47. Isaac Friedlander
(1890-1968)

Downtown

(click on image to print)
Friedlander, Downtown

Downtown

Etching, 1930, 446 x 232 mm. Fine impression on thick wove paper with full margins, titled, numbered from the edition of 25, dated and inscribed with the artist's name and countersigned with the initials G. F. (Gilda Friedlander), the artist's widow; some skinning at the top and bottom edges verso from the removal of old tape. Friedlander was an estimable etcher but he is inserted here not merely for himself, but as representative of a large group of American artists whose frequent subject was the towers of great cities, a particularly American (for obvious reasons) subject. The image here is from a height and looks southeast over lower Manhattan and toward the East River and Brooklyn, visible in the distance, the towers of lower Manhattan, particularly the Woolworth Tower, standing out. It’s a long way from the peasant cottages and farm laborers of the early Etching Revival, but it is part of the same tradition. Friedlander’s early prints are scarce.