Category Archives: Exhibitions

Map to Printing Museums

A new interactive map has been posted by the Association of European Printing Museums (AEPM). It is searchable and provides the names and contact details for museums of printing and academic institution with printing programs as well as cultural heritage organizations of interest to the graphic arts community. Text is in English and French. http://www.aepm.eu/museum-finder/

I’ve tried it on my phone and my desktop computer, seems to work fine on either. Not only are museums of printing included but according to their website “the map can also lead you to newspapers, advertising, packaging, papermaking, graphic design, etc.; textile printing museums; bibliographical presses, libraries and archives with permanent or regular temporary exhibitions related to printing and printed products; workshops actively involved in preserving and transmitting printing heritage.”

The AEPM was founded in Grevenmacher (Luxembourg) in February 2003 with the aim of encouraging co-operation among European printing museums and promoting printing heritage as an important part of European cultural heritage. AEPM member organizations are marked in purple (note: Princeton University’s Firestone Library is a member and so, in purple). Click on the flag to obtain the name, address, and link to the website. Other museums, libraries and heritage workshops are marked in pink with the name and link to the website.

They are willing to add more sites, if you see something they has missed or for new organizations. Contact them with details at webmaster@aepm.eu.

http://www.aepm.eu/museum-finder/

 

 

John Cotton Dana

John Grabach (1886-1981), Building the Garden State Parkway, 1952.

There are only a few weeks left to see Newark and the Culture of Art: 1900-1960 at Morven Museum & Garden. The exhibit celebrates the early cultural history of Newark and the seminal accomplishments of John Cotton Dana (1856-1929).


Dana studied law and passed the bar in New York before switching careers and becoming director of libraries in Colorado, Massachusetts, and finally Newark, New Jersey, from 1902 until 1929. During his early years at the Newark Public Library, Dana drew exhibits from their large collection of graphic arts and by 1909, converted the library’s fourth floor into a museum. It is thanks to his leadership, Morven’s exhibit shows us, that many–now famous–artists got their start.

Like Princeton University Library (which loaned one small volume) and many other library collections in the early twentieth century, prints and photographs were collected, housed, and made accessible to the general public from the local library, long before local museums were established. Under Dana, the Newark Library also started a loaned program to distribute fine art prints to the public, just as Princeton once did for its students.

Morven’s exhibition hosts many of the great early American modernists, including John Marin, Max Weber, and Stuart Davis. Near the Davis canvas, the curator has given us information about the mural he painted in the 1920s behind the soda fountain at Sparks Nut Shop for his friend Gar Sparks (preserved only by a photograph Mrs. Davis kept).

There are many works by local New Jersey artists, such as Building the Garden State Parkway (1952) by John Grabach (1886-1981) [seen at the top and below left], who was born in Newark and moved north as far as Livingston. Grabach was one of the dedicated and beloved teachers at the Newark School of Industrial Design, which evolved from classes Dana initiated.

As he came and went each day, only two miles from the Garden State construction site, Grabach may have painted this scene on site rather than from memory.

 

 

There are also many female artists highlighted, such as Marjorie Lovelock (born 1907) seen here, along with multi-media work, textiles, sculpture, and furniture.

Playing on the second floor is the 1926 film Sightseeing in Newark, which is also available on YouTube and elsewhere online.

 

 

Last Chance to See Thomas Rowlandson Drawings

All good things must come to an end. Sooner than later if this young wife succeeds in pushing her old husband into his grave.

This is the last weekend to see our collection of Rowlandson drawings, donated in the early twentieth century by Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895. Brown also donated nearly two thousand Rowlandson prints and all of the artist’s illustrated books to Princeton University Library. Several books from the collection are also on view, most important The Miseries of Human Life by James Beresford (1764-1840), around which Rowlandson drew many satirical plates.

Thanks to the Princeton University Art Museum for hosting our collection through the fall: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/object-package/miseries-human-life-and-other-amusements-drawings-thomas-rowlandson/112600


The Miseries of Human Life and Other Amusements: Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson

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

Solar Eclipse Returns

http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/3044
After a weekend of record attendance, the exhibition Transient Effects: The Solar Eclipses and Celestial Landscapes of Howard Russell Butler, closed at the Princeton University Art Museum and Butler’s triptych Solar Eclipse, Lompoc 1923, returned to Firestone Library where it has been on view in the 3rd floor study room.

