Philip Kappel "Cartagena Harbor" Signed Original American Etching Art Print

Description: Philip Kappel American, 1901–1981 Cartagena Harbor, 1937 51 x 41.6 cm framed, 25 x 20 cm image Cartagena Harbor is a tranquil composition depicting a quiet day at Cartagena harbor, located on the northern coast of Colombia on the Caribbean coast. The city of Cartagena was a Spanish colony and an important port as it was defensible against pirate attacks from the Caribbean. Kappel, who visited the city on his sailing voyages, describes with great sensitivity the striking contrasts of bright sun and dark shadow through the alternating use of meticulously layered crosshatching and empty passages of white, exposed paper. The print was published by Associated American Artists (AAA) and retains original AAA descriptive label. Cartagena Harbor was printed in an edition of 250. Please see my other listings for more fine prints. Condition: This is a fine impression of Cartagena Harbor. This may be an early impression as suggested by the richness of the drypoint, visible in the darkest passages including the interior of the small boat in the middle ground. The fuzzy drypoint captures the depth of the shadows and vividly conveys the atmosphere of the sun-bleached scene. Etching is in pristine condition. It is matted and framed and displays beautifully with no rips, tears, holes, or repairs. Please look closely at the photographs. Not examined outside of frame. About the artist: Philip Kappel was an American printmaker and illustrator best remembered for his etchings and drypoint depictions of ships and sailors as well as New England landscapes and seascapes. In addition to the Northeastern coast of the United States, Kappel also etched Mediterranean, North African, Venezuelan, and Columbian subjects, like Cartagena Harbor. Philip Kappel was born in 1901 in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended high school in Hartford before graduating from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1924. In addition to creating original fine art, Kappel taught art at the Boothbay Studios in Boothbay Harbor, Maine during the summers of 1923 and 1924. The studios—which operated as a school during the summer—were founded in 1921 by the American Impressionists Frank Leonard Allen and Henry Bayley Snell. Kappel also studied with marine artist Philip Little in Salem, Massachusetts and was employed as an artist by several American steamship lines and shipping companies. He made six trips around the world on sailing vessels to find inspiration for his etchings. At age 26 Kappel became the youngest person ever admitted to "Who's Who in America." Kappel illustrated a variety of books, many with nautical themes, including F. DeWitt Wells’s The Last Cruise of the Shanghai (1925), William Richart Hayward’s and Gerald W. Johnson’s The Story Of Man's Work (1925), J. P Marquand’s Lord Timothy Dexter of Newburyport, Mass. (1925), Charles William Taussig’s Rum, Romance & Rebellion (1928), Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe’s Yankee Ballads (1930), and Frank Shay’s A Little Book of Vagabond Songs: Poems of the Hills and Sea (1931). Additionally, Kappel contributed art to travel books and magazines, including Yachting. Kappel knew Helen Keller for over thirty years and executed numerous drawings and prints in and around her home, including a drypoint etching of her house on Arcan Ridge in Easton, Connecticut. Kappel’s embrace of the unique qualities of the medium of drypoint etching is revealed in a letter discussing Keller’s interaction with this copper printing plate itself: “..by the very nature of the lines in the plate which are raised, her sensitive fingers gave her a true picture of the house by running her fingers over the copper lines!” Kappel also lectured on art and antiques and was an authority on Chinese porcelain, Japanese art and American and English period furniture. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Trinity College in Hartford in 1966 and the Pratt Institute’s alumni medal in 1967. He was a member of numerous leading graphic arts associations of his day including the Chicago Society Etchers and the Society of American Etchers. His etchings and drypoints are in numerous major American museums as well as as the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. He had a home and studio in New Milford, Connecticut and at the end of his life lived in Roxbury, Connecticut. He died at the age of 80 in 1981.

Price: 125 USD

Location: Maryville, Tennessee

End Time: 2024-12-10T20:53:08.000Z

Shipping Cost: 25 USD