Robert Bechtle

(American, 1932-2020)

View of Alameda

1967
Hard ground etching
Edition of 35
Signed, dated and numbered in pencil
Sheet:  11 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches (27.94 x 27.94 cm)

Price on request

Hard ground etching printed in black from one plate, a fine, fresh impression of the only known state, the full sheet, printed on Somerset Satin Soft White paper, with margins, signed and numbered in pencil by the artist, executed in edition of 25 (there were also 10 Artist’s Proofs and 8 Trial Proofs) printed and published by Crown Point Press, in very fine condition, framed.

Collections:

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The De Young, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Note:

The image size of this work is 4 3/8 x 5 inches (11.11 x 12.7 cm)

The present work is one of four small traditional line etchings that Robert Bechtle made at Crown Point Press in 1967, four-four years before they were editioned. Kathan Brown, who had founded Crown Point in 1962, was the printer at that time. Bechtle had embarked on a print series that he loosely called “The Alameda Book.” images of the town near San Francisco where he grew up. After creating four plates, however, he set the project aside. He returned to Crown Point Press in 1982 and worked regularly at the press since then. Then plates for the four Alameda images were discovered in Crown Point’s basement in 2011, and Bechtle requested that they be printed. Printer Ianne Kjorlie editioned them, and Bechtle dated the prints 1967, since the plates are unchanged from when he made them. He created the titles in 2011.