Category Archives: Medium

mediums

Welt-Ausstellung in Wien 1873

While you might think this was one of the national pavilions at the 1873 International Exhibition in Vienna, is was in fact one of the many restaurants, beer halls and coffee houses opened throughout the fairgrounds. Run by two New York restaurant owners and staffed with a wide variety of non-white waiters, the bar served martinis and other cocktails, described as typical American drinks.

The photograph was made by Josef Löwy (1834–1902), an Austrian painter, publisher, industrialist, and Royal court photographer. Löwy operated a popular photography studio in Vienna, known especially for celebrity portraits. He was also a member of the Wiener Photographen Association, which had their own building at the fair. Oscar Kramer led the Association and was the publisher of this album, recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection.

Several of Löwy’s photographs won medals during the Exhibition, leading to his appointment as official photographer to the Austrian Court. It is noteworthy that after his death Mathilde Löwy (1854-1908), his wife and also a talented photographer, took over the operation of the studio until her death. His nephew, Gustav Löwy, followed as owner, renaming the studio “Art Institute J. Lowy”.

Welt-Ausstellung in Wien, 1873 ([Vienna: Oskar Kramer, 1873]). Graphic Arts Collection 2019- in process. Album of 24 albumen silver prints of the Vienna International Exhibition of 1873.

The 1873 Vienna Welt-Ausstellung was open from May 1, 1873 through November and it was the first international exposition held in Austria. Here are a few more plates:

Buffalo Bill Novel Magazine Covers

Robert Prowse, Jr (1858-1934?), Collection of 71 pieces of original cover art for the Buffalo Bill Novels Magazine series. [London: Aldine Publishing Company, 1918-1932]. Watercolor and gouache paintings, about 14 x 11 in. each. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

 

With the much appreciated support of the Friends of the Princeton University Library, the Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a remarkable group of original cover art for the Buffalo Bill Novels, a British pulp magazine for boys and girls, published from 1916 to 1932 by the Aldine Publishing Company in London. Despite its name, the stories were not always about Buffalo Bill, though they were always set in the American West and featured plenty of cowboys and Indians (and even female heroes!).

The paintings are all signed by Robert Prowse (R.P.), who did artwork for this and other similar projects; some are dated below his initials. The series ran for 342 issues, though the last cover in this collection is for No. 344, possibly an unpublished issue, as we could find no trace of this title associated with the Buffalo Bill Novels. See more here: http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2014/08/robert-prowse-jr-sketches-and.html

 

This acquisition will allow students and researchers to study the cover art along with the text, given the large number of these books already owned by Princeton. As outlined on the Special Collections website, “the Library’s extensive holdings relating to Dime Novels are divided chiefly among two collections. https://rbsc.princeton.edu/topics/dime-novels

One major portion, about 1,700 individual issues, is in the Cotsen Children’s Library. Some details about these are covered in the exhibition “Cheap Thrills,” mounted in Cotsen during the fall of 2006. The second major portion is in the general rare books collection, chiefly in three sub-units thereof, namely The Stanley Lieberman Memorial Collection (900 individual numbers); The Mary Robinson Memorial Collection of Hero Fiction (400 individual numbers); The John Murray Reynolds ’22 Collection, consisting of 111 issues of various dime-novel, mystery, and other such pulp magazines published in the United States between 1925 and 1947.

Each issue contains a story or contribution by John Murray Reynolds of the Class of 1922. A checklist is available here: https://library.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/BIB_70767.pdf. The Stanley Lieberman Memorial Collection and the Mary Robinson Memorial Collection of Hero Fiction complement each other to form a fine collection of Hero Fiction, with a total of about 1,300 volumes. There is also the John Murray Reynolds ’22 Collection, which consists of 111 issues of various boys, dime-novel, mystery, and other such pulp magazines published in the United States between 1925 and 1947.”

 

 

Above: original painting for cover.       Below: published volume with printed cover.

