Category Archives: Medium

mediums

Tompkins Harrison Matteson, Fireman and Fine Art Painter

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Henry S. Sadd, after a painting by Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-1884), The Spirit of 76, 1862 Steel engraving. Published by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Graphic Arts Collection GA2008.00276

matteson spirit2“The largest wood engraving ever printed in the world.” This was the declaration made about Tompkins Harrison Matteson’s “Storming of the Castle of Chapultepec,” featured in the July 4, 1848 Jubilee issue of Brother Jonathan, a mammoth double sheet pictorial newspaper. The single image was “made from several hundred blocks of imported East Indian boxwood and measured twenty-two by forty-four inches,” according to Robert Walter Johannsen’s To the Halls of the Montezumas (1985).

It wasn’t the artist’s first brush with fame. Matteson opened a painting studio in New York City during the 1840s and within a few years, sold his first painting, The Spirit of ’76, to the American Art Union, establishing his career. His personal idiosyncrasies brought him additional notoriety, such as his fondness for wearing an unusual steeple-crowned hat and short mantel, which led to the nickname the Pilgrim-Painter.matteson illustrated news

Matteson’s success with the American Art Union prompted the 1847 painting of the interior of the Tabernacle, an enormous Congregational Church on lower Broadway, where the Union’s annual prizes were announced and distributed (see below).

By 1850, Matteson tired of New York and moved upstate to Sherburne, New York. He married, raised a large family, and became an active member of the community, serving as President of the School Board, Representative to the State Legislature, and the local Fire Chief, while also painting

The prolific artist used a limited number of models for these patriotic scenes. Note the central figure of Major Andre in his wood engraving for The Illustrated News. Then, compare it to the face of the father in The Spirit of ’76 above, to see if you find a similarity in his features. This may be a self portrait of Matteson.

 

matteson illustrated news2Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-1884), Illustrated News! [prospectus], n.d. [1852]. [New York: Published by P.T. Barnum, Henry D. Beach, and Alfred E. Beach]. Wood engravings, Letterpress printing. GC179 Broadsides Collection GA 2012.02800.

 

The graphic arts collection is fortunate to own examples from each decade of the artist’s lengthy career in single sheet prints, bound in books, and reproduced in newspapers. Here are a few of the books he illustrated:

William Adams (1814-1848), The Cherry Stones, or, Charlton School: a Tale for Youth . . . with engravings executed by Bobbett and Edmonds, from designs by Matteson (New York: General Protestant Episcopal S. S. Union and Church Book Society, Daniel Dana, Jr. agent, 1851). Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1025

William Cutter (1801-1867), The Life of General Lafayette (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother, [1849]). Frontispiece and illustrations by T. H. Matteson, engraved on wood by Alexander Anderson. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1023.

Orville Luther Holley (1791-1861), The Life of Benjamin Franklin (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother, publishers and booksellers, 323 Pearl street, [1848]). 19 wood engravings and a portrait of Franklin by Alexander Anderson; title page cut designed by T. H. Matteson. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton.

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891), A memorial of Alexander Anderson, M. D., the first engraver on wood in America (New York: Printed for the subscribers, 1872). Illustrations by T. H. Matteson and John Wesley Jarvis. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection GAX Hamilton 357q.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The complete works of William Shakespeare . . . illustrations engraved on wood . . . from new and original designs by T. H. Matteson (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother [1851?]). Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1026

William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), The life of Nathanael Greene (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother, [1849]). Illustrations by T. H. Matteson, engraved on wood by A. Anderson. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 339

Jane Taylor, Primary lessons in physiology for children (New York: Published by George F. Cooledge & Brother, 1848). Illustrations by Alexander Anderson and Tompkins Harrison Matteson. Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 19 28481

The illustrated primer, or, Child’s first book (New York: Published by George F. Cooledge & Brother, [ca. 1858]). Illustrations by Tompkins Harrison Matteson and Alexander Anderson. Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Pams / Eng 19 / Box 070 12264

The Odd-fellows’ offering (New York: Samuel A. House & Co. , [1843-1853]). Illustrations by T. H. Matteson, engraved on steel by Rice & Buttre and B. J. Lossing. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2003-0005M and Hamilton 1830

matteson distributionFrancis D’Avignon (born 1813) after a painting by Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-1884), Distribution of the American Art-Union Prizes at the Tabernacle, Broadway, New York, 24 December, 1847. Lithograph. New York : John T. Ridner; 497 Broadway, Art Union Building. GC024 American Prints Collection.

