William Behnken, N.A.
Approaching Night
Aquatint, A.P., Edition 30, 2015, 20 ¾" x 24 ¾"

William Behnken, NA is a life-long resident of New York City. He earned his BA and MA from the City College of New York, where he has taught since 1970, and he teaches printmaking at the Art Students League. He is a member of the National Academy of Design and the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), and his work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the New York Public Library Print Collection, the New York Historical Society, and the Indianapolis Museum. His masterful drawing Patient Vigil, colored pencil on black paper, is a favorite in the Noble Maritime Collection's Robbins Reef Lighthouse: A Home in the Harbor exhibition.

Johann Adam Delsenbach (1687-1765)
Artelshofen, samt denz Dazugehörigen Dörfern (Artlshofen, including the associated Villages)
Engraving, c. 1720, 9 ½" x 13"

Johann Adam Delsenbach (1687-1765) was a German painter and engraver, who is considered to be an Old Master famed for his landscapes and architectural studies. He attended the Nuremberg Painters Academy and later moved to Vienna, Austria where he made copper engravings for the noted Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656-1723). In 1718, he was appointed Court Engraver by the Prince of Liechtenstein, and he began his major project of documenting Nuremberg and its surroundings in more than 120 copperplate engravings. These engravings are considered to be among the best representations of European Baroque architecture and landscape, and he was sought after by many in the German nobility to portray their estates and towns in his paintings and engravings.

Johann Adam Delsenbach (1687-1765)
Das Ebner-Voit Derzenhaus in Erlenstegen ohnfern Nürnberg samt dessen zugehörungen en und derer daben fiegenden sebaude einiger unterthanen (The Current House of Messrs. Ebner-Voit in Erlenstegen near Nuremberg, including its affiliations and the buildings of some of the subjects)
Engraving, c. 1720, 9 ½" x 13"

Johann Adam Delsenbach (1687-1765) was a German painter and engraver, who is considered to be an Old Master famed for his landscapes and architectural studies. He attended the Nuremberg Painters Academy and later moved to Vienna, Austria where he made copper engravings for the noted Austrian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach (1656-1723). In 1718, he was appointed Court Engraver by the Prince of Liechtenstein, and he began his major project of documenting Nuremberg and its surroundings in more than 120 copperplate engravings. These engravings are considered to be among the best representations of European Baroque architecture and landscape, and he was sought after by many in the German nobility to portray their estates and towns in his paintings and engravings.

Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
The Angel of Mercy
From the Portfolio The Divine Comedy
Woodblock, c. 1960, 10 ¾" x 7 ¼"

Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) was a renowned Spanish Surrealist painter and printmaker. As a young art student in Madrid he displayed a unique technical acuity as a painter, but it was not until the 1920s that his signature style emerged. Upon his arrival in Paris, he learned about noted psychologist Sigmund Freud's writings on the significance of subconscious imagery. That, coupled with his affiliation with the Parisian Surrealist movement, began his exploration of images in his subconscious mind, and his paintings depicted a dream world where ordinary objects were deformed in odd ways. Later in his career, he designed theater sets and jewelry. The Salvador Dalí Museum is in St. Petersburg, Florida and his work is in museum collections around the world.

Francesca D'Atria Romano
Princes Bay, 9/21/79
Etching, A.P., 1979, 9 ½" x 12"

Francesca D'Atria Romano is a retired New York City educator and artist. Her etchings of New York City scenes and ferries won her many awards and are in collections in the United States and abroad. In 1992, she was named a "Woman of Achievement" by the National Organization of Italian American Women. Romano is a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York City, the Society of Graphics Artists, the Pen & Brush Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she volunteered as a docent.

Christa McDonald
Robbins Reef: A Labor of Love
Watercolor and colored pencil, 2020, 7 ½" x 6 ¼"

All proceeds for this piece will benefit the Robbins Reef Lighthouse restoration project, and it is being matched up to $300 by an anonymous donor.

Christa McDonald is a native Staten Islander who grew up along the Staten Island Greenbelt, observing and drawing animals and plants. She studied Chinese painting and calligraphy at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in China, and has exhibited her watercolors at the Newport Art Festival and galleries in Newport, Rhode Island. She also taught programs in observational art techniques, watercolor, and photography at zoological parks and botanical gardens in Colorado, Wyoming, and New York. Christa earned a MA in Aesthetic Education/Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Denver, and she combines ecology and art in her lessons as a middle school science teacher. Her interest in the preservation of the open, natural spaces of Staten Island extends to the shorelines, where she became interested in the history of the Robbins Reef Lighthouse.

