Category Archives: prints and drawings

prints and drawings

Croquet

Henry Martin (Class of 1948, 1925-2020) Man playing croquet (no date). Graphic Arts Collection GA 2011.00360. Gift of David Reeves, Class of 1948.

 

A simple question about James Tissot’s Croquet drypoint today [see below], led down a rabbit hole to many other croquet references.

According to The Lewis Carroll handbook (1962), Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), wrote Croquêt Castles. For Five Players in May 1863 while the Christ Church Mathematical Lecturer. He was also a founding member of the Overland Mallet Club and an avid croquet player. In Dodgson’s version of the game, each player has two balls, which are maneuvered through eight arches and four pegs. Unlike Alice in Wonderland, players take turns rather than playing simultaneously. More rules can be read here: https://www.spudart.org/chicagocroquet/rules/castle/index.html


This copy of Dodgson’s pamphlet (one folded sheet) is from the Morris L. Parrish library, now at Princeton rather than Oxford, where it was “decided that the items constituted a shrine rather than a comprehensive collection of original artifacts. They turned [Parrish] down, declaring that theirs was an educational institution rather than a museum.” – Alexander Wainwright, “The Morris L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists,” Princeton University Library Chronicle 62, no. 3 (Spring 2001)

 

Croquet achieved enormous popularity in the 1860s, first mentioned at Princeton in 1868 when a student wrote, “Croquet has lately been brought into the campus and become quite fashionable. Games may be seen at any time during the day, surrounded by a little crowd of admiring spectators.” —Nassau Literary Magazine June 1, 1868.

Nassau Literary Magazine June 1, 1870

Daily Princetonian April 30, 2015

The National Croquet Association (NCA), founded in 1879, held its first national tournament in 1882. By April 30, 2015, the Daily Princetonian noted their club was playing in a national tournament.

 

Horace Elisha Scudder (1838-1902), The Game of Croquet: its Appointments and Laws; with descriptive illustrations by R. Fellows [psued.] (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1866). Frontispiece by Augustus Hoppin (1828-1896). Graphic Arts Collection Hamilton 883

 

 

 

In 1936, H.G. Wells (1866-1946) wrote a ghost story called The Croquet Player, illustrated by Harold Jones (1904-1992). Goodreads describes it:
“This allegorical satire about a man fleeing from his evil dreams was written under the influence of the Spanish Civil War. The croquet player, comfortably sipping a vermouth, listens to the strange & terrible tale of the haunted countryside of Cainsmarsh–a horror which broadens & deepens until it embraces the world.as told to a cocktail drinking croquet player.”
Published London: Chatto & Windus, 1936). Ex 3982.95.3275 1936.
 

 

Laterna magica. Magic Lantern. Lanterne Magique ([Germany?] : E. P. [i.e. Ernst Plank], [1900?]). Metal lantern with 12 glass slides, col. ill. Cotsen Children’s Library Opticals 22898.

 

 

James Tissot (1836–1902), Croquet, 1878. Etching and drypoint. Museum purchase, Felton Gibbons Fund (2013-112) Princeton University Art Museum

 

An Outline of Society in Our Own Times


When asked recently whether George Cruikshank’s print “An Outline of Society in Our Own Times,” from his rare four volume Our Own Times (1846), was an etching or a glyphograph, we pulled both of the sets in Graphic Arts, as well as a scrapbook of Cruikshank illustrations. The plate is a glyphograph, one of 34 in the whole book, with a single etching in each volume and 6 woodcuts throughout.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), “An Outline of Society in Our Own Times,” from Our Own Times ([London]: Bradbury & Evans, 1846). No. 1 (Apr. 1846)-no. 4 (July 1846). Graphic Arts Collection Cruik 1846.2

 

How can you tell an etching (intaglio) from a glyphograph (relief)? Look for the absence of a plate mark. On poor or cheap printing, you will also see some ink in the white areas, where the pressure has pushed the paper below the metal relief line.

