19th Century Figurative Prints

Armand Rassenfosse La Danse, 1897 Original lithograph Printed signature in the plate On paper 40 x 31 cm (c. 16 x 12") INFORMATION : Published by 'Estampe Moderne, Paris, 1897-1899...

Lithograph on cream wove paper, 12 3/4 x 9 1/8 inches (322 x 231 mm), margins trimmed. Some scattered light foxing on the verso, handling creases, and adhesive residue along the top sheet edge, and left sheet edge, verso. Recto is clean. Born in Bordeaux in 1804, Adrien Dauzats...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

Annual Events for Young Murasaki (July) - Tales of Genji - Japanese Woodblock Rightmost panel a triptych, depicting monthly events for Wakamurasaki (Young Murasaki). This is the month of July. There appears to be a lesson taking place, possibly for writing or poetry. Artist: Toyokuni III/Kunisada (1786 - 1864) Publisher: Ebisu-ya Shoshichist Presented in a new blue mat. Mat size: 19"H x 13"W Paper size: 14.5"H x 10"W Commentary on the triptych: In the Edo period, Tanabata was designated as one of the five seasonal festivals, and became an annual event for the imperial court, aristocrats, and samurai families, and gradually came to be celebrated by the general public. Its origins are said to be a combination of the Kikoden festival, which originated from the Chinese legend of Altair and the Weaver Girl, and Japan's ancient Tanabata women's faith. Ink is ground with dew that has accumulated on potato leaves, poems and wishes are written on five colored strips of paper, which are then hung on bamboo branches to celebrate the two stars that meet once a year. Although the illustration is a Genji painting...

Lithograph realized in 1970s, after the original work by Toulouse-Lautrec of 1896. Limited edition of 1000. Excellent condition.

Bijinga (New year festivities) is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Toyohiro in the Early 19th Century. Woodcut Print Oban Format New year festivities, two elegant la...

La Durance a A St. Paul is a black and White etching realized by Paul Guigou in the 1860s.  Titled in the lower. Image size: 24x31. Very good impression with wide margins and a ve...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

Courtesan at Yoshiwara Edomachi - Figurative Japanese Woodblock Print on Paper Full color woodcut print of two women in elaborate gowns by Utagawa Yoshiiku (Ochiai Yoshiiku) (Japanese, 1833-1904). Two women are dressed in colorful robes with crossed arms. They are underneath a plum blossom tree in bloom, at night. In the background there is a building with many rooms. Valuable polychrome woodblock print of vertical large oban (大判) format made by Utagawa Yoshiiku (歌川芳幾), the famous artist also known as Ochiai Yoshiiku (落合芳幾), and depicting the courtesan Shizuka (しづか), of the house of pleasure Matsumotoro (松本楼), together with her young kamuro (禿) assistant. The couple is escorted by a kanabohiki (金棒引き) watchman holding a lantern and a metal rod with rings to make noise and alert the crowd. The work, produced in August 1869 by the publisher Tsunajima Kamekichi (綱島亀吉), is taken from the “Twelve Months of Yoshiwara” (よし原十二ヶ月のうち), an elegant series of prints dedicated to the famous red light district of Edo (江戸), and is paired with the “month of leaves” Hazuki (葉月), that is August. Ochiai Yoshiiku (Japanese, 1833-1904) was an ukiyo-e artist from the end of the Edo Period to the Meiji Period. He has created works which are essential to the history of ukiyo-e, such as“Twenty-eight Famous Murders with Verse”, a series of chimidoro-e (bloody paintings) which Yoshiiku and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi collaborated together, and “Shimbun (newspaper) Nishiki-e” that illustrated Meiji news articles with ukiyo-e. Born the son of teahouse proprietor Asakusa Tamichi in 1833, Yoshiiku became a student of ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi toward the end of the 1840s. His earliest known work dates to 1852 when he provided the backgrounds to some actor prints by his master. Yoshiiku's earliest works were portraits of actors (yakusha-e), beauties (bijin-ga), and warriors (musha-e). He later followed Kuniyoshi into making satirical and humorous pieces, and became the leading name in the field after Kuniyosh's death in 1861. He illustrated the Tokyo Nichi Nichi...