American publishers weren’t the only ones cashing in on the pulp magazines craze and this collection offers a good example of international hegemony of the genre. The Aldine Publishing Company of London produced, from the late 1880s onwards, reprints of American dime novels, such as the adventures of Buffalo Bill, eventually opening a subsidiary in New York.

Complementing the watercolors, Princeton also holds proof covers for the first 51 numbers of the Aldine Publishing Company’s “O’er Land and Sea” Library. These single octavo leaves, rough trimmed, some mounted on thin card, others showing signs of mounting. [London, 1890-1891], available at (Ex) Item 4697736.

See also:
Chambliss, Julian and William Svitavsky (2008), “From Pulp Hero to Superhero: Culture, Race, and Identity in American Popular Culture, 1900–1940,” Studies in American Culture 30 (1) (October)
Dinan, John A. (1983) The Pulp Western : A Popular History of the Western Fiction Magazine in America. Borgo Press, ISBN 0-89370-161-0.
Goulart, Ron (1972) Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of the Pulp Magazine, Arlington House, ISBN 978-0-87000-172-7.
Gunnison, Locke and Ellis (2000). Adventure House Guide to the Pulps (Adventure House) ISBN 1-886937-45-1
Lesser, Robert (2003). Pulp Art: Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines (Book Sales) ISBN 0-7858-1707-7
Locke, John-editor (2004). Pulp Fictioneers – Adventures in the Storytelling Business (Adventure House) ISBN 1-886937-83-4
Robbins, Leonard A. (1988). The Pulp Magazine Index (Six Volumes). Starmont House. ISBN 1-55742-111-0.
Robinson, Frank and Davidson, Lawrence (2007). Pulp Culture (Collector’s Press) ISBN 978-1-933112-30-5
Sampson, Robert (1983) Yesterday’s Faces: A Study of Series Characters in the Early Pulp Magazines. Volume 1. Glory figures, Vol. 2. Strange days, Vol. 3. From the Dark Side, Vol. 4. The Solvers, Vol 5. Dangerous Horizons, Vol. 6. Violent lives. Bowling Green University Popular Press, ISBN 0-87972-217-7.
Springhall, John (1994), “‘Disseminating Impure Literature’: ‘The ‘Penny Dreadful’ Publishing Business Since 1860,” The Economic History Review, New Series, Vol. 47, No. 3. (August), pp. 578.
http://john-adcock.blogspot.com/2014/08/robert-prowse-jr-sketches-and.html

KWY

KWY: Revista trimestrial d’arte actual (Paris, [publisher not identified], [1958-1963]. No 1-12. French, English, and Portuguese. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019 in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection, along with our colleagues in Art history and French literature, recently acquired a complete run of the rare serial KWY. Each issue was editioned differently: no. 2 is a limited edition of 50 copies; no. 3 a limited edition of 85 copies; no. 4 a limited edition of 100 copies; no. 5 signed in pencil on back cover: 73/134; no. 6 a limited edition of 500 copies; no. 7-12 each a limited edition of 300 copies. Our no.1 is a facsimile while all the rest are original as issued.

A truly international publication, KWY was produced mainly with serigraphs and letterpress by Portuguese artists Lourdes Castro, René Bertholo, Antonio Costa Pinheiro, João Vieira, José Escada and Gonçalo Duarte and by Bulgarian Christo and the German Jan Voss. These artists gathered in Paris under the title “Le groupe KWY” focusing primarily on the production of the magazine from 1958 and 1964.

According to one source, the name KWY was chosen because these are the three letters that rarely appear in Portuguese words.

Various movements have been connected with this group, including Portuguese figuration and New Realism, the Fluxus spirit, the Spanish group El Paso and the lyricists and the experiences of the sound poetry. Issues also include work by António Areal, François Dufrêne, Raymond Hains, Bernard Heidsieck, Yves Klein, and Jorge Martins, among others.

