Category Archives: prints and drawings

prints and drawings

Mocha Dick

Randall Enos, The Life & Death of Mocha Dick (Brooklyn, NY: Strike Three Press, 2009). Copy 15 of 32. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

Abstract: “In 1841, Herman Melville sailed out to the whaling grounds of the South Pacific where he heard the legend of Mocha Dick. This huge bull sperm whale was known to attack whaling ships and battle his pursuers as they tried to harpoon him. Melville turned the whaler’s quest of Mocha Dick into the story of Captain Ahab and Moby Dick. Randall Enos tells the story of Mocha Dick, the hero of whales, and depicts the whale’s great battles and legendary encounters in a suite of eleven linoleum cuts.”–Strike Three Press.

 

J. N. Reynolds. “Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the Pacific,” in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine 13, no. 5 (May 1839): 377–92.

J.N. Reynolds, Mocha Dick, or The White Whale of the Pacific (London; Glasgow: Cameron & Ferguson, [1870?]). Rare Books 3906.39.364.1900

Public Typewriter


Now through July 27, 2019, is the exhibition “New Typographics: Typewriter Art as Print,” featuring Lenka Clayton, Dom Sylvester Houédard, Gustave Morin, Elena del Rivero and Allyson Strafella, at the Print Center, 1614 Latimer Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103: http://printcenter.org/100/siena-and-new-typographics/

The exhibition highlights work by artists who use the typewriter as a matrix for forming text into image. Typically referred to as typewriter “art” or typewriter “drawings,” this exhibition posits that artworks created with a typewriter should be recognized as prints, in light of the mechanism and process of their production.

“I use the typewriter against itself. It was built to draft first chapters of novels and resignation letters; I use it to draw my son’s eyelashes and knitted socks . . . . I really enjoy that this process allows me to focus on those very simple forms and moments that are, perhaps, usually overlooked.”–Lenka Clayton

While you are there, you can “Create Your Own Typewriter Print.” The Print Center will host a “Public Typewriter” as part of Philly Typewriter’s “Philadelphia Public Typewriter Program.” Philly Typewriter is a retail typewriter store located in Philadelphia that also repairs typewriters and hosts classes and events. A temporary loan of a manual typewriter prepared for use by typewriter restoration classes at Philly Typewriter will allow visitors to make their own typewriter prints.

On Thursday, May 2, at 6:00 p.m. curator Ksenia Nouril will give a talk on the history of typewriter prints, highlighting key moments and artists that were influential to the thinking around the exhibition.

Concrete poets Dom Sylvester Houédard and Gustave Morin highlight the typewriter print’s immense potential for both visual and linguistic communication. In concrete poetry, the representation of language supersedes its legibility and even meaning. The results are wildly whimsical and fantastically funny renderings that allude to historical and imaginary people, places, and things.

Houédard, whom Morin calls “The Great Typewriter Poet,” was a Benedictine priest in post-World War II England. His typewritten visual poems, which he named “typestracts,” were developed together with leading conceptual writers and artists of the period, including but not limited to William S. Burroughs, Bob Cobbing, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Allen Ginsberg and Yoko Ono.–Press release

http://printcenter.org/100/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/TPC_Siena_Typewriter_Gallery-Notes-1.pdf

Dom Sylvester Houédard

Drawings for the Iliad [no drawings included]

Lithographs after drawings

 

Richard Lattimore’s now-classic translation of Homer’s The Iliad was first published by the University of Chicago Press in 1951. A decade later, the Press invited the artist Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) to produce drawings for a lavish illustrated edition, which came out in 1962.


That same year a deluxe portfolio of 150 lithographs [seen at the top] after Baskin’s pen and ink wash drawings was published by Delphic Arts in New York, with the title Drawings for the Iliad. The first 90 copies included an additional three etchings, which were also distributed separately (two copies of each etchings) under the same title. If that isn’t complicated enough, an exhibition of Baskin’s drawings traveled to multiple venues in 1962 and an exhibition catalogue published under the same title.

Princeton University is fortunate to have all the variations of publications reproducing Baskin’s drawings, albeit without any original pen and ink wash drawings.

