John Brandard, 1812-1863, Harlequin Quadrilles [sheet music cover], no date. Chromolithograph. GC106 British Prints Collection, From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. Signed on stone, l.c.: “J. Brandard”. Signed in plate, l.l.: “J. Brandard del et lith”. GA 2012.02549

In searching for a harlequin figure today, it surprised us how many variations we hold. Here are only a few.
Maurice Sand, 1823-1889, Untitled [Arlechino], n.d. [1858]. Etching with hand coloring. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. GA 2012.02732

Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (1758-1823) after Sebastien Coeure (1778-after 1831), Dominique, no date. Stipple engraving. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. Full-length portrait of Dominique Biancolelli (1640-1688) as Harlequin, Inscribed in plate, above: “Galerie Theatrale. 20me. Lon.” GAX 2012.02561

Eberhard Danzer, Harlekin, 1970. Linocut. GC018 German Prints Collection

George Wood Conetta, (1881-1956), Mr. Ellar as Harlequin [restrike], May 1, 1903. Chromolithograph. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. GA 2012.02553

Don Freeman (1908-1978), First Nighters’ Intermission, 1932. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

Graphic Arts isn’t the only department in RBSC to collection prints. The Theater Collection added the portfolio titled Don Freeman Lithographs 1931-1938, which includes five lithographs with theatrical themes.

Don Freeman (1908-1978) financed his art education by playing trumpet in jazz clubs and then, acted in at least one Broadway production, as the cornet-playing son in William Saroyan’s The Beautiful People (a part written specifically for Freeman). During the 1930s, he drew a number of lithographs featuring scenes around the theater, both in front and behind the curtain.

In the print at the top, First Nighters’ Intermission, we can recognize many prominent New Yorkers outside a Broadway theater, including Mayor Jimmy Walker, Otto Kahn, Heywood Broun, Robert Benchley, and Clifton Webb.

Don Freeman (1908-1978), Self-Portrait, 1939. Lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2007.01302

Don Freeman (1908-1978), Dress Rehearsal, Of Thee I Sing, 1931, Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

At the rehearsal seen above for Of Thee I Sing, we can recognize George Gershwin conducting, George S. Kaufman and Marc Connolly, producer Sam H. Harris (with his feet up), and designer Jo Meilziner on the intercom.

Don Freeman (1908-1978), On the Fly Rail, 1934. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

Don Freeman (1908-1978), Casting for Characters, 1934. Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

Don Freeman (1908-1978), Mums the Word, 1938? Lithograph. Theater Collection TC016

Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757-1827), The High Mettled Racer ([London: S.W. Fores, 1789]). Four hand colored aquatints. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize 2012-0010E

The comic opera, Liberty-Hall: or, a Test of Good Fellowship, written by Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), was first performed at the Theatre-Royal in London’s Drury-Lane on February 8, 1785. One of the highlights was a song titled “Highmettled Racer.” Four years later, Thomas Rowlandson drew four scenes incorporating that song’s lyrics and published them with Samuel Fores on July 20, 1789. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to have both the colored set and a single aquatinted plate.

The High Mettled Racer as a Race Horse. See the Course thronged with Gazers, the Sports are begun, The confusion, but hear, I bet you Sir, done, done. Ten thousand strange murmurs resound far and near, Lords, Hawkers and Jockies, assail the tired ear. While with neck like a Rainbow, erecting his crest, Pamper’d, prancing and pleas’d, his head touching his breast, Scarce snuftling the Air, so proud and elate, The high mettled Racer first starts for the Plate.

The High Mettled Racer as a Hunter. Now Reynard’s turn’d out and o’er hedge and ditch rush ‘Dogs, Horses and Huntsmen, all hard at his Brush, Through Marsh, hedge and brier, led by their sly prey, They by scent and by view, cheat a long tedious day, While alike born for sports of the field and the course, Always sure to come through a staunch and Fleet Horse, When fairly rundown, the Fox yields up his breath, The high mettled Racer is in at the death.

The High Mettled Racer as a Hack Horse. Grown aged, used up and turn’d out of the stud, Lame, spavin’d and windgalled, but yet with some blood, While knowing postillions his pedigree trace, Tell his Dam won this sweepstakes, his Sire that race, And what matches he won, to the Ostlers count o’er, As they loiter their time at some hedge ale house door, While the harness sore galls, and the spurs his sides goad. The high mettled Racer’s a hack on the road.