 

Portraits with Scottish Roasting-Jacks and Toasting-Forks.

John Kay (1742-1826), [Miss Burns] : Burns whose Beauty warms the age and fills our Youth with love & rage, no date [1801]. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00649

…Miss Burns was a professional harlot, the lawful daughter of a Durham merchant of the name of Matthews. She was in Edinburgh while Burns resided there in 1786-87. Some time afterwards she left the place, but returned again in 1789, and, with another young lady, set up a brothel in Rose Street. Being complained against, they were sentenced by Bailie William Creech to be banished the city; but, on 22nd December, the Court of Session passed a bill of suspension in their favour. Miss Burns died of consumption at Roslin in 1792.”– The Poetry of Robert Burns, Volume 2 (1905).

The London’s National Portrait Gallery adds: “Miss Burns, otherwise known as Miss Mathews, was a celebrated courtesan and beauty, who came to Edinburgh from Durham when her wealthy merchant father fell on hard times. She is shown by Kay as she appeared on her evening promenades, dressed in her fashionable finery. The stir she caused resulted in complaints from her scandalised neighbours. She was brought to court and sentenced to be banished from the city, and to be confined for 6 months in a house of correction should she return. The sentence was finally overturned on appeal.”

The Graphic Arts Collection holds a group of etchings by the Scottish barber-turned-artist John Kay (1742-1826). NPG calls John Kay a little known etcher, although many institutions in the United States have 100s of his prints. “Kay was an ex-barber and native of Edinburgh who turned to etching relatively late in life and produced many hundreds of original naïve and mostly humorous portraits of his fellow citizens.” Here are a few of ours.

 

John Kay (1742-1826), [Rev. Dr. John Erskine], 1793. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00652

The name John Erskine (1721-1803) may not be familiar to the modern Christian world, but to his friends and colleagues he was the leading Calvinist clergyman of the Church of Scotland during much of the eighteenth-century. Despite his family’s desire for him to follow his father’s path in law and manage the eventual inheritance of a large estate in Carnock and Torryburn, he began his career as a preacher in the town of Kirkintilloch (1744-1753). As the leader of the Popular party, he opposed patronage in favor of a popular vote for ministers and would later serve at Edinburgh’s New Greyfriars (1758-1767) and Old Greyfriars (1767-1803). — http://themelios.thegospelcoalition.org/review/enlightened-evangelicalism-the-life-and-thought-of-john-erskine

John Kay (1742-1826), [John Wemyss (died 1788), Town crier; Robert Clerk (1738-1810), Book seller and publisher; George Pratt (active 1784), Town crier. ca.1784]. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00651

John Wemyss, the figure on the left, was, as the Print denotes, one of the Town Criers, and colleague of the eccentric and consequential George Pratt. He had formerly been a respectable dyer; but, owing to some reverses in business, he was reluctantly compelled to abandon the trade; and, from necessity, had recourse to the calling in which he is here represented. He was for many years officer to the Incorporation of Bonnet-makers, for which he received the sum of fifty shillings a-year!

…Mr Robert Clerk, the centre figure, was for many years a bookseller and publisher in the Parliament Square. His father, John Clerk, a printer, was said to have been descended from Alexander Clark, Lord Provost of the city of Edinburgh at the commencement of the seventeenth century. …Although at that period the book trade of Edinburgh was comparatively limited, he succeeded in establishing a profitable business—having a good many bookbinders employed—and latterly engaging in several fortunate speculations as a publisher.–A Series of Original Portraits and Caricature Etchings, Volume 2, Part 1 (1838)

“Now for your quarters and Shoulders of Mutton or Lamb Geese and turkeys, any more a Wanting my hearty ones. What are you all asleep nous [sic] your time. I leave this City tomorrow & have Sold Sixteen Hundred down all well prov’d well try’d the last one now.” He says “Nice rrrRoasting Jacks and toasting Forks.”

