Category Archives: Illustrated books

illustrated books

Charlie Hebdo Lives

“Tout est Pardonné.” Translation: “All Is Forgiven.”

The latest issue of Charlie Hebdo went to press last night, with an anticipated print run of three million. A spokesperson for the satirical weekly said, “We have requests for 300,000 copies throughout the world – and demand keeps rising by the hour. [One] million will go. As of Thursday, the decision will probably be taken to print extra copies… So we’ll have one million, plus two if necessary.”

The cover was drawn by the staff cartoonist known as Luz (Rénald Luzier), who was born on January 7, 1972. Because of his birthday, the artist was 30 minutes late in arriving to the editorial meeting at the Charlie Hebdo office last week and escaped the terrorist attack.

A Lesson in Brushwork with Elizabeth Yeats

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired two copy books by Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940), the sister of W.B. Yeats. In the 1890s, Elizabeth was living in London, teaching art to children and involved with the Royal Drawing Society of Great Britain and Ireland. The Society’s director, Thomas Robert Ablett, wrote the introduction to her 1896 edition:

Miss Yeats, who is the daughter of an artist and a skillful kindergarten mistress, has proved that she can make good use of the subject. For several years her pupils’ brush work has obtained high awards at the Annual Exhibition of the Royal Drawing Society of Great Britain and Ireland . . . In this volume, Miss Yeats gives her experience for the benefit of others, wisely choosing her subjects from the flowers of the field, so that any teacher may paint from the growing plants themselves, with the help of the advice freely given and the chance of comparing the results obtained by Miss Yeats.

In 1901, the Yeats family moves back to Ireland and Elizabeth learns printing. Her imprint, Dun Emer Press, begins in 1903 with the letterpress printing of her brother’s book In the Seven Woods.

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940), Brush Work (London: George Philip & Son, 1896). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940), Brushwork studies of flowers, fruit, and animals for teachers and advanced students (London: George Philip & Son, 1898). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

Genii of Strange Appearance

Hishikawa Moronobu (ca. 1618-ca. 1694), Newly Published Picture Book of Genii of Strange Appearance (Shinpan igyo sennin ehon)(Edo: Urokogataya, 1689).

Hishikawa Moronobu is considered one of the earliest Japanese book illustrators. The translation of the title used here is taken from our colleagues at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston but on Princeton’s copy someone has written “Stories of immortals.” Someone else, probably Elmer Adler, has noted “Ghost stories in Chinese style.”

There is a second volume of this book that seems to have been separated from the first, but it was here and will eventually be found when our Japanese books are completely catalogued.

Craig’s Book of Actors

Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), A Book of Actors, 1911. Unique album with 19 mounted engravings. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

In 1911, while Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966) was living in Florence with Elena Fortuna Meo (1879–1957), he gave his son Edward (Teddy) Carrick (1905–1998) a scrapbook of engravings depicting classical actors, several from the Comédie-Française. Meo is responsible for the lovely green binding.

It appears that Craig had been working on this for some time, as it is inscribed “Papa fecit 1902” in red ink at foot and “PAPA” in black ink below. Mounted on the front pastedown is a plate with the illustrated initial “A” by J.Oliver (EGC), with the title “Book of Actors for Teddy – 1911, Florence, January – Papa. -Bound by Mama-.” In addition, Teddy Craig later wrote “and now, in 1968, passed on by that same TEDDY to his friend Lee Freeson who also loved EGC. ‘Papa’ being, of course, Edward Gordon Craig.”

The actor and bookdealer Lee Freeson (1902-98) helped to compile many theatre libraries in America. He corresponded with Craig, assisting him in his later years by selling some of his significant items to American collections. Freeson also became a close friend of Teddy Craig.

There is another note in Craig’s hand that reads: “The Actors whose pictures are in this book were better actors than those known so well to us as Kean – David Garrick – Kemble – Talma – Le Kain -.”

John Heartfield’s Photomontage

Karl August Wittfogel (1896-1988), Das erwachende China: ein Abriß der Geschichte und der gegenwärtigen Probleme Chinas [The Awakening of China, An Outline of the History and Current Problems of China] (Wien: Agis, 1926). Original book jacket designed by John Heartfield (1891-1968). Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process

Ilʹi︠a︡ Ehrenburg (1891-1967), 13 Pfeifen [13 Pipes; translation of Trinadtsat trubok, first published 1923] (Berlin: Malik-Verlag, 1930). Original book jacket designed by John Heartfield (1891-1968). Graphic Arts Collection 2014- in process

In 1917, Wieland Herzfelde (1896-1988) and his brother Helmut Herzfelde (later known as John Heartfield, 1891-1968) founded the Malik publishing house in Berlin. In the 1920s, they added a branch in Vienna.

As members of the newly founded German Communist Party (KPD), the brothers published an international list of authors, translated into German. Heartfield created dust jackets for most of the books with highly creative designs in photomontage. He also designed jackets for other activist publishers, such as Agis-Verlag (Antirassistische Gruppe Internationale Solidarität = Anti-racist group International Solidarity).

The Graphic Arts Collection has been acquiring Heartfield’s original jackets whenever possible. This fall, we added a volume of short stories by Ilya Ehrenburg, a Soviet writer, journalist, translator, and cultural figure. We also acquired a history of Chinese culture by the German American playwright Karl August Wittfogel. Both members of KPD, Heartfield and Wittfogel also worked together on several theatrical productions, with Heartfield painting the backdrops and Wittfogel writing the scripts.