The High Mettled Racer as a Cart Horse. Till at last having labour’d, drudg’d early and late, Bow’d down by degrees, he bends on to his fate, Blind, old, lean and feeble, he tugs ’round a mill, Or draws sand, till the sand of his hour glass stands still. And now, cold and lifeless, exposed to the view, In the very same cart which he yesterday drew, While a pitying crowd his sad relicks surround, The high mettled Racer is sold to the hounds.
Thomas Rowlandson (1756 or 1757-1827), The High Mettled Racer, July 20, 1789. Aquatinted by T. Hassall. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895. GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection

Charles Dibdin (1745-1814), The High Mettled Racer ([London]: Sold by C. Sheppard, no. 19 Lambeth Hill, Doctors Commons; sold by J. Pitts, Great St., Andrew St., [ca. 1800]). 1 sheet, One of the songs from Charles Dibdin’s ’Liberty Hall’, first presented in February 1785 at Drury Lane. Rare Books (Ex) 2014- in process

Richard S. Kinsey, Alphabet, 1981. Chrysography on vellum. GC084 Calligraphy, Alphabets, and Penmanship Collection.

Richard Kinsey presented this alphabet lettered in burnished gold (chrysography) to the graphic arts collection in honor of an exhibition and catalogue on American Graphic Arts at Princeton University in 1981. The 26 letters are followed by a verse by philosopher David Hume (1711-1776), however not exactly from “Of Tragedy” as noted.
According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Despite his resignation from the Advocates’ Library and the success of his History, Hume’s work continued to be surrounded by controversy. In 1755, he was ready to publish a volume that included The Natural History of Religion and A Dissertation on the Passions as well as the essays “Of Suicide” and “Of the Immortality of the Soul.”

When his publisher, Andrew Millar, was threatened with legal action through the machinations of the minor theologian, William Warburton, Hume suppressed the offensive essays, substituting “Of Tragedy” and “Of the Standard of Taste” to round out his Four Dissertations, which was finally published in 1757.”

Our quote comes from “Of the Standard of Taste,” in a general form. The complete section reads: “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty. One person may even perceive deformity, where another is sensible of beauty; and every individual ought to acquiesce in his own sentiment, without pretending to regulate those of others.” (Hume 1757, 136)

David Hume (1711-1776), Four dissertations (London: Printed for A. Millar, 1757). Rare Books (Ex) 6100.335

“Two cases in the gallery are devoted to Fanny Elssler, the Austrian ballerina who brought the romantic ballet to the United States in 1840,” wrote Mary Ann Jensen, describing a Firestone Library exhibition Let Joy Be Unconfined: Three Centuries of Ballet. “Americans had seen dancers before, but never anything like Elssler’s performances. A contemporary caricature by F.O.C. Darley, the gift of Sinclair Hamilton, depicts Elssler dancing across America with its inhabitants at her feet. Alas, ‘Modesty’ is shown weeping in the lower corner!”

Mary Ann Jensen, former curator of the Seymour Theatre Collection in Firestone, died Tuesday, March 04, 2014. Jensen’s funeral and celebration of life will be at All Saints Episcopal Church in Princeton, New Jersey on Thursday, March 13th at 11:00 AM, with the Right Reverend William “Chip” Stokes as Officiant and Celebrant.

She leaves behind a wonderful collection of theater, dance, and performance that continues to inspire students and researchers–this drawing was called to the reading room today!

Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1821-1888), Fanny Elssler, 1840-1842. Ink wash. GC007 F.O.C. Darley Collection. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton, Class of 1906.

See also Mary Ann Jensen, “New and Notable,” Princeton University Library Chronicle 41, no. 3 (spring 1980).

“Although George Washington never attended any college,” writes Donald Egbert, “in many ways he had particularly close relations with the College of New Jersey, as Princeton University was known.” In 1783, trustees of the College commissioned a portrait of Washington by the Philadelphia painter Charles Wilson Peale, which was hung in Nassau Hall.