Homer, The Iliad. Translated with an introduction by Richmond Lattimore. Drawings by Leonard Baskin ([Chicago] University of Chicago Press [1962]). Graphic Arts Collection Oversize PA4025.A2 L35 1962q
“In addition to the generous size, the forty-eight full-page illustrations are printed on a rich ivory paper, especially manufactured to reproduce as flawlessly as possible the color and texture of the paper used by Leonard Baskin in creating the original drawings.” The book was offered at an introductory price of $11.50 after which it would be sold for $13.50.

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), Drawings for the Iliad [by] Leonard Baskin [an exhibition at the] Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [and the] Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon ([Chicago, Art Institute, 1962]). Graphic Arts Collection 2012-0145Q
“Delphic Arts has acquired the sixty drawings for the Iliad in conjunction with their publication of a deluxe portfolio. This exhibition has been prepared and organized by Delphic Arts, New York City”–T.p. verso.

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), Drawings for the Iliad (New York: Delphic Arts, 1962). [68] leaves of plates. Copy 27 of 150. Marquand Library Oversize NE539.B2 A4e
“150 copies … have been published … The paper throughout is Fabriano … text … printed at the Gehenna Press … quotations are Lattimore’s translation … The edition has been arranged as follows. Copies number one through ninety are accompanied by three original etchings by Leonard Baskin …

Leonard Baskin (1922-2000), Drawings for the Iliad (with six original signed etchings by Leonard Baskin: two impressions each of “Hephaistos”, “Ares”, and “Homer”) (New York: Delphic Arts, 1962). Edition: 60

Idylls of Rural Life

Charles Shannon (1863-1937), The Garden Plot, from the series Idylls of Rural Life, ca. 1898. Chiaroscuro woodcut. Reproduced in The International Studio, 59 (October 1916). Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Sally M. and William B. Rhoads, ’66 *75.

 

“The First Exhibition of Original Engraving” was held at E.J. Van Wisselingh’s Dutch Gallery on Old Bold Street in 1898 with work by Charles Ricketts, Charles Shannon, Sturge Moore, Reginald Savage, and Lucien Pissarro. As described 18 years later in The International Studio, Shannon’s contribution featured a series of 12 chiaroscuro woodcuts. These small rondels chronicled the “Idylls of Rural Life,” throughout the seasons of the year, printed in dark green-grey, buff yellow, and white inks.

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired one print from this series entitled “The Garden Plot,” thanks to the generous donation of Sally M. and William B. Rhoads, ’66 *75. As an undergraduate, William Rhoads was inspired to begin collecting prints after attending Robert Koch’s seminar “Art of the Print.” Rhoads was also kind enough to add a print by Shannon’s frequent partner, Charles Ricketts [see below].

Article continues

 

 

 

Charles S. Ricketts (1866-1931), Floods (Inondation), ca. 1895. Wood engraving in black on wove paper. Reproduced in Album VII from L’Estampe originale. Graphic Arts Collection. Gift of Sally M. and William B. Rhoads, ’66 *75.

Graver pour le roi

Gilles Rousselet and Israel Silvestre, frontispiece for Charles Perrault, Courses de testes et de bague, faites par le Roy, et par les Princes et Seigneurs de sa cour en l’année 1662. Paris, 1670. Copper plate and engraving.

On view through May 20, 2019, at the Louvre is the exhibition Graver pour le roi: Collections historiques de la Chalcographie du Louvre. http://presse.louvre.fr/graver-pour-le-roi/. The press release notes:

Exceptionally bringing together more than a hundred works, the exhibition traces the origins of the Chalcography of the Louvre with nearly seventy engraved matrices of its collection, presented in relation to drawings of the Department of Graphic Arts of the Louvre Museum and prints from the Edmond de Rothschild collection and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Gérard Edelinck, after Charles Le Brun, La Famille de Darius aux pieds d’Alexandre
https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/item/924

Many of the copper plates on view are matrices for the prints Princeton students and visitors enjoyed a few years ago in the exhibition Versailles on Paper. https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/

Our prints were acquired by Princeton University in 1886 in an exchange with the Bibliothèque nationale (Paris), thanks to John S. Pierson, Class of 1840, who effected the exchange, recorded by the BN as “Double échangé” no. 907. Volker Schröder, Associate Professor of French in the Department of French & Italian, researched and clarified this information for his essay in the Princeton University Library Chronicle dedicated to our exhibition. http://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/content/chronicle-article-abstracts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/06/12/louis-xiv-visits-the-royal-academy-of-sciences/

In the galleries, the polished copper and steel-plated matrices are brightly lit and difficult to photograph without reflection. Happily the catalogue to the show, coming soon to Princeton, has excellent reproductions of both the printing plates and the paper prints.