 

Skating in Central Park

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Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Skating on Central Park, New York, 1861. Color lithograph printed and published by J. H. Bufford & Company in Boston. Gift of Mavis and Mary Kelsey. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2008.00285

The skating pond in Central Park opened to the public on December 19, 1858 and by Christmas Day, a reported 50,000 people came to the park, most of them to skate. Not long after this, the artist Winslow Homer moved from Boston to New York and began designing scenes for illustrated newspaper Harper’s Weekly. The skating pond was a natural subject

urn-3 HUAM INV153668_dynmcSkating on the Ladies’ Skating Pond in Central Park, New York was drawn on a woodblock that was then cut apart, engraved, reassembled and printed as the centerfold in the January 28, 1860 issue of Harper’s Weekly. The scene documents the fact that there were two distinct skating areas, the rowdy one for men and a calmer one for ladies (and men who accompanied them).

Homer immediately went to work on a variation of the scene, done in watercolor, called Skating on the Central Park, which became the first work he was invited to exhibit in New York at the National Academy of Design. The painting was so popular that the Boston master lithographer John Bufford (1844–1851), arranged to reproduce it as a color lithograph, publishing the print in 1861.
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Note the young boy in the center foreground of each scene. In the first he struggles to skate, blending into the rest of the skaters on the ice. In the second work, the boy has just fallen, creating a more active moment that immediately catches your eye.

 

Harper’s Weekly. New York: Harper’s Magazine Co., 1857-1916. Annex A, Forrestal Oversize 0901.H299f, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 3, 1857)-v. 62 (Apr. 29, 1916)

Les vieilles histoires

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In 1893, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was commissioned to illustrate five poems by Jean Goudezki (1866-1934, born Edward Goudez). The poetry was then set to music by Désiré Dihau (1835-1909), a classical bassoonist who was also Lautrec’s cousin.

The first state of each lithograph was published without text by Edouard Kleinmann in an edition of 100. Goudezki called the series Les Vieilles Histoires (The Old Stories) and thanks to the Ruth Ivor Foundation, the Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the first state of no. 5 in that series, Ta Bouche (Your Mouth).

Each design was later transferred to a new stone and printed by Joly-Crevel Freres Successeurs together with text, so that it could be used as a decorative cover to printed sheet music. Additional color also added.

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(c) Cleveland Museum of Art

The full portfolio included a cover by Lautrec and ten poems, five with illustrations. In the case of Ta bouche, the added text read: A Monsieur Yvain de l’Eden-Concert, Les Vieilles Histoires, Poésies de Jean Goudezki… Ta bouche….  The set is often listed as Collection Jean Goudezki, avec musique de Désiré Dihau. Les vieilles Histoires, 1893.

For more information, see  Götz Adriani, Toulouse-Lautrec, the complete graphic works: the Gerstenberg Collection: a catalogue raisonné (London: Thames and Hudson, 1988): 60. Marquand Library (SA) Oversize ND553.T6 A3713q

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901), Ta bouche, from the series Les vieilles histoires. 1893. Lithograph. Edition of 100. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process. Gift of the Ruth Ivor Foundation.

 

The Occuprint Portfolio

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Beginning on September 17, 2011, a group of activists began occupying a section of lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park. The action became known as Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and lasted until November 15, 2011, when the group of forced to leave and their tents removed. The issues raised by the group were diverse and the material they published equally varied. The OWS Screen Printing Guild was organized as an official working group within the OWS General Assembly to manage visual material, with a subgroup known as Occuprint to help with publishing.