 

The print features four women, beginning at the top center, personifying Science, Industry, Folly (seen above blowing bubbles), and Crime, with children of the various attitudes surrounding each. Cruikshank was still a heavy drinker in 1845-46—signing a vow of abstinence in 1847—and so the lower portions of society ruled by folly and crime still seems quite appealing.

 

We are fortunate to have a number of scrapbooks holding illustrations, proofs, newspaper clippings, letters, and more Cruikshank material. The one pictured here “Scrapbook of illustrations, 1839-1865” has 394 p. in a half morocco binding 57 x 38 cm. It was a gift from Alex van Rensseler, Class of 1871. The spine lists a few of the books contained inside. Unfortunately the paste used to fix the print to the album page is in many cases eating into the sheet and leaving intrusive marks.

Here are some additional pages from the scrapbook of Cruikshank illustrations.

Note in “The Triumph of Cupid” not only several self portraits of Cruikshank but enslaved European, African, and Middle Eastern men in chains at the bottom of this imaginary scene.

 

Valor y Cambio

The Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a set of bank notes from Valor y Cambio. The directors of the project, Frances Negrón-Muntaner and Sarabel Santos-Negrón, had worked together in a range of projects before but this is their first artistic collaboration.

“Valor y Cambio is a story-telling, community-building, and solidarity economy project started by artist Frances Negrón-Muntaner and visual artist Sarabel Santos Negrón. Started in Puerto Rico amidst the economic crisis and currently [back in Puerto Rico], Valor y Cambio is out to spark a broad conversation about what is a just economy and how to foster collective empowerment in the face of austerity and neoliberal policies locally and nationally.

The project has encouraged participants to consider the question of how a community can create different conceptions of wealth —one that promotes values such as accessible education, a clean environment, creativity, self-governance, solidarity, food security, and gender, labor, and racial equity.” —https://www.valorycambio.org/

The first and only edition of Valor y Cambio features seven people and one community: Puerto Rican athletes, activists, writers, and community members that have acted on their values to enrich peoples’ lives and demonstrated that “change is in your hands” over the last centuries. In the first printing, each peso includes bills in 1, 2, 5, 10, 21, and 25 denominations.

All of the iconic figures that appear on the Puerto Rican pesos experienced the impact of forced migrations in their lifetimes, and several —such as Ramón Emeterio Betances, Julia de Burgos and Luisa Capetillo— share a deep connection to New York City or the Puerto Rican diaspora.

•El peso Maestros Rafael (b. 1790), Celestina (b. 1787) and Gregoria Cordero y Molina (b. 1784), all born in San Juan https://herring-fife-a7xp.squarespace.com/thecorderosiblings

• El peso Ramón Emeterio Betances (b. 1827, Cabo Rojo) https://herring-fife-a7xp.squarespace.com/ramon-e-betances/

• El peso Luisa Capetillo (b. 1879, Arecibo) https://herring-fife-a7xp.squarespace.com/luisacapetillo

• El peso Julia de Burgos (b. 1914, Carolina) https://herring-fife-a7xp.squarespace.com/juliadeburgos

• El peso Roberto Clemente (b. 1934, Carolina) https://herring-fife-a7xp.squarespace.com/robertoclemente

• El peso Caño Martín Peña https://herring-fife-a7xp.squarespace.com/comunidad-cano-de-pena


Who was the first African American musician to perform at Carnegie Hall?

Onward ([Chicago:] W.L. Haskell, 1903). Poster mounted on linen and framed. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process

Reported to be the highest-paid African American performer of the late 19th century, soprano Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones (1868 or 1869–1933) was also the first African American to perform at Carnegie Hall in 1892 (called simply “the Music Hall” at that time). Sometimes billed as Black Patti, as in this 1903 poster titled “Onward,” the reference compares her to the white soprano Adelina Patti (1843-1919), a moniker Jones discouraged.

