Category Archives: Medium

mediums

Napoleon’s Last Home

Attributed to Lieutenant R. P. Read, This Geographical Plan of the Island & Ports of Saint Helena is Dedicated by Permission to Field Marshal His Rl. Highness, and Strathearn, The Duke of Kent [London: Burgis & Barefoot, October, 1815]. Engraved and hand colored map. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2015- in process.

A contemporary photograph of Jamestown, the capital of rugged and remote St. Helena island, a British protectorate in the South Atlantic, where Napoleon arrived in 1815 to serve out his exile. Credit Kent Kobersteen/National Geographic Society—Corbis

In 1815, Napoleon I, Emperor of France (1769-1821) was forced to abdicate his throne but instead of returning to Elba, where he spent time the previous year, the British government chose to send him to the island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic.

On October 15, 1815, Napoleon and a few followers landed at the harbor of St. Helena. After a short stay at the house of a wealthy English merchant, they moved to Longwood, originally built for the lieutenant governor. This is where he remained until his death in 1821.

A British map was drawn and engraved to show where the Emperor had been sent. Historians have attributed this map to Robert Read, who between 1811 and 1825 rose from Ensign to Lieutenant and may have been on the ship that delivered Napoleon to the island. A copy was recently acquired by the Graphic Arts Collection in the original slipcase with an image of Napoleon on one side.

For a contemporary description of a trip to St. Helena, see: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/travel/st-helena-cursed-rock-of-napoleons-exile.html?_r=0

Petite visionneuse

Thanks to the help of Professor Rubén Gallo, the Graphic Arts Collection acquired a small peep show viewer, ca. 1865, mounted with 12 miniature albumen silver photographs. The pyramid shaped device has a monocular lens at the front through which one views the photographs. A moveable lid can be raised to let in light. The 12 prints are sewed to a panoramic strip of cloth that is rotated by two copper buttons.

The viewer or visionneuse comes originally from a maison close or brothel in Paris. The images, no more than 3 cm, are of a nude man and woman in various erotic poses, not unlike something you might find today on the internet. Small enough to be held in the palm of your hand, the device could easily be passed secretly from one man to another for their viewing pleasure.

For more about the history of prostitution in 19th century Paris, see the exhibition and catalogue for “Splendor and Misery: Images of Prostitution 1850-1910,” at the Musée d’Orsay. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/arts/design/splendor-and-misery-images-of-prostitution-captures-a-profession-in-paris-through-artists-eyes.html?_r=0

Bartholomew Fair in 1721

Bartholomew’s Fair in 1721, no date (1824). Etching and aquatint designed as a fan. Sold by J.F. Setchel. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process.

From 1133 to 1855, the citizens of London came together for several days each August to enjoy the pleasures at the Bartholomew Fair. Thanks to this colored aquatint, we can also enjoy the many entertainments offered during the 1721 fair, including a peep-show of The Siege of Gibraltar, Lee and Harper’s presentation of Judith and Holofernes, Faux’s Dexterity of Hand and his Famous posture master. At the top, people are seen riding an “ups and downs,” an early version of the ferris wheel.

“There was once sold in Bartholomew Fair a Fan,” wrote Henry Morley in his Memoirs of Bartholomew Fair, “on which the Fair was represented as it then appeared in the eyes of a Bartholomew artist, who having his own views of perspective, carefully economised the number of his figures, and left out at discretion bodies or legs, in the treatment of which he was embarrassed. A coloured engraving of this picture was issued by Mr. Setchel of Covent Garden, with a brief description commonly assigned to Caulfield, the bookseller, author of four volumes of Remarkable Characters. The date of the Fan is here said to be 1721; but this cannot be right, since it displays, among other things, a puppet show of the Siege of Gibraltar, which occurred in 1727. Almost every great Siege in which England was concerned reappeared on the first occasion in the shows at the Fair.”

A drawing for this scene, owned by the British Museum, was probably made circa 1730 but the fans were likely printed and sold in 1824.
Isaac Fawkes or Faux (1675?–1732) was an English magician and showman. In 1722, he paid for an advertisement that read, “Tricks by Dexterity of Hand, with his Cards, Eggs, Corn, Mice, curious India Birds, and Money . . . Likewize the surprising Activity of Body perform’d by his Little Boy, of 12 Years of Age . . . .” —A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Volume 5 (Firestone PN 2597 .H5 1973).
Possible portrait of Robert Walpole (1676-1745)

Let not the ballad singer’s shrilling strain
Amid the swarm thy listening ear detain:
Guard well thy pocket, for these syrens stand
To aid the labours of the diving hand;
Confederate in the cheat, they draw the throng,
And Cambric handkerchiefs reward the song.”

