ISAAC FRIEDLANDER
Around the Corner.
Etching, 1929. 296x236 mm; 11x9 inches, full margins. Signed, titled, dated and inscribed "Riga" in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression of this exceedingly scarce etching.We have not found another impression of this etching at auction in the past 30 years.Friedlander (1888-1968) was born in Mitau, Latvia near the city of Riga. Due to his political leanings, he spent four years in a Czarist prison, many of them in solitary confinement. Upon release, he travelled to Rome, where he briefly received formal training in printmaking and drawing. After the Revolution of 1917, Friedlander returned to Latvia and became an art teacher, though he was encouraged to come to New York by his cousin art collector Joseph Hirshhorn. After immigrating to New York in 1937, the passage paid for by Hirshhorn, Friedlander and his cousin became estranged. New York became the primary subject of Friedlander's works, exploring the realities of the Great Depression while celebrating the city's indomitable spirit.