John A. Noble (1913-1983)
Oncoming Night
Man and Mast #1
Lithograph, Edition 300, 1966

John A. Noble, NA (1913-1983) is recognized as one of America's distinguished marine artists. Born in Paris in 1913, he is the son of the painter, John "Wichita Bill" Noble, NA (1874-1934). He moved with his family from France to this country in 1919, a year which had great significance to him and foreshadowed his life's work. "It was the greatest wooden ship launching year in the history of the world," he often said. A graduate of the Friends Seminary in New York City, Noble returned to France in 1931 to study at the University of Grenoble, and when he returned to New York, he studied at the National Academy of Design. From 1928 until 1945, he worked as a seaman on schooners and in marine salvage. In 1928, while on a schooner on the Kill van Kull, he saw the boneyard of abandoned ships at Port Johnston in Bayonne for the first time. It was a sight, he later asserted, which affected him for life. Filled with new but obsolete ships, the great coal port had become a great boneyard. In 1939, Noble began to build his houseboat studio there, out of parts of vessels he salvaged. From 1946 on he went there to work and amassed a catalog of 79 lithograph editions, over 130 oil paintings, 600 plein air drawings, and 6,000 photographs. An Academician of the National Academy of Design, he received its most prestigious awards and his work is included in permanent collections in this country and abroad.

Charlie Sforza
Mary on a Train
Photograph, 1976, 12" x 18"

Charlie Sforza is a visual artist who worked in advertising for 25 years, working on television commercials based out of Los Angeles and print advertisements in New York City. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts, where he later taught a conceptual development course for 22 years. Sforza then became a Financial Advisor at Merrill Lynch, and he also designs jewelry on the side.

Captain Charles Restivo
The Night Ahead
Photograph, 2018, 11 ¼" x 14 ½"

Captain Charles Restivo was born and raised in New York City. He is the grandson of an immigrant sailor whose first steps on the American continent were on the cobblestone streets of Peck Slip in South Street Seaport. Captain Restivo grew up in New York Harbor on boats and has had a career spanning over 48 years as a tugboat captain. During his travels on the waters of the east coast from Maine to Florida, his passion for photography has given him the opportunity to capture images that show the true meaning, from a working perspective, of a life at sea.

Joyce Malerba Goldstein
Emergence
Handmade paper, hand ground gauche, and wax, date unknown, 20 ½" x 14 ¼"

Joyce Malerba Goldstein has been a visual artist, psychotherapist, and community activist for over 40 years. She studied painting at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, and has maintained a studio at Snug Harbor Cultural Center since 1975. Her paintings are in permanent collections in the United States and abroad, including the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts in Connecticut, The DeRidder Collection in Holland, and the ML Karr Collection in Chicago. Goldstein has had multiple solo shows, including at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art and the Quick Center for the Arts Biennial. She helped found and became president of what is now Staten Island Arts. In 2004, she founded the Staten Island Creative Community and the Art by the Ferry Festival which lasted for eight years. SICC ran and maintained the Art at Bay Gallery, which curated eight art shows featuring local artists.

Andrea Phillips
Cat Jumping Over Roofs
Mixed media, 2018, 9 ½" x 7 ½"

Andrea Phillips is a largely self-taught artist based in Staten Island. Her husband, Maurice Phillips, also an artist, advised that formal classes "might affect her love of her craft," so she has avoided conventional teaching and preparation. Phillips creates collages that are narrative and figurative and are often taken from scenes she lifts from her neighborhood or the news. In 2011 she had her first solo museum show, "Pieces of Spirit," at the Staten Island Museum.

Frederick Tordoff
America's Cup - 1887 - Thistle v. Volunteer
Watercolor, date unknown, 11" x 18"

Frederick Tordoff is a New Jersey-based artist who specializes in maritime subjects. Born and raised in a coastal town in England, Tordoff sketched local scenes and landmarks. While studying marine radio and electronics in Yorkshire, he began making oil paintings of ships as a hobby. He traveled the world as a marine radio and electronics officer while producing paintings of ships, first in oils, and later in watercolors. His paintings are in collections in England, the United States, Scotland, Holland, Norway, New Zealand and South Africa.