In 2018, The New York Times gave her an obituary, where she is quoted as saying, “Try to hide my race and deny my own people?” she responded in the interview… “Oh, I would never do that.” She added: “I am proud of belonging to them and would not hide what I am even for an evening.”–https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/obituaries/sissieretta-jones-overlooked.html

This poster promotes Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), alongside Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) with vignettes of prominent African Americans including Jones, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963), Hightower T. Kealing (1859-1918), and Wilford H. Smith (1863-1926). A second version replaces the top and bottom with text listing the achievements of the central men.

The poster is one of many the white Chicago publisher William L. Haskell printed and sold with composites featuring the best poets, best musicians, and so on. Here is an early advertisement:

Between Lincoln and Douglass, a figure of Liberty appears holding a scroll with the motto, “Truth and justice / Shall not fail / Work and wisdom / Shall prevail.” The other scenes include illustrations of the house where Washington was born; a young Douglass learning to read; the log cabin where Lincoln was born; classroom and shop scenes from the historically black Tuskegee University in Alabama, which was co-founded by Washington; and a view of the Tuskegee campus.

 


Here, Carnegie Hall’s Archives and Museum Director Gino Francesconi relates the story of rise and fall of “The Black Patti” and how they came to have a very rare piece of Sissieretta Jones memorabilia on display in the Rose Museum at the Hall.

Liberty Triumphant or The Downfall of Oppression


Attributed to Henry Dawkins (born England, active in New York, 1754-57; Philadelphia, 1757-72?; New York 1772-80), Liberty Triumphant or The Downfall of Oppression, published after December 27, 1773, but before April 1774. Engraving. 275 x 377mm. Purchased with funds given by the Friends of the Princeton University Library. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process

Thanks to the generous support from the Friends of the Princeton University Library, the Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired a remarkable pre-revolutionary war print, entitled Liberty Triumphant or The Downfall of Oppression, significant not only for the history and symbolism but for its excellent provenance. While many American historians focus on 1775 and after in terms of print and propaganda, it was 1773 and 1774 when opinions were more fluid on both sides of the Atlantic that are at once less well-known and deeply interesting.

Our impression of the rare Liberty Triumphant engraving comes from the highly regarded collection of Ambassador J. William Middendorf II (born 1924), which “includes some of the most important documents and works on paper representing the history of the United States from its 17th-century colonial origins through the American Revolution and the Founding Era.” As noted in Barron’s profile “the 96-year-old Middendorf II served as the U.S. ambassador to the European Union from 1985-87, and ambassador to the Netherlands from 1969 to 1973. He also served as the Secretary of the Navy from 1974-77.” He was also a preeminent collector of early Americana with an excellent eye, compelling no less than the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) and the Baltimore Museum of Art to mount a major exhibition in 1967 of his American paintings and historical prints. In 1973, Sotheby’s held a sale of American historical prints, books, broadsides, maps from the collection of Ambassador and Mrs. J. William Middendorf II, but at that time the family retained their favorite pieces, unwilling to give them up, until now.

Henry Dawkins has an important connection with Princeton University. While we know very little about the artist, who immigrated to the American colonies around 1753 and settled in Philadelphia, we know he traveled regularly to New York City on the coach that rested in Princeton, NJ. He worked as assistant to James Turner until 1758, when he opened his own engraving shop. Of special note to Princeton friends is Dawkins’ engraving after William Tennant, A North-West Prospect of Nassau-Hall, with a Front View of the Presidents House, in New-Jersey, published in Samuel Blair’s An account of the College of New-Jersey, 1764. Two original copies, bound and unbound, are held by the Princeton University Library. We also have the rare portrait of his contemporary, the abolitionist Benjamin Lay, printed by Dawkins while both were living in the area. Significant research still needs to be done on this important but little known artist and what better place to focus that research than Princeton University.

 

Finally and most important is the inventive iconography and compelling narrative of this rare political print. The artist’s opposing scenes concern the American resistance, beginning late 1773 and early 1774, to the tea tax and the East India Company monopoly, presumably engraved shortly after the Boston Tea Party but before news arrived of the retaliatory “Intolerable Acts” that would close the Port of Boston. There is no evidence that Dawkins produce it as a magazine illustration or book frontispiece but rather printed it on his own, as one of the few large, separate engravings of the American Revolutionary period.