Ancient View of Brescia is an original modern artwork realized in Italy in the half of the 19th Century. Original lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower margin. Pass...

Kabukie is an original artwork realized in 1840 by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). From the series "Mitate Yakusha gojusan tsui no uchi" (juxtaposition of actors and the 53 Tokaido s...

Bijinga is an original artwork realized in 1833-1835 by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). Chuban. From the series "Tokaido gojusan tsugi no uchi" (The 53 Tokaido Stations). Courtesan i...

Image dimensions: 20,5 x 15,5 cm A Little Duckling is an adorable lithograph printed on poussins rigid paper. Signed on plate: G. Süs. Original Title: Das Erste Sturihad. Good con...

Ancient Greek Sculptures is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the univers...

Y se le quema la casa is plate n. 18 (of 80) of the series Los Caprichos by Goya. This etching is an excellent proof of the first edition of 1799, before the bevels. Plate 17,9x12,...

The Old Sporting School is an artwork, realized by the artist Joseph Banks in 1837. Etching colored. Titled and signed on plate . Beautiful engraving with contemporary colouring. E...

Disparate matrimonial - from Los Proverbios is an original black and white etching realized by Francisco Goya (1746-1828). The artwork is the plate n. ...

"First Horse Day, 1896" - Chiyoda Palace - Japanese Woodblock by Chikanobu Yoshu Colorful and expressive court scne by Toyohara Chikanobu,"Yoshu" (Japanese, 1838-1912). This is the r...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

Actor in onnagata role accompanied by a kamuro is an original artwork realized in the 1850s by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (January 1, 1798– April 14, 1861). Woodcut Print. Sign.: Ichiyusai ...

