Crab and Dog
Crab and Dog
Although he travelled to the United States in 1926 with the unfulfilled aim of painting murals in luxury homes in Palm Beach, Underwood relocated to New York, where, as well as opening an art school, he found that the vogue for Art Deco meant that his graphic style was much in demand. He made illustrations for a number of publishers, including The New Yorker, and wrote and published his own books. The second of these was 'The Siamese Cat', an illustrated story of the journeys of a Siamese cat, published by Bretano's in an edition of 2,500 copies in 1927. The present work is an independent, hand-printed and signed woodcut, number 12 from the edition of 50, the following year, rather than an illustration from the book. On the back of this publication, Underwood persuaded his publisher to send him to Mexico to make wood engravings for the next book, and there he was deeply influenced by Mayan and Aztec art.
Dimensions:
1928
Woodcut on unbleached Japan laid paper
Signed and dated and (under the mount) numbered 12/50, all in pencil by the artist
'The Siamese Cat' by Leon Underwood
RELATED ITEMS
