Blanche Lazzell Watercolor & Woodcut
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APPRAISER:
I understand there's some family connection to this artist, is that correct?
GUEST:
Yes, this artist is my grandmother's aunt.
APPRAISER:
Let's have a look at the back of this. Can you just read what's on the back of this, please?
GUEST:
It says, "To Mollie, with love and good wishes, from Pat."
APPRAISER:
Okay, and who was Pat?
GUEST:
Pat was Blanche Lazzell. That was her nickname in the family.
APPRAISER:
And so she was, what, your great-aunt?
GUEST:
It would be my great-great aunt. And we knew she was a famous artist from West Virginia. Obviously, lots of things pop up when you look on the internet about her. You know, she spent some time in New England, pretty famous in the state of West Virginia.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. She came from a pretty big family. I think she was the ninth of ten, is that correct?
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. And as you say, she's a well-known artist, came from West Virginia originally.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
But was no means a parochial artist in any way. In fact, she traveled to Europe in 1912 and was well aware of the avant garde movement there in Paris and modernism generally. And so by the time she came back to the States and moved to Provincetown, which was a big center for the arts in 1915... and it was no coincidence that in 1915, a lot of artists were coming from Europe and America trying to get away from World War I.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
So she settled there, and this is probably where these two works originate. Here we have a watercolor, and here we have a print. Do you know anything about these, or is there anything you can tell me about them?
GUEST:
Not really. My grandmother gave me this print when I moved into my first apartment about 40 years ago because I didn't have any artwork, so... And we went and got it framed together, and just kind of always had it around.
APPRAISER:
Well, let's talk about this one first. So this was most likely done in Provincetown, and I believe is dated, I believe. Can you see?
GUEST:
1937.
APPRAISER:
It's 1937? So that's a little later on. In a way, this is a fairly generic work. I mean, this could have been done by numerous different hands. But I'm sure anyone with even a passing interest in modernist printmaking watching at home is probably going, "That's a Blanche Lazzell, that's a white line woodcut." And that's exactly what it is. And she was probably the best known practitioner of that form of woodcut, which was pioneered by the American artist Arthur Wesley Dow based on the Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. And the way that they did it was they would have a single block of wood and they would etch into it, they would carve that line, and each raised area would then be inked up separately. So it's interesting in a way because although it's a multiple, although it's a block print, each one in its way is a unique print as well. This is a really nice example of it. There is a price differential. Which do you think would be more valuable?
GUEST:
After listening to that, I'd probably say the top one.
APPRAISER:
I'm glad you were listening. You're quite right. So this one, funnily enough, at auction, probably worth about $1,500 to $2,500. Now, for some of her works, original, unique works, oils or watercolors, they'll make a lot more than that. This is a nice piece, but that's around about the value of it. This one I spent quite a bit of time talking to my colleague in the print table. And these are very much in demand just now. And I think conservatively, at auction, this would be worth $30,000 to $50,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Now, I'm going to qualify that because in fact, we found another one. This one is entitled, as we see here, “The White Sail.”
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
I found one other version of it that came up at auction back in 1990, and the estimate then was $10,000 to $15,000. It didn't sell. However, my colleague and I, we found one that is almost like a reverse image of this, it's very similar to it, called “The Sailboat.” And that sold in 2012 for just a little over $100,000.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
So it would not surprise me in the least if this one far exceeded the estimate that I gave you.
GUEST:
It's hard to believe it survived my apartment in good condition.
APPRAISER:
Oh, really?
(laughs)
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