Category Archives: Medium

mediums

Printed with Axle Grease over Caviar

Princeton University Library holds one copy of every book created by the contemporary artist Ed Ruscha. Moving some books require extra help because of their size, such as Ruscha’s News, Mews, Pews, Brews, Stews, & Dues (London: Editions Alecto, 1970). Graphic Arts Collection. Copy 77 of 125, plus 25 AP.

Each of the six organic screen prints in this portfolio is 23 x 31 inches (58.4 x 78.7 cm), housed in a red velvet-covered box 24 5/8 x 33 1/4 inches (62.6 x 84.1 cm). To open on the table, it needs six feet of clear space. Thank you to Brianna Cregle for her help with it.

Each print is made with different and unexpected organic materials, such as News, which was printed with blackcurrant pie filling over red salmon roe. In a 1970 interview included in this volume, Ruscha said he liked the incongruous elements. “The pleasure of it is both in the wit and the absurdity of the combination. I mean the idea of combining axle grease and caviar!” He went on to say “New mediums encourage me. I still paint in oil paint. But what I’m interested in is illustrating ‘ideas’.”

The illustration above shows the various organic materials used in making this portfolio. Below are the recipes for each individual print. The pseudo-Gothic font was, for Ruscha, an expression of English culture and the words a reaction to his enjoyment with actual London mews while living there.

Axle grease over caviar.

Hershey’s chocolate flavor syrup and Camp coffee and chicory essence. Squid in the ink.

150 year ago, London society split in two

In August 1866, members of the British elite toasted the return of Edward John Eyre (1815-1901), ex-Governor of Jamaica, with a banquet in Southampton. John Ruskin delivered the key note address. The same evening, opponents of Eyre organized their own meetings, calling for Eyre to be tried for murder in the hanging of George Gordon following the Morant Bay rebellion of 1865.

The first group organized the Eyre Defence Fund and the second established the Jamaica Committee. Lines were drawn in dining clubs, meeting halls, and street corners across London.

Charles Darwin argued with Charles Dickens; Thomas Huxley clashed with Thomas Carlyle; Herbert Spencer debated John Ruskin and Alfred Lord Tennyson.

In November 1866, Huxley wrote to Darwin: “…I am glad to hear from [Herbert] Spencer that you are on the right (that is my) side in the Jamaica business. But it is wonderful how people who commonly act together are divided about it.” —Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley, v. 1 (Macmillan and Co., 1913).

In her essay, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70,″ Sarah Winter notes,

“Repeatedly, English grand juries refused to indict Eyre or convict his subordinates. The question of the constitutionality of martial law raised by the Jamaica Committee’s prosecutions implied that taking sides for or against Eyre’s actions was fundamentally an expression of political views about the legal limitations on the use of force in imperial governance. Defending the importance of the constitutional principles at stake in the Jamaica Committee’s unsuccessful prosecutions of Eyre, Mill articulated the duty to uphold the rule of law as a fundamental principle of modern citizenship. The question of the extent of Gordon’s rights as a “fellow-citizen” within the British Empire, however, remained unresolved.

Images come from a photography album in the Graphic Arts Collection documenting the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica (1865), the Indian Northwest Frontier Hazara Campaign (1867-1870), views of Malta, Ireland, Guernsey, Spain, and elsewhere, compiled [attributed to] by Alexander Dudgeon Gulland. Permanent Link: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/736664580

Miller Brothers 101 Ranch

A number of items have been rescued as we are packing for the move. The chromolithographed poster seen above was found in the back of a drawer and had to be conserved and repaired. It will soon be catalogued and available for research.

I recommend this film about the rise and fall of Oklahoma’s 101 Ranch, posted by the Oklahoma Historical Society for the WKY KTVY KFOR Archives (published on Nov 25, 2013).

“The historical overview begins from the conception of the 101 in 1879 by George W. Miller and then traces the development and successes of the ranch by Miller’s three sons: George Miller, Jr., Joe Miller, and Zack Miller. As the Miller brothers found success in agricultural endeavors, they established the 101’s headquarters, the White House, in Ponca City, OK. There they established a self-efficient community with its own roads, bridges, power plant, meat-packing industry, telephone company, their own form of money (the Bronc), etc.