Charles Nicolas Cochin fils, Pompe funebre d’Elisabeth Therese de Lorraine, Reine de Sardaigne ... [Interior of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, decorated for the funeral of Elizabeth Theresa, Queen of Sardinia], 1743. Copper plate and engravings.

 

Gerard Edelinck after Nicolas de Largilliere, Portrait of Charles Le Brun, 1684. https://rbsc.princeton.edu/versailles/item/923

A loose translation of one label:

The Chalcography of the Louvre is rich in a collection of some 14,000 engraved plates, the oldest of which date back to the 17th century. When it was founded in 1797, the new institution was given the role of preserving and exploiting three important sets of engraved plates seized during the French Revolution: those of the King’s Cabinet, the Pleasures Menus, and of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. The Cabinet of the King , born from the will of Louis XIV and Colbert, gathers 956 prints showing the castles, statues and paintings belonging to the king. Designed to spread the image of the magnificence of power, these boards are the work of the best engravers of time, such as Claude Mellan, Gerard Audran, Gérard Edelinck.

Jean Pesne after Nicolas Poussin, L’Eucharistie – Das letzte Abendmahl, [1680-1694]

 

Detail

 

A reply to our Charles Ricketts question

http://charlesricketts.blogspot.com/

On 22 March, 2019, we posted a drawing from the Graphic Arts Collection that may or may not have been the work of Charles Ricketts: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2019/03/22/rickettss-drawings-published-and-unpublished/. A special note was sent to Paul van Capelleveen, curator of Rare Books at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, Netherlands, who researches and writes the weekly blog “Charles Ricketts & Charles Shannon.”

 

Today, a reply was posted by Mr. Capelleveen, with information on Ricketts’s career around the date of this drawing and a possible answer to our question. Take a look at his intriguing solution to the puzzle and see what you think: http://charlesricketts.blogspot.com

Our sincere thanks for all his hard work, which not only helps Princeton University but adds significantly to everyone’s understanding of Ricketts’s art and the iconography of the Sphinx. Isn’t this new international world of shared scholarship wonderful?

The Wonderful Magazine and Marvellous Chronicle

The Wonderful Magazine Or Marvellous Chronicle; Or New Weekly Entertainer. A Work Recording Authentic Accounts of The Most Extraordinary Productions, Events, And Occurrences, In Providence, Nature, And Art… (London: Printed for the Proprietors, Published By C. Johnson, 1793).    Volumes 1-5. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- In process.

 

Portrait of an innkeeper known as Mother Louse of Louse Hall, a famous establishment outside the city of Oxford; fanciful coat of arms bottom center: three lice surmounted by a tankard, motto on banner underneath, ‘Three liese pas-sant’ (a re-issue).

Henry Jenkins, 169-years-old.

The following Forty Numbers of this Work (making only Sixty in the whole) will be enriched with a great Variety of engravings, equally extraordinary, Wonderful, Marvellous, Astonishing, and Interesting, too numerous to mention here. every future Number will therefore be Embellished with One or two most Elegant engravings, consisting of the most Extraordinary, Wonderful, and Rare Productions in Nature and Art, drawn and engraved by eminent Artists, among which will be included many Large Quarto Copper-plates, containing extraordinary Representations, which cannot be included in a less Size.

The frontispiece of the first volume is labeled, “The Art of Lying Burlesqued in an Account of A Wonderful Flight or Journey from France to Gibraltar, America, &c. Related by an Eminent Author,” which may refer to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) included in serial form throughout the first three volumes.

 

The story of John Bigg, the Dinton Hermit, who only wore leather.

Margaret Finch, Queen of the Norwood Gypsies, Died 1740, Aged 108 years.

 

“Old Boots of Rippon in Yorkshire” shown with his ability to hold a coin between the tips of his nose and chin.

