Author Archives: Julie Mellby

Cuerpos Blandos

In October 1969, the Chilean sculptor Juan Pablo Langlois converted Santiago’s National Museum of Fine Arts (MNBA) into “en objeto de la primera intervención artística de carácter público” [the object of the first artistic intervention of a public nature]. The work consisted of a large nylon sleeve filled with diaries, which began on the second floor, circled through the balcony, descended the staircase, and exited through a window, where it was tied to one of the palm trees in the front yard.

Forty years later, this seminal Chilean work of conceptual art was recreated on the second floor of the MNBA and a facsimile edition of the exhibition catalogue was published with drawings and photographs documenting the project. Thanks to the support of the Program in Latin American Studies, we are fortunate to acquire the rare, limited edition re-publication.

According to the curator Ramón Castillo, the re-assembly of “Cuerpos Blandos” has a double meaning. “On the one hand, it is an exercise that activates in memory a key moment for contemporary Chilean art and, at the same time, points to an artist who turns his work into a collective action, since Langlois will receive the contribution of the public and the collaboration of art students for its execution, as well as allowing the public to appreciate the execution and installation process.”

“The Chilean sculptor, installer, and visual artist was born in Santiago on February 26, 1936. Between 1952 and 1962 he studied architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and at the Catholic University of Valparaíso. He receives the influence of Joseph Albers, professor of the Bauhaus in a course of six months that the professor dictates in Chile. His first visual works are closely related to his training as an architect and consist of two-dimensional research on optical art.

At the end of the sixties, he abandoned this tendency to develop a conceptual work made of paper, cardboard and wood, where he emphasized the critical reflection of Chilean society. Finally, Langlois abandons in a radical way the use of traditional elements of art to openly inaugurate the practice of installation in Chile. Since 1969, his work has been exhibited on several occasions in the National Museum of Fine Arts, as well as in other galleries and museums in Chile and abroad. He has received distinctions such as the Third Prize at the VIII International Art Biennial of Valparaíso in 1987 and the Gunther Prize of Santiago in 1995, among others.”–http://www.mnba.cl/617/w3-article-8863.html

For more about Langlois: http://www.artistasvisualeschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-40063.html

Juan Pablo Langlois (born 1936), Cuerpos blandos [facsimile]. 21st edition ([Santiago, Chile]: Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, [2017]). Catálogo de exposición de arte. Purchased by the Program in Latin American Studies. Copy 18 of 21. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process.

 

See also: Juan Pablo Langlois Vicuña, De Langlois a Vicuña (Santiago de Chile : AFA Editions, 2009). Summary note: Book devoted to sculptor and installation and visual artist Juan Pablo Langlois Vicuña (b. Chile 1936), considered by many as the “Father of Contemporary Art in Chile”. Conceived as a “document of artist”, the exhaustive work presents his extraordinary and diverse art production (installations, paper sculptures, collages, etc.) from 1969-2008, a chronology of his 39 exhibitions, his artist’s books and his thoughts about art. Includes and interview and a theoretical text. Marquand Library (SA) N7433.4.L363 A4 2009

Cuerpos Blandos – Juan Pablo Langlois (2007) from pedro l. talarico on Vimeo.

Juan Pablo Langlois:
A propósito de Cuerpos Blandos (1/3)

Mitchell and Abbott

Joseph Mitchell (1908-1996), The Bottom of the Harbor, with photogravures by Berenice Abbott (New York: Limited Editions Club, 1991). “The text was set in Monotype Bell by Michael and Winifred Bixler … Printed at Wild Carrot Letterpress … The photogravure plates were made by Jon Goodman, and were printed by Sara Krohn and Wingate Studio”–Colophon. Copy 89 of 250, signed by the author. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) in process.

 

The Limited Editions Club was founded by George Macy (1900-1956) in 1929. After his death, his wife, Helen and then, their son Jonathan Macy, ran the organization until 1970. The club went through several new managers and in 1978, Sidney Shiff (1924-2010) took over, reducing the print runs and emphasizing original art by major artists.

