Category Archives: prints and drawings

prints and drawings

Ardsley Studios

After deinstalling our anniversary Shakespeare exhibition, our prints are being unframed and returned to the vault. Exactly 100 year ago, Hamilton Easter Field (1872-1922) was only beginning to frame his collection of “Hamlet” and “Othello” prints to exhibit at the Ardsley Studios at no. 110 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn (also known as Quaker Row).

Field and his mother lived at no. 106, where he ran the Ardsley School of Graphic Arts. In 1916, he purchased the Washington Roebling mansion next door, adding no. 108 and 110 to his estate, so that he could offer studios, housing, and galleries to his students and friends.

It was Field’s intention each month to exhibit old master prints from his personal collection together with modern American work that had not yet gained full recognition. In January 1917, he presented lithographs of Odilon Redon (1840-1916) and paintings by Bryson Burroughs (1869-1934). February brought Shakespearean scenes by Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) and Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856) hung with watercolors by John Marin (1870-1953). And in March, he exhibited Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) caricatures along with paintings by Marsden Hartley (1877-1943) and Morton Schamberg (1881-1918).

The New York Times preferred Chassériau to Delacroix, reporting, “Shakespeare gave a rich field for exploration to a man of Delacroix’s culture, but these lithographs show him only scratching its surface. The fashionable young Hamlet is a mincing creature and no one could infer from these mild humans the sense of passion that finds expression in the struggle of the beasts in such great lithographs . . . . Chasseriau is another story. His combination of monumental style and Oriental fervor fitted him for the etchings of Othello. He translated the passion of the Moor, as Shakespeare did, into a literary emotion.”

Early American Bookplates

Bookplate of Ethan Allen Hitchcock (1798-1870), U.S. Army, “Non nisi parvulis [Not unless a child], 19th century. Etching and engraving, Graphic Arts Collection Early American Bookplates

A reference question led to our small but significant collection of early American bookplates. Here are a few both for institutions and individuals.

The Gift of the Society for propagating the Gospell in Foreign parts 1704

Presented to the Warren St Chapel

Hasty Pudding Library, 1808

John Skinner, Hartford, and S. Marble, Orange Street, New Haven

Brothers in Unity

Columbia College Library, New-York. “In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lumen” [In thy light we shall see light, Psalms 36:9]

Samuel Parker

Bushrod Washington (1762–1829), “Exitus acta probat” [The outcome justifies the deed].

New-York Society Library, 1789. “Emollit Mores” [Learning humanizes or Learning softens character]

Phoenix Society

Newburyport Athenaeum

Alexander Hamilton, Through. Not Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804)

For confirmation, see: Journal of the Ex Libris Society, Vol. 8 (1899). “BOOK-PLATE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. Dear Sir,—…Alexander Hamilton had a book-plate— plain armorial, spade shield and crest, with motto — of which one is now in my collection. The Library of the Hospital Ship “Bay State” [ocr errors] No only other copy known to me is inserted in Hamilton’s own copy of “The Federalist,” which is in the possession of a gentleman of New York City, who values this plate at much fine gold, as I happen to know, having made a bid of fifty through the friendly bookseller who mentioned it to me in a casual way, and which he did thrice refuse. It would not interest anyone to know how I finally procured my copy, and I am very unwilling to exploit a mare’s-nest; but I will say that, for the present, this is one of my most cherished plates, ranking next to that of Hamilton’s great friend and admirer, George Washington, and so will it be until some fortunate collector manages to pick up a lot of them in some out-of-the-way corner. I am aware that the authenticity of the ownership of this most important plate rests, for the moment, altogether on what credit one is inclined to place in the aforesaid bookseller, but there was no object to be gained by him in composing a fairy tale of this kind, as the plate he spoke of was in hands, so far as he knew, entirely out of a collector’s reach, and his chance of procuring it simply nil, as has been proved since. After such serious collectors and good authorities as my friends F. E. Marshall and C. E. Clark have had a look at it, there will be time enough to describe this plate; in the meantime, silence is golden.— Yours truly, W. E. Baillie.

Ichikawa Danjuro IX (1838-1903) meets Adolfo Farsari (1841-1898)

Utagawa Yoshiiku 歌川芳幾 (1833-1904), [Meeting between the Kabuki actor Danjuro IX and the Italian photographer Adolfo Farsari], [Tokyo: Nichinichi Shinbun, 1874]. Color woodblock print. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process A vault

“Utagawa Yoshiiku was a Japanese printmaker and illustrator. As a printmaker, he designed a wide range of prints including those depicting bijin (beautiful women), musha (warriors), yakusha (actors), and the sensationalized pictures of blood-stained mayhem called chimidoro-e and muzan-e, among others. From 1874 to 1875 he designed nishiki-e shinbun for the Tokyo newspaper Nichinichi Shimbun, which he co-founded.”