Subtitled: “Consisting entirely of Such Curious Matters as come under the Denominations of Miraculous!, Queer!, Odd!, Strange!, Supernatural!, Whimsical!, Absurd!, Out Of The Way! and Unaccountable! including Genuine Accounts of the most surprising Escapes from Death – Deliverances from Dangers – Strange Discoveries of long concealed Murders – Strange and Unaccountable Accidents – The Surprising Phenomena of Nature – Absurd and Ridiculous Customs peculiar to different Ages and Nations – Dreadful Shipwrecks – Heroic Adventures – Uncommon Instances of Courage, Strength, Longevity, or Long Life, Accounts of Persons Famous for Eating, Drinking, Fasting, Walking, or Sleeping – Interesting and extraordinary Anecdotes – Memorable Exploits – Perilous Adventures – Strange Effects of Imagination in Pregnant Women – And whatever else is calculated to promote Mirth or Entertainment, or what is Wonderful, Marvellous, or Astonishing. – The Whole carefully Collected from the Writings of the most approved Historians, Travellers, Astrologers, Physicians, Physiognomists, Philosophers, &c. of all Ages and Countries. – Embellished with a great Variety of Elegant Copper Plates accurately Engraved.”

 

Mademoiselle de Beaumont, or the Chevalier d’Eon. Female Minister Plenipo. Capt. of Dragoons Etc. Etc.
See also: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/07/23/fencing-update/

 

 

Marie Antoinette, girl next door

Carlo Antonio Porporati (1741-1816), Marie Antoinette dans sa derniere prison (Marie Antoinette in her prison), October 16, 1793. Etching with roulette. Graphic Arts Collection

At 11am the next morning, on 16 October 1793, the executioner Sanson appeared. Madame Bault confirmed that he cut the queen’s hair and that the queen, looking back, saw the executioner place the locks of hair in his pocket. “This I saw,” said Madame Bault, “and I wish I had never seen that sight.” At 12.30pm, Marie Antoinette was taken to the guillotine at the Place de la Revolution. After the queen’s head fell it was shown to the crowd, who cried: “Vive la République!”

—https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/the-final-days-of-marie-antoinette/

When a recent class asked to see material around Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), this unusual Italian print was pulled. Unusual because the Queen of France is more often depicted in lavish costumes with her hair elaborately styled (see below).

In October 1789, the royal family was placed under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace but it was four years before the Queen’s trial began on October 14, 1793. After only two days, Marie Antoinette was convicted and executed by guillotine on the Place de la Révolution.

The print is the work of the Italian engraver Carlo Antonio Porporati (1741-1816) who spent his early years in Paris and was inducted into the Royal Academy of Artists in 1773. Equally active in French and Italian portraiture, at the time of this print Porporati was living in Naples where he established a school for engravers. —https://doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00144687

He dates the print October 16, 1793, the morning of the execution. Like many others, he followed the imprisonment and trial with interest, preparing this image in advance without worrying about the actual likeness.

Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne d’Autriche, etched by Pierre Duflos, after Jacques Louis Touzé in Recueil d’estampes représentant les grades, les rangs et les dignités, 1778-1795. (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55003867c)

 

Saint Stephen the Prōtomartyr

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a new print, “Copper icon cast of Saint Stephen the Prōtomartyr,” with text in modern Greek, printed in Vienna in 1765. Thanks to our Modern Greek Archivist for Special Collections, Kalliopi Balatsouka, for her expert cataloguing:

The devotional woodcut shows an icon of Saint Stephen the Prōtomartyr cast in copper, for veneration at the Eastern Orthodox monastery of Kōnstamonitou on Mount Athos in Greece. Commissioned by Abbot Gabriel of Vatopedi, and financed by Athanasios Alexiou of Grabovo, the icon was displayed at Kōnstamonitou. Saint Stephen, the central image within woodcut border, is depicted frontal in the deacon’s attire, holding the censer with his right hand and with his left hand extended the Holy Book. A halo around his head bears the inscription: “Ho Hagios Prōtomartys Stephanos.”

The Eye of God in an equilateral triangle with a single eye inside it and rays emanating from it towards the saint’s head is positioned off center to the right corner; a replica of the monastery with the inscription “Monastēri Kōnstamonētou” is shown next to the saint’s figure.” At the bottom of the scene, a five-line legend in Greek runs as follows: “Hē Parousa sevasmia eikōn echalkocharachthē Dia syndromēs tou panosiōtatou / ky[riou] Gavriēl tou Vatopedinou di exodōn de tou timiōtatou, ky[riou] athanasiou alexiou / ek grabovo, kai aphierōthē par autou en tē Hiera Monē tou Kōnstamonētou, hina / dōrean charizētai tois orthodoxou christianois. epistasia de tou timiōtatou / ky[riou] Kōnstantinou oikonomou ek poleōs Melenikou. 1765. en viennē.”