McBain had been a soldier. Receiving no pension on retiring from the army, he became a manufacturer of roasting-jacks for turning meat and toasting-forks. He sold these on the streets of the city, singing his ‘roasting, toasting’ ditty. In old age he was admitted to the workhouse, but at 96 was expelled after becoming intimate with the elderly nurse. They married, and he returned to selling roasting-jacks, before being readmitted to the workhouse where he died aged 102.–NPG

 

John Kay (1742-1826), Lauchlan McBain, 1791. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2005.02049

 

John Kay (1742-1826), Travells eldest son in conversation with a Cherokee chief, 1791. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00650

The taller (left), … is James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller whose ‘Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, 1768-1773’, appeared in 1790. The other is Williamson, an Edinburgh bookseller and tavern-keeper, who had published an account of his adventures in America: ‘French and Indian Cruelty exemplified in the Life of Peter Williamson’, 1757, &c, and compiled the first Edinburgh directory (1773).

Their words are engraved beneath the design: ‘[J. B.] How dare you approach me with your travells. There is not a single word of them true. [P. W.] There you may be right, and aliho I never dined upon the Lion or eat half a Cow and turned the rest to grass, yet my works have been of more use to mankind than yours and there is more truth in one page of my Edinh directory than in all your five Volumes 40. So when you talk to me dont imagine yourself at the Source of the Nile!’ –British Museum

 

See also: John Kay, A series of original portraits and caricature etchings. With biographical sketches and illustrative anecdotes (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1877). Marquand Library NE642.K18 A3

George the Third

What does it say about us that we have eight boxes of George Washington portrait engravings and only a handful of George III caricatures? This is now slightly improved with the acquisition of two formal full-length mezzotint portraits of King George III (1738-1820, Reigned 1760-1820).

[top] Gainsborough Dupont (1754-1797), after Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), George the Third, King of Great Britain &c. &c. &c., [Published December 30 1790 by Gainsborough Dupont No 87 Pall Mall]. Mezzotint, proof before all letters. The original painting, completed 1781, is in the Royal Collection, Hampton Court. Graphic Arts Collection 2019-in process

Gainsborough Dupont was the eldest son of Thomas Gainsborough’s sister, Sarah and Philip Dupont. He apprenticed to his uncle 1772-79; entered RA Schools 1775; remained in Gainsborough’s studio, producing studio replicas, mezzotints and oil copies, until his uncle’s death in 1788 when he inherited studio properties.

[below] James Ward (1769-1859) after painting by Sir William Beechey (1753-1839), His most Gracious Majesty George III, on his Favourite Charger Adonis. Dedicated to the Queen’s most excellent Majesty; By Her faithful and devoted Servant, John P. Thompson. London, Re Published Feb.y 6th 1811 by J.P. Thompson, G.t Newport Street, Printseller to his Majesty and the Duke & Duchess of York. Mezzotint with separately-printed title. Graphic Arts Collection 2019-in process.

There are several variations on this mezzotint, George III alone; George III with Adonis; George, Adonis and others; Adonis alone, etc.

Adonis

[left] Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827), George Washington after the Battle of Princeton, 1779–82. Oil on canvas. Princeton University, bequest of Charles A. Munn, Class of 1881. The 1784 companion to this hangs on the southern wall of the Faculty Room in Nassau Hall, George Washington at the Battle of Princeton also painted by Charles Willson Peale. Popular legend maintains that the gilded frame holding this portrait once contained a painting of King George II before a cannonball fired from Alexander Hamilton’s battery during the Battle of Princeton decapitated the King as it crashed through one of the windows of Nassau Hall.

What will the world look like in 2000?

