LEO J. MEISSNER
Shine?
Linoleum cut, 1928. 302x213 mm; 12x8 inches, full margins. Signed, dated, titled and numbered 10/30 in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this scarce print.Meissner (1895-1977) was born in Michigan, studied at the Detroit Fine Art Academy, and after serving in France during World War I, won a scholarship to the Art Students League, New York, where he studied with George Luks and Robert Henri. Meissner worked as an illustrator as his career as a fine artist, and a printmaker in particular, progressed during the 1920s and 1930s. Like many fellow artists and contemporaries, Edward Hopper, William and Marguerite Zorach, Abraham Walkowitz, Rockwell Kent, and others, Meissner was drawn to the New England coast and, more specifically, Monhegan Island, which had been a retreat for American artists since the 19th century. While Meissner maintained a home in New York throughout his career, and depicted the urban lives and everyday scenes he witnessed around him, like the current work, he returned to Monhegan virtually every year for more than a half century to draw and paint the rugged coastline and its rocks, surf and sea.