Recently in Prints, Drawings, Paintings Category

A Country Inn Yard at Election Time

William Hogarth (1697-1764), The Stage-Coach, or The Country Inn Yard, June 1747. Engraving. Graphic Arts Collection Hogarth GC113.

Hogarth’s print, The Stage-Coach, was first advertised on June 26, 1747 as a print representing “a country inn yard at election time.” Since the election had only been announced eight days earlier, Hogarth must have completed the scene with some haste. The only direct reference to the campaign is the crowd in the back, perhaps a comment on the lack of attention the election received from the English people.

The central focus of Hogarth’s print is the woman with her back to us, entering the coach. Ronald Paulson wrote, “whether we think of her as “broadbottom” or as backside, she embodies self-absorption and unawareness of what is going on around her as she prepares to disappear inside the coach. The composition focuses on her back, and creates another verbal pun: she is literally “turning her back” on the urgency of the election… .”

Over seventy years later, George Cruikshank took this image and re-imagined it for contemporary London society. At first only indirectly as The Piccadilly Nuisance, Dedicated to the Worthy Acting Magistrates of the District with the stage coach seen from the side. The followed year, he tried again with Travelling in England, which more directly echoes Hogarth’s print.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), The Piccadilly Nuisance. Dedicated to the Worthy Acting Magistrates of the District, December 29, 1818. Etching with hand coloring. GC022 Cruikshank Collection. Gift of Richard W. Meirs, Class of 1888.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), Travelling in England, or A Peep from the White Horse Cellar, August 12, 1819. Etching with hand coloring. GC022 Cruikshank Collection. Gift of Richard W. Meirs, Class of 1888.

William the Silent, Prince of Orange, Count of Nassau

Welcome back Princeton University alumni.

John Augustus Mapes, Class of 1920 (died 1970), In Praise of Old Nassau. A Portrait of William (the Silent), Prince of Orange; Count of Nassau, no date. Watercolor. Graphic Arts GA 2006.02632. Painted expressly for George H. Sibley, Class of 1920.

No, Princeton colors do not come from William I, Prince of Orange (1533-1584), also called William the Silent. Born to the House of Nassau, a princely German family, William I became Prince of Orange in 1544 and went on to liberate The Netherlands from Spanish rule. (To read more, see http://www.hollandhistory.net/famous_dutch_people/book-william-the-silent/online-book.html.

It was William III, Prince of Orange (1650-1702) who endowed the College of William and Mary in 1693 and is recognized at Princeton University with Nassau Hall. The building was going to be named Belcher Hall but Governor Jonathan Belcher declined the honor, suggesting that it be named in memory of “the Glorious King William the Third who was a Branch of the Illustrious House of Nassau.”

For more myths and facts about Princeton, see Princeton Myths, Debunked by Wes Tooke, 1999
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/99/0510/myths.htm
and
Princeton College Bulletin 1895: http://books.google.com/books?id=mxXiAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA89&lpg=RA2-PA89&dq=william+the+silent+nassau+orange+princeton&source=bl&ots=ROiyfvhx0N&sig=RjCFrp2KC8teoWqbZ62Wr7lAyU&hl=en&ei=Vgv4S8G0CIT78AaUk-3QCg&sa=X&oi=bookresult&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=william%20the%20silent%20nassau%20orange%20princeton&f=false

Myth: The orange in the school’s colors comes from Nassau Hall, dedicated to Prince William of Orange, of the House of Nassau. The black came from a crew race before the turn of the century. The team was about to be disqualified because they weren’t wearing numbers, so they dipped their fingers in mud and painted black numerals on the backs of their orange jerseys.

Fact: The orange did come from Prince William, via Nassau Hall. As for the black, the Princeton crews at the Saratoga Regatta in 1874 did wear orange and black — and that regatta is generally considered the beginning of orange and black as Princeton’s “official” colors. But black had been used since 1868, when the Class of 1869 wanted to print its class number on orange badges to wear in a baseball game with Yale — and black was the only available ink.

A Study for Turner's Fish

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Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), First sketch of group of fish in The Slave [Ship], Robert Taylor Collection RTC01

The great English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner loved the sea. Beginning in 1829, he spent periods of time each year at the seaside house of Mrs. Sophia Booth in Margate. Later, the twice-widowed Mrs. Booth moved in with Turner in his Chelsea residence, where he enjoyed being greeted as Admiral Booth.

