32 printed by George Miller

1931 Kittens 
lithograph on stone 24.5 x 31.7 cm 
Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1931 Life Class 
lithograph on stone 24.8 x 34.3 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1931 Night Work 
lithograph on stone 25.4 x 19.3 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1931 Winter, Central Park 
lithograph 24.8 x 29.1 cm 
Edition of 24 printed by George Miller

1932 Abstract Thinking 
lithograph on stone 24.3 x 26.1 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1932 Book Auction 
lithograph on stone 18.7 x 21.6 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1932 Tight Rope Walker 
lithograph on stone 31.8 x 18.2 cm 
Edition of 35 printed by George Miller

1933 Danse Macabre
Death, a skeleton in a helmet and gas mask is the audience for marionettes representing (left to right) John Bull (England), who mops his brow in bewilderment; Mussolini, his right arm raised in a fascist salute; Hitler, in full armour, saluting with one hand and holding a severed head in the other; The female personification of France; China, struck by Japan; and Uncle Sam, hands raised in a gesture of disgust and distance.

1933 Danse Macabbre ( Dance of Death ) 
lithograph on stone 23.9 x 34.6 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller on the Public Works of Art Project

1934 Convent Garden
 lithograph on stone 25 x 33.1 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller on the Public Works of Art Project

1934 Group in Central Park 
lithograph on stone 26 x 24.9 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller on the Public Works of Art Project

1934 New Mexico Interior 
lithograph on stone 34.2 x 24.7 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller on the Public Works of Art Project

1934 Old American Mansion
This is the first of four lithographs Dwight made for the Public Works of Art Project. Annotations indicate an edition of 10 was printed though generally PWAP prints were produced in editions of 50.

1934 Old American Mansion 
lithograph on stone 32.5 x 42.5 cm 
Edition of 10

1934 Sunday Afternoon 
lithograph on stone 25.9 x 31.9 cm 
Edition of 15

1934 White Mansion 
lithograph on stone 27.8 x 38.8 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1934c Untitled 
watercolour 36.8 x 38.7 cm 
Private Collection

1935 Merchants of Death 
lithograph on stone 20.6 x 33 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1935 Nova Scotia
 lithograph on stone 25.2 x 31 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1935 Rain 
lithograph on stone 25.5 x 35.4 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1936 Banana Men 
lithograph on stone 34.5 x 42.2 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project


1936 Childrens Clinic II 
lithograph on stone 24.3 x 30.2 cm 
Edition of 15 printed by George Miller

1936 Feeding the Ducks 
lithograph on stone 23.8 x 26.9 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1936 General Seminary
 lithograph on stone 35.9 x 25.2 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1936 Mulberry Street Marionettes 
lithograph on stone 25.2 x 35.3 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1936 Museum Guard 
lithograph on stone 35 x 25.8 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1936 Ninth Avenue Church
 lithograph on stone 36 x 25.4 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1936 Old Aquarium 
lithograph on stone 25.2 x 35.6 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1936 Queer Fish 
lithograph on stone 27.2 x 33 cm 
Edition of 20 printed by George Miller

1937 Cliffs by the Sea 
lithograph on stone 24.9 x 31.7 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1937 Lonely House 
lithograph on stone 24.6 x 35 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1937 Montauk Lighthouse 
lithograph on stone 24.9 x 31.7 cm 
Edition 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1937 Toy Shop, Staten Island 
lithograph on stone 34.1 x 24 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1938 Backyard 
lithograph on stone 35.7 x 25.1 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1938 In Central Park 
lithograph on stone 25 x 34.9 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939 Barnyard 
lithograph on stone 29.7 x 20.4 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Arts Project

1939 Boy Resting 
lithograph on stone 31.2 x 15.6 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939 Buried Treasure 
lithograph on stone 32 x 25.1 cm
 Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939 Christmas Tree
 lithograph on stone 26 x 34.4 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939 Headed South 
lithograph on stone 32.7 x 24.1 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939 Peanut Philanthropists
 lithograph on stone 33.2 x 23.4 cm 
Two known impressions