“. . . The founders of Tōkyō nichinichi shinbun are: Johno Denpei (1832-1902, pseud. “Sansantei Arindo” as gesakusha: popular fiction writer), Nishida Densuke (1838-1910, former clerk of TSUJI Den’emon’s kashihon’ya: lending library), and Ochiai Ikujiro (1833-1904, pseud. “Utagawa Yoshiiku” as Ukiyoe print artist).” –See William Wetherall’s News Nishiki website; Amy Reigle Newland, The Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints (Hotei Publishing Company, 2005), p. 505.

One of the prints Yoshiiku designed for his newspaper was this meeting of the renowned Kabuki actor, Ichikawa Danjuro IX (1838-1903) and the Italian-born photographer, Adolfo Farsari (1841-1898).

According to the Japanese text, in May 1872 an unidentified “yojin” (“ocean person”) visited Danjuro IX backstage and asked to photograph the actor in exchange for some European cigarettes.

The Westerner, not identified in the text, was almost certainly Adolfo Farsari, who took up residence in Japan in the early 1870s and became one of the most prominent photographers in the country.

To read the entire newspaper, see: Tōkyō nichinichi shinbun [microform] = 東京日日新聞 (Tōkyō: Nippōsha, 東京 : 日報社, Feb. 21, 1872- Dec. 31, 1942). East Asian Microfilms (HYGF): Forrestal Annex Microfilm J00057

For more on Farsari, read the catalog of an exhibition held at the Villa Contarini, Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy, Dec. 18, 2011-April 1, 2012: East Zone: Antonio Beato, Felice Beato e Adolfo Farsari : fotografi veneti attraverso l’Oriente dell’Ottocento / a cura di Magda Di Siena ; testi di Magda Di Siena, Rossella Menegazzo (Crocetta del Montello (Treviso): Antiga, 2011). Marquand Library use only DS508.2 .E27 2011

Entertaining Knowledge here – Trump Trump Trumpery Trump

Charles Jameson Grant (active 1830-1852), The Penny Trumpeter!, September 20, 1832. Lithograph. Published by G.S.Tregear, 123 Cheapside. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process

The subject of C. J. Grant’s print is Henry Peter Brougham (1778-1868), satirized as a newsboy blowing a small trumpet to publicize his Penny Magazine. Lord Brougham was responsible for establishing the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge and through it, publishing numerous booklets and magazines with generic information for a mass audience. Complex histories or scientific theories were reduced to overly simplistic articles of little value except entertainment, a genre that became known as Trumpery.

The Penny Magazine appeared in March 1832 and by September, Grant was already satirizing its bland articles illustrated with black and white wood engravings printed from cheap stereoscopic plates. In his own work, Grant specialized in bright, hand colored lithographs, deliberately radical in their politics. Here he trumpets “Entertaining Knowledge here—Trump Trump Trumpery Trump—Just printed and published the Penny Magazine, All works not issued by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge are Illegal—Orders now taken for the forthcoming New Penny Cyclopaedia, Trump Trump.”

Grant’s Penny Trumpeter also appeared in one of his mock frontispieces for the magazine (the British Museum holds two versions of the broadsides), with multiple vignettes criticizing Brougham and his publication.

The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (London: Charles Knight, 1832-1845). Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 31, 1832)-v. 14, no. 882 (Dec. 1845). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Oversize 2006-0186Q

Richard Pound, editor, C.J. Grant’s Political Drama: A Radical Satirist Rediscovered (London: University College, 1998)

“Materials for the Penny Cyclopaedia to commence in 1833 & to end the Devil knows when…”

Mark Peters wrote about the history of the word Trumpery for Salon: http://www.salon.com/2016/03/05/trump_really_does_stand_for_b_s_trumpery_an_old_fashioned_word_thats_proving_useful_today/

Horizontorium, 3D views in 1832

John Jesse Barker after a design by William Mason (active 1822–1860), Horizontorium, 1832. Lithograph. Published by R. H. Hobson, 147 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2017- in process [photographed at an angle]

Before the advent of 3D glasses, print collectors enjoyed optical views like this one to experience the world in more dimension than the usual flat image. This print was to be laid on a flat table and each viewer meant to put their chin on the bottom center so as to see the building at an extreme angle. This is one version of anamorphosis, sometimes also designed to be viewed in a circular reflection.

Here are two other examples from the Graphic Arts Collection collection: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/03/25/anamorphic-images/ and https://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2008/02/anamorphic_self-portrait_by_ch.html .

