Rudolph Ruzicka

The Brooklyn Bridge

1915

Signed (at lower right): C A Walker

Unframed

In 1852, twenty-nine year old William Bradford was a failing shopkeeper in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. With a wife and child at home, Bradford, by his own admission, “spent too much time in painting to succeed” in business. Rescued from insolvency by his well-to-do in-laws, this is not the beginning of a narrative that generally leads to a happy ending. Not so with Bradford, who ultimately found international fame and fortune as a painter of arctic seascapes and dramatic marine paintings. William Bradford, the artist, was a lineal descendant of the 17th-century Separatist leader William Bradford, a founder of the Plymouth Plantation, signer of the Mayflower Compact and Governor of the Plymouth Colony. Our Bradford born to a New Bedford ship outfitter in Fairhaven, Massachusetts By the nineteenth century, this line of Bradfords were Quakers, living on the tract purchased nearly two centuries earlier by their pilgrim ancestor. Fairhaven, across the mouth of the Acushnet River from the whaling center of New Bedford was described by a New York journalist in 1857 as “the Brooklyn of New Bedford” (Home Journal, January 3, 1857). Young Bradford displayed an early predilection for the arts, but his Quaker parents were disinclined to support this particular pursuit. After working in his father’s business and then for a dry goods merchant in New Bedford, by 1849 Bradford had set up in New Bedford as a “merchant tailor” offering outfits for “those going to California,” “seamen’s clothing,” custom-tailored “piece goods...

Signed (at lower right): FJK

William Mason Brown was born in Troy, New York, where he studied for several years with local artists, including the leading portraitist there, Abel Buel Moore. In 1850, he moved to ...

Oil and India ink on canvas, 34 1/4 x 54 1/4 in. Signed (at lower right): Joseph Lee Painted about 1876 EX COLL.: Captain Oscar Conrad Kustel (1834–1921), ...

Lawrence Nelson Wilbur, 'Gloucester Harbor', drypoint, 1940. Signed, dated, and titled in pencil. Signed in the plate, lower right. Annotated 'PERSONAL...

This artwork titled 'Winter Tracery (Milford Connecticut)" is an original drypoint etching by noted American artist Philip Kappel, 1901-1981. It is hand signed and titled in pencil by the artist. The plate mark (Image) size is 9 x 12 inches, framed size is 17.25 x 21.25 inches. Custom framed in a wooden light grey frame, with light grey matting and black color fillet. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Philip Kappel — painter, illustrator, printer, writer, and lecturer — was born on February 10, 1901 in Hartford, CT and died in 1981. Kappel is best remembered for his landscapes, portraits, figures, marine, lithography, and etching. He held a teaching position with H. B. Snell, Boothbay, ME Studios, 1923 and 1924. His addresses in 1929 were 500 Fifth Avenue in New York City and, for the summer, care of Philip Little, 10 Chestnut Street, Salem, MA; and in 1935, Sarasota, FL. Kappel was a pupil of the Pratt Institute Art School in Brooklyn, NY and Philip Little (1857-1942) and held memberships with the North Shore Artists Association in Gloucester, MA; the Marblehead...

Frank Arthur Nankivell (18691959), [Walking in the Woods at Night], drypoint, c. 1910, signed in pencil lower right. Printed on a cream laid paper. In good condition, with margins (s...

Armin Landeck, '12th Street Walls', etching, edition 100, first state, 1944, Kraeft 93. Signed in pencil. Initialed in the plate lower left. A superb, early impression, with all the ...

A superb, richly-inked, early impression, in warm black ink, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with wide margins (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches). Signed in pencil and dedicated by the art...

Reginald Marsh (1896-1954), Jersey City Landscape, etching and engraving, 1939, signed in pencil lower right [also signed and dated in the plate]. Referenc...