Charles Barsotti (1933-2014), “Sure, it’s inconvenient now, but when it gets published the bar will be famous,” unknown date. Pen on paper. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Henry Martin, Class of 1948. GA 2009.00354

Charles Barsotti died last Monday, June 16, 2014, at the age of 80. He will be sadly missed. Although most people will remember him best for his single cell New Yorker cartoons, Barsotti actually drew strips under many different titles. These include C. Barsotti’s People, My Kind of People, P.J. McFey, Sally Bananas (1969–1973), Funny Form (1974), Punchline: USA (1975), and Broadsides (1975–1979).

The Graphic Arts Collection holds three of his monographs, The Essential Charles Barsotti, compiled and edited by Lee Lorenz (1998) (GA) 2011-0791N; From the Very Big Desk of– : Business Cartoons (2006) (GA) 2011-0647N; and, my favorite, They Moved My Bowl: Dog Cartoons  by New Yorker Cartoonist Charles Barsotti ; foreword by George Booth (2007).  (GA) 2011-0646N.

(c) Boston Globe December 28, 1969

The Dutch printmaker Crispijn de Passe, the elder (ca.1565-1637) engraved a series of Christian parables under the series title Parabolarum Evangelicarum Typi Elegantissimi A Crispiano Passaeo Designati Et Expressi (Gospel Parables Elegantly Reproduced by Crispijn de Passe). The sheet above recounts the lesson of the good Samaritan from the book of Luke, chapter 10, Love your neighbor as yourself.

Flemish artist Maarten de Vos (1532-1603), whose wife was de Passes’s wife’s aunt, drew the original designs including a title page and nine circular plates (Hollstein 93-104). A Latin verse surrounds each scene, for example the title page text comes from Matthew, chapter four: Qui respondens dixit: Scriptum est: Non in solo pane vivit homo, sed in omni verbo, quod procedit de ore Dei. (But he answered and said, It is written, Not in bread alone doth man live, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.)

Created over a number of years, the series was finally published by de Passe in Cologne, where his family settled after being expelled from Antwerp. It’s unfortunate this came less than a year after the death of de Vos. He also published series of engraved roundels for The Twelve Months, The Ages of Man, The Muses, and several others.

Title page (c) British Museum

Crispijn de Passe, the elder (ca.1565-1637) after artist Maarten de Vos (1532-1603), [The Good Samaritan] in Parabolarum Evangelicarum Typi Elegantissimi A Crispiano Passaeo Designati Et Expressi (Gospel Parables Elegantly Reproduced by Crispijn de Passe). 1596-1604. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection Flemish prints.

In a few weeks, we will celebrate Bastille Day or La Fête Nationale, commemorating the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. This print depicts the French guard firing their cannons, although one soldier seems to be daydreaming at the far right.

Governor de Launay (1740-1789) is being taken prisoner as his house is set on fire. Within a few hours, he will be killed and his head carried through the streets on a pike.

Unidentified artist, Prise de la Bastille par les bourgeois et les braves Gardes françaises de la bonne ville de Paris, le 14 juillet 1789 (Storming of the Bastille by the bourgeoisie and the brave French Guards of the good city of Paris, July 14, 1789), no date. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.01153.

Edward Lear (1812-1888), Turtle, Sept. 15, 1860. Pencil on paper. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.02052

Down the slippery slopes of Myrtle,
Where the early pumpkins blow,
To the calm and silent sea
Fled the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.
There, beyond the Bay of Gurtle,
Lay a large and lively Turtle.
“You’re the Cove,” he said, “for me;
On your back beyond the sea,
Turtle, you shall carry me!”
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo,
Said the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.

Through the silent-roaring ocean
Did the Turtle swiftly go;
Holding fast upon his shell
Rode the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.
With a sad primeval motion
Towards the sunset isles of Boshen
Still the Turtle bore him well.
Holding fast upon his shell,
“Lady Jingly Jones, farewell!”
Sang the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo,
Sang the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo.

–Excerpt from The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo by Edward Lear (1812 – 1888)

See also: James de Carle Sowerby (1787-1871), Tortoises, terrapins, and turtles drawn from life, by James de Carle Sowerby … and Edward Lear (London, Paris, and Frankfort: H. Sotheran, J. Baer & co., 1872). Rare Books (Ex)Oversize 88783.867q

Gérard Edelinck (1640–1707) after Charles le Brun (1619-1690), Alexander and Hephaistion Visit the Family of Darius in their Tent after the Battle of Issus, 1661. Diptych engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA Flemish prints. *The date indicates the year le Brun finished his painting for Louis XIV, now in the Musée du Château, Versailles.

In 333 BC Alexander defeated Darius III, the last king of the Achaemenid Empire, at the Battle of Issus. Darius escaped capture, but his wife Statira, his mother, Sisgambis, and his daughters Statira and Drypetis were taken by Alexander.