–Andrew White Tuer, Old London Street Cries and the Cries of To-day (1885)

David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), Kenneth Macleay (1802-1878), ca. 1843. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process.
Kenneth Macleay was a Scottish painter who specialized in miniatures, seen here posing in full Highland dress. He is also known as the husband to Louisa Campbell (1817-1868).
David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), Thomas Duncan (1807-1845), ca. 1843. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process
Thomas Duncan, RA RSA, was a Scottish portrait and historical painter.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired 8 early photographic portraits by the great Scottish painter David Octavius Hill (1802-1870) and Robert Adamson (1821-1848), a Scottish chemist and pioneer photographer.

“In the mid-1840s, the Scottish painter-photographer team of Hill and Adamson produced the first substantial body of self-consciously artistic work using the newly invented medium of photography. William Henry Fox Talbot’s patent restrictions on his “calotype” or “Talbotype” process did not apply in Scotland, and, in fact, Talbot encouraged its use there. Among the fellow scientists with whom he corresponded and to whom he sent examples of the new art, was the physicist Sir David Brewster, principal of the United Colleges of Saint Salvator and Saint Leonard at Saint Andrews University, just north of Edinburgh. By 1841, Brewster and his colleague John Adamson, curator of the College Museum and professor of chemistry, were experimenting with the calotype process, and the following year they instructed Adamson’s younger brother Robert in the techniques of paper photography. By May 1843, Robert Adamson, then just twenty-one years old, was prepared to move to Edinburgh and set up shop as the city’s first professional calotypist.” Selection from: Malclom Daniel. “David Octavius Hill (1802–1870) and Robert Adamson (1821–1848) (1840s)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hlad/hd_hlad.htm (October 2004)

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), George Meikle Kemp (1795-1844), ca. 1843. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process. The Scottish architect George Kemp [also seen below] is best known as the designer of the Scottish Monument in central Edinburgh.

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), George Meikle Kemp (1795-1844), ca. 1843. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process..

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), William Etty (1787-1849), ca. 1843. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process
The English artist William Etty later painted a self-portrait based on photographs taken by Hill and Adamson.

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), David Octavius Hill and two unknown ladies, ca. 1843. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), Sir William Allan (1782-1850), ca. 1843. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process. Allan was a noted Scottish history painter, who traveled extensively painting in Russia, Italy, Spain, and Greece.

David Octavius Hill (1802–1870); Robert Adamson (1821–1848), William Forrest (1805-1889), ca. 1845. Salted paper print from paper negative. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process.
The Scottish engraver William Forrest studied with Thomas Fry in London before moving to the United States, eventually settling in Hudson N.Y.

New Art for the A Floor

While many of the students and faculty were driving home for Thanksgiving, we used the quiet time to hang a few more paintings on the A floor of Firestone Library.

Here you see Elizabeth Aldred, registrar for the Princeton University Art Museum, completing a condition report on Jean-Paul Riopelle’s untitled painting before it was packed up and returned to the museum for conservation.

In its place, the museum kindly offered a beautiful 1960s painting by the New York artist Loren MacIver for the Cheng Family Reading Room.
MacIver was a primarily self-taught artist, known for semi-abstract landscapes, cityscapes, and close views of natural forms, many of them ensconced in a hazy fog, lending them a dreamlike aura.

”My wish is to make something permanent out of the transitory,” MacIver wrote in 1946. ”Certain moments have the gift of revealing the past and foretelling the future. It is these moments that I hope to catch.”

MacIver befriended many American poets, including Elizabeth Bishop, E. E. Cummings, and Marianne Moore. See also the catalogue prepared to honor the artist at her death: Loren MacIver: A Retrospective (New York: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 1998). Marquand Library (SA) Oversize ND237.M165 B287 1998q
Loren MacIver (1909–1998), Byzantium, ca. 1965. Oil on canvas. Gift of Thirteen Friends (Mrs. Harold Hochschild, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Hochschild, Mrs. R. Wolcott Hooker, Mr. and Mrs. P. J. Kelleher, Mr. Frank Kissner, Mr. and Mrs. John McAndrew, Miss Dorothy C. Miller, Mrs. J. D. Rockefeller III, Mr. James T. Soby, Miss Eleanor D. Wilson). Princeton University Art Museum.

This was followed by the hanging of a monumental painting titled Hippolytus by Princeton University alumnus Cleve Gray, Class of 1940. While at Princeton, Gray studied in the department of Art and Archaeology, completing a thesis on Yuan Dynasty landscape painting with George Rowley (1892-1962).

After serving in Europe during World War II, Gray remained in Paris to receive informal art training from a number of French artists. His paintings from the 1960s, including this one, graft impulsive gestures derived from Abstract Expressionism onto a more or less solid armature, a fusion that hints at the competing tensions at play in painting in the 1960s.