Princeton University Library holds over 200 of the illustrated books and we continue to add to the collection. The most recent addition is the last book Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) participated in before her death at the age of 93.

Returning to New York City in 1929, she began documenting both the modern buildings of Manhattan and the remains of the city’s historic past. Thanks to support from the Federal Art Project, Abbott published Changing New York in 1940. Shiff arranged for negatives taken for this earlier project to be transferred to copper plate photogravure by Jon Goodman and printed by Sara Krohn at Wingate Studio in Massachusetts. The result is the perfect accompaniment to Mitchell’s text.

 

 

“To furnish, to lovers of beautiful books, unexcelled editions of their favorite works . . . to place beautifully printed books in the hands of booklovers at commendably low prices . . . to foster in America, a high regard for perfection in bookmaking . . . by publishing for its members twelve books each year, illustrated by the greatest of artists and planned by the greatest of designers . . . this is the purpose of The Limited editions Club.” –The Limited Editions Club ([New York]: The Club, 1929). Graphic Arts Collection 2010-0386n c.2

Thoreau in gravure


In searching for hand-inked, copperplate photogravures recently, these beautiful plates turned up in the two-volume Walden by Henry David Thoreau, with a willow leaf binding design by Sarah Whitman. The negatives were taken by Alfred Winslow Hosmer (also called Fred, 1851-1903).

As the Concord Free Public Library (where his library and archive are housed) notes, Hosmer did not record dates on many of his photographs but since he created gelatin dry-plate glass negatives, we date them from the 1880s. See more: https://concordlibrary.org/special-collections/fin_aids/Hosmer

One gravure is from Benjamin D. Moxham’s 1856 daguerreotype portrait of Thoreau as well as one from Edward S. Dunshee’s 1861 ambrotype.

 

 

Annotated captions for the illustrations note that Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) owned the land on which the Walden house stood. In a letter to him, January 24, 1843, Thoreau wrote: “I have been your pensioner for nearly two years, and still left free as under the sky. It has been as free a gift as the sun or the summer, though I have sometimes molested you with my mean acceptance of it, –I who have failed to render even those slight services of the hand which would have been for a gift at least: and , by the fault of my nature, have failed of many better and higher services. But I will not trouble you with this, but for once thank you as well as Heaven.”

Above is the house with a profile figure of Emerson. Below is Samuel Staples, Thoreau’s jailer when he was arrested for refusing to pay taxes.

 

 

Above is “Brister’s Spring”. Below “Pines set out by Thoreau on his Beanfield”.

 

 

 

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden. With an introduction by Bradford Torrey. Illustrated with photogravures (Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1897). Firestone Library (F) PS3048 .A1 1897. Princeton also owns Sylvia Beach’s copy of this book.

What Can a Woman Do, and, What a Woman Can Do

 

As a mother and a full-time journalist, Martha Louise Rayne (1836-1911) became interested in what occupations were both open to and appropriate for the women of her day. In 1883, she wrote What Can a Woman Do: Or Her Position in the Business and Literary Worlds, published the following year and recorded as selling over 100,000 copies. She followed up by opening the Mrs. Rayne’s School of Journalism, specifically focused on training women for a professional career. Other occupations she found to be suitable for ladies were hand-coloring photographs and wood engraving.

Rayne’s book had lasting influence, with new editions and variations on the theme published for generations. “What Can a Woman Do” was quickly modified to read “What a Woman Can Do,” for better or worse.

 

In 1894, Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) opened her first photography studio in Washington, D.C. After much success, she published an article in the Ladies Home Journal discussing the suitability of photography as a profession for women. https://www.cliohistory.org/exhibits/johnston/whatawomancando/ This was part biography and part addendum to Rayne’s book, which had just been reissued in 1893.

In 1911, the year of Rayne’s death, there was even a silent film entitled “What a Woman Can Do,” but the female character’s only occupation is as an unfaithful wife who destroys her husband’s life.