Note the spot for your chin, if you want optimal 3D viewing.

The building seen here has been identified as the Gothic-style bank erected in 1808 after the designs of Benjamin Henry Latrobe at the southwest corner of Fourth and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Bank or Bank of Philadelphia (predecessor of the Philadelphia National Bank), was formed in 1803 and incorporated in 1804 as the unofficial bank of the commonwealth. Unfortunately the building was lost in 1836, not long after this print was made.

Researchers believe this print is the only recognized American “Horizontorium” and I have not been able to prove them wrong. The Library Company of Philadelphia, which also owns a copy of this print, suggests that the probable printer was Childs & Inman. For more information, try Nicholas B. Wainwright, History of the Philadelphia National Bank; a century and a half of Philadelphia banking, 1803-1953 (Philadelphia, 1953). HG2613.P5P7 and Nicholas B. Wainwright, Philadelphia in the romantic age of lithography: an illustrated history of early lithography in Philadelphia, with a descriptive list of Philadelphia scenes made by Philadelphia lithographers before 1866 (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1958 (1970 printing)) Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize 2008-0429Q

A letter in St. Nicholas magazine, v. 6 (October 1879) p.844, suggests that “a good way to look at this picture is to take a piece of card-board, about three inches long, and bend the bottom of it, in the manner shown in this diagram. Two holes should be made in the card, and the one in the lower bent portion should be so placed that the point of sight can be seen through it. The hole in the upright portion should be 2 inches from the bottom, or the angle formed by the bent part. Through this upper hole the picture should be viewed, when all its peculiar perspective—or, rather, want of perspective—will disappear.” Read the entire piece in GoogleBooks: https://books.google.com/books?id=jqYzAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA844&dq=horizontorium+philadelphia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjfksD87abRAhUBVCYKHZj-B4UQ6AEINDAF#v=onepage&q=horizontorium%20philadelphia&f=false

Posted in honor of John Berger, 1926-2017, author of Ways of Seeing (London: British Broadcasting Corporation; Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1972). Firestone N7420 .W28 1972

The Impostor Unmasked; or The New Man of the People

Richard Brinsley Sheridan [above] says: “Gentlemen – I am proud on this occasion to pay you my respects – I will bring in a bill of rights – I will give your oppressors a ‘Check.”

The electors shout: “You know your Checks are worth nothing.”

Princeton is the only library in OCLC with a recorded copy of this thin volume with a folding frontispiece: The Imposter Unmasked; or, The New Man of the People; with anecdotes, never before published … inscribed, without permission, to that superlatively honest and disinterested man, R.B.S-R-D-N, esq. … (London: Tipper and Richards, 1806). Hand colored frontispiece by Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811). Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1806 Isaac

The scene is described by Dorothy George: “The Westminster election mob is seen from the hustings, where Sheridan, isolated from a group of supporters, is speaking. He tramples on a paper inscribed ‘Electors of Stafford’. From his pocket hangs a ‘List of Promisses’. A dog with a human head (Lord Percy), his collar inscribed ‘True Northumberland breed’, befouls his leg. A poll-clerk sits by an open poll-book but no one is voting.”

Thomas Rowlandson designed a satirical print a year or two earlier entitled “Ride to Rumford. Let the Gall’d Jade winch,” which may have inspired the title page quote here.

Travel safe

Permanent Link: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/fb494b97t

“Just as you are going off with only one other person on your side of the coach, who you flatter yourself is the last- seeing the door suddenly opened and the L and lady coachman / guard [illegible] craning shoving buttressing up an overgrown puffing, greazy human Hog of the bucher or grazier breed. the whole machine straining and groaning under its cargo from / the box to the basket- by dint of incredible efforts and contrivances the Carcase is at length weighed up to the door where it has next to struggle with various / obstructions in the passage.”–James Beresford

The scene above, taking place outside the Maidenhead Inn, was drawn during the height of popularity for the satirical book, “The Miseries of Human Life” by Rev. James Beresford. Rowlandson’s earliest drawing are dated 1806, the same year as the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth editions of Beresford’s book. When the artist completed 50 plates, Rudolph Ackermann released the set in a luxury edition. Rowlandson used many of the same images in his next pictorial narrative The Tours of Doctor Syntax.