Each of the historical figures is identified from a key provided at the bottom, including Lord North, Lord Bute, John Kearsley, John Vardill, the Duke of Richmond, and others (18 in all). Interspersed with the living characters are allegorical figures, such as Beelzebub, the Prince of Devils, who whispers to Kearsley, “Speak in favor of ye [the] Scheme Now’s the time to push your fortune” and Kearsley replies “Gov T[ryon] will cram the Tea down the Throat of the New Yorkers.”


Our new Indigenous Studies department at Princeton University will find the depiction of America split equally between transplanted Europeans and Native Americans worth study. Labeled the “Sons of Liberty,” one says “Lead us to Liberty or Death,” printed approximately one year before Patrick Henry made his speech to the Second Virginia Convention proclaiming “Give me liberty or give me death.” The Native Americans are in fact colonists dressed up to look like American Indians, led by a queen rather than a male warrior, reflected above in the Goddess of Liberty, who proclaims “Behold the Ardour of my Sons and let not their brave Actions be buried in Oblivion.”

In his study of the four most important American political prints, including Liberty Triumphant, E.P. Richardson writes:

“Eighteenth-century American political prints are a difficult but fascinating study. They are extremely rare. The men and events depicted are often buried deep beneath onrushing time or, if remembered, are presented in so unfamiliar a perspective as to be hardly recognizable. But this is precisely the print’s importance. They show us how history felt as it happened; not the long chain of events of which we, looking backwards, see only the outcome.”

John William Middendorf II understood the importance of these rare sheets. He had the time and resources to collect some of the rarest and most important works representing the history of the United States from its 17th-century colonial origins through the American Revolution and the Founding Era. Now Princeton students can enjoy some of the same treasures.

Index to Princeton’s Aubudon “Birds”


A Princeton University class is going to be using Princeton University Library’s 4 volume, double elephant copy of the Audubon/Havell Birds of America, (Oversize EX 8880.134.11e), watching as we turn the pages live through a hovercam (placed as high as possible). There was a question about which birds were in which volumes, someone saying that ours were bound slightly different than others. So an index was made to the plates and where they are bound in our set, confirming there are only slight differences with, for instance, Pittsburgh’s online set. Here is the index: PUL Audubon Birds. Volume and plate are obvious. The “No.” is the package that was shipped to subscribers with 5 plates to a package: one huge, one medium, and three small birds all printed on the same size paper.

 

 

While the volumes were open, very quick jpgs were taken of a few thumbnail details. These are not formal or professional but it’s hard to resist. Here are a few examples.

 

 

 

 

 


The Princeton copy “was presented … in 1927 by Alexander van Rensselaer (class of 1871), a charter trustee of the University. It had formerly belonged to Stephen van Rensselaer (Princeton, class of 1808) of Albany, New York, one of the original subscribers to the work. The latter’s name appears as no. 32 in Audubon’s list of subscribers.” — Howard C. Rice, An Aububon Anthology, page 16.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaston or Augustus Fay?

In Early American book illustrators and wood engravers, 1670-1870 and his supplement, Sinclair Hamilton lists a 19th-century wood engraver named Gaston Fay and credits any illustration using the single name “Fay” to Gaston. Yet, New York directories, magazine advertising, and other sources reveal that Augustus Fay had a greater presence in the commercial publishing world of the mid-19th century.

The life dates for Augustus Fay are unknown. He is listed as age 26 in 1850 and 45 in 1870, so he was born in the early 1820s. Throughout his career he is known as both an engraver and a designer, a slighly high position than engraver alone.

Listings here are from Robert Macoy, How to See New York and Its Environs, 1776-1876 (1875) and The Trow City Directory … of New York City (1866 – ), along with an Ancestry census page.

 

 

In the late 1850s or early 1860s, Augustus Fay joined forces with Stephen J. Cox to form Fay & Cox located at 105 Nassau Street in lower Manhattan. Their logo [below] was found in the autobiography of the popular magician and ventriloquist Signor Blitz, published in 1872.

