EDNA BOIES HOPKINS
Cineraria (Anemones; Purple Zinnias).
Color woodcut on Japan paper, 1915-17. 228x200 mm; 9x7 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 25-50 (Vasseur cites the highest recorded edition number on any of the known impressions of this subject as "18"). Signed and inscribed "No. 1" in pencil, lower margin. A superb impression of this very scarce woodcut with strong colors.We have found only one other impression at auction in the past 30 years.According to Vasseur, Hopkins (1872-1937) printed each of her color woodcuts, like many other practitioners of this technique in her day, as unique works of art and not an exact image as part of an edition. Furthermore, "The fact that each color in her prints had to be applied and transferred individually by hand may well have encouraged Hopkins to vary the colors she used. Indeed, one author has suggested that Hopkins's prints should more accurately be considered monoprints. Although most printmakers and scholars probably would not agree with this proposition, it is worth noting, because sometimes the colors of like images vary radically. Such color variations are by no means rare in Hopkins oeuvre; in fact, they are to be expected." Vasseur 27.