In 1840, at the age of 64, Turner painted Slave Ship, which received nothing but condemnation from the critics. Not only did they hate the loose brushwork and violent palette but found the scene’s shocking depiction of slaves being thrown to their death unacceptable for a public gallery. Next to the painting, Turner hung a poem he called Fallacies of Hope:

Aloft all hands, strike the top-masts and belay;
Yon angry setting sun and fierce-edged clouds
Declare the Typhoon’s coming.
Before it sweeps your decks, throw overboard
The dead and dying - ne’er heed their chains
Hope, Hope, fallacious Hope!
Where is thy market now?

Slave Ship, 1840. Oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

One of the only voices to speak up for Turner was that of art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900), who was moved to begin writing an article about Turner and contemporary painting. This led to a lifetime work in five volumes, beginning in 1843 with the infamous volume one of Modern Painters (Ex 3915.1.3645).

Turner died eight years later at his Chelsea home with Mrs. Booth and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. His paintings were bequeathed to England and his fortune to a charity for male artists. Although Ruskin did not accept the offer to be an executor of Turner’s will, he did sort through the drawings in the Turner Bequest and curate an exhibition of them at Marlborough House in 1856-57.

A number of works remained with Mrs. Booth and it was from her that Ruskin purchased this watercolor study in 1880. In it, Turner worked out the fish for the lower right corner of The Slave Ship. Years later, it was purchased by Robert Hill Taylor (1908-1985), Class of 1930, and ultimately, donated to Princeton University.

BTW, the Princeton University Art Museum is the fortunate owner of a Turner sketchbook, which Ruskin purchased in 1860 and Charles J. Mosmann, Jr., Class of 1950, donated in 1957.

The Times, of 1762 and 1790

See the figure just right of center on stilts dressed as Henry III (1491-1547), King of England.

Here the same figure is now William Pitt (1708-1778), Prime Minister of Great Britain.

William Hogarth (1697-1764), The Times, plate 1, 1762. Engraving and etching. Graphic Arts GA113.

In Hogarth’s 1762 engraving, the city on fire is emblematic of the Seven Years War and King George III’s efforts to bring about peace. Note the houses in the center, one with the sign of the two-necked eagle (Germany) and another with the fleur-de-lis (France). England is on the far left and a globe on the building to the right shows the extent of the damage being done.

In the first and second states of The Times, Hogarth disguises William Pitt in a Henry VIII costume but in the final, third state, the costume is removed. Princeton is fortunate to have examples of both the second and third states. The stilts represent Pitt’s crutches he used because he suffered from gout. The millstone around his neck marked 3000 pounds per annum represents the enormous pension he accepted. While others attempt to put out the flames, Pitt has a bellows to encourage the flames.

John Bull’s House Sett in Flames, British Museum, London.

Five days before The Times was published, another print called John Bull’s House Sett in Flames was issued anonymously. This may have been the inspiration for Hogarth’s work. On the other hand, it might also have been someone copying Hogarth and trying to beat him to the public’s attention, since the second print was certainly completed with less care or iconographic detail.

Hogarth began work on a second, companion plate to The Times but peace was ratified by the Commons on December 9, 1762 and signed in February 1763. This left Hogarth’s print slightly out-of-date and so, he never printed plate two during his lifetime. According to Ronald Paulson, this copper plate was left to his widow, then to Alderman Boydell, who had it finished and published in 1790.

William Hogarth (1697-1764), The Times, plate 2, 1790. Engraving and etching. Graphic Arts GA113

Edward Lear

Edward Lear (1812-1888) was eighteen when he started work on the illustrations for The Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots. As an ornithological draughtsman, with a talent for striking colors and anatomically correct renderings, Lear found himself taking extended walking trips through Europe. By 1841, his travel had led to an interest in landscape painting and the publication of Views in Rome and its Environs followed by Illustrated Excursions in Italy.

Under the pseudonym of Derry Down Derry, Lear embarked on a separate career as humorist with the publication of A Book of Nonsense. Today, as during his own lifetime, Lear has followers who know his light verse but have no knowledge of his extensive oeuvre in landscape painting.

