44. Rudolph Ruzicka
(1883-1978)
East River, Evening

(click on image to print)
Ruzicka: East River, Evening

East River, Evening

Wood engraving, 1919, 117 x 147 mm. Fine impression on tan wove paper with very large margins, signed in pencil from the edition of 115 published in the Weyhe Gallery Portfolio in 1919. Ruzicka was born in Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of the Czech Republic. He arrived in America, with his parents, at the age of ten, settled in Chicago, studied there and began, unusually early (his first boss was accused of violating the child labor laws), an intriguing career. Ruzicka, while he made etchings and many wood engravings, was primarily a book person. He is probably most famous as a designer of type faces, and second as a designer and illustrator of books, and that is probably as it should be. But his wood engravings were admired, early on, by Auguste Lepère, probably the greatest of wood engravers, and, though infrequently seen, are deserving of admiration today.