Yearly Archives: 2014

Better than email, a note from an artist

Henry Martin, Class of 1948, Sneaking in to say ‘thanks’…, no date. Pen and marker drawing. GC029 Henry Martin Cartoon Collection. GA 2011.00353. Gift of David K. Reeves, Class of 1948.

The wonderful American artist Henry Martin and David Reeves (1926-2012) were both members of Princeton University’s class of 1948. Their friendship continued long after, both living in or close to Princeton most of their lives. Lucky for David, he would get occasional cards and notes from his friend with amazing illustrations. Lucky for graphic arts, Reeves generously donated his collection of Martin’s drawings to the graphic arts collection in 2011.

Henry Martin, Class of 1948, Sorry you won’t be having Thankgiving…, 2009. Pen and watercolor drawing. GC029 Henry Martin Cartoon Collection. GA 2011.00350. Gift of David K. Reeves, Class of 1948.

The painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) also liked to write personal notes to friends. This card is addressed to Alfred Pach but it is unclear whether that refers to the brother or the nephew of collector Walter Pach (1883-1958).

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), To Alfred Pach, no date. Pen and watercolor. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.02477

Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire

Alexander Hastie Millar (1847-1927), Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire: illustrated in seventy views, with historical and descriptive accounts ([Edinburgh : W. Paterson], 1885). Includes albumen prints by Thomas Annan. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2008-0021E

While the binding is fragile and even broken in places, the interior of our “author’s proof” copy of The Castles and Mansions of Ayrshire, is handsome and complete with 70 albumen silver prints by Scottish photographer Thomas Annan (1829-1887).

The rehabilitation of the Glasgow slums in 1866 led to Thomas Annan’s first urban photograph series, capturing the old closes (alleys) and tenements before they were torn down. Annan continued to photograph the city for four years, from 1868 through 1871, and printed the negatives in both albumen and carbon print editions.

To help fund his studio and other projects, Annan accepted a commission to photograph The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry (1870) published with 100 photographs of “well-known places in the neighbourhood of Glasgow.” He followed this with Memorials of the Old College of Glasgow (1871), which included 40 leaves of plates.

Over ten years later, Annan revived the subject matter of the Glasgow gentry with a series of photographs documenting the castles and mansions along the Scottish coast southwest of Glasgow. His friend, Dr. Alexander Hastie Millar (1847-1927), the author of a large number of works on Scottish history and antiquities, researched each building and provided accurate, historic details of ownership and reconstruction.

The book begins with Annick Lodge: “The estate at present known as Annick Lodge has been formed gradually by the purchase of several contiguous estates, some of which can be traced back to a very ancient date. The mansion-house occupies the site of the old manorial dwelling of Pearston-hall, the house of the Lairds of Over-Pearston in the fifteenth century…”

See also The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry (Glasgow: James Maclehose, 1870). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

Edgar Allen Poe and Alice Neel

The artist Alice Neel (1900-1984) never lived to see the publication of her fine press book prepared with the Limited Editions Club. She died from cancer in October 1984, early in production stages. Our copy, like most, is only signed by her friend and fellow artist Raphael Soyer (1899-1987) who wrote a short tribute to her, included at the end of this volume.

Neel selected two of her earlier paintings to accompany Poe’s text, along with several black and white etchings. According to the prospectus, “The first illustration, Alice Neel’s ‘Nadja’ and our Madeline Usher [sister of Roderick], is a reproduction of a gouache painting from 1929. The reproduction of this image required eighteen plates/colours, with several plates run more than once for a total of twenty-five printings. The second illustration, entitled ‘Requiem,’ printed in 1927, incorporates seventeen plates and a total of twenty-six press runs. The extraordinary separations on both lithographs were performed by Gena Maxwell, and the printing by Frank Martinez.”

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), The Fall of the House of Usher, illustrated by Alice Neel ([New York]: Limited Editions Club; printed by Anthoensen Press, 1985). Copy 528 of 1500. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2006-0040F

A 1975 interview with the artist can be found here: http://www.vdb.org/titles/alice-neel-interview

An Invitation to the Galerie de L’Effort Moderne

When World War I ended, collector Léonce Rosenberg (1879-1947) opened the Galerie de L’Effort Moderne at 19, rue de la Baume, where he exhibited his personal collection of paintings by Picasso, Léger, Braque, and other Cubist artists. The gallery stayed open for twenty-two years, presenting one-man shows for Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Auguste Herbin, and Juan Gris. From 1924 to 1927, Rosenberg also published the Bulletin de l’effort moderne’ (Éditions de l’effort moderne), featuring articles about contemporary art.