Lear spent the late fall and winter of 1866/67 traveling through Egypt on camel and boat, sailing down the Nile as far as Wadi Halfa, on the shores of Lake Nasser at the northern border of Sudan. He also visited Gaza and Jerusalem before returning to England. The following winter, Lear spent on the Italian Riviera and at the end of a productive year, composed The Owl and the Pussycat.

Note the lower left, where Lear records not only the date but time of day at which the sketch was made. He drew these wonderfully spontaneous pencil studies on site, leaving the color until later. This was painted in watercolor, following the instructions he wrote directly on the paper concerning hue and tone.

Edward Lear (1812-1888), [Nile scene] near Wady Halfeh [sic], 1867. Watercolor. Robert H. Taylor collection of English and American literature, [1280s]-1950. RTC01, drawer XII.

The Doctor Dismissing Death

The Doctor Dismissing Death, 1785. Designed by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), engraved by P. Simon, aquatinted by Francis Jukes (1747-1812). GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

In this print, not included in the British Museum’s collection, a skeleton representing death is entering through a cottage window and being driven back by the doctor’s syringe (an enima?). The print’s young designer, Thomas Rowlandson, had only recently begun painting with watercolor. He was assisted in the printing of the delicate design by Francis Jukes, who specialized in aquatint, a new intaglio process used to add tone and color to an image.

The first French prints with aquatint ground were probably those made around 1761 by François-Philippe Charpentier (1734-1817) and his Swedish pupil Per Gustaf Floding (1731-1791). Another method of aquatinting was invented independently by Jean-Baptiste Le Prince (1734-1781) in 1769. A few years later, Peter Perez Burdett (died 1793) brought the process to England, where Jukes was another early master of the technique. Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Sandby, and Goya were among the many others who used the aquatint process to enhance their fine art prints.

For a complete history, see MoMA’s excellent descriptions of printing processes: http://www.moma.org/collection/details.php?themeid=10452&sectionid=T003497

Celestial Eyes

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Charles Scribner III, Class of 1973, writing in the Princeton University Library Chronicle 53, no.2 (Winter 1992): 141-155, explains how he came to own the original dust jacket design for The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). Scribner’s cousin, George Schieffelin discovered the gouache sketch, painted in 1924 by Francis Cugat (1893-1981), in a trash can of publishing “dead matter” and took it home. Eventually Scribner inherited the painting, enjoyed it at home for several years, and then donated it to the Princeton University Library for the Graphic Arts collection (GA 2006.02659).

According to Scribner’s research, Francis Cugat was born in Spain and raised in Cuba. His brother, Xavier Cugat, became a musician and an orchestra leader. Francis worked as an illustrator in the 1920s, performed in New York City in the 1940s, and then moved to Hollywood, where he is credited as technical color consultant on sixty-eight films from 1948 to 1955.

Cugat received the commission for the Fitzgerald dusk jacket in 1924, while the book was still unfinished. Originally titled “Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires,” Fitzgerald also toyed with calling it “Trimalchio in West Egg,” “On the Road to West Egg,” and “Gold-hatted Gatsby.” The author liked the design Cugat proposed (for which he was paid $100) and wrote to his publisher, “For Christs sake don’t give anyone that jacket you’re saving for me. I’ve written it into the book.” Cugat called his design “Celestial Eyes.”

The novel was first published with this jacket in 1925 and again in 1979 for the Scribner Library paperback edition. See: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (New York: C. Scribner’s sons, 1925). Rare Books (Ex) Behrman American: Fitzgerald no. 1

Hogarth's Four Groups of Heads

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Scholars at a Lecture

Chorus of Singers

Laughting Audience

Company of Undertakers

William Hogarth (1697-1764), Four Groups of Heads (Scholars at a Lecture, Chorus of Singers, Laughting Audience, and Company of Undertakers), 1737. Engravings. Graphic Arts, GC113 William Hogarth Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895.

Two of these four engravings by William Hogarth began as subscription tickets for the sale of other prints or groups of prints. Each were printed and sold separately but after a few years, Hogarth cut off the bottom of the plate (where the text about the sale was engraved), reprinted them, and bound them with two additional prints. The four small sheets were then sold under the title Four Groups of Heads. Princeton is fortunate to have both the later printing (1737) and, in some cases, impressions of the original prints.