An online biography of True Williams notes that the artist “returned to New York was hired by a graphics firm owned by Augustus Fay and Stephen J. Cox in New York City. It was in fact the first syndicated illustration business in America. The firm produced illustrations and engravings for the subscription publishing companies located in Hartford, Connecticut.”– https://histclo.com/art/illus/ind/i-will.html

Below is a partial list of books with illustrations provided by the company of Fay & Cox, including several suggesting they were written and published by the company. Another two dozen or so, not listed here, were illustrated by Augustus Fay individually. This puts into question Sinclair Hamilton’s suggestion that any mention of the name Fay should be attributed to Gaston.

 

The New world in 1859: being the United States and Canada, illustrated and described in five parts … by Thomas Wightman; John William Orr; John Andrew; …; Fay & Cox… (London ; New York: H. Bailliere, 1859).

The J.L. Mott Iron Works. St. George Building, 90 Beekman Street, New York by Fay & Cox ([between 1860 and 1880])

The miner boy and his Monitor, or, The career and achievements of John Ericsson, the engineer by P C Headley; William Henry Appleton; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865, ©1864).

The hero boy, or, The life and deeds of Lieut-Gen. Grant by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1864).

Life and naval career of Vice-admiral David Glascoe Farragut by P C Headley; William Henry Appleton; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865).

The patriot boy, or, The life and career of Major-General Ormsby M. Mitchel by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (New York: William H. Appleton, 1865. ©1864)

Old salamander: the life and naval career of Admiral David Glascoe [sic] Farragut by P C Headley; Fay & Cox (Boston: Lee and Shepard ; New York: Charles T. Dillingham, ©1865).

A youth’s history of the great Civil War in the United States from 1861 to 1865 by R G Horton; Fay & Cox.; Van Evrie, Horton & Co.; Smith & McDougal (New York: Van Evrie, Horton & Co., 1867, ©1866)

Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley; Moses Woodruff Dodd; Fay & Cox… (New York: M.W. Dodd, 605 Broadway, 1867).

Percy’s year of rhymes; Fay & Cox ([Cambridge, Mass.]: Riverside Press ; New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867, ©1866)

Paul and Virginia by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre; Augustus Hoppin; Fay & Cox (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867).

Pebbles and pearls for the young folks by Abby Sage Richardson; Edwin Forbes; H L Stephens; George G White; Henry Walker Herrick; Arthur Lumley; A C Warren;…; Fay & Cox (Hartford, Conn.: American Pub. Co. ; New York: Bliss and Co. 1868, ©1867).

Angel-dreams: a series of tales for children by Austin Carroll; Fay & Cox (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 1869).

Onward: a magazine for the young manhood of America by Charles L Schönberg; David L Schönberg; Arthur Lumley; Fay & Cox (New York: [Mayne Reid], [1869-70])

Impressions of Spain by Mary Elizabeth Herbert Herbert, Baroness; Fay & Cox (New York: Catholic Publication Society, 126 Nassau Street, 1869)

Beyond the Mississippi … by Albert D Richardson; Frank Beard; James Carter Beard; Joseph Becker; Albert Bierstadt …; William Warzbach; Carelton E Watkins; Alfred R Waud; Fay & Cox… (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, ©1869).

Views of Native Americans by C Sohon; John Mix Stanley; N Fay; A W Warren; Bowen & Co.; Sarony, Major & Knapp.; Fay & Cox (approximately 1850-ca. 1870).

Roughing it by Mark Twain; True Williams; James H Richardson; Duffield Ashmead; …; Fay & Cox (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, 1871).

Struggles and triumphs, or, Forty years’ recollections by P T Barnum; George Edward Perine; Fay & Cox (Buffalo: Warren, Johnson & Co., 1872, ©1871).

Life and adventures of Signor Blitz; being an account of the author’s professional life; his wonderful tricks and feats… by Antonio Blitz (Hartford, Conn., T. Belknap, 1872.