Advertisements for exhibitions at Galerie de l’Effort Moderne were printed with pochoir or stencil color, although the pochoir studio responsible is never credited for that work. Thanks to collector and bibliophile Charles Rahn Fry, class of 1965, the graphic arts collection is fortunate to hold three of these cubist exhibition announcements.

Léonce Rosenberg, Cubisme et empirisme (Paris: Éditions de “l’effort moderne,” 1921) Marquand Library (SA): N6490 .R73

Bulletin de l’effort modern (Paris: Éditions de l’effort moderne, no 1 (jan. 1924)- no 40 (déc. 1927). Rare Books (Ex) item 6072579

Paul Gauguin and Thomas Edison

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Le sourire [Smiling], n° 1 (août 1899)-n° 9 (avril 1900). Edition approximately 30. (c) Drouot, Paris.

Inside Starr Figura’s marvelous exhibition Gauguin: Metamorphoses at the Museum of Modern Art, visitors can see three issues of Paul Gauguin’s newspaper Sourire. As the curator tells us, the artist wrote, drew, printed, and published nine issues near the end of his stay in Tahiti.

To reproduce the handwritten sheets, Gauguin used one of the newest printing devices, all the rage in Paris and New York: Thomas Edison’s mimeograph machine.

“J’ai créé un journal Le Sourire autographié, système Edison,” wrote Gauguin, “qui fait fureur. Malheureusement, on se le repasse de main en main, et je n’en vends que très peu.” (December 1899). Although Princeton does not hold copies of Sourire, we are fortunate to have one of Edison’s machines.

In 1876, Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) filed a United States patent for autographic printing by means of an electric pen. A second patent further developed his system to “prepare autographic stencils for printing.”

Albert Blake Dick (1856-1934) licensed the patent and began manufacturing equipment to make stencils for the reproduction of hand-written text. In 1887, the A.B. Dick Company released the model “0” flatbed duplicator selling for $12. It was an immediate success. Dick named the machine The Edison Mimeograph.

It is model “0” that we hold in the graphic arts collection, including the original box, a printing frame (missing the screen), inking plate, ink roller, a tube of ink, and a tube of waxed wrapping paper. One container is empty, perhaps for a stylus and/or other writing tools.

The Edison Mimeograph Machine (Chicago: A.B. Dick Company, ca.1890). Gift of Douglas F. Bauer, Class of 1964. Graphic Arts Collection.

Hear Starr Figura’s commentary on Gauguin’s newspaper here: http://uat.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/384/6676. Her exhibition catalogue includes an essay by Hal Foster, Townsend Martin, Class of 1917, Professor of Art and Archaeology. Co-Director, Program in Media and Modernity, Princeton University.

Exhibition Chronology of the Little Gallery of the Pynson Printers

“There is an artificial stone floor of a brilliant blue color, surrounded by a baseboard molding of old gold,” explained the designer Lucian Bernhard (1885–1972). “The walls are about seven feet high, of a yellowish white, and of a very rough texture, resembling the surface of a cut of Roquefort cheese. This wall is surmounted by a projecting undercut surface of transparent cloth which hides the source of light that illuminates the walls …. The fascia of this undercut forms a very marked profile in blue and gold. Above this the ceiling looms invisible in an impenetrable black. This is the Exhibition Room.” (Oskar M. Hahn, “Bernhard-Rosen,” Gebrauchsgraphik Jahr 3, no 2 (Februar 1926): 9).

Bernhard was describing what the New York press came to refer to as the Little Gallery of the Pynson Printers, located on the seventh floor of The New York Times Annex at 229 West 43rd Street in New York City. The gallery’s curator, director of the Pynson Printers and later, Princeton University curator of graphic arts, was Elmer A. Adler (1884–1962).

In documenting Adler’s years on 43^rd street, I compiled a chronology of the approximately fifty exhibitions held in Pynson Printers gallery from 1926 to 1939, when Adler finally closed his press. This was too lengthy for the article published in our Princeton University Library Chronicle 73, no. 3 (Spring 2012). Here is a pdf of that timeline, in case it is of interest: http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/ga_pdf/exhibitions pdf.pdf

These photographs of Adler’s rooms at 43rd Street were taken by Ralph Steiner (1899-1986).

Alexeieff

Russian émigré Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-1982) moved to Paris in the early 1920s, where he designed and painted sets for the Ballets Russes and other productions. When theater jobs dried up, Alexeieff took up printmaking and found work as an illustrator, creating plates for books by Poe, Baudelaire, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Hoffman, and his friends Andre Malraux and Philippe Soupault. One of the most beautiful is his 1927 Journal d’un fou (Diary of a Madman) by Gogol, illustrated with aquatints, seen above and below.