The present hand-colored lithograph was produced as part of the funeral and mourning culture in the United States during the 19th century. Images like this were popular as ways of remembering loved ones, an alternative to portraiture of the deceased. This lithograph shows a man, woman and child in morning clothes next to an urn-topped stone monument. Behind are additional putto-topped headstones beneath weeping willows, with a steepled church beyond. The monument contains a space where a family could inscribe the name and death dates of a deceased loved one. In this case, it has been inscribed to a young Civil War soldier: William W. Peabody Died at Fairfax Seminary, VA December 18th, 1864 Aged 18 years The young Mr. Peabody probably died in service for the Union during the American Civil War. Farifax Seminary was a Union hospital and military headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The hospital served nearly two thousand soldiers during the war time. Five hundred were also buried on the Seminary's grounds. 13.75 x 9.5 inches, artwork 23 x 19 inches, frame Published before 1864 Inscribed bottom center "Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier. 2 Spruce St. N.Y." Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and TruVue Conservation Clear glass, housed in a gold gilded moulding. Nathaniel Currier was a tall introspective man with a melancholy nature. He could captivate people with his piercing stare or charm them with his sparkling blue eyes. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27th, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble yet spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel’s father unexpectedly passed away leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a life-long career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton. A Bavarian gentleman named Alois Senefelder invented lithography just 30 years prior to young Nat Currier’s apprenticeship. While under the employ of the brothers Pendleton, Nat was taught the art of lithography by the firm’s chief printer, a French national named Dubois, who brought the lithography trade to America. Lithography involves grinding a piece of limestone flat and smooth then drawing in mirror image on the stone with a special grease pencil. After the image is completed, the stone is etched with a solution of aqua fortis leaving the greased areas in slight relief. Water is then used to wet the stone and greased-ink is rolled onto the raised areas. Since grease and water do not mix, the greased-ink is repelled by the moisture on the stone and clings to the original grease pencil lines. The stone is then placed in a press and used as a printing block to impart black on white images to paper. In 1833, now twenty-years old and an accomplished lithographer, Nat Currier left Boston and moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. With the promise of good money, Currier hired on to help Brown prepare lithographic stones of scientific images for the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. When Nat completed the contract work in 1834, he traveled to New York City to work once again for his mentor John Pendleton, who was now operating his own shop located at 137 Broadway. Soon after the reunion, Pendleton expressed an interest in returning to Boston and offered to sell his print shop to Currier. Young Nat did not have the financial resources to buy the shop, but being the resourceful type he found another local printer by the name of Stodart. Together they bought Pendleton’s business. The firm ‘Currier & Stodart’ specialized in "job" printing. They produced many different types of printed items, most notably music manuscripts for local publishers. By 1835, Stodart was frustrated that the business was not making enough money and he ended the partnership, taking his investment with him. With little more than some lithographic stones, and a talent for his trade, twenty-two year old Nat Currier set up shop in a temporary office at 1 Wall Street in New York City. He named his new enterprise ‘N. Currier, Lithographer’ Nathaniel continued as a job printer and duplicated everything from music sheets to architectural plans. He experimented with portraits, disaster scenes and memorial prints, and any thing that he could sell to the public from tables in front of his shop. During 1835 he produced a disaster print Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives. The public had a thirst for newsworthy events, and newspapers of the day did not include pictures. By producing this print, Nat gave the public a new way to “see” the news. The print sold reasonably well, an important fact that was not lost on Currier. Nat met and married Eliza Farnsworth in 1840. He also produced a print that same year titled Awful Conflagration of the Steamboat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Evening, January 18, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over One Hundred Persons Perished. This print sold out very quickly, and Currier was approached by an enterprising publication who contracted him to print a single sheet addition of their paper, the New York Sun. This single page paper is presumed to be the first illustrated newspaper ever published. The success of the Lexington print launched his career nationally and put him in a position to finally lift his family up. In 1841, Nat and Eliza had their first child, a son they named Edward West Currier. That same year Nat hired his twenty-one year old brother Charles and taught him the lithography trade, he also hired his artistically inclined brother Lorenzo to travel out west and make sketches of the new frontier as material for future prints. Charles worked for the firm on and off over the years, and invented a new type of lithographic crayon which he patented and named the Crayola. Lorenzo continued selling sketches to Nat for the next few years. In 1843, Nat and Eliza had a daughter, Eliza West Currier, but tragedy struck in early 1847 when their young daughter died from a prolonged illness. Nat and Eliza were grief stricken, and Eliza, driven by despair, gave up on life and passed away just four months after her daughter’s death. The subject of Nat Currier’s artwork changed following the death of his wife and daughter, and he produced many memorial prints and sentimental prints during the late 1840s. The memorial prints generally depicted grief stricken families posed by gravestones (the stones were left blank so the purchasers could fill in the names of the dearly departed). The sentimental prints usually depicted idealized portraits of women and children, titled with popular Christian names of the day. Late in 1847, Nat Currier married Lura Ormsbee, a friend of the family. Lura was a self-sufficient woman, and she immediately set out to help Nat raise six-year-old Edward and get their house in order. In 1849, Lura delivered a son, Walter Black Currier, but fate dealt them a blow when young Walter died one year later. While Nat and Lura were grieving the loss of their new son, word came from San Francisco that Nat’s brother Lorenzo had also passed away from a brief illness. Nat sank deeper into his natural quiet melancholy. Friends stopped by to console the couple, and Lura began to set an extra place at their table for these unexpected guests. She continued this tradition throughout their lives. In 1852, Charles introduced a friend, James Merritt Ives, to Nat and suggested he hire him as a bookkeeper. Jim Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Jim was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. He was also a plump and jovial man, presenting the exact opposite image of his new boss. Jim Ives met Charles Currier through Caroline Clark, the object of Jim’s affection. Caroline’s sister Elizabeth was married to Charles, and Caroline was a close friend of the Currier family. Jim eventually proposed marriage to Caroline and solicited an introduction to Nat Currier, through Charles, in hopes of securing a more stable income to support his future wife. Ives quickly set out to improve and modernize his new employer’s bookkeeping methods. He reorganized the firm’s sizable inventory, and used his artistic skills to streamline the firm’s production methods. By 1857, Nathaniel had become so dependent on Jims’ skills and initiative that he offered him a full partnership in the firm and appointed him general manager. The two men chose the name ‘Currier & Ives’ for the new partnership, and became close friends. Currier & Ives produced their prints in a building at 33 Spruce Street where they occupied the third, fourth and fifth floors. The third floor was devoted to the hand operated printing presses that were built by Nat's cousin, Cyrus Currier, at his shop Cyrus Currier & Sons in Newark, NJ. The fourth floor found the artists, lithographers and the stone grinders at work. The fifth floor housed the coloring department, and was one of the earliest production lines in the country. The colorists were generally immigrant girls, mostly German, who came to America with some formal artistic training. Each colorist was responsible for adding a single color to a print. As a colorist finished applying their color, the print was passed down the line to the next colorist to add their color. The colorists worked from a master print displayed above their table, which showed where the proper colors were to be placed. At the end of the table was a touch up artist who checked the prints for quality, touching-in areas that may have been missed as it passed down the line. During the Civil War, demand for prints became so great that coloring stencils were developed to speed up production. Although most Currier & Ives prints were colored in house, some were sent out to contract artists. The rate Currier & Ives paid these artists for coloring work was one dollar per one hundred small folios (a penny a print) and one dollar per one dozen large folios. Currier & Ives also offered uncolored prints to dealers, with instructions (included on the price list) on how to 'prepare the prints for coloring.' In addition, schools could order uncolored prints from the firm’s catalogue to use in their painting classes. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives attracted a wide circle of friends during their years in business. Some of their more famous acquaintances included Horace Greeley, Phineas T. Barnum, and the outspoken abolitionists Rev. Henry Ward, and John Greenleaf Whittier (the latter being a cousin of Mr. Currier). Nat Currier and Jim Ives described their business as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures" and produced many categories of prints. These included Disaster Scenes, Sentimental Images, Sports, Humor, Hunting Scenes, Politics, Religion, City and Rural Scenes, Trains, Ships, Fire Fighters, Famous Race Horses, Historical Portraits, and just about any other topic that satisfied the general public's taste. In all, the firm produced in excess of 7500 different titles, totaling over one million prints produced from 1835 to 1907. Nat Currier retired in 1880, and signed over his share of the firm to his son Edward. Nat died eight years later at his summer home 'Lion’s Gate' in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Jim Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895, when his share of the firm passed to his eldest son, Chauncey. In 1902, faced will failing health from the ravages of Tuberculosis, Edward Currier sold his share of the firm to Chauncey Ives...

