From The Dauer Collection 1936 Woodcut on Paper 20"x16.5" framed, 10"x8" unframed Entitled Sunday Afternoon, this 1936 woodcut on paper landscape is signed in the woodcut and dated by hand in the lower right by the artist Julius John Lankes. Excellent vintage condition. Framed in a contemporary wood frame with an inner bevel detail and black finish using archival matting behind conservation clear glass. About the Artist Julius John (J.J.) Lankes (1884-1960) noted artist, illustrator, engraver, woodcut print artist, author, lecturer, costume & scenery designer, and college professor primarily known for his woodcut prints and his artistic collaboration with friend and American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) whose friendship spanned over forty years. Lankes was born in Buffalo, NY to parents of German heritage and graduated from the Buffalo Commercial and Electro-Mechanical Institute in 1902. From 1908-circa 1910 he studied at the Art Students League in Buffalo, NY. From 1912-13 he studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, under Philip Leslie Hale (1865-1931) and William McGregor Paxton (1869-1941), Boston, MA. He also studied with the artists Ernest Fosbery (1874-1960) and Mary B.W. Coxe (-1922). Lankes produced his first woodcut in 1917 and over the course of his expansive career produced over 1,300 woodcut designs, many of which have been included in several books, magazines and various other publications including his own. Collaborations also included other well known poets, authors, publishers and artists like friend, Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967), of which eleven well known woodcut designs were made from Burchfield’s drawings. About the Collector John A. Dauer (1933-2017) was a collector of many things, the vast majority of which convey stories of hard work, craftsmanship, industry, unsung histories, and associations with those he loved and respected. Born and raised on Staten Island, New York in 1933, John grew up among a close-knit family of entrepreneurial bakers, wood carvers, and leather merchants. He graduated in 1954 from Columbia College with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. He went on to work with his father John Sr., at the New York City-based John A. Dauer Leather Company. During and after his undergraduate studies, John enrolled in painting, print making, and sculpture classes at Columbia, the New School for Social Research, and Greenwich House. Many of his teachers (including Margot Kempe and Peppino Mangravite) were recent European emigres and WPA artists, sympathetic to the themes of social realism and late modernism. Although he made his living and supported his family as a leather salesman, John consistently maintained an interest in, and passion for, the creative work of artists and craft people throughout his life. The subjects and scale of his collecting varied over the years (from large 18th century cupboards to hand carved fishing lures), but let’s just say his houses and barns often resembled mini-Mercer Museums. During his last 2 decades, John focused his collecting efforts on the work of print makers and painters who reminded him or were directly associated with those who influenced him during his New York youth. Images and the stories of sailors, stevedores, factory workers, craftsmen, pushcart vendors, musicians, stoop sitters, and artists abound.