James Beresford (1764-1840), The Miseries of Human Life, or, The groans of Samuel Sensitive, and Timothy Testy : with a few supplementary sighs from Mrs. Testy …. New and improved ed. (London: Printed for W. Miller, Albemarle-Street, by W. Bulmer and Co. Cleveland-Row, 1806). Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Rowlandson 1806.31.11

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), Miseries of Traveling. Pubd. Febry. 15th, 1807 by R. Ackermann, N. 101 Strand. Hand colored etching. Graphic Arts Collection GC112

Permanent Link: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/02870z45r

Clément Pierre Marillier

“The Juggler,” from Émile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)

“For some time my pupil and I had observed that different bodies, such as amber, glass, and wax, when rubbed, attract straws, and that others do not attract them. By accident we discovered one that has a virtue more extraordinary still, — that of attracting at a distance, and without being rubbed, iron filings and other bits of iron. This peculiarity amused us for some time before we saw any use in it. At last we found out that it may be communicated to iron itself, when magnetized to a certain degree. One day we went to a fair, where a juggler, with a piece of bread, attracted a duck made of wax, and floating on a bowl of water. Much surprised, we did not however say, “He is a conjurer,” for we knew nothing about conjurers. Continually struck by effects whose causes we do not know, we were not in haste to decide the matter, and remained in ignorance until we found a way out of it.

When we reached home we had talked so much of the duck at the fair that we thought we would endeavor to copy it. Taking a perfect needle, well magnetized, we inclosed it in white wax, modelled as well as we could do it into the shape of a duck, so that the needle passed entirely through the body, and with its larger end formed the duck’s bill. We placed the duck upon the water, applied to the beak the handle of a key, and saw, with a delight easy to imagine, that our duck would follow the key precisely as the one at the fair had followed the piece of bread. We saw that some time or other we might observe the direction in which the duck turned when left to itself upon the water. But absorbed at that time by another object, we wanted nothing more.”

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a suite of proofs (before lettering) for engravings designed by Clément Pierre Marillier (1740-1808) as illustrations for Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s books, Émile and La Nouvelle Heloise. The volume includes twenty-seven engraved plates, including a portrait of Rousseau, along with a letter from Marillier to “Monsieur le Préfet” at Boissie la Bertrand, dated February 17, 1808, concerning Marillier’s nomination as mayor of the town.

Here are a few more examples of Marillier’s designs.

Charlotte Berend-Corinth

An oversize portfolio of lithographs depicting the comic actor Max Pallenberg (1877-1934) recently turned up and was sent over to the Graphic Arts Collection, where it will remain. The artist is Charlotte Berend-Corinth (1880-1967).

When she was twenty-one, Charlotte Berend married her painting professor, Lovis Corinth (1858-1925), an early member of the Berlin Secession. Charlotte sacrificed her own career to support her husband and children, finally joining the Secession in 1912.

The two artists were also serious patrons of German Theater and beginning in 1919, Charlotte drew character studies of various Berlin actors and actresses, including Valeska Gert (1892-1978); Anita Berber (1899-1928); and Fritzi Massary (1882-1969). An undated portfolio of nine characters played by Massary’s husband Max Pallenberg (1877-1934) was probably completed in the early 1920s.

Charlotte Berend-Corinth (1880-1967), Max Pallenberg. Lithographien von Charlotte Berend (Berlin: Oesterheld, no date [ca. 1920]). 9 lithographs. Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process

Fritzi Massari and her husband, Max Pallenberg, sing a duet written by Leo Fall.

The Interior of the Lemercier Lithography Firm

At the center of this rare print, talking to a client, is Joseph Lemercier (1803-1887) the director of the celebrated Paris lithography firm of Lemercier & Cie. Behind him on the main floor are at least thirty lithographic presses, while artists and writers work on the balconies along the sides. Against the walls are cabinets filled with hundreds of Bavarian limestones catalogued and held for reprinting.

Lemercier learned the art of lithography working at Formentin & Cie and then in the shop of Édouard Knecht, a pupil of Aloys Senefelder. He obtained his license as a printer-lithographer in 1828 and moved to 2 rue Pierre Sarrazin with a single lithographic press. From there, Lemercier moved to a larger studio on 55, rue du Four, Saint-Germain, and finally 57, rue de Seine, where he founded the printing company Lemercier et Cie in 1837. His nephew Alfred Léon Lemercier joined the firm and succeeded him until 1901.

Charles Villemin (active 1835-1849) after a design by Victor Adam (1801-1866), Interieur de l’Imprimerie lithographique de Lemercier (Interior of the Lemercier Lithographic Printing House), printed by Lemercier & Cie., no date (ca. 1842). Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GC 077.

See also: Alfred Lemercier, La lithographie Française de 1796 à 1896: et les arts qui s’y rattachent, manuel pratique s’adressant aux artistes et aux imprimeurs (Paris: C. Lorilleux & cie, [1896?]). SAX Oversize NE2349.25 .L453 1896q

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