 

 


 

Martha Louise Rayne, What Can a Woman Do; or, Her Position in the Business and Literary World (Petersburgh, N.Y.: Eagle publishing co., [c1893]) Rare Books (Ex) HD6058 .R3 1893 and Miriam Y. Holden Coll. (Holden). Firestone HD6058 .R3

What a Woman Can Do! (London: Aldine Publishing Company, [189-?]). Rare Books Off-Site Storage RCPXR-6160701

Frances Benjamin Johnston, “What A Woman Can Do With A Camera: With Reproductions of Photographs Taken By The Author, And Here Published For The First Time,” The Ladies’ Home Journal. xiv, no. 10 (Sep 1897): 6.

S.H. Muir, What a Woman can do. Humorous song. Words by Arthur Legion (London: J.H. Larway, 1902)

What a Woman Can Do (1911) Silent film directed by and starring Gilbert M. ‘Broncho Billy’ Anderson (1880–1971).

T. Mullet Ellis (1850-1919), What Can a Woman Do for the Empire? (London: Holden [1915]). RECAP 3729.15.396

Mabel St. John, What a woman can do (London: Published for the proprietors at the Fleetway House, 1917). Woman’s world library no. 105.

Martha Louise Rayne, What Can a Woman Do? (New York, Arno Press, 1974 [c1893]). RECAP HD6058.R3 1974

What Can a Woman Do With a Camera?: Photography for Women / edited by Jo Spence & Joan Solomon (London : Scarlet Press, c1995). Marquand Library (SAPH): Photography TR183 .W537 1995

The Greatest Invention of Modern Times and More

During the conservation of our circus broadsides, a large group of circus magazines and multi-page advertising were separated from the flat paper. These are now begin catalogued and housed with our other bound material. They announce many thrilling attractions from P.T. Barnum and other entrepreneurs, but one that especially caught our eye was an advertisement for Professor Faber’s “Talking Machine.”


In 1844, several American newspapers mention the first visit of Joseph Faber (ca.1800-1850) to the United States with his contraption named Euphonia:

“The Talking Machine. Having seen in one or two papers an account of this new invention we went with a friend yesterday to see it. –Mr. Faber, the artist, speaks only German, yet he has taught his machine to speak English, and speak it too better than German. And what is still more curious, it gives some of our difficult sounds better than Mr. Faber himself can pronounce them. The ‘th,’ for instance, which is the Rubicon in our language to a German, it gives like a native-born American. Indeed, we do not believe the ‘Native American Party’ itself could tell the difference. On asking Mr. Faber how it came to pass his machine could speak better English than German, he replied: “Why shouldn’t it? –it is American born.” The sounds issue from the lips of a Mask that as they open and shut reveal a tongue that plays like the living member, though no so ‘limberly.’ It is really laughable to see this bust placed upright with a turbaned head and whiskered face slowly enunciating in a whining tone, sounds which we have heretofore considered as belonging exclusively to our species.” –New York Daily Tribune January 26, 1844.

In December 1845, Joseph Faber exhibited his “Wonderful Talking Machine” at the Musical Fund Hall in Philadelphia and Princeton University professor Joseph Henry (1797-1878) was called on to help determine whether or not Faber’s invention was a fraud. Henry soon became one of Faber’s chief supporters.

Barnum saw Faber’s demonstration in 1844 while in London and later arranged for Faber’s nephew to perform with Euphonia at Barnum’s museum in New York City. Prof. Faber had unfortunately committed suicide in 1850.

See more: http://history-computer.com/Dreamers/Faber.html
James Lastra, Sound Technology and the American Cinema: perception, representation, modernity (New York: Columbia University Press, c2000). Firestone Library (F) PN1995.7 .L37 2000

A few other magazines:


The Fabric Group


Thanks to Bonnie Yochelson, speaking at the “Rethinking Pictorialism” symposium, we were introduced to “The Fabric Group” series of advertisements by Anton Bruehl (1900-1982) and Ralph Steiner (1899-1986).

