RAPHAEL SOYER The Mission . Lithograph, 1933. 310x452 mm; 12 1/4x17 3/4 inches, full margins. Edition of 25. Signed twice in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression of this very scarce, early lithograph. Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) and twin brother Moses were born in southern Russia into a liberal, intellectual family. They were joined by four siblings before the Soyer family was forced to leave their home by Russian authorities in 1912 and subsequently emigrated to America. Both brothers fostered an early interest in art and, when their mother gave them money for a small etching press in 1917, they enthusiastically began to make prints in their small New York apartment. Raphael attended the Cooper Union and continued his artistic studies at the National Academy of Design in 1918, discovering art history through lectures and perusing the Academy's library (where he fostered an affinity for Degas). In 1920, Raphael began to make lithographs under the instruction of the printer Jacob Friedland before studying with Guy Pène du Bois at the Art Students League a few years later. Soyer exhibited his work for the first time in 1926 at the Salons of America, and in 1932 the Whitney Museum bought one of his paintings (his first purchase by a museum). He began to exhibit increasingly in the 1930s and began to gain commercial success. Prior to this more widespread recognition, Raphael worked in a naïve style and recorded scenes from his personal life, capturing his immediate surroundings with friends and family as principal subjects. In the 1930s, he began to depict a more diverse range of subjects, ranging from the classic female nude to current events--episodes dominated by the Great Depression. Among Soyer's most celebrated lithographs, The Mission is a Depression-era view of homeless men in a New York soup kitchen (it is also commonly seen as a companion print to the equally important Bowery Nocturne , lithograph, from the same year, see Cole 28). Raphael was an avid printmaker throughout his career, loyally creating more than 250 lithographs and etchings for some 65 years. Cole 27.
RAPHAEL SOYER The Mission . Lithograph, 1933. 310x452 mm; 12 1/4x17 3/4 inches, full margins. Edition of 25. Signed twice in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression of this very scarce, early lithograph. Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) and twin brother Moses were born in southern Russia into a liberal, intellectual family. They were joined by four siblings before the Soyer family was forced to leave their home by Russian authorities in 1912 and subsequently emigrated to America. Both brothers fostered an early interest in art and, when their mother gave them money for a small etching press in 1917, they enthusiastically began to make prints in their small New York apartment. Raphael attended the Cooper Union and continued his artistic studies at the National Academy of Design in 1918, discovering art history through lectures and perusing the Academy's library (where he fostered an affinity for Degas). In 1920, Raphael began to make lithographs under the instruction of the printer Jacob Friedland before studying with Guy Pène du Bois at the Art Students League a few years later. Soyer exhibited his work for the first time in 1926 at the Salons of America, and in 1932 the Whitney Museum bought one of his paintings (his first purchase by a museum). He began to exhibit increasingly in the 1930s and began to gain commercial success. Prior to this more widespread recognition, Raphael worked in a naïve style and recorded scenes from his personal life, capturing his immediate surroundings with friends and family as principal subjects. In the 1930s, he began to depict a more diverse range of subjects, ranging from the classic female nude to current events--episodes dominated by the Great Depression. Among Soyer's most celebrated lithographs, The Mission is a Depression-era view of homeless men in a New York soup kitchen (it is also commonly seen as a companion print to the equally important Bowery Nocturne , lithograph, from the same year, see Cole 28). Raphael was an avid printmaker throughout his career, loyally creating more than 250 lithographs and etchings for some 65 years. Cole 27.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