To celebrate the University’s bicentennial year, a large print was editioned after the Peale painting. The process began with the enormous canvas being carried outside to the lawn in front of Nassau Hall, so that it could be photographed in direct sunlight. Ira Martin, photographer of the Frick reference library, was brought down to Princeton to make the photographic negative. Then, 500 black and white collotype positives were printed by the Meriden Gravure Company.

To add the correct color, twenty-six stencils were designed by the twin sisters and pochoir specialists Kate and Martha Berrien, working in their Greenwich Village studio. Each individual stencil was used to hand paint one layer of watercolor over the collotype until Peale’s original was reproduced exactly. Copies of the final print were given to select donors and alumni throughout 1946 and today, only a few copies remain in the Graphic Arts Collection.

Egbert’s article on the making of this facsimile was published in the Princeton University Library Chronicle 8, no 2 (February 1947): http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_8_n_2.pdf

Henry S. Sadd, after a painting by Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-1884), The Spirit of 76, 1862 Steel engraving. Published by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Graphic Arts Collection GA2008.00276

“The largest wood engraving ever printed in the world.” This was the declaration made about Tompkins Harrison Matteson’s “Storming of the Castle of Chapultepec,” featured in the July 4, 1848 Jubilee issue of Brother Jonathan, a mammoth double sheet pictorial newspaper. The single image was “made from several hundred blocks of imported East Indian boxwood and measured twenty-two by forty-four inches,” according to Robert Walter Johannsen’s To the Halls of the Montezumas (1985).

It wasn’t the artist’s first brush with fame. Matteson opened a painting studio in New York City during the 1840s and within a few years, sold his first painting, The Spirit of ’76, to the American Art Union, establishing his career. His personal idiosyncrasies brought him additional notoriety, such as his fondness for wearing an unusual steeple-crowned hat and short mantel, which led to the nickname the Pilgrim-Painter.

Matteson’s success with the American Art Union prompted the 1847 painting of the interior of the Tabernacle, an enormous Congregational Church on lower Broadway, where the Union’s annual prizes were announced and distributed (see below).

By 1850, Matteson tired of New York and moved upstate to Sherburne, New York. He married, raised a large family, and became an active member of the community, serving as President of the School Board, Representative to the State Legislature, and the local Fire Chief, while also painting

The prolific artist used a limited number of models for these patriotic scenes. Note the central figure of Major Andre in his wood engraving for The Illustrated News. Then, compare it to the face of the father in The Spirit of ’76 above, to see if you find a similarity in his features. This may be a self portrait of Matteson.

Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-1884), Illustrated News! [prospectus], n.d. [1852]. [New York: Published by P.T. Barnum, Henry D. Beach, and Alfred E. Beach]. Wood engravings, Letterpress printing. GC179 Broadsides Collection GA 2012.02800.

The graphic arts collection is fortunate to own examples from each decade of the artist’s lengthy career in single sheet prints, bound in books, and reproduced in newspapers. Here are a few of the books he illustrated:

William Adams (1814-1848), The Cherry Stones, or, Charlton School: a Tale for Youth . . . with engravings executed by Bobbett and Edmonds, from designs by Matteson (New York: General Protestant Episcopal S. S. Union and Church Book Society, Daniel Dana, Jr. agent, 1851). Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1025

William Cutter (1801-1867), The Life of General Lafayette (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother, [1849]). Frontispiece and illustrations by T. H. Matteson, engraved on wood by Alexander Anderson. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1023.

Orville Luther Holley (1791-1861), The Life of Benjamin Franklin (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother, publishers and booksellers, 323 Pearl street, [1848]). 19 wood engravings and a portrait of Franklin by Alexander Anderson; title page cut designed by T. H. Matteson. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton.