“The picture tells a famous story of Alexander’s generosity. After the flight of the defeated Persian king Darius, Alexander visited his wife, mother and the other women of the family. As he entered the tent, Darius’s mother mistakenly prostrated herself before Alexander’s companion Hephaestion; but instead of flying into the sort of murderous rage that might be expected of a slighted oriental despot, Alexander dismissed this error as of no importance and extended his protection to the royal family. All the figures in the composition were carefully devised by Le Brun to respond to this event with a range of expressions from fear or wonder to admiration.”–Christopher Allen The Australian January 19, 2013

Edelinck engraved le Brun’s painting in two prints, printed with an irregular dividing line so that the break will disappear when they are framed together. We have left a slight space between the two sheets in this image.

Christina Müller was the beloved wife of the Mannerist painter Bartholomeus Spranger. When she died, he painted an allegory in her memory and had it engraved by his friend and colleague Aegidius Sadeler. The elaborate print shows Spranger, surrounded by the personifications of the visual arts. He is pointing to his wife on the right, who is also admired by a putto holding a scull, with one foot on an overturned hourglass. Spranger is ready to follow her but just as Death is about to spear him, Time steps forward to show that the painter’s hourglass is not yet empty.

Inscribed at the bottom of the plate: Priuatas lacrymas Bart. Sprangeri Egid. Sadeler miratus artem et amantem redamans, publicas fecit: et eidem promutua beneuolentia dedicauit. Pragae Anno Seculari [The private tears of Bartholomeus Spranger are made public by Aegidius Sadeler, who admired his art and his marriage; and dedicates the print to him with sincere affection. At Prague in the centennial year.]

Aegidius Sadeler, the younger (ca. 1570-1629) after Bartholomeus Spranger (1546–1611), Portrait of Bartholomeus Spranger with an Allegory of the Death of his Wife, Christina Müller, 1600. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GAX Flemish prints

Leonardo finished a large cartoon in 1504 depicting the Battle of Anghiari to hang opposite Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina. Besides the preliminary drawing, we have Leonardo’s words stating, “First of all, the smoke of the artillery must be rendered, mingled in the air with the dust thrown up by the cavalry and the combatants… The air must seem full of streaks of fire like lightning flashes… You must show the victors running with wild hair tossed, like their draperies, by the wind, with wrinkled faces and swollen knitted brows.” The final work was either lost or destroyed.

Rubens made a sketch in 1603, based on an engraving, and in turn, Edelinck made an engraving after Rubens’ sketch. Born in Antwerp, Gérard Edelinck became a naturalized French citizen in 1675, however, this print is thought to have been finished before that date and is classed with Flemish prints.

From 1666 until his death, Edelinck worked in Paris. On the recommendation of Charles Le Brun, royal painter and director of the Gobelins factory, Edelinck was hired as an instructor for the tapestry workers. Under he direction, several of Edelinck’s earlier designs found their way into the woven designs.

Gérard Edelinch (1640-1707) after Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) after Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), The Battle of Anghiari (The Battle of Four Horsemen), ca. 1657-1666. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2014 Flemish prints

Sketch by Rubens. (c) Louvre, Paris, France

This engraving offers ten profile portraits of Louis XIV (1638-1715) at various ages, beginning with his childhood. Thanks to research by Professor Volker Schröder, we believe the engraver to be Charles Simonneau (1645-1728), after the painter Antoine Benoist (1632-1717); along with text by the poet Etienne Pavillon.

This is also confirmed in the Bulletin de la Société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’le-de-France, “Le Cabinet des Médailles de la Bibliothèque nationale possède une double série de portraits en grisaille de Louis XIV à différents âges et de membres de la famille royale, qui ont été exécutés par Antoine Benoist, selon toute vraisemblance, en 17o4. Ces miniatures sont réparties dix par dix en deux cadres pareils; le premier, intitulé: Portraits de Louis le Grand suivant ses âges; le second, Portraits de la maison royalle. Le premier de ces cadres a été reproduit, à de très légères variantes près, sans doute au lendemain de la mort de Louis XIV, en une gravure attribuée à Charles Simonneau et dont on a plusieurs exemplaires au Cabinet des Estampes.”

The Bibliothèque nationale de France owns Benoist’s beautiful set of portraits, painted in grisaille on paper pasted on metal and mounted within a gilt frame.

Charles Simonneau (1645-1728) after the painter Antoine Benoist (1632-1717), Portraits de Louis le Grand graves suivant ses differents âges MDCCIV [1704]. Text by the poet Etienne Pavillon.  Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.01433

Attributed to Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757, died 1827), The Corsican and His Blood Hounds at the Window of the Thuilleries Looking over Paris, April 16, 1815. Etching with hand coloring. GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

On 6 April 1814, Napoleon abdicated his throne, leading to the accession of Louis XVIII and the first Bourbon Restoration. The defeated Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba, where he lived for almost a year before returning to Paris in March 1815.

In Rowlandson’s caricature, we see Napoleon back in Paris, looking out over the city from a parapet labeled ‘more horrors’ and ‘death and destruction.’ At his sides are Death and the Devil. The sand in an hourglass is running out and the sun is setting. The bloody hounds mentioned in the title are his four marshals: François Joseph Lefebvre, Dominique Joseph Vandamme, Louis Nicolas Davout, and Michel Ney.