A student of Clarence White, Bruehl opened a photography studio in 1926 partnering first with Steiner and later with his older brother, Martin Bruehl. When the Manhattan men’s haberdashers Weber and Heilbroner hired them to prepare an advertising campaign, they invented three paper dolls wearing Fabric Group suits, who appeared weekly from January 1, 1927 to December 29, 1928 in the pages a sophisticated new magazine called The New Yorker.

Writing for the New York Times, Sarah Boxer noted that “Every week . . . the Fabric Group would go ‘abroad’ in their fedoras to have dangerous adventures like deep-sea diving with fish or spelunking with dinosaurs. They weathered all perils with jaunty good humor, while wishing they were back home wearing their Fabric Group suits.”

As much as the weekly articles and reviews, these advertisements built the young magazine’s circulation and its long term success.

Seen above: Anton Bruehl (1900-1982) and Ralph Steiner (1899-1986), Adventures of the Fabric Group no 2 (in art gallery) 1927; Anton Bruehl (1900-1982), The Fabric Group abroad no 4 (arriving at French customs) 1927; Anton Bruehl (1900-1982), The Fabric Group Abroad no 16 (picnic in Germany) 1927; Anton Bruehl (1900-1982), Adventures of The Fabric Group no 21 (beach umbrella) 1927; Anton Bruehl (1900-1982), The Fabric Group Abroad no 31 (Buddha statue) 1928; and Anton Bruehl (1900-1982), The Fabric Group Abroad no 33 (in Australia with sheep) 1928.

The New Yorker (New York: F.R. Publishing Corp., 1925- ) Annex A, Forrestal (TEMP) AP2 .N4992q

Welcome to Rethinking Pictorialism Symposium Visitors

In conjunction with this weekend’s symposium, “Rethinking “Pictorialism”: American Art and Photography from 1895 to 1925” sponsored by the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University, visitors were also introduced to our growing collection of pre-cinema optical devices.

Thank you to those students and scholars who got up extra early to come over to our classroom display.

Organized by Anne McCauley, David Hunter McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art, the two-day conference is being held in conjunction with the exhibition, Clarence H. White and His World: The Art and Craft of Photography, 1895-1925, on display at the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ (October 7, 2017–January 7, 2018).

After Princeton, the show travels to the Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA (February 7, 2018–June 3, 2018); the Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (June 22, 2018–September 16, 2018); and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (October 21, 2018–January 21, 2019).

For more information about the exhibition and catalogue, see:

http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/story/clarence-h-white-and-his-world-art-and-craft-photography-1895%E2%80%931925

A few more magic lantern slides

Leaver slide of two cats confronting each other. Their backs go up.

Slipping slide, pulling a tooth.

Slipping slides, only the eyes move.

Thanks to a generous donation from David S. Brooke, director emeritus of the Clark Art Institute, the Graphic Arts Collection and the Cotsen Children’s Library have acquired a new group of chiefly English, hand-painted magic lantern slides. Here are a few more examples from this wonderful collection.

Seven of a twenty-five-slide temperance set titled “The Last Shilling,” in which a husband is about to spend his last shilling on drink but remembers his poor wife and instead, returns home to give the shilling to her.
Various chromatrope slides.

The Last Judgment in Twelve Plates

Detail

Detail

Detail

 

[above] Pieter de Jode I (1570–1634) after the painting by Jean Cousin the Younger (ca. 1522–1594). Iudicÿ uniuersalis paradigma Sacrae Scripturae testimonijs confirmatum = Pourtraict du Iugement Vniuersel confirmé des tesmoignaiges de l’Escripture Saincte. Engraved in 12 plates. Published in Paris by P. Drevet aux Galleries, [First issued in 1615; this impression between 1726 and 1738]. Hollstein IX.204.83. Graphic Arts Collection 2017- in process

[below] Jean Cousin the Younger, Last Judgment, ca.1585. Oil on canvas, 145 x 142 cm. Musée duLouvre, Paris

Born in Antwerp, Jode studied with Hendrick Goltzius and matriculated into the Guild of St Luke. His 12 engraved sheets (9 image and 3 text) after Cousin’s Last Judgment (Louvre), were first issued in 1615, dedicated by Guilielmus Wittenbroot to King Louis XIII of France, and approved by the canon and censor Lawrence Beyerlinck of Antwerp.

