Martin Lewis Original Etching, 1928 - “Rain on Murray Hill”

Name: Martin Lewis Original Etching, 1928 - “Rain on Murray Hill”
Brand: Martin Lewis
Price: 29000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Original drypoint in mint condition printed in greenish black ink on wove paper by well-known New York artist and printmaker Martin Lewis (1881-1962). The print is signed in pencil lower right. McCarron #75. Edition of 100. Image measures: 7 7/8" H x 11 7/8" W. Sheet size is: 11 1/16"h x 15 1/4"w. Presents in a 4-ply museum mat measuring: 16 x 20 inches. Created 1928. Born in Castlemaine, Australia, Martin Lewis (1881-1962) became, in the 1920s and 1930s, one of the major print makers in the United States completing approximately 143 prints between 1915 and 1945. He also painted on canvas, but his graphics are regarded as his best work. He trained in Sydney, and emigrated to the United States in 1900. After a trip in 1910 to San Francisco, he decided to settle in New York where he was excited about the rhythms of city life. In 1915, largely self taught, he made his first etching and also pursued drypoint. From 1920 to 1922, he lived in Japan, and that experience influenced his work. In 1934, he and lithographer George Miller organized a printmaking school in New York, and Lewis taught at the Art Students League from 1944 to 1951. Images of New York City filled his prints featuring industry, commerce, and immigrant life. Like artist Edward Hoppper, Lewis especially liked night scenes, which offered him the chance to show light and shadow. He lived and worked in New York City most of his life and died there in 1962.

Creator:

Martin Lewis (Artist)

Dimensions:

Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 0.07 in (1.78 mm)

Materials and Techniques:

Paper

Period:

Early 20th Century

Date of Manufacture:

1928

Condition:

Seller Location:

Phoenix, AZ

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU1875337917202

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Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis was born in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, on June 7th, 1881. He was the second of eight children and had a passion for drawing.

At the age of 15, Lewis left home and traveled in New South Wales, Australia, and in New Zealand, working as a pothole digger and a merchant seaman. He returned to Sydney and settled into a Bohemian community outside Sydney. Two of his drawings were published in the radical Sydney newspaper, The Bulletin. He studied with Julian Ashton at the Art Society's School in Sydney. Ashton was an English-born Australian artist and teacher known for his support of the Heidelberg School and for his influential art school in Sydney.

In 1900, Lewis left Australia for the United States. His first job was in San Francisco, painting stage decorations for William McKinley's presidential campaign of 1900. By 1909, Lewis was living in New York, where he found work in commercial illustration. His earliest known etching is dated 1915. However, the level of skill in this piece suggests he had been working in the medium for some time previously. It was during this period that he helped Edward Hopper learn the basics of etching.

In 1920, after the breakup of a romance, Lewis traveled to Japan, where for two years he drew and painted and studied Japanese art. The influence of Japanese prints is very evident in Lewis's prints after that period. In 1925, he returned to etching and produced most of his well-known works between 1925 and 1935. Lewis's first solo exhibition in 1929 was successful enough for him to give up commercial work and concentrate entirely on printmaking.

Lewis is most famous for his black and white prints, mostly of night scenes of non-tourist, real-life street scenes of New York City. During the Depression, however, he was forced to leave the city for four years between 1932 and 1936 and move to Newtown, Connecticut. His work from this period includes a number of rural, night-time, and winter landscape scenes in this area.

Lewis returned to Manhattan in 1936 and continued to etch and paint. He taught printmaking at the Art Students League of New York from 1944 until his retirement in 1952. Now he is considered one of the most important American printmakers of the twentieth century.

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(Biography provided by Allinson Gallery, Inc.)