Cleve Gray, Class of 1940 (1918–2004), Hippolytus, 1963. Oil on canvas. Gift of the artist. Princeton University Art Museum.
For more on Hippolytus, see Princeton University’s “Phaedra project” website:

“Born to Minos, King of Crete, and Pasiphaë, immortal daughter of Helios, the Sun, Phaedra became the second wife to Theseus, the founder-king of Athens. Theseus’s son Hippolytus (by his first wife Hippolyta) was a virginal devotee of Artemis, and spurned Aphrodite. In revenge for his disregard, Aphrodite made Phaedra fall in love with Hippolytus. In some accounts, it is the nurse who reveals Phaedra’s burning passion for her stepson, while in others it is Phaedra herself. When Hippolytus vehemently rejects his step-mother’s desire, Phaedra falsely accuses him of rape. Believing his wife, Theseus curses his son, prompting Poseidon to send a sea monster (or in some accounts Dionysus to send a wild bull), to terrify Hippolytus’s horses and to plunge his chariot over a cliff, sending him to his doom. As many versions of the story have it, Phaedra, upon hearing of her beloved Hippolytus’s death, takes her own life.” — “Myth in Transformation: The Phaedra Project” http://www.princeton.edu/~phaedra/index.html

Nolli’s Rome

We are preparing for next week’s visit from ART 233 / ARC 233 Renaissance Art and Architecture taught by Carolina Mangone and Carolyn Yerkes. The course is described: “What was the Renaissance? This class explores the major artistic currents that swept northern and southern Europe from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries in an attempt to answer that question. In addition to considering key themes such as the revival of antiquity, imitation and license, religious devotion, artistic style, and the art market, we will survey significant works by artists and architects including Donatello, Raphael, Leonardo, Jan van Eyck, Dürer, and Michelangelo. Precepts will focus on direct study of original objects, with visits to Princeton’s collections of paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings, books and maps.”

To this end, we are rolling out the enormous maps of Rome [seen here] in 1748 by Giambattista Nolli (1701-1756) and Venice in 1500 originally published anonymously, now attributed to Jacopo de Barbari (ca. 1460/70-ca. 1516). The latter is Princeton University Library’s facsimile edition of the woodcuts published in 1962 by Officine Grafiche Trevisan, Cassa di Risparmio, Venezia.

Nolli’s map, a stunning original, is titled Alla Santita di Nosto Signore Papa Benedetto XIV la nuova topografia di Roma, ossequiosamente offerisce e dedica l’umilissimo servo Giambattista Nolli Comasco. Composed in 12 sheets, each 42 x 67.5 cm., the complete engraving measures a monumental 174 x 210 cm.

Thanks to our colleagues at Berkeley, a high resolution digital map can be found at:
http://vm136.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/maps/nolli.html

Giovanni Battista Nolli (1701-1756), Alla Santitá di Nosto Signore Papa Benedetto XIV la nuova topografia di Roma, ossequiosamente offerisce e dedica l’umilissimo servo Giambattista Nolli Comasco ([Roma]: Giambattista Nolli, 1748). 1 map on 12 engraved sheets; 174 x 210 cm, Rare Books: Historic Maps Collection (MAP)

The Principles of Static and Friction

Richtige Grund Sätze der Friction Berechnung, Zuweit gewißerer Beurtheilung und Einrichtung aller Machinen überhaupt, aus des Monsr. Amontons und Monsr. Belidors Schrifften, dennen Lieb habern mechanischer Wissenschafften zu gefallen in beliebter kürtze zusammen getragen Andere Tabelle. Sumptibus hæredun Homannianorum Cum Privil. S. C. M. [ca. 1740-6]. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2015- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired two large 18th-century wall charts outlining the principles of statics and friction. Homann Erben, one of the leading map publishers of the era, produced and published them in Nurnberg, Germany.

In the chart below, five simple machines are depicted demonstrating the concepts of force, equilibrium, and statics. Forty individual illustrations, together with accompanying descriptions and calculations, show a number of gear mechanisms, counterweights and pulleys, explaining ways in which forces combine with each other so as to produce equilibrium. At the top of this post, our second chart represents the “Important Principles of Friction” in sixteen variations using pulleys and hoists.

The principles being described come from two noted scientists: Guillaume Amontons (1663-1705) and Bernard Forest de Bélidor (1697/98-1761). Amontons “produced the first known study on the question of losses caused by friction in machines, and established the laws of proportionality between the friction and the mutual pressure of the bodies in contact.” Bélidor was professor of mathematics at the artillery school at La Fère, who wrote numerous texts on mechanics, including La Science des ingénieurs (1729), Marquand Library SAX NA2510 .B421 and Architecture hydraulique (1737-39) Recap 9166.162.