Benson John Lossing (1813-1891), A memorial of Alexander Anderson, M. D., the first engraver on wood in America (New York: Printed for the subscribers, 1872). Illustrations by T. H. Matteson and John Wesley Jarvis. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection GAX Hamilton 357q.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The complete works of William Shakespeare . . . illustrations engraved on wood . . . from new and original designs by T. H. Matteson (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother [1851?]). Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1026

William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), The life of Nathanael Greene (New York: George F. Cooledge & Brother, [1849]). Illustrations by T. H. Matteson, engraved on wood by A. Anderson. Gift of Sinclair Hamilton. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 339

Jane Taylor, Primary lessons in physiology for children (New York: Published by George F. Cooledge & Brother, 1848). Illustrations by Alexander Anderson and Tompkins Harrison Matteson. Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Eng 19 28481

The illustrated primer, or, Child’s first book (New York: Published by George F. Cooledge & Brother, [ca. 1858]). Illustrations by Tompkins Harrison Matteson and Alexander Anderson. Cotsen Children’s Library (CTSN) Pams / Eng 19 / Box 070 12264

The Odd-fellows’ offering (New York: Samuel A. House & Co. , [1843-1853]). Illustrations by T. H. Matteson, engraved on steel by Rice & Buttre and B. J. Lossing. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2003-0005M and Hamilton 1830

Francis D’Avignon (born 1813) after a painting by Tompkins Harrison Matteson (1813-1884), Distribution of the American Art-Union Prizes at the Tabernacle, Broadway, New York, 24 December, 1847. Lithograph. New York : John T. Ridner; 497 Broadway, Art Union Building. GC024 American Prints Collection.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910), Skating on Central Park, New York, 1861. Color lithograph printed and published by J. H. Bufford & Company in Boston. Gift of Mavis and Mary Kelsey. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2008.00285

The skating pond in Central Park opened to the public on December 19, 1858 and by Christmas Day, a reported 50,000 people came to the park, most of them to skate. Not long after this, the artist Winslow Homer moved from Boston to New York and began designing scenes for illustrated newspaper Harper’s Weekly. The skating pond was a natural subject

Skating on the Ladies’ Skating Pond in Central Park, New York was drawn on a woodblock that was then cut apart, engraved, reassembled and printed as the centerfold in the January 28, 1860 issue of Harper’s Weekly. The scene documents the fact that there were two distinct skating areas, the rowdy one for men and a calmer one for ladies (and men who accompanied them).

Homer immediately went to work on a variation of the scene, done in watercolor, called Skating on the Central Park, which became the first work he was invited to exhibit in New York at the National Academy of Design. The painting was so popular that the Boston master lithographer John Bufford (1844–1851), arranged to reproduce it as a color lithograph, publishing the print in 1861.

Note the young boy in the center foreground of each scene. In the first he struggles to skate, blending into the rest of the skaters on the ice. In the second work, the boy has just fallen, creating a more active moment that immediately catches your eye.

Harper’s Weekly. New York: Harper’s Magazine Co., 1857-1916. Annex A, Forrestal Oversize 0901.H299f, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 3, 1857)-v. 62 (Apr. 29, 1916)

In 1893, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901) was commissioned to illustrate five poems by Jean Goudezki (1866-1934, born Edward Goudez). The poetry was then set to music by Désiré Dihau (1835-1909), a classical bassoonist who was also Lautrec’s cousin.

The first state of each lithograph was published without text by Edouard Kleinmann in an edition of 100. Goudezki called the series Les Vieilles Histoires (The Old Stories) and thanks to the Ruth Ivor Foundation, the Graphic Arts Collection recently acquired the first state of no. 5 in that series, Ta Bouche (Your Mouth).

Each design was later transferred to a new stone and printed by Joly-Crevel Freres Successeurs together with text, so that it could be used as a decorative cover to printed sheet music. Additional color also added.

(c) Cleveland Museum of Art

The full portfolio included a cover by Lautrec and ten poems, five with illustrations. In the case of Ta bouche, the added text read: A Monsieur Yvain de l’Eden-Concert, Les Vieilles Histoires, Poésies de Jean Goudezki… Ta bouche….  The set is often listed as Collection Jean Goudezki, avec musique de Désiré Dihau. Les vieilles Histoires, 1893.

For more information, see  Götz Adriani, Toulouse-Lautrec, the complete graphic works: the Gerstenberg Collection: a catalogue raisonné (London: Thames and Hudson, 1988): 60. Marquand Library (SA) Oversize ND553.T6 A3713q

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901), Ta bouche, from the series Les vieilles histoires. 1893. Lithograph. Edition of 100. Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2014- in process. Gift of the Ruth Ivor Foundation.