Etching 1916 - No. II - 1916, Drypoint.

Roethel 154. Edition 10. Signed, titled, and numbered No 9 in pencil. Initialed in the plate, lower right.

Image size 4 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches (124 x 83 mm); sheet size 17 1/2 x 13 inches (445 x 330 mm).

A fine impression, with rich burr, on heavy cream wove paper; the full sheet with minor soiling and creasing at the sheet edges, otherwise in excellent condition. Very scarce.

Kandinsky had already moved decisively toward an abstract idiom all his own, and had established his reputation internationally by the time he created this drypoint. Before this his involvement with printmaking was mostly in woodcuts; much of this work had clearly identifiable imagery. But by 1911 he had (with Franz Marc) founded the Blaue Reiter group, and had written (although not published) his famed On the Spiritual in Art, a treatise which helps explain the meaning and force of the shapes and lines found in this fascinating and complex drypoint.

$42,000.

Kleine Welten IX (Small Worlds) - 1922, Drypoint.

Roethel 172. Edition 200. Signed in pencil. The artist's monogram in the plate, lower left.

Image size 9 5/16 x 7 3/4 inches (237 x 197 mm); sheet size 11 7/8 x 10 9/16 inches (302 x 268 mm).

A fine impression, on heavy cream wove paper, with full margins (1 1/8 to 1 3/8 inches). A small loss and glue stain recto, in the top right sheet corner, well away from the image; hinge remains in the top left sheet corner verso; otherwise in excellent condition.

From the series Kleine Welten (Small Worlds), considered to be among Kandinsky’s most important works of his Bauhaus period. Published by Propylaen Verlag, Berlin.

Collections: National Gallery of Australia, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco.

SOLD

Etching for Stephen Spender (Fraternity) - 1939, Drypoint.

Roethel 202. Edition 113. Signed in pencil. Monogrammed in the plate, lower left.

Image size 4 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches (124 x 83 mm); sheet size 17 1/2 x 13 inches (445 x 330 mm).

A fine impression, on Montvale ivory laid paper, with a partial 'woman bathing' watermark, the full sheet, in very good condition.

Published by Atelier 17, Paris, in a portfolio of engravings by eight artists including Joan Miro, John Buckland-Wright, Joseph Hecht, and others. Stephen Spender was the renowned British writer and poet. After the Bauhaus closed in 1933, Kandinsky moved to Paris where he made only 6 prints.

$16,000.