When the American poet Wallace Stevens was given a copy of one of Alexeieff’s books, he wrote, “I went over some of [the poems] again in the edition illustrated by Alexieff [sic]. I was very much pleased with this big Alexieff book because I love large pages for poetry. On the other hand, I cannot say that I think that Alexieff’s designs are truthful illustrations of the text; they are too individual. The eccentricity of Fargue should be delineated in its own right and not doubled by an additional eccentricity on the part of an illustrator.” –written to Paula Vidal 1950.

Nikolai Vasilʹevich Gogol (1809-1852), Journal d’un fou, gravures de A. Alexeieff; traduction de B. de Schloezer et J. Schiffrin (Paris: J. Schiffrin, les Editions de la Pléiade, 1927). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PG3334.F5 Z3 1927

Alexeieff went on to make animated films using his own invention, the écran d’épingles (pinscreen) together with his second, American wife Claire Parker (1906-1981). The texture of these movies is surprisingly similar to the grainy quality of his earlier aquatints. Take a look.

Night on Bald Mountain by Alexandre Alexeieff, 1933

Gogol’s Le Nez, 1963.

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837), La dame de pique; adaptation française de Prosper Mérimée; bois gravés en couleurs de A. Alexeieff (Paris: Pouterman, 1928). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PG3348.F5 P5 1928

Harlequins at Princeton

John Brandard, 1812-1863, Harlequin Quadrilles [sheet music cover], no date. Chromolithograph. GC106 British Prints Collection, From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. Signed on stone, l.c.: “J. Brandard”. Signed in plate, l.l.: “J. Brandard del et lith”. GA 2012.02549

In searching for a harlequin figure today, it surprised us how many variations we hold. Here are only a few.
Maurice Sand, 1823-1889, Untitled [Arlechino], n.d. [1858]. Etching with hand coloring. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. GA 2012.02732

Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (1758-1823) after Sebastien Coeure (1778-after 1831), Dominique, no date. Stipple engraving. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. Full-length portrait of Dominique Biancolelli (1640-1688) as Harlequin, Inscribed in plate, above: “Galerie Theatrale. 20me. Lon.” GAX 2012.02561

Eberhard Danzer, Harlekin, 1970. Linocut. GC018 German Prints Collection

George Wood Conetta, (1881-1956), Mr. Ellar as Harlequin [restrike], May 1, 1903. Chromolithograph. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. GA 2012.02553

Thanks to alumni for their support

Just a quick addendum to the wonderful article A War Brought Home by Merrell Noden, Class of 1978, in the Princeton Alumni Weekly for 19 March 2014. Our copy of Alexander Gardner’s two volume: Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War was featured among the strong photography holdings at Princeton. https://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/03/19/pages/5297/index.xml

It is important to remember that the purchase of the album was thanks to a group of enthusiastic alumni and certainly would not have been possible without their support. I wish to thank each and every one of them here with the information included with the album and online with the library catalogue record: Purchase supported by funds from Friends of the Princeton University Library and from Princeton alumni William Bohnett, Class of 1970; George Bustin, Class of 1970; Paul Haaga, Class of 1970; J. Roderick Heller, Class of 1959; Brian Hunter, Class of 1970; Otis Allen Jeffcoat, Class of 1970; John Loose, Class of 1970; and William Trimble, Class of 1958.

We are only able to make a limited number of high value acquisitions each year for the graphic arts collection and this is one of the highlights of all time. Gardner also liked to give appropriate credit, clearly listing all the photographers who worked with him on this project including Barnard & Gibson (8); Alexander Gardner (16); J. Gardner (10); David Knox (4); Timothy H. O’Sullivan (45); William R. Pywell (3); J. Reekie (7); W. Morris Smith (1); Wood & Gibson (5); and D. B. Woodbury (1).

Adding to Firestone Library’s signature moments

After Giambologna (1529–1608), Mercury, no date. Bronze. Princeton University, Gift of Mrs. Edgar Palmer. PP515.

While our students are away on their spring break, we placed a few more works of art and science into the newly renovated Firestone Library. Here are images from the last couple days. Note in particular, you can see the bottom of the world as you walk up the stairs.

Anonymous, Terrestrial Globe, Venice, 1631. Hand-painted, 32 inches in diameter, with full metal meridian ring, and printed horizon ring, resting on a short turned column in an elaborate wooden stand of six turned supports and half-ball feet. Rare Books and Special Collections.

3rd floor stair

Otis Bass (1784-1861), Samuel Blair, Jr. (1741-1818) and Susan Shippen Blair (Mrs. Samuel Blair, Jr.) (1743-1821), ca. 1812-17. Oil on canvas. Princeton University, Gift of Roberdeau Buchanan. PP52.

Daniel Huntington (1816-1906), John Torrey (1796-1873), 1857. Oil on canvas. Princeton University, presented by a group of alumni in 1916. PP61.

Otherwise known as Man Reading a Newspaper.

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