1939 Silence
 lithograph on stone 19.4 x 29.2 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939 Summer Night 
lithograph on stone 22 x 28 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939 Train Station 
lithograph on stone 34.1 x 22.6 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by the Federal Art Project

1939c R.R. Waiting Room 
lithograph on stone 23.1 x 30.2 cm 
Two known impressions

1945 Winter 
lithograph on stone 23.9 x 34 cm 
Four known impressions printed by George Miller

1947 Farmyard 
lithograph on stone 25.2 x 27.3 cm
 Edition of 250 published by Associated American Artists 
( George Miller printed most lithographs published by AAA )

Monday 21 April 2014

Mabel Dwight - part 1

1932 Self-Portrait 
lithograph on stone 26.9 x 21 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

Though Mabel Dwight studied art in her youth, she emerged relatively late in life as a noted satirist of contemporary American life, particularly focused on New York, where she lived.

Mabel Jacque Williamson (1876 – 1955) was born in Cincinatti, Ohio. She spent her childhood in New Orleans and California and studied at San Francisco’s Mark Hopkins Institute of Art (now San Francisco Art Institute), after which she travelled extensively in France, Italy, India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Egypt and Java. In 1903 she settled in Greenwich Village, New York, enclave of bohemian artists and writers at the time. She married social realist painter and printmaker Eugene Higgins (1874 – 1958) in 1906 and spent much of the next decade promoting her Higgins’ art, but they separated in 1917 and divorced in 1921. Higgins is these days grouped with the famous New York “Ashcan School” style of works.


Eugene Higgins "Poor Folks" 
mezzotint 
Harvard Art Museums - Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA

Eugene Higgins 
untitled 
charcoal drawing

In 1918 Mabel became the secretary of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s newly established Studio Club, promoting contemporary American art, and evolving into the present-day Whitney Museum of American Art. Following her divorce from Higgins in 1921 Mabel adopted the surname Dwight, for unknown reasons.

1898 Sketch Club Catalogue by Mabel ( Williamson ) Dwight

In 1926 aged fifty-two Mabel Dwight visited Paris, where she discovered her true medium, lithography. Her first lithographs were produced at Atelier Duchâtel, and her first solo exhibition of prints and drawings took place in 1928 at the Weyhe Gallery, New York – a gallery specializing in prints, founded by Erhard Wehe (in 1919) and managed by Carl Zigrosser (see 1930 lithograph below). It was through this medium – producing 111 limted edition lithographic prints – that she was able to express her vision of the comedie humaine, recording the everyday life and foibles of her fellow New Yorkers.


During the Depression her work became more serious and politically charged, creating anti-fascist images and participating in the New Deal’’s Federal Art Project, for which she produced  twenty-five lithographs highlighting urban social and political issues. By this time she was finding success amongst both collectors and museums. Unfortunately her artistic ability declined off after 1941 due to failing health. She spent her last years writing her autobiography, which was never published.

This is part 1 of a 2 - part post on the work of Mabel Dwight:


1927 Basque Church 
lithograph on stone in three colours, printed on chine collé 39.6 x 32.2 cm 
Edition of 30 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Boulevard des Italiens ( aka Cafe, Boulevard des Italiens ) 
transfer lithograph on stone 24.6 x 32.4 cm 
Edition of 12 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Bouquiniste( s ) 
transfer lithograph on stone 25 x 32.4 cm 
Edition of 20 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Bridge in Paris 
transfer lithograph on stone 24.8 x 22.3 cm 
Edition of 6 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Copyists at the Louvre 
transfer lithograph on stone 24.3 x 32.4 cm 
Edition of 12 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Guignolette ( Paris ) 
hand-coloured lithograph on stone 22.2 x 29.6 cm 
Edition of 75 printed by George Miller

