An Invitation to the Galerie de L’Effort Moderne

valmier pochoir invitation
When World War I ended, collector Léonce Rosenberg (1879-1947) opened the Galerie de L’Effort Moderne at 19, rue de la Baume, where he exhibited his personal collection of paintings by Picasso, Léger, Braque, and other Cubist artists. The gallery stayed open for twenty-two years, presenting one-man shows for Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Auguste Herbin, and Juan Gris. From 1924 to 1927, Rosenberg also published the Bulletin de l’effort moderne’ (Éditions de l’effort moderne), featuring articles about contemporary art.

Advertisements for exhibitions at Galerie de l’Effort Moderne were printed with pochoir or stencil color, although the pochoir studio responsible is never credited for that work.  Thanks to collector and bibliophile Charles Rahn Fry, class of 1965, the graphic arts collection is fortunate to hold three of these cubist exhibition announcements.

herbin pochoir invitation
leger pochoir invitation

Léonce Rosenberg, Cubisme et empirisme (Paris: Éditions de “l’effort moderne,” 1921) Marquand Library (SA): N6490 .R73

Bulletin de l’effort modern (Paris: Éditions de l’effort moderne, no 1 (jan. 1924)- no 40 (déc. 1927). Rare Books (Ex) item 6072579

Paul Gauguin and Thomas Edison

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Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Le sourire [Smiling], n° 1 (août 1899)-n° 9 (avril 1900). Edition approximately 30. (c) Drouot, Paris.

Inside Starr Figura’s marvelous exhibition Gauguin: Metamorphoses at the Museum of Modern Art, visitors can see three issues of Paul Gauguin’s newspaper Sourire. As the curator tells us, the artist wrote, drew, printed, and published nine issues near the end of his stay in Tahiti.

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© Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Art Trust Fund. 1984.1.72r

mimeograph4-thumbTo reproduce the handwritten sheets, Gauguin used one of the newest printing devices, all the rage in Paris and New York: Thomas Edison’s mimeograph machine.

“J’ai créé un journal Le Sourire autographié, système Edison,” wrote Gauguin, “qui fait fureur. Malheureusement, on se le repasse de main en main, et je n’en vends que très peu.” (December 1899). Although Princeton does not hold copies of Sourire, we are fortunate to have one of Edison’s machines.

In 1876, Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931) filed a United States patent for autographic printing by means of an electric pen. A second patent further developed his system to “prepare autographic stencils for printing.”

Albert Blake Dick (1856-1934) licensed the patent and began manufacturing equipment to make stencils for the reproduction of hand-written text. In 1887, the A.B. Dick Company released the model “0” flatbed duplicator selling for $12. It was an immediate success. Dick named the machine The Edison Mimeograph.mimeographtop

It is model “0” that we hold in the graphic arts collection, including the original box, a printing frame (missing the screen), inking plate, ink roller, a tube of ink, and a tube of waxed wrapping paper. One container is empty, perhaps for a stylus and/or other writing tools.

The Edison Mimeograph Machine (Chicago: A.B. Dick Company, ca.1890). Gift of Douglas F. Bauer, Class of 1964. Graphic Arts Collection.
mimeograph
Hear Starr Figura’s commentary on Gauguin’s newspaper here: http://uat.moma.org/explore/multimedia/audios/384/6676. Her exhibition catalogue includes an essay by Hal Foster, Townsend Martin, Class of 1917, Professor of Art and Archaeology. Co-Director, Program in Media and Modernity, Princeton University.

Exhibition Chronology of the Little Gallery of the Pynson Printers

“There is an artificial stone floor of a brilliant blue color, surrounded by a baseboard molding of old gold,” explained the designer Lucian Bernhard (1885–1972). “The walls are about seven feet high, of a yellowish white, and of a very rough texture, resembling the surface of a cut of Roquefort cheese. This wall is surmounted by a projecting undercut surface of transparent cloth which hides the source of light that illuminates the walls …. The fascia of this undercut forms a very marked profile in blue and gold. Above this the ceiling looms invisible in an impenetrable black. This is the Exhibition Room.” (Oskar M. Hahn, “Bernhard-Rosen,” Gebrauchsgraphik Jahr 3, no 2 (Februar 1926): 9).

adler office10
Bernhard was describing what the New York press came to refer to as the Little Gallery of the Pynson Printers, located on the seventh floor of The New York Times Annex at 229 West 43rd Street in New York City. The gallery’s curator, director of the Pynson Printers and later, Princeton University curator of graphic arts, was Elmer A. Adler (1884–1962).