Unidentified artist after Charles Jameson Grant (active 1830-1852), The Century of Invention. Anno Domini 2000. Or the March of Aerostation, Steam and Perpetual Motion, [1832-1838?]. Paper on linen. Ex 9253.145f

Charles Jameson Grant (active 1830-1852), The Century of Invention Anno Domini 2000 or the march of aerostation, steam, rail roads, moveable houses & perpetual motion, [1832-1838?] Lithograph. Ex 9253.145F

A scrapbook in Princeton’s McCormick Collection of Aeronautica holds two versions of a rare design by Charles Grant imagining what the world will be like in the year 2000. One is a small lithograph and the other a larger reproduction laterally reversed and pasted on linen. The scene is clearly inspired by William Heath’s March of Intellect series of prints [below] published around 1828, making fun of the Society for the Dissemination of Useful Knowledge, established in 1826.

 

“To-morrow evening, 3rd Inst. A cast iron parson will preach by steam at fudge chapel”

 

Steam, cast-iron, wind and solar power are all celebrated amidst a general cacophony of speeding travelers. Science and industry have triumphed in all modes of transport, as well as daily life. The coal mines in the North are nearly exhausted, we are told, and a new Blackheath mine will be opened to satisfy demand.

 

Balloons are becoming passé, now that people are flying with their own wings. Cars, trains, and buses are driven by children as well as adults. Inventions are everywhere and there is still one live horse!

According to wikipedia, “In 1807, French engineers Nicéphore Niépce (who went on to invent photography) and Claude Niépce ran a prototype internal combustion engine, using controlled dust explosions, the Pyréolophore. This engine powered a boat on the Saône river, France. The same year, the Swiss engineer François Isaac de Rivaz built an internal combustion engine ignited by an electric spark. In 1823, Samuel Brown patented the first internal combustion engine to be applied industrially.”

Good Morning to you. Lovely weather for a Fly.

The print was also published in Caricature Magazine no. 3, February 1, 1834, so we assume these prints come from the same time.

Establishment for cast-iron glass. Warranted not to crack – established 1934

 

Good morning Sir, taking an airing before Breakfast. Aye, merely a trip to Dublin & back-again for an Appetite.

Pulled for a writing seminar investigating the rise of self-driving cars and their implications in fields as varied as philosophy, law, engineering, and computer science.

 

Alan James Robinson

Mark Twain, The Jumping Frog. Wood engravings by Alan James Robinson (Easthampton, MA: Cheloniidae Press, 1985). Copy 10 of 15 state proof copies, with one extra signed suite of the 15 wood engravings plus the triple page fold out of the jumping front, plus working proofs of the wood engravings, plus state proofs of etching, signed and numbered by the artist. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

 

 

This Cheloniidae edition of the Jumping Frog from Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old (1875) contains three versions of this notorious and celebrated tale: the original, the version translated into French (inadequately so, according to Twain), and the version “restored to the English after martyrdom in the French” by Twain. The afterword, “The Private Printing of the ‘Jumping Frog’ Story” by Samuel Clemens, first appeared in the North American Review (1894).

The regular edition was limited to 250 copies and is bound in green paper wrappers, while all editions are printed on Saunders paper in Centaur and Arrighi types at Wild Carrot Letterpress with the assistance of Harold Patrick McGrath and Arthur Larson.

The 15 wood engravings are printed by Harold Patrick McGrath and bound by Daniel Kelm (the design of Alan Robinson) full undyed Oasis with onlays of the frog in repose — before the jump on the front panel and after the jump on the back panel, with doublures showing the frog in mid-jump. Onlays in green oasis of the frog jumping are on the front and back pastedowns.