The framed set of prints recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection was printed later from the original plates, acquired by the print publisher and graveur du Roi Pierre Drevet (1663-1738). Between 1703 and 1726 Drevet’s shop was located on the rue Saint-Jacques, after which he was granted lodgings in the Palais du Louvre. Our impression is inscribed “A Paris Chez Drevet rue St. Iacques a la Nonciation Avec Privilege du Roy” in the lower center of image and dates from after 1726.

 

 

See also: Recueil des oeuvres choises de Jean Cousin, peinture, sculpture, vitraux, miniatures, gravures à l’eau-forte et sur bois, reprodutes en fac-similé par MM. Adam et St. Pilinksi, Aug. Racinet, Lemaire, Durand et Dujardin (quarante-et-une planches, dont quatre en couleurs) et publiées avec un introduction par Ambroise Firmin-Didot (Paris: Firmin Didot, Frères, fils et ct cie, 1873). Marquand Library (SA) Oversize ND553.C825 D48f

Also engraved by Pieter de Jode I: Antonio Tempesta (1555-1630), Metamorphoseon, siue, Transformationum Ouidianarum libri quindecim, æeneis formis ab Antonio Tempesta Florentino incisi, et in pictorum, antiquitatisque studiosorum gratiam nunc primum exquisitissimis sumptibus a Petro de Iode Antuerpiano in lucem editi (Amsterodami, Wilhelmus Ianssonius excudit [1606?]). Rare Books (Ex) NE662.T45 O94 1606


Text in French and in Latin.

A previous owner of the set now at Princeton framed the 9 image plates reproducing The Last Judgment, leaving the 3 text plates in a separate mat. Other sets, such as the one in the Bibliothèque nationale de France [below] are framed with the text included.

 

 

Aquatints by Alexandre Alexeïeff

Léon-Paul Fargue (1876-1947), Poëmes. Eaux-fortes en coleurs par Alexeieff ([Paris]: Librairie Gallimard, [1943]). Copy 61 of 136. Graphic Arts GAX 2017- in process

 


The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired another volume with aquatints by Alexandre Alexeïeff (1901-1982).

The Russian artist emigrated to France after the Russian Revolution and went on to animate films, design sets, and beginning in 1926, illustrate books by Poe, Baudelaire, Andersen, Hoffman, Tolstoy, Pasternak and Malraux, among others.

In her thesis (Universiteit Utrecht 2012), Bregje Hofstede lists 50 books with prints by Alexeïeff (file:///C:/Users/JULIEM~1/AppData/Local/Temp/Alexander%20Alexeieff%20and%20the%20Art%20of%20Illustration-1.pdf)

The chronological list below may not be complete. Titles with an asterisk have only been illustrated with a frontispiece.

 