As the curator notes, “On Aug 21, 2017 the first solar eclipse of this century [was] visible in the U.S. The solar eclipse has always been a source of mystery and fascination, serving at some times as a foreboding omen and at others as a key means of understanding the scientific concept of general relativity. In 1918, Howard Russell Butler (1856–1934)—a portrait and landscape artist and graduate of Princeton University’s first school of science—painted a new kind of portrait, of a very unusual sitter: the total solar eclipse. With remarkable accuracy, he captured those rare seconds when the moon disappears into darkness—crowned by the flames of the sun, whose brilliant colors had eluded photography.”

Undaunted by the rainstorm today in Princeton or the small size of our elevators, the art handlers managed to get the oil painting upstairs and back on the wall. Thanks to everyone for making this happen so quickly.

For more information, see the exhibition website: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/transient-effects/painter-sun/eclipse-paintings-howard-russell-butler

The Business of Prints

Abraham Bosse (ca. 1604–1676), The Workshop of a Printer (detail). Etching, 1642.

Last year, Princeton University Libraries acquired Antony Griffiths, The Print Before Photography: an Introduction to European Printmaking, 1550-1820. Marquand Library (SA) Oversize NE625.G77 2016q. Described accurately as “a landmark publication . . . destined to be a leading reference in print scholarship.”

This week the companion exhibition, The Business of Prints, opened at the British Museum and was packed by noon. Rather than only show master prints, the Museum’s former keeper of prints and drawings has filled the cases with extra illustrated volumes, unique impressions, and sequential proofs never seen before. It is an exhibition no other institution could possibly mount.

One example is the prospectus Rudolph Ackermann printed for his publication Westminster Abbey.  [left] There are two copies of the published volume at Princeton but not this print describing the project and requesting subscribers.

William Combe (1742-1823), The History of the Abbey Church of St. Peter’s Westminster: Its Antiquities and Monuments (London: Printed for R. Ackermann … by L. Harrison and J.C. Leigh, 1812). Plates signed by Augustus Pugin (1762-1832). “With … coloured plates after Pugin, Huett and Mackenzie.”–Dict. nat. biog. Marquand Library (SA) Oversize 14653.262q and Rare Books (Ex) Oversize 14653.262q

 

 

 

 

 

The making of a mezzotint. Where else can you see a proof of the fully rocked sheet?

They were handsome, gregarious troublemakers: the story of James Beresford, Thomas Rowlandson, and Dickson Queen Brown.

Save the date for an afternoon talk on Sunday, September 17, 2:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall: “That’s So Annoying! Thomas Rowlandson and The Miseries of Human Life”

Graphic Arts Curator Julie Mellby will discuss Princeton University Library’s collection of satirical drawings by Thomas Rowlandson given by Dickson Queen Brown, Class of 1895, and their relationship with James Beresford’s 1806 comic bestseller The Miseries of Human Life. A reception in the Museum will follow.

http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/in-the-galleries

Merton College Fellow James Beresford addressed his book “To the miserable,” and began:

“Children of misfortune, wheresoever found, and whatsoever enduring, –ye who maintain a kind of sovereignty in suffering, believing that all the throbs of torture, all the pungency of sorrow, all the bitterness of desperation, are your own…! Take courage and renounce your sad monopoly.

Dispassionately ponder all your worst of woes, in turn with these; then hasten to distil from the comparison an opiate for your fiercest pangs; and learn to recognize the lenity of your Destinies.”

Please join us in September.


Let Us All Be Unhappy Together


 

“Let Us All Be Unhappy Together,” part 9, p.96 in The Universal Songster, or, Museum of Mirth: forming the most complete, extensive, and valuable collection of ancient and modern songs in the English language… embellished with a humorous characteristic frontispiece and twenty-nine wood-cuts [per vol.] designed by George and Robert Cruikshank, and engraved by J.R. Marshall (London: Printed for John Fairburn …, 1825-1826). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Cruik 1825.5

In 1790, Charles Dibdin (1745-1814) composed and performed a musical entertainment called The Wags, or, The Camp of Pleasure at the Lyceum Theatre in London. One of its hit tunes titled “Sound Argument” became better known for the chorus, “Let us all be unhappy together.”