Pug the Painter, satire of Hogarth

Pug the Painter Following the Example of Messrs Scumble Asphaltum & Varnish. … [at foot]: To the Despisers of all pretended Connoisseurs & all Imitators (but those of Nature) this plate is most humbly dedicated … [London], [ca. 1754-1757]. Etching and dry point (289 x 214 mm). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired this rare print, designed after William Hogarth’s self-portrait, ca. 1757 [left] and originally sold in a portfolio under the title “The Caricatures on Hogarth by Paul Sandby,” further labelled “Retrospective Art, from the Collection of the late Paul Sandby, Esq. R.A.,” priced M. 6s (note, on this sheet the 1s/price partly erased). While no longer attributed to Sandby, the print makes a fascinating and complex satirical attack on Hogarth. Frederic Stephens’s 1877 Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum explains:

“3277. “Pug the Painter following the example of Mess” Scumble Asphaltum & Warnish.” “O imitatores servum pecus * [By Paul Sandby.] Publish’d according to Act of Parliament … [1754]. An etching; on a pedestal which is decorated with a wigged and spectacled head of “Ignorance & self conceit”, and inscribed “THE IDEA Box of A coxoissevil”, is seated an ape, painting “Moses striking the Rock”, a picture in the manner of Rembrandt. He is exclaiming, “A marrellous effect by G—d”.

Behind him is a book inscribed, “A Journal of my trarels from Rome to Rotterdam I had the supreme happiness of touching Raphael scu LL that dirine scroll”.

… On a table are the “100 Gilder print” rolled up, and an open book, named “Shakespear alter’d by T. Tasteless FRS thou Nature art NoT my Goddess”.

Stephens makes the suggestion that Philip Dawe or Dawes (died 1832) was responsible for this print. Dawe was a British printmaker who lived at the same time as Hogarth, known for his mezzotints and political caricature but the suggestion has not been accepted by others.

The text refers to quotations from Horace: “O imitators, servum pecus” (Imitators, a servile herd) and the opening words of the aphorism “Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque revenit” (Though you may drive out nature with a pitchfork, she will nonetheless return).

Hogarth’s attacks on amateur gentleman connoisseurs and his frustration at the privileging of Old Masters are alluded to by placing the central figure on a plinth with the motto “The Idea Box of a Connoisseur.” Beneath the design is engraved: “To the Despisers of all pretended Connoisseurs & all Imitators (but those of Nature) this plate is most humbly dedicated.”

This animosity towards amateurs is mocked by representing Hogarth as an amateur himself, referring to his rejection of the ‘Raphaelite’ style and implying that this results from Hogarth’s own lack of taste.

An owl, labelled A Compleat Connoisseur, sits on a volume titled Odes to Dullness and  speaks to the painter, “I think Mr Pug, you may keep down your Sky a little more.” One claw holds a note that reads “A Catalogue of some Capital pictures lately consigned from abroad.” Bags of money sit below.

 

 

The print comes with with a statement by the dealer, “Pug the Painter attempts to construct an artistic identity for Hogarth based upon notions of incompetence, hypocrisy and artifice. It takes the painter’s objections to academic painting, and inverts this to cast Hogarth as a bad painter, incapable of achieving the visual perfection of nature.”

At the same time, Graphic Arts acquired this early broadside catalogue of Hogarth prints.


Jane Hogarth (1711-1789), A Catalogue of Hogarth’s Original Works. To be had of Mrs. Hogarth, at her house, at the Golden Head, Leicester Fields. London, 1784. Handbill (335 x 207 mm). Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

In 1767 William Hogarth’s widow Jane Hogarth, who owned his copper plates, was granted a further twenty years of copyright by Parliament. In January 1783 Jane Hogarth announced in the Daily Advertiser that the plates she was reprinting had not been retouched since her husband’s death (Paulson, Hogarth Graphic Works, pp. 19-20).

This broadside catalogue of prints available from Jane not only lists the prints and the series, sizes, and prices, but several measurements are corrected by a contemporary hand. A folio of all prints is also offered, “By Purchasing the Whole together they will be delivered for Thirteen Guineas,” as is the book, Analysis of Beauty. Only the British Library and Yale University hold other copies of the sheet.