John A. Noble (1913-1983)
Ah! Linoleumville
New York City Diamond Jubilee Lithograph, 1898-1973
Lithograph, Edition 275, 1973, 14 ¼" x 20 ½"

John A. Noble, NA (1913-1983) is recognized as one of America's distinguished marine artists. Born in Paris in 1913, he is the son of the painter, John "Wichita Bill" Noble, NA (1874-1934). He moved with his family from France to this country in 1919, a year which had great significance to him and foreshadowed his life's work. "It was the greatest wooden ship launching year in the history of the world," he often said. A graduate of the Friends Seminary in New York City, Noble returned to France in 1931 to study at the University of Grenoble, and when he returned to New York, he studied at the National Academy of Design. From 1928 until 1945, he worked as a seaman on schooners and in marine salvage. In 1928, while on a schooner on the Kill van Kull, he saw the boneyard of abandoned ships at Port Johnston in Bayonne for the first time. It was a sight, he later asserted, which affected him for life. Filled with new but obsolete ships, the great coal port had become a great boneyard. In 1939, Noble began to build his houseboat studio there, out of parts of vessels he salvaged. From 1946 on he went there to work and amassed a catalog of 79 lithograph editions, over 130 oil paintings, 600 plein air drawings, and 6,000 photographs. An Academician of the National Academy of Design, he received its most prestigious awards and his work is included in permanent collections in this country and abroad.

Elle Finn
Blendings at Harvest Time
Pen and colored inks 2020, 25" x 19"

Elle Finn is a graphic artist and professional picture framer. She has exhibited her work at the Salmagundi Club, the Staten Island Museum, the Conference House, the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, at private galleries in New Jersey and Long Island, and two solo exhibitions at Borough Hall. A long-time member of the Noble Crew, she donates her art and framing every year to our auction and sells her compositions in a popular line of art cards and bookmarks called Finnotes in the museum's shop. Her work was included in the Noble Maritime Collection's Robbins Reef Lighthouse: A Home in the Harbor exhibition.

Ernest Haskell (1876-1925)
Country Road
Etching, Edition 48, 1923, 10 ¾" x 5 ¼"

Ernest Haskell (1876-1925) was an internationally renowned printmaker, known for his etchings, illustrations, and engravings. Largely self-taught, he made several extended trips to Paris in the late 19th century to sharpen his skills and learn more about his craft. For a period he was the protégé of famed artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), who taught him how to make etchings. Upon his return to New York, and using the techniques he learned in Paris, Haskell became prominent in the field of theatrical posters. Among his subjects were the theater actors Helen Hayes and Ethel Barrymore, and he created the famous images that promoted the first production of Peter Pan. He later served in World War I in the Camouflage Unit where he was one of the artists who developed camouflage painting for the United States Army to help disguise battleships and to use on soldiers' uniforms. If it were not for his untimely death in a car accident in Maine, Haskell would undoubtedly be considered one of America's finest artists. Haskell's work is in the collections of institutions around the world including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum.

Irma Bohórquez-Geisler
Tree Vines at Clove Lake Park
Black and white digital photograph, printed on Epson Hot Press Bright, 2002, 6 ½" x 9 ½"

Irma Bohórquez-Geisler is a photographer, biologist, educator, traditional craftsperson and cultural leader for Mexican-Americans on Staten Island. Born in Mexico City, Irma immigrated to New York in 1991. She is the founder, Artistic and Program Director of the annual Staten Island Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival, which was established in 1992. She holds a PhD in Ecological Entomology from Oxford University. Dr. Bohórquez-Geisler's photography has been exhibited at contemporary art galleries and museums in New York, Berlin, Spain and Mexico. She has presented Mexican traditions at many museums and schools and has served as a panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Culture Affairs, and Staten Island Arts.

Robert Parent (1923-1987)
Billie Holiday
Photograph, 1951, 18" x 23"

Robert Parent (1923-1987) was a Canadian photographer best known for photographing jazz musicians in New York City, including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, the Thelonious Monk Trio, and Charlie Parker. He is considered to be one of the great portraitists of jazz musicians, and his photographs were often featured in music magazines and as album covers. During the 1960s, he turned to social activism and photojournalism, and he photographed many prominent politicians and activists, including Che Guevara, Richard Nixon, and Malcolm X.

Salvatore Busacca (1927-2016)
Mount Marcy Adirondacks
Monoprint, 1998, 10 ¾" x 19 ¾"

Salvatore Busacca (1927-2016) was a well-known painter, printmaker, and sculptor, and a longtime resident of Staten Island. He had a studio at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, where he also taught classes at the Art Lab from 1976 until his death.

Jack Demyan (1923-1999)
Alice Austen House
Acrylic on canvas, 1992, 7 5/8" x 9 ¾"

Jack Demyan (1923-1999) was a legendary restaurateur and a prolific painter known for capturing nostalgic scenes of Staten Island. In 1954, he opened Demyan's Hofbrau, a favorite watering hole for judges, public officials, and artists drawn by his cooking and his personality. Often appearing in a tuxedo or costume, he personalized the restaurant, gave select regulars their own booths with name tags, and designed an underground room as a ship's hold and dedicated it to John Noble. Eventually he set up an easel in his office at the restaurant where he created more than 2,000 works of art. "I would paint the night through. I had a brainstorm and wouldn't stop until I had finished." He and Noble became fast friends and he helped and supported Noble in difficult times. Demyan's works were included in exhibitions at the Art Lab, the Wagner College Gallery, and the Staten Island Museum.

