[Cropsey, G. Arthur, owner and illustrator]:

$600 · Offered by William Reese Company

DRAWING BOOK [wrapper title]. A sketchbook containing nine pencil drawings, ranging in sophistication and complexity, executed by a skilled student or accomplished amateur artist. Most, if not all, of the sketches would appear to be copied from published drawing manuals, with the first two leaves featuring a series of increasingly difficult drawing exercises and an additional three leaves, each depicting a landscape scene and reflecting the artist's relative technical skill, with all images drawn on rectos. At least two of these three scenes are after works by 19th-century French painter, watercolorist, and draughtsman Jean-Baptiste Louis Hubert. "Hubert's work was regularly featured at the Paris Salon from 1819 to 1865, and he was awarded a second-class medal in 1831. Hubert was exclusively a landscape painter, and found inspiration in Switzerland, the various regions of France and the province of Prussian Rhineland" (Bénézit). The front wrapper is twice inscribed by one G. Arthur Cropsey, who has also signed one of the sketches. We have been unable to find any further information about Cropsey. The sketchbook, here in the original publisher's wrappers, the front wrapper featuring a lithographic title vignette, and consisting of twelve blank leaves, was clearly intended for the use of artists as a drawing or copy book. The lithographic title vignette, identifying the Drawing Book and its publisher, Willard Felt & Co., located at 14 Maiden Lane, New York, features a series of

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