“The following extract is from John Rocque’s map of 1746, three years before Hogarth purchased the house. The map shows the house to the northwest of the village of Chiswick, the last in the lane approaching Chiswick Common Field. I have circled the house in red.”–https://alondoninheritance.com/london-characters/hogarths-house/

Is it Blanche of Castile or Christina of Sweden, or just a representation of courage?

Charles de, baron d’Auteuil Combault. Blanche Infante De Castille (Paris: A. de Sommaville 1644). Four parts in one volume. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process.

In the year 1200, the twelve-year-old Prince Louis of France was married to Blanca de Castilla, then aged eleven. Her grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, traveled to Castile in order to accompany her granddaughter to the wedding. Twice regent of France, Blanche reigned for some eight years between 1226 and 1234, when her son, Louis IX, came of age and again from 1248 to 1252 when her son went away on Crusade.

Dealer’s note:
Only edition of this feminist life of the virago Queen Blanche of Castile (1188-1252). She raised three armies to defend France, assembled two fleets to invade England, suppressed internal revolts, negotiated with hostile powers, exchanged territory to political advantage, secured the throne for her son Louis IX through diplomacy and force, governed France while he led the Seventh Crusade, patronized the arts, collected books, and protected the Jews. In his opening essay, Combault (1588-1670) advocates women as heads of state.

Proverbs 31:26 phe os suum aperuit sapientiae et lex clementiae in lingua eius = She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue

This marvelous frontispiece was designed by the French artist Grégoire Huret.

Kirsti Andersen, The Geometry of an Art (2008) writes “The draughtsman and engraver Grégoire Huret (1610-1670)-—an academician who was also close to the king—-took over Bosse’s lectures at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture… . In 1670, Huret published Optique de portraiture et peinture (Optics of Portraying and Painting) in which he expressed great concern about the state of the art, particularly criticizing Bosse’s book from 1665 and previous publications on Desargues’s method.”

Note, the same allegorical print is used again in 1658 [below] for this book dedicated to Christina of Sweden (1625-1689), published in Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac (1597-1654), Aristippe ou de la cour (A Paris: chez Augustin Courbé, au Palais, en la Galerie des Merciers, à la Palme, 1658). The bottom text has been burnished out and the new book title engraved.

 

 

Ungherini, Manuel de bibliographie … des femmes célèbres I: 77
Chevalier, Répertoire des sources…du Moyen âge. Bio-bibliographie I: 610
Cioranescu 8987 (“4 vols.”).

“Animos curasque induta viriles”  ? She represents masculine courage

Leonora Carrington

In honor of Princeton University’s new course: Along the Edge: Leonora Carrington, the Graphic Arts Collection acquired the limited edition portfolio, Leonora Carrington, Cinco Grabados, copy 3 of 30, purchased in part with funds provided by the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS).

The five engravings, with etching and aquatint, were printed at Tiempo Extra Editores, an artists workshop founded in 1989 by Emilio Pavan Stoupignan. Also included is a single poetry broadside signed by Carrington (1917-2011), with text beginning, “Dog, come here into this dark house.” Each paragraph or verse addresses the swan, the coyote, the Shaman & cat, and three cats.

The interdisciplinary class, taught by Jhumpa Lahiri, will focus entirely on Leonora Carrington, the British-born Mexican printmaker, surrealist painter, and novelist.

“Students will be asked to respond to Carrington’s oeuvre both critically and creatively, writing essays, responses, and imaginative texts inspired by a close reading of Carrington’s idiosyncratic fiction and by studying her prints, drawings and paintings, which are part of the Princeton Art Museum’s permanent collection. Knowledge of French and/or Spanish is recommended but not required, as we will also look at some of Carrington’s writing in the original languages of composition, and consider questions linguistic migration and experimentation.”

Note, a search on Carrington in the online catalog https://library.princeton.edu/find/all/carrington%2C%20leonora now includes the entire holdings of the Princeton University Art Museum, along with the Graphic Arts Collection and other library holdings.