In documenting Adler’s years on 43rd street, I compiled a chronology of the approximately fifty exhibitions held in Pynson Printers gallery from 1926 to 1939, when Adler finally closed his press. This was too lengthy for the article published in our Princeton University Library Chronicle 73, no. 3 (Spring 2012). Here is a pdf of that timeline, in case it is of interest: http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/ga_pdf/exhibitions pdf.pdf

These photographs of Adler’s rooms at 43rd Street were taken by Ralph Steiner (1899-1986).
adler office3 adler office9 adler office7

Alexeieff

gogol journal 5Russian émigré Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-1982) moved to Paris in the early 1920s, where he designed and painted sets for the Ballets Russes and other productions. When theater jobs dried up, Alexeieff took up printmaking and found work as an illustrator, creating plates for books by Poe, Baudelaire, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Flaubert, Hoffman, and his friends Andre Malraux and Philippe Soupault. One of the most beautiful is his 1927 Journal d’un fou (Diary of a Madman) by Gogol, illustrated with aquatints, seen above and below.

gogol journal 4    gogol journal 3

When the American poet Wallace Stevens was given a copy of one of Alexeieff’s books, he wrote, “I went over some of [the poems] again in the edition illustrated by Alexieff [sic]. I was very much pleased with this big Alexieff book because I love large pages for poetry. On the other hand, I cannot say that I think that Alexieff’s designs are truthful illustrations of the text; they are too individual. The eccentricity of Fargue should be delineated in its own right and not doubled by an additional eccentricity on the part of an illustrator.” –written to Paula Vidal 1950.

gogol journal 1Nikolai Vasilʹevich Gogol (1809-1852), Journal d’un fou, gravures de A. Alexeieff; traduction de B. de Schloezer et J. Schiffrin (Paris: J. Schiffrin, les Editions de la Pléiade, 1927). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PG3334.F5 Z3 1927

Alexeieff went on to make animated films using his own invention, the écran d’épingles (pinscreen) together with his second, American wife Claire Parker (1906-1981). The texture of these movies is surprisingly similar to the grainy quality of his earlier aquatints. Take a look.

Night on Bald Mountain by Alexandre Alexeieff, 1933

Gogol’s Le Nez, 1963.

pouchkine la dame 5    pouchkine la dame 4
pouchkine la dame 1Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837), La dame de pique; adaptation française de Prosper Mérimée; bois gravés en couleurs de A. Alexeieff (Paris: Pouterman, 1928). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) PG3348.F5 P5 1928

pouchkine la dame 2

Harlequins at Princeton

harlequin4John 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.
harlequin3Maurice Sand, 1823-1889, Untitled [Arlechino], n.d. [1858]. Etching with hand coloring. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. GA 2012.02732

harlequin2Pierre-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

harlequin1 Eberhard Danzer, Harlekin, 1970. Linocut. GC018 German Prints Collection

harlequin5George Wood Conetta, (1881-1956), Mr. Ellar as Harlequin [restrike], May 1, 1903. Chromolithograph. From the estate of Richard Ely Morse. GA 2012.02553

 

Thanks to alumni for their support

CivilWar3

Just a quick addendum to the wonderful article A War Brought Home by Merrell Noden, Class of 1978, in the Princeton Alumni Weekly for 19 March 2014. Our copy of Alexander Gardner’s two volume: Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War was featured among the strong photography holdings at Princeton. https://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2014/03/19/pages/5297/index.xml

It is important to remember that the purchase of the album was thanks to a group of enthusiastic alumni and certainly would not have been possible without their support. I wish to thank each and every one of them here with the information included with the album and online with the library catalogue record: Purchase supported by funds from Friends of the Princeton University Library and from Princeton alumni William Bohnett, Class of 1970; George Bustin, Class of 1970; Paul Haaga, Class of 1970; J. Roderick Heller, Class of 1959; Brian Hunter, Class of 1970; Otis Allen Jeffcoat, Class of 1970; John Loose, Class of 1970; and William Trimble, Class of 1958.