A Chorus of Singers (also known as Rehearsal of the Oratorio of Judith), was originally a subscription ticket for Midnight Modern Conversation. The print shows a rehearsal of the oratorio Judith, written by William Huggins with music by William Defesch. It was performed February 16, 1733, at Lincoln’s Inn Fields, after a postponement due to the misconduct and pretended sickness of Cecilia Young, who had engaged for the part of Judith.

The Laughing Audience, was originally a subscription ticket for Southward Fair and The Rake’s Progress. Note that only one man is not laughing. He is usually identified as the critic, who were always made to stand in the pit of the theater.

In Scholars at a Lecture the open book reads “Datur Vacumm” (Leisure time is given for…), which according to Ronald Paulson is a pun on ‘vacumm,’ carried out in the expressions of the various auditors. These are scholars at Oxford, wearing square-topped cloth and felt hats, which were worn by all undergraduates and graduates except Doctors of Law, Medicine, and Music.

For more see Ronald Paulson Hogarth’s Graphic Works (London: Print Room, 1989). GARF ND497.H7 A35 1989Q

Princeton Campus Bird's Eye Views

Bird’s Eye View of Princeton, N.J., 1874. Lithographed by Breuker and Kessler after a design by H. H. Bailey. Published by Charles O. Hudnut. GC047 Princetoniana Collection.

Princeton College, Princeton, N.J., 1875. Lithographed by Thomas Hunter, after a design by W. M. Radcliff. Published by Charles O. Hudnut and also called Hudnut’s Aerial View. GC047 Princetoniana Collection.

Kyes and Woodbury (John F. Kyes, dates unknown, and Charles Herbert Woodbury, 1864-1940), Untitled [Aerial view of Princeton University campus], 1895. Lithograph. Published by George S. Harris and Sons, and reproduced in Harper’s Weekly on January 26, 1895. GC047 Princetoniana Collection. *Note: Kyes is correct, not Keyes as is sometimes seen.

Princeton University, 1906. Hand-colored engraving after a watercolor by Richard Rummell (1848-1924). Commissioned and published by Littig and Company. GC047 Princetoniana Collection. Rummell made a number of watercolors of Princeton University (see also below), which were reproduced in full color, sepia, and/or black and white prints.

Princeton University, ca. 1920. Collotype after a watercolor by Richard Rummell (1848-1924). Commissioned and published by Littig and Company. GC047 Princetoniana Collection.

The Chamber of Genius

Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827), The Chamber of Genius, 1812. Hand colored etching. Inscribed below the title: Want is the Scorn of every wealthy Fool / And Genius in Rags is turn’d to Ridicule— Juvenal Satire. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, Class of 1895. Graphic Arts Rowlandson collection.

Described by M. Dorothy George in the Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum as follows:

“In a squalid room a man in a frenzy of inspiration, stern and intent, sits at an easel painting on a canvas on which is the large head of a (?) minatory Hebrew prophet. He wears a shirt with one tattered boot and one slipper, and a cloth tied over his head. In his left hand is a pen, and he appears unconscious of a large cat which claws at his bare legs. His pretty wife sleeps with a carefree expression on a make-shift bed (across which his breeches are thrown), while a naked infant beside her pours the contents of a bottle into a glass. On the table are coffee-pot, &c. An older child, almost naked, sits in a tub facing the fire plying a pair of bellows and is in great danger from a kettle and a red-hot poker. The other pursuits of the genius are indicated by two large books, on which he rests a foot, a violin and a French horn, a syringe, a pair of scales, a retort standing on a small furnace; a classical bust on a bracket. A cord stretches across the room on which hang tattered stockings and a piece of drapery. On the wall hang a sword and tricorne hat, with three prints: ‘Araeostation’ [sic], a balloon ascending, reminiscent of Rowlandson’s ‘Aerostation out at Elbows …’; a woman ballet dancer, and an ugly profile head inscribed ‘Peter Testa’. Above the fireplace (right) are a string of onions and a bunch of tallow dips. A dish of food with knife and fork is on the floor.”

*Note, what is the youngest child getting ready to drink?