According to their literature, “Occuprint emerged when The Occupied Wall Street Journal asked us to guest curate an issue dedicated to the poster art of the global Occupy movement.” http://occuprint.org “Occuprint showcases posters from the worldwide Occupy movement, all of which are part of the creative commons, and available to be downloaded for noncommercial use, though we ask that artists be given attribution for their work. Our Print Lab is collaboration with the Occupy Wall Street Screen Printing Guild.”

In 2012, a portfolio of thirty-one posters was selected under the curatorial eye of Marshall Weber, director of Booklyn, a non-profit artist and bookmakers organization headquartered in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Occuprint organizer, Jesse Goldstein, and various Occuprint editorial committee members including Molly Fair, Josh MacPhee, and John Boy assisted in the organization and distribution of the screen-printed portfolio. Some posters are signed by the artists and the edition limited to 100 copies. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have acquired one.

Occuprint Portfolio by edited by Marshall Weber,  Jesse Goldstein, Dave Loewenstein, and Alexandra Clotfelter (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Booklyn, 2012). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process

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Ashland, The Homestead of Henry Clay

sartain ashland1John Sartain (1808-1897), after a drawing by James Hamilton (1819-1878) after daguerreotypes taken on the spot by John M. Hewitt (active 1840-1860). Ashland. The Homestead of Henry Clay. Second state. Published Philadelphia: F. Hegan, 1853. Etching, engraving, stipple engraving with hand coloring. Graphic Arts collection GAX 2014- in process

Originally created in 1852, during Clay’s lifetime, the first version of this print was published in Louisville, Kentucky. According to Eric Brooks’ book, Ashland: The Henry Clay Estate (2007), the first version or state showed Henry Clay sitting in a chair on the left side of the lawn. When Clay died, Sartain quickly reworked the plate, removing the figure from the chair, and published a second version in 1853. A third print was completed in 1863 with Clay back in his chair, which was published by Sartain in Philadelphia and R.R. Landon in Chicago. It is the second version with an empty chair that the Graphic Arts collection has acquired.

sartain ashland3This enormous print shows Ashland, the 600 acre Lexington, Kentucky, estate of Henry Clay (1777-1852). The family lived on this plantation from 1806 to his death, although Clay was often in Washington D.C.  He ran for president of the United States five times from 1824 to 1848 but never succeeded in being elected.

 

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Below the scene are three additional images. On the left is a figure of the God Hermes holding a shield; in the center is a bust of Henry Clay; and on the right is Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture sitting on a shock of wheat cradling a scythe. The same note as the first state is at the very bottom: “Entered according to Act of Congress by B. Lloyd in the year 1852 in the Clerk’s Office of the Dist. Court of the U.S. for the Dist. of KY.” An advertisement for this print can be found in the Lancaster (Pa.) Examiner and Herald, Wednesday, August 3, 1853.sartain ashland4

See also:

James Akin (ca. 1773-1846), The pedlar and his pack or the desperate effort, an over balance, 1828. Etching, Aquatint with hand coloring. GA 2007.02442

Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888), Henry Clay, no date. Lithograph. Inscribed, below: “Henry Clay. Nominated for Eleventh president of the United States”.

Thomas Doney (active 1844-1849), Henry Clay, 1844. Engraving. New York : Anthony Edwards & Co. GA 2007.00395

James Barton Longacre (1794-1869) after design by William James Hubard (1807-1862), Henry Clay, no date. Engraving. GA 2007.00523

Unidentified Artist, Henry Clay, no date. Mezzotint. Boston: L. A. Elliot & Co. GA 2008.00307

Picasso’s studio

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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Cover design for book II of Ces peintres nos amis (The Painters Friends), (Cannes: Galerie 65, 1960). Text by Gilberte Duclaud; biographies by Serge Chauby. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process. Gift of the Ruth Ivor Foundation.

