Adolf Arthur Dehn (1896-1968) (artist and lithographer)
Venezuelan Village
Associated American Artists Galleries,
New York: 1946
Signed in pencil lower right
Limited edition lithograph, uncolored
9.25 x 13 inches, image
10.75 x 14.75 inches, overall
$475

Tranquil scene of a cluster of thatched roof houses on the banks of a cove in Venezuela, trees rising behind them.  A few villagers and their animals go about their routine.  The complex yet fluidly executed work shows the mastery of drawing technique that made Adolf Dehn one of the foremost lithographers of his day.  Dehn had traveled to Venezuela in 1944 and Associated American Artists, for whom he had long produced prints, issued it in 1946, some sources say in an edition of 250.  Another print from this edition is in the collection of the Georgetown University Library Fine Prints Collection.

Adolf Dehn was one of the few mid-20th-century artists to build an international reputation for lithography.  Born in Minnesota, he studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and then received a one year scholarship to the Art Students League in New York. He spent most of the 1920s working in Europe, mainly in Vienna, before returning to the U.S., though he periodically spent time abroad throughout his life.  Dehn was a highly regarded watercolorist and lithographer and received many honors and awards; he was an associate of the National Academy of the Design and a two-time recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship (1939 and 1951). From 1934 he produced work for Associated American Artists, an organization founded to produce and market fine art prints nationwide.  His lengthy exhibition record includes the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago, all of which have his work in their collections.  He exhibited internationally and his works are in many other public and private collections.  Dehn also authored instructional art books on watercolor painting and lithography.

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Condition:  Generally very good with the usual overall light toning and wear.  Accompanied by original Associated American Artists label.

References:

Gilbert, Dorothy B., ed.  Who’s Who in American Art.  New York: American Federation of Arts and R.R. Bowker, 1959.  p. 141.

Lumsdaine, Joycelyn Pang & O'Sullivan, Thomas, The Prints of Adolf Dehn A Catalogue Raisonne,  Minnnesota: Minnesota Historical Society, 1987. No. 432.