Lot 187: 34 Knute Heldner Etchings, most New Orleans

Collection of 34 etchings on paper by Knute Heldner (American/New Orleans, 1875-1952). Most of the etchings portray early 20th century New Orleans, including landmark architecture such as St. Louis Cathedral, Vieux Carre Rooftops, Brulator Courtyard, Fort McComb, the Patio Royale Cafe, and various other courtyard and street scenes, or images of people engaged in daily activities in the city (or in the case of one fisherman, a Louisiana bayou). One shows a Depression era breadline. Five of the images likely depict members of the artist’s family. One depicts New Orleans fishmonger “Mr. Battistella” and another shows “legendary Jackson Square character Banjo Annie”. There is also a self portrait of Heldner, along with two etchings not related to New Orleans (Adam and Eve, wolves) which may have been intended as illustrations for books. Sizes vary slightly but most are approximately 11 in. x 9 in. Biography: Knute (Sven August) Heldner was born in Sweden and attended the Karlskrona Technical School and the National Royal Academy of Stockholm. He immigrated to the US about 1902, living in the North and Northeast where he continued his art education at the Minneapolis School of Fine Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Art Students League of New York. He began spending winters in New Orleans in the 1920s where he became a charter member of the New Orleans Art League. The Art Association of New Orleans hosted Heldner’s first one-man show at the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art in 1926. He also taught painting at the New Orleans Art School. In 1926, Heldner won highest honors at the Swedish-American Art Exhibition in Chicago, and in 1932 he held one-man shows at the Salon d’Automne in Paris, a gallery in Stockholm, and the Arts and Crafts Club of New Orleans Gallery. During the Depression, Heldner completed a series of fifty drypoint etchings depicting the architecture and people of the French Quarter, from civic leaders to indigent individuals. (Many of those etchings are represented in this lot). As an employee of the Federal Art Project, he helped research and collect numerous documents on Louisiana artists which resulted in a fifteen-volume fine arts and design encyclopedia, a project supervised by Ellsworth Woodward. He also executed three murals about agrarian life in the South —The Cotton Industry, The Sugar Industry, and The Turpentine Gatherers—which are housed at the Louisiana State University Art Museum. Source: The Johnson Collection. This lot includes an old brochure about Knute Heldner from the Whisnant Galleries that pictures some of these images.

PROVENANCE: The collection of Ruth Weinstein Lebovitz.

CONDITION: Most items in very good condition. Some items with light handling mark or uneven margins. Only about a half dozen exhibit notable condition issues such as old tape or tape stains, or significant discoloration to edges (one has discoloration to entire image).