Wood’s illustrated hand-book to New York and environs ... by Fay & Cox (New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1873).

The adventures of the Bodley family by Horace Elisha Scudder; S B Barrett; Charles Whittingham; John J Harley; J Augustus Bogert; John Andrew; James L Langridge; Henry Walker Herrick; Felix Octavius Carr Darley; Thomas Nast; William J Pierce; Chiswick Press.; Fay & Cox (London: S.B. Barrett, 1876, ©1875).

Doings of the Bodley family in town and country by Horace Elisha Scudder; Henry Walker Herrick; Felix Octavius Carr Darley; Thomas Nast …; Annette Bishop; Fay & Cox… (Boston: Houghton, Osgood and Co., 1879).

. . . This otherness, this “Not-being-us”


In one small corner of the world, both the poem Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror by John Ashbery (1927-2017) and the Arion Press limited edition of Mirror, published in 1984 on the poem’s ten-year anniversary, are so well-known that some would find it shocking that Princeton University would not have already acquired them both. This has been rectified with the recent acquisition of the limited edition with its circular prints by Larry Rivers (1923-2002), Alex Katz (born 1927), Jane Freilicher (1924-2014), Jim Dine (born 1935), Willem de Kooning (1904-1997), R.B. Kitaj (1932-2007), Elaine de Kooning (1920-1989), and Richard Avedon (1923-2004).

The stainless steel pseudo-film canister binding with a cover convex mirror opens to reveal Ashbery’s lines radiating outward like the spokes of a wheel twirling as they are read. Each artist’s contribution is unique, printed as lithographs, woodcut, soft ground etching with aquatint tone, photogravure, and photolithographs on cream wove handmade Twinrocker Mill paper.

Princeton’s reading room will need to also acquire a 20th century record player to facilitate listening to the 33 1/2 rpm recording of Ashbery reading his poem but happily the foreword and essay by Helen Vendler (born 1933) is printed text, designed as liner notes. The record jacket reproduces the original reference for Ashbery’s poem, Francesco Parmigianino’s 1523-24 painting of the same name [below].

 

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Dozens of scholarly essays have been written about this poem and the corresponding publication, including one recently presented at the Gagosian Chelsea gallery: https://gagosian.com/quarterly/2019/01/22/books-john-ashbery-self-portrait-convex-mirror/. Best to simply let Ashbery say a few words:

As Parmigianino did it, the right hand
Bigger than the head, thrust at the viewer
And swerving easily away, as though to protect
What it advertises. A few leaded panes, old beams,
Fur, pleated muslin, a coral ring run together
In a movement supporting the face, which swims
Toward and away like the hand
Except that it is in repose. It is what is
Sequestered. Vasari says, “Francesco one day set himself
To take his own portrait, looking at himself from that purpose
In a convex mirror, such as is used by barbers . . .

…For one to intervene? This otherness, this
“Not-being-us” is all there is to look at
In the mirror, though no one can say
How it came to be this way. A ship
Flying unknown colors has entered the harbor.
You are allowing extraneous matters
To break up your day, cloud the focus
Of the crystal ball. Its scene drifts away
Like vapor scattered on the wind. The fertile
Thought-associations that until now came
So easily, appear no more, or rarely. Their
Colorings are less intense, washed out
By autumn rains and winds, spoiled, muddied,
Given back to you because they are worthless.

 

See also: John Ashbery (1927-2017), Self-portrait in a convex mirror: poems (New York: Viking Press, 1975). Rare Books PS3501.S475 S4

 

Japanese sketches donated



Six nineteenth-century pen and ink sketches, drawn on five sheets by an unidentified Japanese artist, were generously donated to the Graphic Arts Collection by Alfred Bush, former curator of the Princeton Collections of Western Americana.

While they are unsigned, a potential attribution has been suggested comparing the lines to those of Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865), also known as Utagawa Toyokuni III. Similar preparatory drawings (shita-e) can be found in the collection with the artist seal (Permanent Link https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/10643023).

