Olin Dows "Market: Riga" 1933 Wood Engraving Print

This striking wood engraving by Olin Dows (1904-1981) titled Market: Riga is one of a series of prints the artist created while traveling in the 1930s (I believe Riga refers to Riga, Latvia, though the concentration of the artist's travels during this time were in Mexico and Central America.)  As with many of his works in this series, the figures are anonymous, their faces veiled by scarves, tightly knotted at their necks, suggesting an infinite multitude of women engaged in this never-ending, bobbing and weaving task of marketing! Dows makes brilliant use of line to render volume and pattern (that checkerboard coat at left, and that basket at the center!), with a halo of solid black surrounding these women as if protecting and connecting them. Charming, elegant, masterfully executed...just terrific, I think. Dows' biography is fascinating, including for the fact that he was close to the Roosevelts, served as a member of the administration during the Great Depression, and became a cent