At the Dawn of a New Age: Early Twentieth-Century American Modernism

May 7, 2022–Feb 26, 2023

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Blanche Lazzell

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Born 1878 in Maidsville, WV
Died 1956 in Bourne, MA

Blanche Lazzell was the most prominent member of a group of Massachusetts artists known as the Provincetown Printers. Founded in 1916, the organization was known for its development of the white-line woodcut, which entailed incising a design into a single block of wood and applying color to the raised areas, resulting in white lines between forms in the finished print. In Four Boats, Lazzell used a Cubist organization of flat planes of color to transform the Provincetown waterfront into a rhythmic interplay of abstract, softly hued shapes. Lazzell used the same block to make other prints with the same design but different colors. As she explained, “I do not try to make duplicates . . . I use perfect freedom as to color and values.”

Four Boats, 1919 (printed 1925)

Many geometric shapes with smooth and round edges and a human-like figure next to a boat.
Many geometric shapes with smooth and round edges and a human-like figure next to a boat.

Blanche Lazzell, Four Boats, 1919 (printed 1925). Woodcut, 13 1/8 × 12 5/8 in. (33.3 × 32.1 cm) (sheet), 11 × 11 1/2 in. (27.9 × 29.2 cm) (image). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Leslie J. Garfield in memory of his wife Johanna Garfield T.2021.230

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