Mass for the Dead (The Bridge of San Luis Rey) ---1934, Lithograph.

Edition 12. Signed, dated, titled, numbered III – XII, and annotated The Bridge of San Luis Rey in pencil, lower left margin.

Image size 13 13/16 x 9 9/16 inches (351 x 243 mm); sheet size 18 x 13 13/16 inches (457 x 351 mm)

A fine, richly-inked impression, on cream wove paper; the full sheet with margins (2 to 2 1/8 inches); a small spot of discoloration in the bottom center margin, well away from the image, otherwise in excellent condition.

This rare, powerfully composed modernist lithograph was inspired by Thornton Wilder’s 1927 philosophical novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which won the 1928 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. The composition is dominated by soaring vertical forms that evoke the vast interior of the Cathedral of Lima, where a Mass is offered for the victims of the catastrophic collapse of the Peruvian rope bridge. High above the assembled mourners stands the Franciscan friar Brother Juniper. His outstretched arms echo the partially seen monumental figure of the crucified Christ behind him as he confronts the central question of Wilder’s novel: whether seemingly arbitrary human tragedy can be reconciled with divine intention. Below, the compressed gathering of hooded mourners forms a dark, undulating mass, their faces turned upward into the vast, shadowed space. Guthrie’s contrasts in scale, compressed perspective, and towering shafts of light and darkness transform the cathedral into a metaphysical space. Brother Juniper, suspended between the suffering humanity below and the immense crucifix above, appears as a visual embodiment of his attempt to reconcile an intelligible order linking human fate and divine purpose.

$1200.