NEW YORK, NY.- On Wednesday, May 1 Swann Galleries will conduct an auction of Old Master Through Modern Prints that offers rare, museum-quality Old Master prints through works by 20th century American and European printmakers. More than half of the auction is devoted to prints by the old masters, starting with the earliest examples by Martin Schongauer, such as A Bishop’s Crozier, engraving circa 1475-80, a wonderful example of the artist’s technical virtuosity in depicting intricate three-dimensional objects (estimate: $40,000 to $60,000).

Also from the 15th century is a group of 10 metalcuts and 17 woodcuts with hand-coloring in gouache and watercolor depicting The Passion of Christ by Israel van Meckenem the Elder, Master of the Berlin Passion, circa 1450-70 ($40,000 to $60,000).

A pair of Albrecht Dürer master engravings are featured: Melencolia I, created in 1514, the year of his mother’s death, and often interpreted as representing the pitfalls of an overly intellectual, creative temperament, with the main figure possibly serving as an allegory of the artist himself ($80,000 to $120,000); and St. Jerome in his Study, engraving, 1514, a deeply symbolic depiction of the Bible scholar turned saint, a popular subject of Dürer’s ($120,000 to $180,000).

A run of more than 80 prints by Rembrandt van Rijn includes his Biblical works, among them a luminous impression of Christ before Pilate: Large Plate, etching, engraving and drypoint, 1635-36; and a richly inked Christ Healing the Sick (The Hundred Guilder Print), etching, engraving and drypoint, circa 1643-49 ($40,000 to $60,000 each); and secular prints, including Self Portrait Leaning on a Stone Sill, etching and drypoint, 1639 ($20,000 to $30,000); Landscape with a Cottage and a Large Tree, etching, 1641 ($60,000 to $90,000); and The Windmill, etching and drypoint, 1641 ($40,000 to $60,000).

Also featured among the Old Masters are Jan Gossaert, Called Mabuse, Cain Killing Abel, woodcut, circa 1520 ($30,000 to $50,000); mid-16th century engravings after Peter Bruegel; Giovanni B. Piranesi’s architectural studies; and Francisco José de Goya’s Dibersion de España, lithograph, 1825, one of only four to appear at auction in the last quarter century ($70,000 to $100,000).

The 19th-century prints section of the sale offers scarce works by James A.M. Whistler, such as The Piazzetta, etching on Japan paper, 1880; The Rialto, etching and drypoint, 1879-80 ($15,000 to $20,000 each); and The Little Nude Model, Reading, lithograph, 1889-90 ($40,000 to $60,000).

There are also Jean-François Millet’s depictions of rural life, including Le Semeur, lithograph on Japan, 1851 ($7,000 to $10,000); Mary Cassatt’s Before the Fireplace, etching and aquatint, circa 1882 ($10,000 to $15,000); James Jacques Tissot’s Promenade dans la Neige, etching and drypoint, 1880 ($7,000 to $10,000); and a set of four color lithographs of floral subjects by Henri Privat-Livemont, circa 1900 ($10,000 to $15,000).

American and Latin American highlights are George Bellows’s A Stag at Sharkey’s, lithograph, 1917, one of the artist’s celebrated boxing images ($80,000 to $120,000); Edward Hopper’s classic 1921 etching Night Shadows, so effective in evoking urban isolation ($30,000 to $50,000); Martin Lewis’s winning views of New York nightlife, such as Two A.M., drypoint, 1932 ($15,000 to $20,000); Grant Wood’s male nude Sultry Night, lithograph, 1939 ($15,000 to $20,000); and Diego Rivera’s portrait of Frida Kahlo, Desnudo sentado con brazos levantados, lithograph, 1930 ($8,000 to $12,000).

The sale concludes with excellent examples of European prints, most notably Pablo Picasso’s Femme au fauteuil II: Dora Maar, aquatint, scraper, burin and drypoint, 1939, a proof before steel-facing, signed by the artist and used as the model that all prints in the edition were to match ($35,000 to $50,000); Tête de Taureau, tournée à droite, lithograph, 1948 ($15,000 to $20,000); L’Atelier du Vieux Peintre, color lithograph, 1954 ($15,000 to $20,000); and Femme couchée et Homme à la Guitare, color linoleum cut, 1959 ($20,000 to $30,000).

Among desirable prints by Henri Matisse are Nu Étude de torsion du corps, lithograph, 1926, his largest lithograph of a female nude ($30,000 to $50,000); Bédouine au grand voile, aquatint, 1947 ($20,000 to $30,000); and Jazz: Le Cheval, L’Écuyère et le Clown, color pochoir, 1947 ($25,000 to $35,000).

Expressionist highlights include Lyonel Feininger’s The Privateet (Der Reeder), etching, 1911-12 ($6,000 to $9,000); Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s Maria, woodcut, 1918 ($8,000 to $12,000); Käthe Kollwitz’s Mutter mit Jungen, lithograph, 1933 ($7,000 to $10,000); and the Max Beckmann’s portfolio Day & Dream, with 15 lithographs, 1946 ($30,000 to $50,000).

The auction will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 1.