The Would-Be Mayor Preparing to Quell a Riot

Henry R. Robinson (active 1833-1851), The Would-Be Mayor Preparing to Quell a Riot, [1837]. Lithograph. Graphic Arts GA 2010. -in process

New York City mayoral candidate John Jordan Morgan (1770-1849) is seen on the right with members of his Tammany Democratic party shortly before the municipal election April 1837. He is approached from the left by two members of the Loco Foco (the Equal Rights party), a subdivision of the Democrats. A riot occurs in the left background between Irishmen and Germans.

The dialogue reads, “Is that our candidate Bob? introduce me; the party are strangers to him.” Others say, “Well, poor Tammany is done over when such a skeleton is to represent the great democracy!” and “Do’nt whistle in the face of the new Mayor, he may catch the grippe!” and “Vel vot of it, who cares for Mr. Morgan, a good puff will blow him away …”

Morgan, a member of the 23rd Congress under Andrew Jackson, lost the New York election prompting a second print from Robinson. Entitled The Death of Old Tammany and His Wife Loco Foco, the second print satirized the heavy losses suffered by both the Loco Foco and Tammany party. An American Indian represents Tammany, his breast pierced by an arrow, and his wife, the Loco Foco, is shown as a crude Irish woman. Both are crushed under the ballot box.

Joachim von Sandrart's "Teutsche Academie"

Recently, we found an unbound group of etchings by Joachim von Sandrart. We now know they are plates from Christianus Rhodius (fl. 1680), Joachimi de Sandrart … Academia nobilissimæ artis pictoriæ. Sive Dē veris & genuinis hujusdem proprietatibus, theorematibus, secretis atque requisitis aliis … instructio fundamentalis (Noribergæ: Literis Christiani Sigismundi Frobergii, 1683).


The artist and art historian Joachim von Sandrart (1606-1688) trained under Sebastian Stoskopff in Frankfurt, learned printmaking under Aegidius Sadeler in Prague, and worked in Gerrit van Honthorst’s studio in Utrecht. Initially, Sandrart planned to be an engraver but found success as a painter. During his career, he associated with Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin; did drawings with Andrea Sacchi and Pietro Testa; and in 1653, was ennobled and made a member of the Palatinate-Neuburg Council.


From the mid 1660s, Sandrart was increasingly devoted to academia. He helped to establish the academy of art in Nuremberg (1662) and in Augsburg (1670). Sandrart became director of the Nuremberg academy.

In 1668, Sandrart began to write the Teutsche Academie der edlen Bau- Bild- und Mahlerey Künste, the first encyclopedic art history in German, with editorial help from the poet Sigmund von Birken. The work, published in three volumes between 1675 and 1680, was dedicated to the artists and art collectors of his day. The first two volumes include essays on architecture and sculpture, the theory of painting, biographies of ancient and modern artists, and descriptions of various art collections. Volume three added a translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Cartari’s mythographic handbook. For a more complete description and searchable full-text, see http://www.sandrart.net/


In 1683, Christianus Rhodius translated part of Teutsche Academie and publish it along with a group of plates. This is the group now in graphic arts: approximately 66 etching with engraving, designed by Sandrart and printed by Philipp Kilian (1628-1693) and others.

Marquand Library has a first edition: L’Academia todesca della architectura, scultura & pittura: oder Teutsche Academie der edlen Bau- Bild- und Mahlerey Künste… (Nürnberg: J. von Sandrart; Frankfurt: M. Meriam, 1675-79). SAX Rare Books Oversize N7420 .S2f

Note, center left, Sandrart includes the image of an African European artist called Higiemonde. No biography is given.

Negen Houtsneden by Jan Cockx

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Jan Cockx (1891-1976), Negen Houtsneden [Nine Woodcuts] ([Antwerp : s.n., 1921]. Copy 57 of 100. Graphic Arts GAX 2010- in process

Following World War I, young artists throughout Europe were attempting to reinvent art and culture. In Antwerp, a small group of writers, poets, and social activists came together to publish a monthly journal called Ça ira, Revue mensuelle d’Art et de Critique. From April 1920 to January 1923, twenty issues were released with poems by Paul Colin, Theo van Doesburg, and Paul Éluard. Rough black and white woodcuts and linocuts filled the issues created by Floris Jespers, Paul Joostens, Frans Masereel, and Jan Cockx. Ça ira broke with its German and French colleagues in 1922 when Clément Pansaers published his “assassination of Dada” in a special number entitled ‘Dada, Its Birth, Life and Death.”