Homann Erben die Fürhehmsten Grund-Sätze der Static; oder Die Vergleichung der krafft und last an denen fünf einfachen machinen über haupt, bloß nach dem gleich gewichts standt, ohne der in der bewegung darbeis fürfallenden friction, in deutlichen proportions sätzen nach denen reguln der verhältnis in beliebte kürtze gebracht. [Nürnberg]: Herausgegeben von Homoennischen erben mit Kayser aller gn. Privl., [ca. 1740-60]. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection GA2015- in process

Taking the Company Wagon

The Czech Republic has a number of mineral and thermal springs. Over the years, curative spas and luxury resorts have been built around this area, hosting many famous visitors (I’m told), including Goethe, Beethoven, and Peter the Great. The most eminent are in the West Bohemian spa triangle including two of the largest: Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) in valley of the River Teplá and Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad), not far from Prague.

In 1830, Gottlieb Unger and Christoph Schäck purchased a carriage, which they called “the company wagon” or Gesellschaftswagen. These entrepreneurs established a bus route between the spa towns of Carlsbad and Marienbad, approximately 32.15 km or 19.98 miles. The estimated driving time given today on google maps is 43 minutes.

This unrecorded broadside advertises their luxury wagon service in a covered but open-side, horse-drawn carriage, which seated eight passengers comfortably. The broadside goes on to offer another smaller carriage for the exclusive use of four people and other options for personal transport throughout the summer months. Longer trips to Leipzig, Dresden or Prague could be arranged.

Gesellschaftswagen broadside ([Carlsbad], 1831). 383 x 233 mm, Graphic Arts collection GAX 2015- in process.

Jean Dupuis’s Parting Words

Jean Dupuis (1799-1888) was a celebrated French athlete, circus performer, and wrestler who would traveled from town to town, performing feats of strength. He would lift a variety of heavy objects and then, challenge the strongest man in the town to a wrestling match, offering prize money to anyone who could defeat him.

He managed to remain undefeated for a number of years, fighting predominantly in Germany but also in Paris, Moscow, Rome, and Warsaw. Finally, on January 22, 1841, Dupuis lost a fight at the Munich Royal Theatre. A rare satirical broadside (above and below) was published celebrating this defeat at the hands of a Munich servant known only as Simon. The charming illustration shows Dupuis as a defeated half naked Hercules collapsed in his chariot as four Munich citizens wave his broadsides at him. These may well be the four men who wished to fight him. Dupuis only agreed to fight two and was defeated in his second bout.

Only one other copy of the Dupuis defeat broadside has been found in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg and that copy is uncolored.The Stadtgeschichtliches Museum Leipzig (City Museum of Leipzig) has a number of Dupuis wrestling broadsides, although not these two. The distinctive wrestling woodcut at the bottom of this post was owned by Dupuis as it is used in two other broadsides by him.

Abschiedsworte an den geworfenen Herrn Jean Dupuis ersten Herkules von Europa und noch einigen Provinzen. Munich, 22 January 1841. Lithographic broadside with calligraphic title printed in gold. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process.

Sonntag den 20. October 1839. Grosses Kampfspiel im Ringen von Jean Dupuis mit einem starken Mann … welcher seine Kraft, heute Sonntag in der Abend-Vorstellung, mit mir messen will. [Leipzig], 1839. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2015- in process

Holiday Cards Not Sent

Here are some images we did not choose for this year’s holiday card.
John McClellan (1908-1986), Woodstock Christmas, 1936. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2008.00466.

The artists pictured here are John McClellan (back turned to viewer), Emil Ganso (1895-1941), Eugene Speicher (1883-1962), Russell Lee (1903-1986) next to stove, and Doris Lee (1905-1983) on sofa, nursing an infant. From 1906 until 1922, and again after the end of World War II, the Art Students League in New York City operated a summer school of painting at Woodstock, New York. Many artists split their time between Manhattan and Woodstock. Some, like McClellan, made it their permanent home.

Theodore Lane (1800-1828), A Merry Christmas Day, in the Watch House, for Milling the Charlies [beating up a policeman], no date [ca. 1828]. Etching with hand coloring. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00952.

Note from Legal aid: “If you’re in the watch-house and the police won’t give you bail, you have to be taken to court at the earliest possible time. If when you go to court you apply for bail but the court doesn’t give you bail, you’ll go back to jail (first back to the watch-house, and then to a remand centre) until your next court date. You usually won’t stay in the watch-house for more than a few days (but you may stay in a remand centre for much longer).” For the real story of this print, see: https://theprintshopwindow.wordpress.com/2015/11/17/thomas-mcleans-secret-shame/

James N. Rosenberg (1874-1970), A Christmas Card Not Sent, 1929. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.02401.

In the upper left side of the print is the inscription, “Dec. 25 1929, Festivities on Wall St.” It reminds us that the American Stock Market crashed in the fall of 1929 and few celebrations were held the following holiday season.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757- 1827), The Brilliants, 1801. Hand colored etching. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2014.00777. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

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