1927 Guignolette II 
lithograph on stone 22.5 x 27.6 cm 
Edition of 12 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 In the Subway 
lithograph on stone 23.5 x 18.4 cm 
Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1927 Paris Pension 
lithograph on stone printed on chine collé 24.1 x 31.4 cm 
Edition of 6

1927 Paris Sketches ( aka Paris Types ) 
lithograph on stone printed on chine collé 31.9 x 22.7 cm 
Edition of 6

1927 Paris Street 
transfer lithograph on stone 29.8 x 23.2 cm 
Edition of 6 printed at Duchatel, Paris

1927 Toy Shop Window 
colour lithograph 23.9 x 30.6 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 "Stick 'em Up" ( aka Cinema ) 
lithograph on stone 26.2 x 25.9 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Aquarium ( One of two known hand-coloured versions ) 
lithograph on stone 28.4 x 31 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Aquarium 
lithograph on stone 28.4 x 31 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Brothers 
lithograph on zinc plate 31.5 x 24.9 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Deserted Mansion 
lithograph on zinc plate 28.9 x 24.5 cm 
Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1928 Fish ( aka Aquarium ) 
lithograph on stone in two colours 26.1 x 27.3 cm 
Edition of 60 printed by George Miller

1928 Greetings from the House of Weyhe ( Art Gallery Christmas Card ) 
lithograph on stone 17.8 x 21.4 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Hat Sale - $1.98 
lithograph on zinc plate 30.7 x 25.5 cm 
Edition of 25 printed by George Miller

1928 Houston Street Burlesque 
lithograph on stone 24.7 x 20 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 In the Park 
lithograph on zinc plate 27.8 x 23.2 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 Mechano Marvel of the Age 
lithograph on stone in three colours 31.2 x 23.6 cm 
Edition of 50 ( 38 colour, 12 black ) printed by George Miller

1928 Portrait of Roderick Seidenberg 
lithograph on stone 24.4 x 20.7 cm 
Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1928 The Clinch ( first state ) 
lithograph on stone 23 x 29.6 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 The Clinch ( second state ) 
lithograph on stone 23 x 29.6 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 The Family 
lithograph on stone 20.1 x 25.6 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1928 The Ocean, Coney Island 
lithograph on stone 22.4 x 25.5 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1932 Coney Island Beach 
hand-coloured lithograph 22.4 x 25.7 cm 
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC

1928 Tourists in the Crypt at Chartres
 lithograph on stone 23.5 x 25.5 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1929 Dusk 
lithograph on stone 33.2 x 24.6 cm 
Edition of 100 printed by George Miller

1929 Harlem Rent Party 
lithograph on stone 26 x 30.2 cm 
Edition of 44 printed by George Miller

1929 Old Greenwich Village 
lithograph on zinc plate 24 x 23.9 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1929 The Survivor, Staten Island 
lithograph on stone 25.3 x 35 cm 
Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1930 Circus 
lithograph on stone 34 x 23.9 cm 
Edition of 55 printed by George Miller

1930 Ferry Boat ( aka On the Ferry Boat ) 
lithograph on stone 23.3 x 25.7 cm 
Edition of 60 printed by George Miller

1930 Portrait of Carl Zigrosser  
lithograph on stone 33.6 x 28.7 cm 
Edition of 50 printed by George Miller

1930 Portrait of Paul Robeson 
lithograph on stone in five colours 37.6 x 32.9 
Edition of 100 ( 75 colour, 25 black ) printed by George Miller

1930 The Great Trapeze Act 
lithograph on stone 22 x 34.3 cm 
Edition of 30 printed by George Miller

1931 Derelicts
 lithograph on stone 24.7 x 31.5 cm 
Edition of 40 printed by George Miller

1931 Fishing Village
 lithograph on stone 23.5 x 28.1 cm 
Edition of 24 printed by George Miller