John A. Noble (1913-1983)
Untitled (angel flying with wreath)
Reproduction of the original drawing
Pencil and charcoal on paper, c. 1935, 5 ¾" x 9 ½" From the Rowboat Drawings

In memory of Carol Souder Noble (1940-2020)

John A. Noble, NA (1913-1983) is recognized as one of America's distinguished marine artists. Born in Paris in 1913, he is the son of the painter, John "Wichita Bill" Noble, NA (1874-1934). He moved with his family from France to this country in 1919, a year which had great significance to him and foreshadowed his life's work. "It was the greatest wooden ship launching year in the history of the world," he often said. A graduate of the Friends Seminary in New York City, Noble returned to France in 1931 to study at the University of Grenoble, and when he returned to New York, he studied at the National Academy of Design. From 1928 until 1945, he worked as a seaman on schooners and in marine salvage. In 1928, while on a schooner on the Kill van Kull, he saw the boneyard of abandoned ships at Port Johnston in Bayonne for the first time. It was a sight, he later asserted, which affected him for life. Filled with new but obsolete ships, the great coal port had become a great boneyard. In 1939, Noble began to build his houseboat studio there, out of parts of vessels he salvaged. From 1946 on he went there to work and amassed a catalog of 79 lithograph editions, over 130 oil paintings, 600 plein air drawings, and 6,000 photographs. An Academician of the National Academy of Design, he received its most prestigious awards and his work is included in permanent collections in this country and abroad.

Bill Foge
Untitled (Moran tug with Staten Island Ferry)
Pastel, c.1975, 16 ¾" x 24"

Bill Foge is a painter originally from New York City. In the early 1980s, he lived on Staten Island before moving to the Rockaways in Queens and eventually settling in Maine. Foge's paintings capture scenes that he witnessed, usually of the shoreline or of streets in the neighborhoods where he lived. Many of his paintings of the Rockaways were turned into postcards that are sold in souvenir shops along the peninsula.

John A. Noble (1913-1983)
Ghost of a Bygone Ferry
A Downtown Trilogy #1
Lithograph, Edition 225, 1973, 13 7/8" x 18"

John A. Noble, NA (1913-1983) is recognized as one of America's distinguished marine artists. Born in Paris in 1913, he is the son of the painter, John "Wichita Bill" Noble, NA (1874-1934). He moved with his family from France to this country in 1919, a year which had great significance to him and foreshadowed his life's work. "It was the greatest wooden ship launching year in the history of the world," he often said. A graduate of the Friends Seminary in New York City, Noble returned to France in 1931 to study at the University of Grenoble, and when he returned to New York, he studied at the National Academy of Design. From 1928 until 1945, he worked as a seaman on schooners and in marine salvage. In 1928, while on a schooner on the Kill van Kull, he saw the boneyard of abandoned ships at Port Johnston in Bayonne for the first time. It was a sight, he later asserted, which affected him for life. Filled with new but obsolete ships, the great coal port had become a great boneyard. In 1939, Noble began to build his houseboat studio there, out of parts of vessels he salvaged. From 1946 on he went there to work and amassed a catalog of 79 lithograph editions, over 130 oil paintings, 600 plein air drawings, and 6,000 photographs. An Academician of the National Academy of Design, he received its most prestigious awards and his work is included in permanent collections in this country and abroad.

Herman Zaage (1927-2008)
Liberty Refurbished
Woodcut, Edition 30, 1986, 20"x 24 ¾"

Herman Zaage (1927-2008) is an internationally known printmaker. A beloved teacher and environmentalist, he is the son of German immigrants who raised him in a home filled with music and art. During high school, he took art courses offered by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and he served during World War II by designing and printing Army posters and training aids. While working as a photoengraver in the 1960s, he began his long career as a printmaker and specialized in mezzotint, one of the most difficult techniques to master. In 1976, he became one of the founders of the Art Lab and taught printmaking there for 32 years. His prints are in the collection of this museum, the Staten Island Museum, the Museum of the City of New York, the Portland Art Museum, the Purdue University Gallery, and the University of Arizona Art Museum. In 2001, the Noble Maritime Collection presented a retrospective of his work; and in 2005, we published a catalogue raisonné of his print oeuvre, Bon à tirer: The Prints of Herman Zaage, which won a design award from the American Association of Museums. Herman, one of the original five trustees of the museum, was a dedicated Noble Crewman and an annual supporter of our auction.