Soupault, Philippe, Guillaume Apollinaire (Marseille: Éditions Les Cahiers du Sud, 1926).* – Giraudoux, Jean, La Pharmacienne (Paris: Éditions des Cahiers Libres, 1926). – Giraudoux, Jean, Siegfried et le Limousin (Paris: Aux Aldes, 1927). – Gogol, Nicolai, Le journal d’un fou (Paris: Schiffrin / Éditions de la Pléiade, 1927). Second edition: London, Cress Press Limited, 1929. – Hémon, Louis, Maria Chapdelaine. Récit du Canada Francais (Paris: Éditions du Polygone, 1927. – Maurois, André, Les Anglais (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1927).* – Maurois, André, Voyage au pays des Articoles (Paris: Schiffrin / Éditions de la Pléiade, 1927). – Genbach, Jean, L’Abbé de l’abbaye, poèmes supernaturalistes. (Paris: Tour d’ivoire, 1927). – Soupault, Philippe, Guillaume Apollinaire, ou Reflets de l’incendie (Marseille: Les Cahiers du Sud, 1927).* – Morand, Paul, Bouddha Vivant (Paris: Aux Aldes / Grasset, 1928). – Pouchkine, Alexandre, La dame de pique (Paris: J. E. Pouterman Éditeur, 1928). Second edition: London, the Blackmore Press, 1928. – Kessel, Joseph, Les Nuits de Sibérie (Paris: Flammarion 1928). – Perrault, Charles, Contes (Paris: Hilsum 1928).* – Green, Julien, Mont Cinère (Paris: Plon, 1928).* – Apollianaire, Guillaume, Les épingles (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1928).* – Soupault, Philippe, Le roi de la vie (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1928).* – Bove, Emmanuel, Une Fugue (Paris: Éditions de la belle Page, 1928).* – Green, Julien, Adrienne Mesurat (Paris: Les Exemplaires, 1929). – Perrault, C., Les Contes de Perrault. Édition du Tricentenaire. Illustrés par 33 graveurs (Paris: Éditions Au Sans Pareil, 1928). – Giraudoux, Jean, Marche vers Clermont (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1928).* – Poe, Edgar Allan, Fall of the House of Usher (Paris: Éditions Orion, 1929). Second edition: Maastricht, Stols, 1930. – Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Les frères Karamazov (Paris: la Pléiade / Schiffrin, 1929). – Kessel, Joseph, Dames de Californie (Paris : NRF, 1929).* – Poe, Edgar Allan, translated by Baudelaire, Colloque entre Monos et Una (Paris: Orion, 1929). – Delteil, Joseph, On the River Amour (New York: Covici, 1929). – Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, Les recites de feu Ivan Pétrovitch Bielkine (Maastricht/Bruxelles: Stols 1930). – Fargue, L.-P., Poèmes (Paris: NRF Gallimard, 1931). – Fournier, Alain, Le Grand Meaulnes (Paris: Éditions de Cluny, 1931).* – [?] Louys, Pierre, Les Chansons de Bilitis (Paris: Cluny, 1933). – Baudelaire, Charles, Petits poèmes en Prose (Paris: Société du Livre d’Art, 1934). – Cervantès, Don Quichote, 1936. Published without text by ArtExEast, Geneva, 2011. – Andersen, Hans Christian: Images de la Lune (Paris: Maximilien Vox, 1942). – Afanas’ev, Aleksandr, Russian Fairy Tales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1945). – Soupault, Philippe: Journal d’un Fantôme (Paris: Éditions du Point du Jour, 1946).* – Tolstoy, Leo, What Men Live by: Russian stories and Legends (York: Pantheon Books, 1943). – Soupault, Philippe, Message de l’île déserte (Den Haag: Stols, 1947).* – Blake, William, Chants d’innocence et d’expérience (Paris: Cahiers Libres, 1947).* – Soupault, Philippe (transl.), Chant du Prince Igor (Rolle: Eynard, 1950). – Chekov, Anton, Une Banale Histore, suivie de: La Steppe – Goûssev – Vollôdia (Paris Imprimerie Nationale / André Sauret, 1955).* – Flaubert, Gustave, Premières Lettres à L.C. (Paris: Les Impénitents, 1957).* – Pasternak, Boris, Dr Zhivago (Paris: Gallimard, 1959). Second edition by Pantheon Books. – Hoffmann, Ernst Theodore Amadeus, Contes (Paris: Club du Livre, 1960). – Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The Gambler & Notes from the Underground (New York: Heritage Press / Limited Editions Club / Sign of the Stone Book, 1967). – Malraux, André, Oeuvres (Paris: Rombaldi, 1979). – Malraux, André, La Tentation de l’Occident (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Malraux, André, La Condition Humain, (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Malraux, André, La Voie Royale (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Malraux, André, Les Noyés de l’Altenbourg (Paris: Ateliers Rigal, 1991). – Tolstoy, Leo, Anna Karenina (Paris: Rigal, 1995 / Librairie Nicaise, 1997). – Alexeïeff, Alexandre, Album de 120 eaux-fortes et Aquatintes de A. Alexeïeff (Paris: Ateliers Rigal-Bertansetti, 1997).