 

https://ima.princeton.edu/2018/09/21/spring-symposium-eclecticism-at-the-edges/

The print comes in time for the symposium “Eclecticism at the Edges: Medieval Art and Architecture at the Crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic Cultural Spheres,” hosted by the Index of Medieval Art, the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Department of Art & Archaeology at Princeton University, The Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies with the support of the Stanley J. Seeger Hellenic Fund, the Mary Jaharis Center for Byzantine Art and Culture, the International Center of Medieval Art, and the Society of Historians of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Art and Architecture.

This two-day symposium, April 5-6, 2019, focuses on the art, history, and culture of Eastern Europe between the 14th and the 16th centuries. Rare Books and Special Collections welcomes a small group of visitors over to view our collections during the event, including this new acquisition.

El Círculo de piedra — Cuba 1967


Carlos Franqui (1921-2010), El Círculo de Piedra (Milan: Grafica Uno, printed by Giorgio Upiglio, 1971). Purchased in part with funds provided by the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS) and by the Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2019- in process

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a portfolio with poetry by Carlos Franqui and fifteen color lithographs on wove paper signed in pencil by the author in an edition of 125. The title, The Stone Circle, is a reference both to the lithographic process and to the circle of artists while in exile. Contributing artists include Valerio Adami, Alexander Calder, Jorge Camacho, Augustin Cárdenas, César Baldaccini, Corneille, Gudmundur Erró, Asger Jorn, Piotr Kowalski, Wifredo Lam, Joan Miró, Edouard Pignon, Paul Rebeyrolle, Antoni Tápies, and Emilio Vedova. The portfolio also contains a recording on vinyl of Y Etonces Comprendio by Luigi Nono.

“The memories of Giorgio Upiglio on the ‘Círculo de piedra’,” loosely translated:

‘The Círculo de piedra’ adventure was born thanks to the friendship with Carlos Franqui, who was introduced to me by Wilfredo Lam. I was in Cuba, in 1967, in the middle of the cold war, I remember that there were cannons under my hotel. All of Carlos’s friends, including almost all the artists who would later create the ‘Circulo de piedra’ three years later, were in Havana in ’67 for the Salon de Mayo congress. I remember Jorn, Lam, Cesar, Tapies, my wife Rita Gallè, Calder, Adami, the critic Guido Ballo. On that occasion I met Fidel Castro, to whom I gave a copy of my edition made with Lam Apostroph Apocalypse. Castro subsequently organized a graphic exhibition at the Casa de las Américas.

On that occasion, they gave me all the prints that went on the boxes of the Romeo y Julieta cigars and those of the Montecristo. The prints that were still made in lithography on stone, a lithograph that remained a tradition of graphic art untouched by the big industry low cost runs. What interests me remains of the ‘Círculo de Piedra’ is the common spirit of familiarity with Carlos Franqui, mine, and of all the artists, in the years of exile from Cuba. The folder is born without a precise commercial purpose and neither is there a a union between artists and a movement…

It was also born to support Carlos economically and that is why I left him a part of the edition. The portfolio is a project that–as you can imagine–has also cost a lot for the artists involved, but the enthusiasm for our work has led us to bear the costs of the edition and each of the 15 artists was left with a copy of the work, as a reminder of the common project. Mirò was printed by Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Jorn by Bramsen in Paris, Calder I printed it, because he was in Milan for the exhibition at Studio Marconi; Vedova, Tapies, Adami, Lam and all the others were printed in Milan in Via Fara 9.

http://www.fafafineart.com/portfolio/el-circulo-de-piedra/. The work was presented on October 17th 1970 at the Marconi Studio and at the Piccola Scala in Milan with the concert by Luigi Nono Y entonces comprendò, of which each folder contains the disc published by Ricordi.


For more about Giorgio Upiglio, see: http://www.italianways.com/giorgio-upiglio-engraver-printer-and-publisher/