Shadow and Substance

The British illustrator Charles Henry Bennett (1828–1867) drew a series of caricatures for the Illustrated Times known informally as Shadows, beginning as early as 1856. In each scene, a shadow is cast by an individual to form a surprising, usually humorous shape, which reveals something about their inner personality. It is a play on the popular magic lantern entertainments of the period.

Between 1858 and 1859, Bennett’s images were wood-engraved by Joseph Swain, matched with prose and poetry by Robert Brough, and issued in 10 parts by William Kent. In 1860, the parts were collected and published with hand colored plates under the title Shadow and Substance.

The preface notes that it is a book of images, illustrated with text, stating “It is only necessary to state formally what will be found implied symbolically in the introductory chapter, namely, that the work originated with the artist—the writer’s share of it being, consequently, accessorial and supplementary.”

The popularity of these images led to a series of magic lantern slides, issued by Fred V.A. Lloyd, Liverpool, with reduced black and white wood engravings of Bennett’s caricatures. The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired five of these slides, including one labeled “Elephant” never reproduced in the Bennett’s book.

Charles H. Bennett, Shadow and Substance. Text by Robert B. Brough (London: W. Kent & Co., 1860). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

The Book With No Pictures

The graphic arts collection would have acquired this book, if our colleagues in the Cotsen Children’s Library didn’t beat us to it: B.J. Novak, The Book with No Pictures (New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, [2014]). Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 21 153960

The book was one of the subjects discussed in today’s episode of The Observatory, with Michael Bierut and Jessica Helfand

The Japan Punch

“Charles Wirgman (1835-1891) was one of those engaging, eccentric, polyglot personalities,” writes John Clark, “who adventured around the Far East in the second half of the nineteenth century. Many deserved their reputation as semi-criminals out for quick money, but Wirgman, though probably never rich, has nowhere left an image of such avariciousness.”

As a correspondent of the Illustrated London News, Wirgman traveled first to Malta, followed by the Philippines, China, and finally Japan in 1861. Within a year of his arrival in Yokohama, Wirgman was publishing his own magazine, which he called The Japan Punch. The irregular journal ran for 25 years, drawn exclusively by Wirgman. Printed on extremely thin, handmade paper, each issue was produced in an edition of approximately 200 copies, according to Hans Harder and Barbara Mittler, Asian Punches: A Transcultural Affair (2013).

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired 13 of these rare issues, 5 from late 1865 and 8 from 1866. The Japan Punch joins the work of Okamoto Ippei, and other satirical artists of Japan held in the Princeton University Library.

Central Park

New York’s Central Park will be the focus of tomorrow’s interdisciplinary studies class: Revisiting Nature’s Nation – An Ecocritical History of American Art. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to offer the group: Richard Morris Hunt (1828-1895), Designs for the Gateways of the Southern Entrances to the Central Park … with a Description of the Designs, and a Letter in Relation to Them, Addressed to the Commissioners of the Park (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1866). Plates and plans lithographed by Julius Bien (1826-1909). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2006-0281Q
In the introduction, the Parks Commissioner writes, “Mr. Hunt’s idea, which by adoption has become the idea of the Park Commissioners, is, on the contrary, that it is impossible to fully carry out this plan of rusticity. While conceding the importance of interfering with nature as little as possible, it is to be remembered that the most faithful endeavors in this direction will still, of necessity, leave the Park, what indeed it already is, and a formal city pleasure-ground.”

“We must, it needs be , so trim and restrain the wildness of nature that it can be called ‘rural’ in no absolute sense, but only by contrast with the bricks and stone surrounding it. And, when we have to provide for a population of some two millions or more, it will be impossible to preserve those narrow and winding walks at the entrance ways which form part of the plan for rural effect. It is folly, the Commissioners think, to attempt rural entrances for a park in the heart of a great city, surrounded by magnificent edifices of fashion, as our Central Park will soon be.”

“Their idea, then, is that the entrances should be in keeping with the future external surroundings of the Park, and establish the connection between the street architecture without and cultivated nature within.”

Puck

From 1877 to 1918, Puck magazine was one of the leading sources of American political satire. A beautifully printed history of the magazine has just been published and will soon be on Princeton’s shelves: Michael Alexander Kahn and Richard Samuel West, What Fools These Mortals Be!: The Story of Puck: America’s First and Most Influential Magazine of Color Political Cartoons (IDW Publishing, 2014)

The expert lithographic printing of Puck’s color illustrations was perfected by Jacob Ottmann, along with his partners Vincent Mayer and August Merkel, from their small offices at 21-25 Warren Street. The success of the magazine led Ottman to join with Joseph Keppler and Adolph Schwarzmann, the publishers of Puck, to commission a new building on the corner of Lafayette and Houston Street.

Within a year, the Puck Building, as it became known, housed one of the largest lithographic publishing firms in the United States. Besides Puck, Ottmann printed enormous circus and theater posters, along with color illustrated books and trade cards. One of their most notable artists was William Sommer, whose work has been featured here in an earlier post.

Today, the landmark building houses the outdoor clothing and camping equipment store REI. In renovating the space, the company did a beautiful job in retaining elements of the Ottmann company, including much of the original wood and brick building material. Don’t missing the wall on the first floor where the original lithographic limestones are mounted.

Michael Alexander Kahn and Richard Samuel West, What Fools These Mortals Be!:
The Story of Puck: America’s First and Most Influential Magazine of Color Political Cartoons (San Diego, C.A. : IDW Publishing, 2014)

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