Note the second drawings of the face pasted on top of the first and the elaborate tattoos on this running warrior.

This gift comes at the same time as the sad news that Yoshiaki Shimizu, the Marquand Professor of Art and Archaeology, Emeritus, and a renowned scholar of Japanese art history, curator and Princeton graduate alumnus, died on January 20, 2021, of lung cancer at home in Portland, Oregon. He was 84. A remembrance is written by Jamie Saxon, Office of Communications, at https://www.princeton.edu/news/2021/02/12/yoshiaki-shimizu-distinguished-scholar-who-transformed-study-japanese-art-and

Professor Shimizu was a close colleague of Gillett Griffin (1928-2016), former curator of Graphic Arts, and a number of Japanese prints came to our collection over the years thanks to their association.

Claridad = Clarity


In a joint acquisition between Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Studies and the Graphic Arts Collection, Princeton University Library recently acquired the first 98 issues (out of 140) of Claridad, a periodical published by the Federación de Estudiantes de Chile from 1920 to 1932. A key publication of anarchist and other radical inclinations, Claridad includes contributions by labor leaders, social activists, artists, and writers (including many by Pablo Neruda) of the period. HTML text can be downloaded here,  https://claridad.uchile.cl/index.php/CLR/issue/archive, but no US library holds the graphic paper copies except Princeton.

The National Library of Chile posted a long description, quoted here in part and roughly translated into English:

Claridad magazine was the organ of the Chilean Student Federation and the medium of the so-called “generation of twenties”, founded by Alberto Rojas Jiménez (1900-1934), Raúl Silva Castro (1903-1970) and the Ecuadorian Rafael Yépez, in October 1920. Defined as a “doctrinal, combat and barricade” magazine, it was a wide space for the exchange of ideas from different ideological currents, although with more proximity to anarchist thought (Ossandón, Carlos and Santa Cruz, Eduardo. The outbreak of forms: Chile at the dawn of “mass culture.” [Online HathiTrust Emergency Temporary Access, PN5047.P4 O87 2005]).


…At the time of Claridad‘s appearance, the Student Federation was influenced by ideological currents such as Americanism, internationalism, anti-militarism and pacifism, which were reflected in the magazine and remained as axes of the medium until 1932. The magazine emerged at a time when, in different parts of the world, intellectuals echoed the call of the French group Clarté to establish an “international network of thought”, with a pacifist and anti-militarist tendency.

The Claridad group took up this call, which led to the publication of the publication in the midst of a national climate of political tension. The students of the Federation were in the process of criticizing the government of Juan Luis Sanfuentes (1858-1930) for the political persecution to which they were subjected. Such persecution took place after a group of protesters stormed the association’s headquarters, arguing that the federated students were unpatriotic for not supporting the government’s decision to mobilize military troops to the north of the country, in the context of the prolonged border conflict between Chile and Peru.

…In Claridad a heterogeneous group of Chilean and foreign intellectuals and labor leaders converged, as well as writers and artists, among whom stood out such figures as Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), Luis Vargas Rosas, Tótila Albert (1892-1967), Manuel Rojas (1896 -1973) and Isaías Cabezón (1891-1963). In this sense, the magazine expressed interest in the renewal movements in the field of art and literature, which was one of its main axes during its first year of publication.

…In 1926, Claridad stopped being published due to the restriction suffered by anarchist publications during the dictatorship of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (1877-1960). In its reappearance, between August 1931 and January 1932, it continued to be influenced by anarchist and pacifist ideas, but with a new axis that crossed the five issues of this second period: criticism of the military government of Ibáñez. Despite the intentions of continuity that were manifested in issue 140, the magazine abruptly ceased publication, dedicating this issue to one of its main editors and who for many issues was in charge of the section “Today’s poster” that was published on the cover of the magazine, Juan Gandulfo Guerra (1895-1931), who died in December 1931.

Claridad: órgano oficial de la Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile (Santiago: Federación de Estudiantes de la Universidad de Chile, 1921-1932). Printed on multi-colored papers. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2021- in process