The Belgian artist and poet Jan Cockx (1891-1976) had his first exhibition in Paris at the age of twenty-nine, the same year he began publishing in Ça ira. In 1921, Cockx found the financial backing to publish a small portfolio of nine woodcuts with a striking color linocut on the wrapper. Graphic Arts’s copy is from the collection of Maurice van Essche, the editor of Ça ira.

An interesting note: the only other copy listed on OCLC is at the Library of Congress. Their edition note is quoted in French, our portfolio’s text is in Dutch. There must have been either two editions, or two distributors of this portfolio.

For more information, see Rik Sauwen, L’esprit Dada en Belgique (Leuven: Katholieke Universiteit, [1969]). Marquand Library (SA), PQ307.D3 S28 1969

Seventh Ward Beggars

Henry R. Robinson (active 1833-1851), Seventh Ward Beggars, ca. 1836. Lithograph with hand coloring. Graphic Arts GA 2010- in process

This print shows Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), the seventh president of the United States, sitting on the government’s surplus funds, holding a bag of $100,000. Jackson had succeeded in destroying the Bank of the United States in 1832. He and his “kitchen” cabinet established a series of pet banks—state institutions used by the federal government as depositories for public funds. One such pet bank was the Seventh Ward Bank, seen in the back center, which was established in 1833.

Jackson had the power to distribute bank funds and in this print we see nine bankers begging for money, two are literally kissing his feet. Jackson tells them to first pay honest Rueben M. Whitney, a former director of the Bank of United States, now working for Jackson. In the back left stands a Courier Enquirer reporter who later opened an investigation into the bonus fund money used to pay off Whitney.

The beggars say, “Revered Chief at the head of the Government - We are all friends of the Administration - We solicit a portion of your fiscal patronage - The terms most favorable to Government - We gave no portion to the Brokers in Wall Street - Pray do, Pray do.”

In 1928, a portrait of Grover Cleveland was removed from the twenty dollar bill and replaced with a portrait of Andrew Jackson. According to the U.S. Treasury, “Treasury Department records do not reveal the reason that portraits of these particular statesmen were chosen in preference to those of other persons of equal importance and prominence.”

See also: John M. McFaul and Frank Otto Gatell, “The Outcast Insider: Reuben M. Whitney and the Bank War,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 91, no. 2 (April 1967): 115-44.

Auguste Roubille, 1872-1955

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Auguste Roubille (1872-1955), Abdul Hamid II, ca. 1900. Lithograph. GC103 French Political Caricatures Collection. Abdul Hamid II, Le sultan rouge = His Imperial Majesty, Sultan Abdülhamid II, Emperor of the Ottomans, Caliph of the Faithful (1842-1918) was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, ruling from 1876 to 1909.

There is little information in the art history books about Auguste Jean-Baptiste Roubille (1872-1955). He was an engraver and a painter (he did café murals), a book illustrator, and a designer of posters and dioramas. Thanks to Stanley Appelbaum’s French Satirical Drawings from ‘L’Assiette Au Beurre’ for this little bit of biography. Beginning in 1897, Roubille worked for many of the Paris humor magazines, such as Le Courrier Français, Le Rire, Le Sourire, Le Cri de Paris, Cocorico, and others. L’Assiette claimed his services for its very first issue in April 4, 1901 and frequently in the years that followed.

Around 1900, he completed a series of 13 lithographic posters for the writer/publisher Antonin Reschal at Librairie Parisienne Arnaud et Cie. They titled the set Le musée de sires, feuille de Caricatures Politiques (Museum of Lords or Rulers, sheets of political caricatures). My colleague Eduardo Tenenbaum offers a reading of the pun they make with the series title Gueulerie contempoiriane (after the series Galerie contemporaine): “gueule” (f.) in French is the muzzle or face of an animal, but in slang it means a person’s face or mouth, and is often used derogatorily. When used as a verb, “gueuler” can mean “to yell” or “to scream.” The phrase “gueulerie contemporaine” suggests to me humans braying like a bunch of animals, or in this case, politicians.

The rulers in this museum are surprisingly international in scope. Here are a few more:

Auguste Roubille (1872-1955), Shah de Perse, ca. 1900. Lithograph. GC103 French Political Caricatures Collection. Shah de Perse, Mozaffer Ed-Dine = Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar (1853-1907) was the fifth Qajarid Shah of Persia, ruling from 1896 to 1907.