This may well have been the primary inspiration to James Beresford, who later wrote The Miseries of Human Life, which in turn inspired the one act farce by Dibdin’s son Thomas, “The Miseries of Human Life; or, Let Us All Be Unhappy Together,” performed at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1807.

The Miseries of Human Life and Other Entertainments: Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson is on view at the Princeton University Art Museum: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/object-package/miseries-human-life-and-other-amusements-drawings-thomas-rowlandson/112600

There were a number of caricatures, broadsides, and illustrated scores inspired by “Unhappy Together.” Here are a few more:




Above:

Let us all be unhappy together, 1794. Mezzotint on wove paper. Published by Laurie & Whittle. (c) British Museum.

Isaac Cruikshank, Let us all be unhappy together. London, April 30, 1791. Etching on laid paper. Illustration to ballad Let Us All Be Unhappy Together, written and composed by Dibdin for his entertainment called The Wags. (c) Lewis Walpole Library

Unidentified artist, Let us all be unhappy together, 1812-17. Hand colored etching. Published by William Davison of Alnwick. (c) British Museum

On Princeton computers only, listen to a performance from The Jane Austen Songbooks: http://princeton.naxosmusiclibrary.com/catalogue/item.asp?cid=VOX-7537

LET US ALL BE UNHAPPY TOGETHER.

E bipeds, made up of frail clay,
Alas! are the children of sorrow;
And, though brisk and merry to-day,
We may all be unhappy to-morrow.
For sunshine’s succeeded by rain;
Then, fearful of life’s stormy weather,
Lest pleasure should only bring pain,
Let us all be unhappy together.

I grant the best blessing we know
Is a friend, for true friendship’s a treasure;
And yet, lest your friend prove a foe,
Oh! taste not the dangerous pleasure.
Thus friendship’s a flimsy affair, .
Thus riches and health are a bubble;
Thus there’s nothing delightful but care,
Nor anything pleasing but trouble.

If a mortal could point out that life
Which on earth could be nearest to heaven,
Let him, thanking his stars, choose a wife
To whom truth and honor are given.
But honor and truth are so rare,
And horns, when they’re cutting, so tingle,
That, with all my respect to the fair,
I’d advise him to sigh, and live single.

It appears from these premises plain,
That wisdom is nothing but folly;
That pleasure’s a term that means pain,
And that joy is your true melancholy;
That all those who laugh ought to cry,
That’t is fine frisk and fun to be grieving;
And that, since we must all of us die,
We should taste no enjoyment while living.

Miseries Installed

On Saturday, July 1, 2017, a small show will open at the Princeton University Art Museum titled, The Miseries of Human Life and Other Amusements: Drawings by Thomas Rowlandson.

Written in 1806 by James Beresford (1764–1840), The Miseries of Human Life was extraordinarily successful, becoming a minor classic in the satirical literature of the day. Through a humorous dialogue between two old curmudgeons, the book details the “petty outrages, minor humiliations, and tiny discomforts that make up everyday human existence.”

The public loved it, dozens of editions were published, and printmakers rushed to illustrate their own versions of life’s miseries.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756/57–1827) began drawing scenes based on Beresford’s book as soon as it was published and after two years, the luxury print dealer Rudolph Ackermann (1764-1834) selected fifty of his hand colored etchings for a new edition of Miseries. Many of the now-iconic characters and situations that the artist drew for this project—some based closely on Beresford’s text and others of his own invention—reappeared in later works, with variations on the Miseries turning up until the artist’s death.

In the early twentieth century, Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895, donated two thousand Rowlandson prints and all of the artist’s illustrated books to the Princeton University Library. Of particular importance was a small box of Rowlandson’s unpublished, undated drawings, including many specifically related to his Miseries series.

Here, in its first public presentation, is a selection of Rowlandson’s drawings from Brown’s donation. Just as in Rowlandson’s book, those specific to Beresford’s text are shown alongside others that illustrate life’s miseries more generally, including some from the Princeton University Art Museum’s collection. The sections follow the chapters, or “groans,” of Beresford’s book.


