Print of the Day!! Monday, August 28, 2023: "Washington, Lincoln Memorial", color intaglio, ca. 1938, proof.

Print of the Day!! Monday, August 28, 2023 - March on Washington - 60 years ago today! By Czech-born American printmaker Max Pollak (1886-1970). I have attached a quick, personal memory of that day at the end of this post, for any who might be interested.

"Washington, Lincoln Memorial" is a color intaglio, an etching and aquatint, colored a la poupée, done around 1938 by Czech-born American printmaker Max Pollak (1886-1970). The platemark measures 15-5/8 x 14-5/8 inches and is pencil signed and titled by the artist beneath the image and has a drypoint remarque of the 99 foot marble sculpture of the 16th President. This impression was from the artist's wife's personal collection and has her red FPC (Friedl Pollak Collection) stamp in the lower-left corner. This color intaglio proof was printed by the artist on an cream vellum wove paper that measures 23-7/8 x 19-1/4 inches. The edition is presumed to be under 20. Our inventory number for this image is 22592.

This rare color intaglio by Max Pollak (1886-1970) is available from the gallery for $750.00. Contact the gallery with any condition or other questions. ?

Shipping costs will be discussed. California residents will have sales tax added. Out of state residents may be responsible for use tax, depending on state law.

Before settling permanently in Northern California in 1938 Max and Freidl Pollak traveled across the United States and Max chronicled their journey in a number of color aquatints including New York; Washington, DC; Detroit, Michigan; Cincinatti, Ohio; New Mexico, etc.

This loose, impressionistic color aquatint is of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, with the reflecting pool fading away at the right of the composition. Beneath the image, still within the platemark, Pollak added a drypoint remarque of the Lincoln sculpture that is barely visible between the center columns of the Memorial. The artist adds a number of figures on the steps in order to create a scale for the architecture.

The Lincoln Memorial is located on the west end of the National Mall and the Reflecting Pool, across from the Washington Monument. The Memorial was designed by Henry Bacon and the marble sculpture was designed by Daniel C. French in 1920 and carved by the brothers Piccirilli. The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day, May 30, 1922. It was at the Lincoln Memorial that Reverend Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to over 250,000 people. Max Pollak was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on February 27, 1886. As an infant his family moved to Vienna, Austria where he was raised and in 1902, at age sixteen, he entered the Vienna Academy of Art. There, he studied painting and printmaking under William Unger and Ferdinand Schmutzer. In 1912 he traveled to Italy, France, and Holland to study and paint. During the First World War, he was appointed official painter of the Austrian Army and documented the stark landscapes of the places where his battalion was stationed. On December 4, 1924 he married Friederike "Friedl" Knedel, daughter of Arnold Knedel and Bertha Schweinburg, who was born in Vienna in March of 1898. He and Friedl immigrated to the U.S. in 1927, arriving on December 16 in in New York and living for a time on the East Coast where Max traveled about and produced a series of color aquatints of New York, Cincinnati, and Detroit. His first exhibition at the 57th Street Art Gallery in New York was a commercial success and he was commissioned by Theodore Dreiser in 1929 to illustrate his book, My City, reproducing eight of Pollak's color aquatints of Manhattan. In 1938, Max and Friedl moved to San Francisco, California. Pollak was inspired by his new city and its environs and produced views of San Francisco neighborhoods, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Sausalito. Later travels included frequent trips to Mexico and Guatemala in the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. Pollak was equally facile working in drypoint, aquatint, and soft ground etching. One of his specialties was portraiture and he produced a number of drypoints of noteworthy people and dancers throughout his career, among his most famous a 1914 portrait of Sigmund Freud at his desk surrounded by his antiquities. Freud would later become his friend and purchased several works by his fellow Austrian. To purchase this work or read a biography for Max Pollak use this link: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/artist/1894/Pollak/Max

Use this link to view our complete inventory on our website: https://www.annexgalleries.com/inventory/ A personal note regarding this date in 1963: It was 60 years ago today, August 28, I awoke as the the sun rose. I was in a tent on the National Mall in Washington DC. I had come to DC with a group of friends from the University of Wisconsin in Madison to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Because of circumstances I had been separated from my companions and ended up on the Mall by myself, and I found refuge with a group of volunteers who had been helping with the setting up for the crowds at the march the next day. After finding donuts and coffee I was recruited into the crew as a "monitor" and was supposed to help the incoming bus-loads locate their places and connect with their comrades - there were hundreds of buses from around the US and tens of thousands of people, many of whom were "lost" and needing orientation - including me. I had had NO idea of how large the crowd was to be and had never felt such an excited energy - the air was alive in anticipation of the day and Dr. King and the others did not disappoint. I won't go on about that day and the following couple of days except that they changed my life profoundly and forever, and I am so grateful. Sometimes I feel we, as a nation, have come a long way in the last 60 years and yet, when I read the news, I am not sure we have crawled an inch closer to true equality, and in many ways we have backslid a century or more. All I can hope is that more of the next generation becomes "woke" in the true sense of the word as Leadbelly used it in 1939 in his song about the nine Scottsboro Boys. ?