Walter Biggs

“The Advance Guard of the Feast” was painted by Walter Biggs (1886-1968) for the December 21, 1912 issue of Harper’s Weekly. The art, printed on p. 24, wasn’t included as an illustration for a short story but as a gift from Harper‘s to its readers, referencing the upcoming Christmas holiday. The original painting is in the Graphic Arts Collection but the image had to be heavily PhotoShopped so that the figures can be seen. Even the digital reproduction of the magazine page [below] is difficult to make out. When the work was painted, the twenty-six year old Biggs had finished his classes at the New York School of Art and was making a career as an illustrator. Beginning in 1912, he became a regular contributor to Harper’s Weekly, along with Century Illustrated, McClure’s, Lady’s Home Journal, and many of the other illustrated magazines.

“Biggs began achieving commercial success in 1905, when his illustrations appeared on the covers of Young’s Magazine in January and Field and Stream in July. After completing his formal art studies he rented a small studio and worked on a variety of projects. His early assignments included illustrations for a story in the McClure’s Magazine of October 1908, a color frontispiece for Myrtle Reed’s novel Old Rose and Silver (1909), and drawings for Belle Bushnell’s John Arrowsmith—Planter (1910).

In May 1912 he illustrated a story in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, launching a twelve-year relationship as a contributor to that magazine. In 1913 Biggs’s illustrations appeared in the January issue of the Delineator, in Kate Langley Bosher’s novel The House of Happiness, and in The Land of the Spirit, a collection of short stories by Thomas Nelson Page.

He illustrated a series of stories by Armistead Churchill Gordon that appeared in Scribner’s from 1914 to 1916 and were also published as Ommirandy: Plantation Life at Kingsmill (1917). In 1918 he illustrated a story by Alice Hegan Rice for the Century. Many of those illustrations were set in the American South, and Biggs won praise during his career for his sympathetic portrayals of African American life.”–Encyclopedia of Virginia.

Princeton University Library Research Grants

Thanks to the assistance of the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS), filmmakers Gustavo Pérez and Oneyda González visited Princeton in May 2015 on a Princeton University Library research grant to explore our holdings on the Cuban artist and writer, Severo Sarduy (1937-1993).

A year later, their documentary on Sarduy is almost finished and González returned to Princeton to give us a preview of the film.

Professor Rubén Gallo and the students in SPA 548, Modern Spanish-American Literature, hosted the lunchtime screening and discussion with the filmmaker. Much like Pérez and González, the students have spent this semester exploring the methodology of archival research, focusing on the papers of Latin American writers housed at Firestone Library and recent Sarduy acquisitions in particular.

While the film is not ready for public distribution, a trailer for the documentary has been posted on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/z2ofDfyM7Zs .

Additional information can be found at: https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2015/05/08/severo-sarduy/

Each year, the Friends of the Princeton University Library offer short-term Library Research Grants to promote scholarly use of the research collections. These Library Research Grants, which have a value of up to $3,500 each, are meant to help defray expenses incurred in traveling to and residing in Princeton during the tenure of the grant. The length of the grant will depend on the applicant’s research proposal, but is ordinarily up to one month. Library Research Grants awarded in this academic year are tenable from May 2016 to April 2017. For more information, see http://rbsc.princeton.edu/friends-princeton-university-library-research-grants

Kamel Ouidi, Portrait of Severo Sarduy, ca. 1980. Gelatin silver print. Graphic Arts Collection

19th-century woodblock printed wallpaper

The Graphic Arts Collection holds two sheets of woodblock printed wallpaper from the 19^th century, both attributed to Zuber & Cie, the French manufacture de papier peints et tissus (Manufacturer of Painted Wallpaper and Fabrics). http://www.zuber.fr/ancien_site/english/menu_photo.html. Located in Rixheim, France, Zuber & Cie continues to design and print landscapes and genre views from locations around the world, so it is not surprising to see these American scenes produced in France.

We are fortunate to have an eight-foot section of French wallpaper from the panorama entitled Les vues de l’Amérique du nord. The scene required 1,690 different woodblocks and 223 colors when it was designed and first printed in 1834. One set of the complete print can be found in Washington D.C., where it “became one of the most publicized of wallpapers during the 1960s when Jacqueline Kennedy had a set, which had been taken form the Stoner house in Thurmont, Maryland, [and] put up in the White House.” (Wallpaper in America by Catherine Lynn, Graphic Arts Collection GA NK3412. L9 1980)

On the second, smaller sheet in the Graphic Arts Collection, we believe the Bunker Hill monument and the Boston State House are visible indicating the view is from Charlestown, Massachusetts, looking across the Boston harbor.

