1936 "Locomotive" Philadelphia WPA Style Woodblock Print by Salvatore Pinto

Details

Description

This is just a great original piece. I recently acquired a collection of excellent 20th Century prints that I am … Read more This is just a great original piece. I recently acquired a collection of excellent 20th Century prints that I am offering this week. This is a scarce work by important American artist and printmaker Salvatore Pinto. For those not familiar with the artist, I have included his biography below. This is one of 2 I am offering by Pinto. This is without a doubt, the artist's most important work. In doing research I have found a few examples in museums as well as few having sold. Almost all the ones I have seen, have been signed by the artist's wife and not by the artist himself. This one is actually unsigned. My guess is that he did the print and only printed a few of them that he signed. The rest were printed and just ended up in the artist's estate. This is a stunning example of this scarce print. Image measures 7 x 10 inches with complete original margins. Print is stunning on thin tissue paper. Really as printed condition. There are a few small spots and some minor discoloration to the outer margins but really a stunning example. Hinged verso at the top into archival back and matte. Unframed. Do your own research on this print. If you collect Pinto, make sure you check my store for the other example I am selling. A great chance to add a couple to your collection.

For those not familiar with the artist, his biography from a gallery that sells the artist's work reads: "Born in Salerno, Italy in 1905, Salvatore Pinto immigrated with his family to America in 1909. He attended the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art (now the University of the Arts) and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and worked in many media including painting, printmaking, photography, theatrical and furniture design. Pinto, along with his brothers Biago and Angelo, was greatly favored and collected by Albert C. Barnes, founder of the Barnes Foundation. Through his Foundation, Barnes awarded Pinto prizes to inspire his "modernism" through travels to Europe, Corsica, and Africa. In Europe in the early 1930s, Pinto absorbed the latest trends of the avant-garde, especially the radical experiments in color of Henri Matisse. Thanks to Barnes, Pinto met Matisse and studied with him in the South of France during Three Barnes Foundation Travelling Scholarships. Matisse's images of the Mediterranean and the beaches of Nice inspired Pinto, who, upon his return to Philadelphia, developed a distinctly American repertoire of subjects, including a great series of paintings and prints inspired by the beach at Atlantic City and Long Beach Island." See less