Particular thanks go to Laura Giles for suggesting a show of the library’s Rowlandson drawings. Princeton University Art Museum: http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/

 

 

The exhibition runs through October 2017, with a talk entitled “That’s So Annoying! Thomas Rowlandson and The Miseries of Human Life,” on Sunday, September 17, 2017, at 2:00 p.m. in 101 McCormick Hall, Princeton University

 

Comic Art at Princeton University

Speaking recently with Henry Martin, Class of 1948, he reminisced about conceiving and producing the first online exhibition for the department of rare books and special collections presenting the multifaceted Princeton University Library Cartoon Collection: https://lib-dbserver.princeton.edu/visual_materials/gallery/cruikshank/index.html

The web site was designed by Adriana Popescu, Special Collections Assistant in the Visual Materials Division, as part of an independent study project in the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies at Rutgers University. John Bidwell, former graphic arts curator and current Astor Curator and Rare Books Department Head, Morgan Library and Museum, oversaw the project. Permission to reproduce these images was kindly granted by The New Yorker Magazine, Inc., Warner Bros., Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc., King Features Syndicate, Rube Goldberg Incorporated, Princeton Tiger Magazine, Mr. William Hewison, Mr. Michael Witte and Mr. Henry Martin.

With thanks to all of these participants, the site continues to be enjoyed after more than fifteen years.

Henry Martin writes:

“Several Princeton collections have strong holdings in comic art, cartoons, and pictorial satire. The Graphic Arts Collection has several thousand caricatures in the form of prints or drawings, mainly in the Dickson Q. Brown ’95 Collection of Thomas Rowlandson and the Richard W. Meirs ’88 Collection of George Cruikshank.

Although not strictly cartoonists, book illustrators specializing in comic themes such as Felix O.C. Darley, Augustus Hoppin, and John McLenan are well represented in the Sinclair Hamilton Collection. The Library has published a two-volume catalogue of the Hamilton Collection under the title of Early American Book Illustrators and Wood Engravers, 1670-1870 (1958-1968).

As a point of interest to the alumni of Princeton University, the Graphic Arts Collection has original artwork by several Princeton graduates: Whitney Darrow, Jr. ’31, Henry Martin ’48, Michael C. Witte ’66, and Henry E. Payne IV ’84. The Theatre Collection has caricatures of dancers, actors, and other show-business personalities, including several drawings by Al Hirschfeld, the indefatigable chronicler of the New York stage. Graphic Arts and the William Seymour Theatre Collection each have a few animation cels.

The Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library contains several significant cartoon collections, mostly documenting American political affairs between 1890 and 1950. The Political Cartoon Collection (MC180) has nearly a thousand original drawings, including 75 by Homer C. Davenport (1867-1912), a Hearst cartoonist, one of the most savage caricaturists of his day. In the William H. Walker Collection (MC068) are approximately a thousand pen-and-ink drawings executed by Walker (1871-1938), a regular contributor to Life magazine and a pungent critic of the political scene during the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.

The Carey Cartoon Service Collection (MC156) consists of large color boards displayed in shop windows, most of them commenting on foreign policy issues during World War I. As of December 2002, soon to be added is the Derso and Kelen Cartoons. The curator for Public Policy papers has particulars about this new collection.

Altogether, these Princeton collections cover several centuries and many categories ranging from early political and humorous drawings of Rowlandson, Cruikshank, Gillray and Nast to modern comic strip art, caricature, magazine gag cartoons, political cartoons, and cels from animated films. Princeton’s resources are as deep as they are broad. Hoping to do justice to its diverse holdings, I have conceived this exhibit as an overview, a sampling of the cartoons that the Library has collected and preserved for the perusal of students, scholars, and devotees of the comic arts.”

Thomas Rowlandson, The Departure, handcolored etching, 1784. A satire on the Whig politician Charles James Fox, who had to retire from the fray momentarily until he could claim the Parliamentary seat for Westminster. Proverbially, he was sent to Coventry. Here he is bidding farewell to his supporters, the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Duncannon, while his ally Edmund Burke stands ready to perform the role of postilion and his patron, the Prince of Wales, looks down on this tender scene from a palace window. Cartoonists usually depict the spoken word with a conversation balloon, almost the trademark of present-day comic strips. In this example, Rowlandson has his characters speak in rhyme, with balloons indication where the words belong.