Footage covers the 101’s Apple Blossom Day events, the 1905 Convention of the National Editorial Association, The Wild West Show established in 1913, and Cherokee Strip Cowpunchers Association footage from the 1920s, and The Terapin Roundup and Derby which started in 1924. The relationship between the Ponca Indians and the Miller brothers, as well as the contributions the Ponca Tribe made to the 101 shows is discussed at length. Footage from the film Recreation of 1889 includes the original cast.

The memorial sites of Bill Pickett, one of the “greatest”, African American rodeo performers of all time and Chief White Eagle of the Ponca Indian Tribe are featured. Final footage covers Colonel Joe Miller’s traditional Ponca Memorial Service, George Miller’s funeral service, and the ruins of the White House and 101 Ranch.”

See also: Michael Wallis, The Real Wild West: the 101 Ranch and the creation of the American West (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999). Forrestal Annex F704.A15 W34 1999

Satire on Perspective by Hogarth

Double checking our collection today to make sure we do hold the frontispiece engraving by William Hogarth (1697-1764) often forgotten by print curators. The scene offers many deliberate examples of confused and misplaced perspectives.

“Whoever makes a Design, without the Knowledge of Perspective, will be liable to such Absurdities as are shewn in this Frontispiece.”

William Hogarth, frontispiece for John Joshua Kirby (1716-1774), Dr. Brook Taylor’s method of perspective made easy, both in theory and practice … Being an attempt to make the art of perspective easy and familiar; to adapt it intirely [sic] to the arts of design; and to make it an entertaining study to any gentleman who shall chuse [sic] so polite an amusement (Ipswich: printed by W. Craighton, for the author, 1754). Rare Books (Ex) NA2710 .K5 1754

Massacre of the French King!

In this engraving, one man is already face down in the guillotine and a second, being tied to a board, will be next. Neither is Louis XVI.

Massacre of the French King! View of La Guillotine; or the Modern Beheading Machine, at Paris. By which the unfortunate Louis XVI (late King of France) suffered on the Scaffold, January 21st, 1793. Engraving and letterpress broadside. London: printed at the Minerva Office, for William Lane, and retail by E[Lizabeth] Harlow, Pall-Mall; Edwards, Bond-Street; Shepherd and Reynolds, Oxford-Street; . . . and all other Booksellers. Where may be had an exact and authenticated copy of his Will, Prince One-Pence, 1793. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2016- in process

“In London, the charismatic William Lane (ca. 1745-1814)) founded the Minerva Press in 1790, issuing remarkable numbers of sensational novels until he was succeeded upon his death by his partner A. K. Newman, who continued the business (although he gradually dropped the ‘Minerva Press’ name) through the 1820s. During the 1790s Minerva published fully a third of all the novels produced in London.” –Stuart Curran, The Cambridge Companion to British Romanticism (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

“By 1791 Lane employed a workforce of thirty and had four printing presses . . . Most were formulaic Gothic ‘German’ romances, produced in editions of 500 or 750 and never reprinted. ‘Minerva press’ novel became a common term to describe a particular type of light society romance or thriller, much condemned in conduct literature.” –William St. Clair, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

“When William Lane . . . published his broadside account of the execution on January 29, he priced it at sixpence, with a discount for bulk purchases of one hundred; a few days later he halved the original price, and offered a still more generous discount to those willing to act as agents to distribute the sheet, expressing the hope that it would be circulated ‘in every village throughout the three kingdoms.’

In a long advertisement announcing these reductions, Lane described his wish that ‘this horrid and unjust sacrifice . . . should be known to all classes of people, and in particular to the honest and industrious Artisan and manufacturer, who might be deluded by the false and specious pretences of artful and designing persons.’” –Kevin Sharpe and Steven N. Zwicker, Refiguring Revolutions: Aesthetics and Politics from the English Revolution to the Romantic Revolution (University of California Press, 1998)

Shin moyō hinagata

The Graphic Arts Collection holds a small group of Japanese sketchbooks or design books with little additional information. This one has been labeled simply Shin moyō hinagata, and appears to focus on birds and insects. The calligraphy on the publication stamp is very difficult to read but if you can add to our information, please let us know.