We are only able to make a limited number of high value acquisitions each year for the graphic arts collection and this is one of the highlights of all time. Gardner also liked to give appropriate credit, clearly listing all the photographers who worked with him on this project including Barnard & Gibson (8); Alexander Gardner (16); J. Gardner (10); David Knox (4); Timothy H. O’Sullivan (45); William R. Pywell (3); J. Reekie (7); W. Morris Smith (1); Wood & Gibson (5); and D. B. Woodbury (1).
CivilWar6

Adding to Firestone Library’s signature moments

3rd floor 26After Giambologna (1529–1608), Mercury, no date. Bronze. Princeton University, Gift of Mrs. Edgar Palmer. PP515.

3rd floor 20While our students are away on their spring break, we placed a few more works of art and science into the newly renovated Firestone Library. Here are images from the last couple days. Note in particular, you can see the bottom of the world as you walk up the stairs.

 

3rd floor 25Anonymous, Terrestrial Globe, Venice, 1631. Hand-painted, 32 inches in diameter, with full metal meridian ring, and printed horizon ring, resting on a short turned column in an elaborate wooden stand of six turned supports and half-ball feet. Rare Books and Special Collections.

 

3rd floor 233rd floor stair

 

3rd floor 22Otis Bass (1784-1861), Samuel Blair, Jr. (1741-1818) and Susan Shippen Blair (Mrs. Samuel Blair, Jr.) (1743-1821), ca. 1812-17. Oil on canvas. Princeton University, Gift of Roberdeau Buchanan. PP52.

 

3rd floor 21Daniel Huntington (1816-1906), John Torrey (1796-1873), 1857. Oil on canvas. Princeton University, presented by a group of alumni in 1916. PP61.

Otherwise known as Man Reading a Newspaper.

 

Hanging a tapestry by John Nava in our 3rd floor reading room

tapestry8Yesterday
tapestry12Monday morning
tapestry16After lunch
tapestry13Unrolling
tapestry17It fits

tapestry14Woven in Belgium
tapestry15

John and Jennifer

The Diary of George Templeton Strong

diary of george templeton strong2John O’Hara Cosgrave II (1908-1968), Original watercolor for the dust jacket of The Diary of George Templeton Strong edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (New York: Macmillan, 1952). Graphic Arts Collection
diary of george templeton strong1The New York lawyer George Templeton Strong (1820-1875) began keeping a diary at the age of fifteen and continued until his death in 1875. The original, held by the New York Historical Society, was featured recently in Ken Burn’s PBS documentary on the American Civil War. A firm abolitionist, Strong’s diary offers a first-hand account of his efforts in support of the Union Army and the end of slavery in the United States.

diary of george templeton strong5In 1952, when Macmillan began preparing Strong’s diary for publication, the artist John O’Hara Cosgrave II (1908-1968) was commissioned to design the dust jacket. The Graphic Arts Collection is fortunate to hold the original watercolor, along with the final printed cover. Fortunate because the Princeton University Library, like many libraries, removes all the dust jackets from the books as soon as they are purchased.

Illustrations by the California-born watercolorist can be found in over 100 books, including Pardon My Harvard Accent (1941) by William G. Morse; Gnomobile (1936) by Upton Sinclair, Wind, Sand, and Stars (1939) by Antoine de Saint Exupéry; Come In and Other Poems (1943) by Robert Frost; Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (1955) by Jean Lee Latham; among many others.
diary of george templeton strong4

To read selections, see: The Diary of George Templeton Strong edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas (New York: Macmillan, 1952). Firestone Library (F) E415.9.S86 A3 1952

 

Last Question on Friday Afternoon

versailles peep6The last reference question to come through at the end of a long week led us to this charming peep show Le Parc de Versailles. Our researcher wanted to know if the fourth panel in this tunnel book had figures and sculpture, like the others, or only a grass divider. This is a serious question because it means the artist wanted to place additional depth and perspective on the furthermost view.

versailles peep5
versailles peep4This is not completely correct, the fourth panel is only grass in the center but there are figures and sculptures on either side. Seen from the tiny front window the grass is not visible, adding only perspective to the entire scene.
versailles peep3Side view.
versailles peep2Inside view between the third and fourth panels, looking into the fifth and sixth.
versailles peep1Inside view between the second and third panels. Our researchers writes, “Optique no. 8 will surely be the highlight of someone’s day…” The answer to this is yes.