Picasso designed this lithograph to be included in the portfolio Dans l’Atelier De Picasso (In Picasso’s Studio), published by the Goldmark Gallery in 1957. The artist later selected the print and embellished it with additional colors, adding a dedication to Gilberte Duclaud and Serge Chauby, his dealers in Cannes at their Galerie 65.
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The revised stone was then printed by master lithographer Fernand Mourlot (1895-1988) and used as the cover illustration for the second volume of his friend’s book Ces peintres nos amis (The Painter’s Friends).

The first state of this lithography was printed in six colors but this one is done in seventeen, each one requiring a separate run through the press. Unfortunately, Princeton does not yet own either the first or second books connected with this print.

It is, however, a nice complement to our portrait of the artist by Harry Sternberg (1904-2001), Picasso, 1944. Screen print. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2008.00578sternberg picasso

Éole de déchaîner les vents contre les vaisseaux Troyens

hardy dejuinne2François Louis Dejuinne (1784-1844), after Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson (1767-1824), Éole de déchaîner les vents contre les vaisseaux Troyens (Aeolus unleashes the winds against the Trojan vessels), no date [1800s]. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.01466

hardy dejuinne4This scene is one of a series of four subjects borrowed from the Aeneid, including Neptune stopping raging winds against Aeneas’ fleet; Juno sending nearly Dido Love in the guise of Ascanius; the same goddess praying Aeolus to unleash the winds against Trojan vessels; and Dido receiving Aeneas in his palace. The work comes from a drawing by Dejuinne’s teacher and mentor Girodet, who was himself a student of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825).

“Neoclassicism’s favorite poet was Homer, who was very popular in the late 18th century,” writes Consuelo Marescalchi, Musée du Louvre, “But about 1800, he was supplanted by Virgil, whose Collected Works were published by Didot in 1798 [Junius Morgan Collection (VRG) Oversize 2945.1798.12e]. As illustrators, the publisher chose young artists recommended by David, including Girodet, who made a distinguished contribution to the work. In shifting from Homer to Virgil, from the Greek epic to the Latin poem, classicism assumed a more somber tone: the Aeneid is above all the saga of the defeated. This funereal liturgy, which was easy for people to identify with during the Revolution, is a stately dirge of sound and fury which culminates in the fall of Troy.”

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Dejuinne later honored Girodet with a portrait of the artist in his studio painting Pygmalion and Galatea. The painting is now one of the highlights in the Musée Girodet.

Girodet_Trioson_in_his_workshop_mg_0099François-Louis Dejuinne (1784-1844), Girodet Painting Pygmalion and Galatea In the Presence of Sommariva, 1821. Oil on canvas. (c) Musée Girodet.

 

David Davidson, Maryland 7th Regiment

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Unidentified photographer, Sergeant David Davidson, ca. 1862. Hand painted tintype. Graphic Arts Collection 2014 in process. Gift of Russell Marks, Class of 1954.

Thanks to the generous donation of Russell Marks, Class of 1954, the Graphic Arts Collection has a new full-plate hand-painted tintype from the 1860s. The photograph shows Union Army Sergeant David Davidson, great grandfather of Mr. Marks, and a member of Maryland’s 7th Regiment during the American Civil War.

7th Regiment Infantry was organized at Baltimore, Md., August and September 1862 and moved to the Antietam September 18, 1862. According to the U.S. National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Sergeant Davidson (born 1838) was admitted in 1907 at the age of 69. (microfilm M388 roll 3).

Marks and his wife Tricia (formerly editor of the Princeton University Library Chronicle) lived in Latin America for fifteen years. His business career included managing a sugar and paper complex in Peru as well as the presidency of Phelps Dodge International Corporation and of the Americas Society.  The couple is now happily living in Princeton once again.

 

 

Panoramic cameras

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In the early 20th century, panoramic or pantoscopic cameras were all the rage. All kinds of clubs, companies, school classes, orchestras, and other large assemblages posed for a group picture. Here are a few in the Graphic Arts Collection.