Zuber & Cie [attributed to], [One section from “Les vues de l’Amérique du nord”], no date [1834]. 97 inches long. Woodblock printed wallpaper. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2012.01732. Gift of Stuart Feld, Class of 1957.
Four sections from Les vues de l’Amérique du nord

Bunker Hill monument and the Boston State House.
Zuber & Cie [attributed to], View of Boston Harbor and the Bunker Hill Monument from Charlestown, Massachusetts, no date. Woodblock printed wallpaper. Graphic Arts Collection GC023. Gift of Leonard L. Milberg, Class of 1953.

Isla Cuba Pintoresca

The French-born artist Eduardo Laplante (1818-after 1860) moved to Cuba around 1848, where he established the first commercial lithography studio. Together with Leonardo Barañano, he drew and then printed both urban and rural landscapes of the Caribbean. The Graphic Arts Collection holds seven lithographs in the series Isla Cuba Pintoresca, including Cardenas, Cienfuegos, El Valle del Yumeri. Havana, Puerto-Principe, Santiago de Cuba and Trinidad.

Laplante liked to insert himself into his scenes. Here are two examples (above and below) showing the artist sketching but he can also be found on horseback exploring the vegetation and architecture of the islands, searching for the best scenes to capture.

See also Justo Germán Cantero, Los ingenios ([Madrid]: CEDEX-CEHOPU: Doce Calles: Fundación MAPFRE Tavera: CSIC, [2005]). RECAP Oversize TP378 .C22 2005q

Portrait of David Aiken Reed, Class of 1900 (1880-1953)

Eric Pape (1870-1938), Senator David Aiken Reed, 1929. Crayon on manila paper. Graphic Arts Collection GA 2006.02470.

The week is ending on a high note, with the identified of a previously unidentified drawing. This portrait by Eric Pape depicts Senator David Aiken Reed and was published in the Sunday magazine section of the New York Herald Tribune, June 23, 1929. Our sincere thanks to Greg Conn, who is working on Pape and made this identification today.

David Aiken Reed, Class of 1900 (1880-1953), was a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1922 to 1935, serving as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, as well as a member of Finance, Foreign Affair and Immigration Committees. He was also part of the United States delegation to the London Naval Conference of 1930. Reed received an Honorary LL.D. degree from Princeton University in 1925.

Besides his work as a painter and illustrator, Pape established a School of Art together with his wife near their home in Boston. Note, they offered nude and costumed models five nights each week. Additional biographical information can be found at: http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/pape.htm

My Awful Experience with a Whistler

George H. Snazelle (1848–1912) was an actor and baritone who developed a one-man entertainment with which he toured Britain, the United States and Australia. Known as the Great Snazelle, his nick-name may have been the origin of the word snazzy.

In the script of his second comic monologue, Snazelle discusses a friend who spoke with a whistle. The video below plays an recording of Snazelle performing a similar yarn.

G.H. Snazelle, My awful experience with a whistler as told by G.H. Snazelle (New York: S. French ; London (26 Southampton St.) : S. French, Ltd., [ca. 1898]). Rare Books: Theatre Collection (ThX) TC023 Box 147

Edison Bell VF 1071. Adam Ramet Music Collection

The Lady of the Lake Photographed

Same author, same publisher, same photographer, and only three years apart but very different books. A recent acquisition helps to demonstrate how many photographically illustrated publications vary enormously from one to another. The negatives were created and hundreds of positive prints pasted into the volumes with little or no consistency. In the case of this book, the negatives may have been discarded or worn out and so, new photographs were taken of the same landmark views.

Wilson employed thirty assistants who were constantly printing, tinting, mounting and filling orders while Wilson traveled throughout Great Britain capturing picturesque views. His business flourished for more than twenty years, leaving dozens, if not hundreds, of variant editions of his books.

Walter Scott (1771-1832), The Lady of the Lake; with all his introductions, various readings, and the editor’s notes ; illustrated by numerous engravings on wood from drawings by Birket Foster and John Gilbert. Author’s ed. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1869). Ten albumen silver prints by George Washington Wilson (1825-1893). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) TR647.W546 S36

Walter Scott (1771-1832), The Lady of the Lake (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, [1866]). Eleven albumen prints by George Washington Wilson (1825-1893). Graphic Arts Collection GAX in process

“Perhaps there is not another name among the galaxy of bright stars in the photographic firmament that shines more brightly than that of George Washington Wilson, of Aberdeen, Scotland. Like the wise men of the East, have the photographic fraternity watched the brilliant effects which radiate from this photographic star. . . Mr. Wilson commenced his photographic career some twenty years ago. His first experience in connection with the art was in painting or coloring miniatures on ivory and paper. While engaged in this class of artistic labor he became greatly enamored with the photographic art. It dawned upon him one day that he must either advance with the tide or get drowned in the flood of photography, which was swelling up in the distance.”