Birch’s Views of Philadelphia

The first time an American artist depicted an American city in a series of engravings came in 1800 when William Russell Birch (1755–1844) created The City Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania North America. A second edition of the series was published in 1804, a third in 1809, and a fourth in 1827-28.

Birch’s prints document the growth of Philadelphia, in particular, but also mark the development of art and artists in the United States. We were no longer waiting for European printmakers to either design or print our images.

Birch did it all. He drew, engraved, and published his own work (assisted by his wife and son, Thomas Birch 1779-1851). Princeton owns twenty of the twenty-eight plates in this series. Today, a number of restrikes and reproductions have been issued, usually called Birch’s Views of Philadelphia.

George Washington died at Mount Vernon, Virginia, on December 14, 1799. A national funeral procession and service was held in Philadelphia on December 26, 1799. Birch issued this print early in 1800.

Dreadful Hot Weather

James Gillray (1757-1815), Dreadful Hot Weather, 1808. Etching with hand color. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895

This is one of seven plates by James Gillray, published together on February 10, 1808. The set includes Delicious Weather, Dreadful-Hot-Weather, Fine Bracing Weather, Raw Weather, Sad Sloppy Weather, Windy Weather and Very Slippy-Weather. The last is also the best known of the group, taking place outside the St. James printshop of his benefactor and dealer Hannah Humphrey.

Julian E. Garnsey

We had a question recently about our collection of Princeton University campus views by Julian Ellsworth Garnsey (1887-1969). From 1941 until his death, Garnsey lived and worked in Princeton as Associate Professor at Princeton University’s School of Architecture, as well as serving as a color consult for the city of Princeton. Many exhibitions of his watercolors have been held over the years in University and city venues.

In the summer of 1944, Garnsey began making a pictorial record of the Princeton campus. As W.E. Wagner Jr. wrote “Perched on a totally inadequate stool and surrounded by many onlookers, Associate Professor Julian E. Garnsey may be found, on clear days, continuing his work of making a picture record of the campus in full color. The Princeton campus which, being a Harvard man, he still is apt to call ‘the yard,’ in unguarded moments has, according to Professor Garnsey, vistas of unequalled beauty. In his water-color paintings of the campus he takes no liberties, and sometimes finds the exact copying ‘quite monotonous.’”

“…Painting in water color is merely his hobby, and he does not wish to be known as a painter. He came to Princeton two and one half years ago after a busy life as a mural painter and color consultant. Among his commissions before coming to Princeton, was the decoration of an entire group of new buildings for the University of California at Los Angeles. In one of his mural paintings there he painted Dr. Einstein for probably the first time. He was color consultant to the New York World’s Fair and was responsible for the color of all the buildings at the fair.”–Princeton Bulletin 2, no. 87 (28 August 1944)

Here are a few of the Graphic Arts Collection’s eight watercolors by Garnsey.

At one time, Garnsey sold his views as greeting cards through The Little Gallery at 39 Palmer Square. There may still be copies of these in personal collections around Princeton.

Hugo Reisinger Decorated

In the early twentieth century, art collector and banker Hugo Reisinger (1856-1914) [second from the right] prepared a series of exhibitions to promote good will between the United States and Germany. A German painting show traveled to New York, Boston, and Chicago from 1908 to 1909. The American art exhibition was held at the Royal Academy of Arts, Berlin, in March 1910 and the Royal Art Society, Munich, in April.

In May, Reisinger was decorated by the Prince Regent of Bavaria “with the Star of the Commanders’ Cross of the Order of St. Michael, in recognition of his successful work in promoting art exhibitions in Germany and the United States.”– ‘Hugo Reisinger Decorated. Munich May 4, 1910,’ New York Times, May 5, 1910.

Four years later, Reisinger died, leaving $1,000,000 to Columbia University, Harvard University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others.