The Mile High Photo Company, based in Denver, was probably responsible for the two photographs of Broadway touring companies.

The first company was presenting Clarence by Booth Tarkington (1869-1946). The play was first performed in 1921 and published by Samuel French the same year (Firestone Library PS2971 1931 v.1)

The second photograph shows Otis Skinner (1858-1942) who was featured in a production of The Honor of the Family from a story by Balzac. The Honor of the Family first opened at the Booth Theatre in 1926 and traveled to Denver in May of 1927.

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panorama photo9The Lambs Club is America’s first professional theatrical club. Organized in 1874 by a group of actors and enthusiasts, they took their name from a similar group in London, which flourished from 1869-1879 under the name of drama critic and essayist Charles Lamb.

Since the club’s founding, there have been more than 6,000 Lambs, with an elite roster reading like a Who’s Who of American theater and film: Maurice, Lionel and John Barrymore, Irving Berlin, Cecil B. DeMille, David Belasco, Charlie Chaplin, George M. Cohan, and Douglas Fairbanks among many others. The West Virginia club can be seen posing here in 1914, photographed by S.R. McCoy of Wheeling.

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Monuments Men

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Please . . . Get there and back! 1943. Graphic Arts Collection GC156 World War Posters Collection

In conjunction with Brett Tomlinson’s wonderful PAW post on Princeton’s Monuments Men: http://blogs.princeton.edu/paw/2014/01/throwbackthursd_16.html#.UvPbfrS0R8E, here are a few books you might want to read after seeing the movie.

Akinsha, Konstantin. Beautiful loot: the Soviet plunder of Europe’s art treasures. New York: Random House, c1995. Firestone Library (F) N8795.3.G3 A39 1995
Allied Military Government. Division of Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives. Collection of German letters and memoranda pertaining to confiscation of European art treasures, secured by 1st Lt. James J. Rorimer, G-5 Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Officer, Seventh Army, from Dr. Schiedlausky and Bruno Lohse …. [n.p.] 1945. RECAP: Marquand Lib. use only. N6750 .A42
Allied Military Government. Division of Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives. Final report[s] …[n.p.] 1945-46. RECAP: Marquand Lib. use only. Oversize N81 .A43q
Brey, Ilaria Dagnini, 1955- The Venus fixers: the remarkable story of the Allied soldiers who saved Italy’s art during World War II. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009. Firestone Library (F) N6911 .B74 2009
Edsel, Robert M. Saving Italy: the race to rescue a nation’s treasures from the Nazis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, c2013. Firestone Library (F) D810.A7 E234 2013
Harclerode, Peter, 1947- The lost masters: the looting of Europe’s treasure houses. London: Gollancz, 1999. Annex A, Forrestal: N9160 .H37 1999
Howe, Thomas Carr, 1904- Salt mines and castles; the discovery and restitution of looted European art. Indianapolis, New York, The Bobbs-Merrill Company [1946] Annex A, Forrestal: N6750 .H83
Rousseau, Theodore, 1912-1973. The Goering collection. [Washington, D.C.]: U.S. Army, Office of Strategic Services, Art Looting Investigation Unit, 1945. Marquand Library (SA) Oversize Oversize N6750 .U59q
Schnabel, Gunnar, 1962- The story of Street scene: restitution on Nazi looted art: case and controversy. Berlin: Proprietas, 2008. Firestone Library (F) ND588.K4 A76 2008
The recovery of stolen art: a collection of essays / edited by Norman Palmer. London: Kluwer Law International, c1998. Marquand Library (SA) KD1225 .R43 1998
Yeide, Nancy H., 1959- Beyond the dreams of avarice: the Hermann Goering collection. Dallas, Tex.: Laurel Publishing, 2009. Marquand Library (SA) N5267.G67 Y45 2009
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Stevan Dohanos (1907-1994), Award for careless talk. Don’t discuss troop movements, ship sailings, equipment, 1944. Graphic Arts Collection GC156 World War Posters Collection