“Another season he concluded to try his skill in the production of instantaneous views, and with this purport in view he lodged for a month or two, near one of those beautiful small lakes, which abound in Scotland, watching and waiting for a favorable opportunity, and whenever a prominent sunset view made its appearance, photographed it to the best of his ability. It was these sunset and cloud views that brought his name prominently before the photographic world. Although it has been nearly thirteen years since these cloud and sunset views were secured, the popular demand for them has not abated in the least. Only the day before Mr. Wilson sent us the negatives from which our illustration is printed, did he complete the filling of an order for forty-six dozen of those views. Since he made those cloud and sunset views, he has visited many famous places, and in many instances the same places have been visited over and over again, making new negatives and for the purpose of renewing old ones. –Richard Walzl, The Photographer’s Friend: A Practical, Independent Magazine, Devoted to the Photographic Art 2 (1872): 48-50.

Centennial International Exhibition Souvenir

Centennial International Exhibition [Handkerchief], ca. 1876. Wood engraving, roller printed on cotton cloth. Manufactured by A. & C. Cramer in Düsseldorf. Graphic Arts Collection

Many souvenirs were produced for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition at Fairmount Park in Philadelphia. According to the Library Company’s excellent summary, “the Centennial Exhibition took place on more than 285 acres of land in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park May 10-November 10, 1876. Close to ten million visitors (9,910,966) went to the fair via railroad, steamboat, carriage, and on foot. Thirty-seven nations participated in the event, officially named the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine.” http://www.lcpimages.org/centennial/

One commemorative item was a wood engraved cloth or handkerchief manufactured by A. & C. Cramer in Düsseldorf, Germany. The cloth is inscribed E Pluribus Unum and Centennial International at the top and Exhibition, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, 1776 1876, Memorial Hall Art Gallery at the bottom. Four buildings are depicted, including the main exhibition building, the machinery hall, the agricultural hall and the horticultural hall.

The image is “roller printed,” meaning it was produced by a machine rather than hand printed individually. Given the thousands that were produced, this is to be expected. Even so, the detail is surprisingly good and Princeton University Library is among many who collected and framed the cotton cloth to preserve it.

Arnout’s Views Made from a Balloon

Louis Jules Arnout (1814-1868), Epsom Races, View Taken in a Balloon = Courses d’Epsom, vue prise en ballon. Aerial Excursions = Exursions aériennes, 1846. Toned lithograph. Graphic Arts Collection

The French artist and printmaker Jules Arnout traveled across Europe making bird’s eye views of the major cities and important civic events. He used a hot-air balloon to sketch each excursions aériennes and then, drew his balloon into the final scene. Arnout’s primary printer and publisher was Joseph Rose Lemercier (1803-1887), whose Paris firm specialized in lithographic printing. Together, they collaborated with publishers throughout Europe to distribute Arnout’s scenes.

In 1846, a thoroughbred named Pyrrhus, The First, won the Epson Derby, held each June in Surrey, England. Huge crowds traveled out from London to watch the race and enjoy a day in the country. For many years, Parliament would adjourn so its members could attend.

Other titles by Arnout include St. Cloud en ballon, vue prise de Boulogne; Fontainebleau en Ballon, vue prise au dessus du Gd. Quartier de Cavalerie; Orléans en Ballon, vue prise au dessus du Gd. Quartier de Cavalerie; Paris en Ballon, Vue prise au dessus de l’île St. Louis; Paris et ses forticications, vue prise au dessus du Mont Valérieux; Rouen en Ballon. Vue prise de la cote ste. Catherine; and Versailles en Ballon, vue prise au dessus du Gd. Quartier de Cavalerie; among many others.

Reverse painting on glass over a photograph

Artist unidentified, El Capitan, ca. 1870. Frame: 81 x 66.5 cm. Graphic Arts Collection

This reverse painting on glass features an albumen silver print as the basis for the nineteenth-century landscape. Also called verre églomisé, after Jean-Baptiste Glomy (1711-1886), reverse painting has been practiced since the Middle Ages. Conservators and curators at the Winterthur Museum posted an excellent description at http://www.winterthur.org/pdfs/winterthur_primer_glass.pdf.

Often in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, an engraving would be used to establish the outline or basic design of the painting. When photography became viable in the nineteenth century, portraits in particular were painted over low resolution photographic prints.

While the exact photograph under our painting has not been identified, it could be one of the mammoth prints made by Carleton Watkins (1829–1916). He photographed Yosemite Valley a number of times during the 1860s, while working for the California State Geological Survey. Many of these were reprinted over the years in a variety of sizes and formats.

Carleton Watkins (1829-1916), Tutocanula, or El Capitan, 3600 feet, no date.

When examining the reverse painting closely, you can see the photograph has been torn around the edge of the trees and mountains, leaving a clear area to paint the sky. The highlights, usually done last when painting on canvas, must be laid down first on glass in order for them to be seen when the glass pane is turned around.

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