Click main image below to view enlargements and captions.

View, New York City, Temple Emanu-El, Judaica, Anton Schutz, Vintage Print, 1926

$800

Anton Joseph Friedrich Schutz (1894-1977) (artist and etcher)
Temple Emanu-El
American: 1926
Drypoint and etching on paper
Signed and numbered “#25” in pencil lower right
Signed in the plate lower left and dated 1926
11.75 x 8.75 inches, plate mark
15.75 x 11.5 inches, overall
$800

Etching of the imposing façade of Temple Emanu-El, overlooking the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, which bustles with cars and pedestrians. Designed by Leopold Eidlitz and Henry Fernbach, this building was the largest synagogue building in the United States when it was built in 1868 as the first permanent home for New York’s first Reform Jewish congregation. Its distinctive towers are also readily identifiable in a lithograph view of Fifth Avenue from 42nd Street, looking north, based on an 1879 photograph and published in 1904. When Schutz made this etching, in 1926, the congregation had purchased the property at its current location at 1 East 65th Street, and the 1868 building was about to be torn down, which may have motivated him to document it. His print remains as a record of a now-vanished landmark. Another print from the edition is in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Product Description Continues Below

Description

Anton Joseph Friedrich Schutz was an etcher, writer, and editor, born in Germany. He studied at the University of Munich and the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. By 1925 he relocated to New York City, where he studied at the Art Students League. He created an extensive series of etchings of New York City scenes during the 1920s and 30s, 24 of which were published in his book New York Etchings (1939). Schutz was a member of the Society of American Etchers and the Chicago Society of Etchers. During his lifetime his works were exhibited and collected by major institutions in the U.S. and abroad, including the Library of Congress, the British Museum in London, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the New York Public Library, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Schutz also contributed etchings to the 14th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, served as director of the New York Graphic Society, authored Fine Art Reproductions of Old and Modern Masters (1951) and served as publisher and co-editor of 16 volumes in the UNESCO World Art Series, each on the art of a different country (1954-58). The New York Historical Society has 121 etchings of New York City scenes by Anton Schutz as part of the James Boyd Collection of New York City Etchings.

Condition: Generally very good overall, recently professionally cleaned and deacidified, with only minor remaining toning and wear. Large margins with slight rippling.

References:

“Anton (Joseph Friedrich) Schutz.”  AskArt.com. 2000-2007. http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=10048125 (17 September 2007).

Falk, Peter Hastings, ed.  Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1985. p. 552.

Robinson, Lauren. “Temple Emanu-El.” Museum of the City of New York. 11 October 2011. http://mcnyblog.org/2011/10/11/temple-emanu-el/ (10 March 2014).

Additional information

Century

20th Century