Kabuki is an original artwork realized in 1864 by Utagawa Kunisada II (1823 1880). Scene at night in a snowy forest, the actor Ichikawa Kodanji in the ro...

George Brookshaw's (1751-1823) beautiful "Peaches, Nectarines" hand colored aquatint engraving, plate 38 from his "Pomona Brittanica", considered to be the finest British botanical large format treatise of the 19th-century. His engravings were unique for their rich tones and colors, elegant compositions with the fruit seeming to float on a mottled sumptuous background. The pale green and peach-colored peaches and the pink and green flowers lie on a rich dark brown-colored background. The print is presented in an ornate bronze-colored wood frame with gold-colored inner and outer trims and a triple mat. The outer mat is a marbled light...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Belongs to the Series "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration o...

Cover for "L'Estampe Moderne" Signed in the stone lower left (see photo) Two color lithograph on greenish laid paper L'Estampe Moderne appeared each month as a portfolio of 4 origina...

Kiyomizu Temple, Scenes of Famous Places along Tôkaidô Road - Woodblock on Paper Full Title: Kyoto: Kiyomizu Temple (Kyô Kiyomizudera), from the series Scenes of Famous Places along...

Nadie Nos Ha Visto is a black and White aquatint, drypoint and etching printed in blue-black ink on laid paper from Caprichos realized after Francisco Goya in 1881-1886 . 6th Editio...

Pariesienne is an original artwork realized by Fernand Desmoulin in 1886. Etching on paper. Titled on the lower central margin; "Supplement de Paris-Noel" at the bottom; "L. Eudes ...

Lithograph realized in 1970s, after the original work by Toulouse-Lautrec of 1896. Limited edition of 1000. Excellent condition.

Etching and aquatint in colours on Arches paper Signed by the artist in pencil, lower right on recto Image: 47.5 x 36.3 cm, Sheet: 67.5 x 52 cm, Framed: 87.9 x 71.7 cm Edition of 46 ...