Auguste Roubille (1872-1955), Cleopold II, ca. 1900. Lithograph. GC103 French Political Caricatures Collection. Cléopold II. Roi des Belges = Leopold II (1835-1909) was King of Belgium, ruling from 1865 to 1909.



Auguste Roubille (1872-1955), Sir Paul Kruger, ca. 1900. Lithograph. GC103 French Political Caricatures Collection. Sir Paul Kruger = Paul Kruger (1825-1904) was President of the Transvaal Republic (South Africa), ruling from 1883 to 1900.

Auguste Roubille (1872-1955), The Gracious Queen, ca. 1900. Lithograph. GC103 French Political Caricatures Collection. “The Gracious Queen” = Queen Victoria (1819-1901), the longest-ruling monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, ruling from 1837 to 1901.

Louis Lozowick's "Steel Valley"

Louis Lozowick (1892-1973), Steel Valley, 1936. Lithograph. Edition of 15. Graphic Arts GA2007.01716

At the age of fourteen, Lozowick left his family in the Ukraine to join a brother living in New Jersey. He quickly learned English and studied painting and printmaking at the National Academy of Design in New York. Lozowick’s work has been labeled Precisionist (an American form of constructivism) and although he travelled extensively, it is the scenes of the new industrial age in the United States for which he is best remembered. Lithography was his medium of choice.

Lozowick moved to Berlin in the early 1920s where he was a member of the artists’ circle that included László Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky. He had his first solo show in Berlin at K. E. Twardy Book Shop, which led to a number of commissions as a graphic artist and illustrator.

By the time the depression hit, Lozowick was back in the United States. He joined the Graphic Arts Division of the Works Progress Administration where he was employed until 1940. He also taught lithography at the John Reed Club School of Art and was a founder of the New Masses (and eventually its art editor).

Lozowick was a good friend of Elmer Adler, the first curator of graphic arts at Princeton University, and Adler collected a small group of his lithographs, including this one, for the library. Several are signed and dedicated directly from Lozowick to Adler.

Brothers Ballantyne

Robert Michael Ballantyne (1825-1894), The Invalids. A Tragedy (Edinburgh, 1859). Graphic Arts (GAX) 2010- in process.

These vignettes, historiated initials, and ink illustrations are for an unfinished entertainment by Robert Ballantyne, dedicated to Jane Macdonald, the wife of the Scottish painter John Faed (1819-1902). The Invalids was begun just three years after Ballantyne’s first published book (he went on to complete over eighty volumes) and is his only known attempt at drama or illustration.

The main characters are Count Fadino, a convalescent painter; Giovanni, a sick painter; and Roberto, a sick author. Roberto and Giovanni are the Ballantyne brothers, Robert and John. Fadino represents John Faed.

Robert’s brother John Ballantyne (1815-1897) was a portrait painter who played a significant role in Edinburgh’s art world. He was a founder and president of the Smashers, a sketching club, and preceptor of life classes at the Royal Scottish Academy. He completed at least seventeen portraits of London artists at work in their studios, including William Holman Hunt, John Millais, and David Roberts. Despite his success, John was primarily supported by Robert’s publishing income and the two worked closely on projects throughout their lives.

Victorian Grave Decoration


C.F. Bridgman, Monumenta (Lewes, ca. 1880). Red and black ink and watercolor wash. Graphic Arts GA2010- in process

This pattern book for Victorian grave stone designs and stone roundels for grave ornaments contains eighty miniture designs with twelve large relief roundels. According to the antiquarian dealer Charles Wood, C.F. Bridgman was a well-known firm. Mr. Wood found this entry for them: http://www.rootschat.com/history/hastings/content/view/78/29/

The records of C.F.Bridgman, a firm of Stonemasons (formerly Parsons) based in Lewes from the early 18th century, were deposited in the East Sussex Records Office in 1965 by Hillman Sons, Vinall and Carter, Solicitors of Lewes, and consists of some 98 volumes of Ledgers, Day Books, Letter Books, Wage and Cash Books together with Classified Accounts which cover the period 1834-1959…

