Original artwork for Muriel Rukeyser's Orpheus

1949. Four original ink wash paintings, signed and dated in red and stamped with red chop, on separate sheets each approximately 5 x 7.25 inches, each matted to 10 x 13 inches, captioned in the mat by the artist in black and red ink. Hint of foxing to the margins, mats a little toned, over all very good. § Four paintings inspired by Muriel Rukeyser's poem "Orpheus." The four titles are: I. Cossack Fury II. Semina Scandali III. Treading out the Grapes of Wrath IV. Opera Belle Each plate additionally hand-titled "Fury from Rukeyser's Orpheus." It is possible the four abstract "Furies" were prepared as potential illustrations for the first edition of the poem, which was published by San Francisco's Centaur Press in December 1949. If so, then the publisher must have changed tack, as the book ultimately appeared with a single etching by Picasso. Harvey Wilder Bentley was born in San Francisco, worked from 1930 through 1933 at Porter Garnett's Laboratory Press at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and later settled in Berkeley where he established the Archetype Press, producing limited editions of finely printed books, broadsides, and scrolls. Highlights of the press included William Saroyan's A Native American (San Francisco: George Fields, 1938) and Ansel Adams' Sierra Nevada: the John Muir Trail (1938). In addition to his printing activities, Wilder Bentley was a prolific poet, calligrapher, and brush artist. An exhibition of his brush drawings was held at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in May 1943.…