London is an etching realized in 1845 by W. H.Bartlett. Signed on the plate. Titled on the lower center. Good conditions with slight foxing. The artwork is beautifully realized ...

Tu Que no Puedes is a black and White aquatint, drypoint and etching printed in blue-black ink on laid paper from Caprichos realized after Francisco Goya in 1881-1886. 6th Edition.V...

The Lower Ridding is an artwork, realized by the artist Joseph Banks in 1837. Colore etching, titled and signed in the plate. Beautiful engraving with contemporary colouring. Editi...

Ecole de Peinture is a drawing in China Ink on paper realized by Adolphe Willette in the Late 19th Century . Good conditions. Hand-signed. The artwork is depicted through soft st...

Subir y Balar is a black and White aquatint, drypoint and etching printed in blue-black ink on laid paper from Caprichos realized after Francisco Goya in 1881-1886 . 6th Edition.Ver...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Plate from "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration of notable ...

Beautiful Artist’s Proof, representing the myth of Narcissius and the nymph Eco, draw by "the Metamorphosis" by Publio Ovidio Nasone. This aquatint, by Ludovico Caracciolo (engraver...

Soldier is an lithograph realized by Alphonse de Neuville in 1883. Signed on Plate. Good conditions. The Artwork is depicted through soft strokes.

Edition of 100 prinst on verge crème, numbered and signed by the artist in pencil. Hand signed. Full margins. Belonging to the suite “L’Album des peintres-graveurs”. Ref. Cat. Cai...

Etching and aquatint realized by Thomas Rowlandson in 1817. Plate from "The Dance of Life" by William Combe. Very good condition. Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) was an english artis...

Kabuki Actor is a woodcut print realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1848/49. Lifetime impression in very good condition, except for some very minor sign of time.

Romantic Drama is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1853. Woodcut print oban diptych format from a tryptich. Signature: Toyokuni ga. Publisher: Tsujiokaya B...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Belongs to the Series "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration o...

Paysage d'Italie is an artwork realized by Corot in the 1870s. Etching. Good conditions. Realized for the "Société des Aquafortistes. Born on the initiative of the publisher Alfre...

Lithograph realized in 19th Century. In very good condition, it is matted in a black mat.

Africa is a lithograph realized by Auguste Wahlen in 1844. Hand colored. Good condition. At the center of the artwork is the original title "Africa" and subtitle "Marcia trionfale...

Bijinga is an original artwork realized in the half of the 19th Century by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). From the series "SHyakunin isshu esho" (Girl's pictures and 100 poets' card...

Lithograph realized in 19th Century. In very good condition, it is matted in a black mat.

Étienne DENISSE (1785-1861) Gombeau Edible and Trompette. Collection of the most remarkable Flowers and Fruits, natural size. Two lithographs enhanced with watercolor. Around 1830. F...

J. F. BUFFORD PUBLISHER and PRINTER LAST MOMENTS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, April 15, 1865 Lithograph, very good impression. The 2 lower publishing lines ...

Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), Boy at the source, 1897. Algraph on strong wove paper after a drawing from 1897, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenös...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Plate from "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration of notable p...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Plate from "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration of notable p...

Kabukie is an original artwork realized in the 1850s by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). Oban from a triptych. An actor in the role of Otokodate Abe no Homei stands ready at night in...

The Skull is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper, realized by Paul Gervais (1816-1879). The artwork is from The Series of "Les Trois Règnes de la Nature", and was published...

Lithograph hand watercolored. Plate from "Atlante di Botanica popolare ossia Illustrazione di Piante Notevoli di ogni famiglia" (Atlas of popular botany or illustration of notable p...

Peter The Wild Boy Peter the Wild Boy, Found in the woods of Haemlin', 1821. Portrait of Peter the Wild Boy (c1713-1785) who was found in 1725 living an entirely feral existence in ...

Teruta-hime is a woodcut print realized by Utagawa Kuniyoshi in 1842/43. Lifetime impression of chuban tate-e, it depicts Teruta-hime carrying a bucket of water through the snow, wi...

Genji in the Twelve Months / The Tenth Month (Moto) is a tryptich woodcut print realized by Utagawa Toyokuni III in 1858. Very good condition except for some minor signs of wear.