Hypochondriacs

Princeton University’s science historian and an editor at Cabinet magazine, Professor D. Graham Burnett will be part of a panel entitled “The Art of Hypochondria” along with Brian Dillon and Marina van Zuylen on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York City. In honor of their talk, here are a few of our own hypochondriacs:

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), The Hypochondriac, 1788. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112, Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895. Inscribed: ‘The mind disemper’d - say, what potent charm, // Can Fancy’s spectre-brooding rage disarm? // Physics prescriptive, art assails in vain, // The dreadful phantoms floating cross the brain! - Until with Esculapian skill, the sage M.D. // Finds out at length by self-taught palmistry, // The hopeless case - in the reluctant fee, // Then, not in torture such a wretch to keep // One pitying bolus lays him sound asleep.’


Anonymous, The Cramers or Political Quacks, ca. 1762. Etching. Graphic arts, GC021 British Cartoons and Caricatures Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895. “Britannia tormented with discord and Strife … For Poison lurks their and deconstruction ensues”.


Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), after a design by George Moutard Woodward (ca. 1760-1809), A Visit to the Doctor, no date. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.


Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), Wonderfully Mended. Should’t Have Known You Again!!, 1808. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.









Charles Ramelet (1805-1851) after a design by Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), Le malade imaginaire. Je suis perdu…. il faut faire mon testament……. ils vont m’ensevelir… m’enterrer…. adieu!, 1833. Lithograph. Graphic arts, GA 2009.00086. Gift of William H. Helfand. From the series L’Imagination, no. 10 published in Le carivari May 21, 1833.






Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811), after a design by George Moutard Woodward (ca. 1760-1809), The Sailor and the Quack Doctor, 1807. Etching. Bound with Caricature magazine, v. 1. Graphic arts, Rowlandson R 1807.51F. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.


George Cruikshank (1792-1878), Radical Quacks Giving a New Constitution to John Bull, 1821. Etching. Graphic arts, GC022 Cruikshank Collection. Gift of Richard W. Meirs, class of 1888. “Designed by an Amateur. May 25, 1820.”

William Heath (1795-1840), The Man Wots Got the Whip Hand of ‘Em All, 1829. Hand-colored etching. Graphic Arts British Caricature.

This amazing etching was designed by William Heath (not to be confused with Henry Heath), one of the most underappreciated of the British caricaturists. According to the DNB, from 1825 to 1826, “Heath was in Scotland, writing and illustrating the first magazine in the world to be given over, predominantly, to caricatures: The Glasgow Looking Glass, later the Northern Looking Glass….” (Ex Oversize Item 3584659q)

When Heath returned to London in 1827, he began signing his prints with a drawing of the actor Liston in the role of Paul Pry from John Poole’s 1825 comedy. However the signature (and his engaging designs) attracted so many plagiarists that Heath was forced to abandon it in 1829.

Among the prints that attracted so much attention in the spring of 1829 were a series of satires on the question of Catholic emancipation featuring King George IV, Prime Minister Wellington, and Lords Eldon and Brougham. Titles included The Slap-Up Swell Wot Drives When Ever He Likes, The Guard Wot Looks After the Sovereign, The Man Wot Drives the Opposition, The Cad Wots Been Appointed Rat-Catcher to the Sovereign, and The Man Wot’s Been Made Foreman to the British, among others.

This print, The Man Wots Got the Whip Hand of ‘Em All, depicts a Stanhope Press with the legs of King George. It wears a cap of Liberty inscribed Free Press and holds a giant pen with fire-spitting serpents. Prime Minister Wellington’s departing legs and hat are seen at the top right, while the legs and buckled shoes of Lord Eldon are seen at the left. A print titled The Man Wot Drives the Sovereign (another by Heath) is about to be burned by the flames of the ‘free press.’ Note the printer’s devil with an ink ball bottom lower left.

The Graphic Arts division several dozen prints by Heath, along with his illustrated books. Here are a few others.

A Wellington Boot or the Head of the Army, 1827. Hand-colored etching. Graphic Arts British Caricature

I Was Lucky I Got Shelter At All, 1825-1830. Hand-colored etching. Graphic Arts British Caricature

Cribbage, 1825-1830. Hand-colored etching. Graphic Arts British Caricature

The Speech, 1828-1830. Hand-colored etching. Graphic Arts British Caricature
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