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Art Subject: Child
La Guerre et la Paix Rouge Collotype
Located in OPOLE, PL
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) - La Guerre et la Paix Rouge Collotype
Lithograph from 1954.
Dimensions of work: 78 x 35.5 cm.
Publisher: Éditions Cercle d'Art, Paris.
Each copy of thi...
Category
1950s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Keith Haring Into 84 (set of 2 Haring Shafrazi announcements)
By Keith Haring
Located in NEW YORK, NY
'Keith Haring Painted Man'/Keith Haring Into 84:
A set of 2 announcement cards for Keith Haring’s well-documented exhibition, 'Into 84' at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York, 1983. For this series Haring borrowed Jones' body — from head to toe — as the canvas to his work. A bodily canvas defined by much of the bold pictograms characteristic of Haring's artistic signature. Photos by Haring's long-time friend and collaborator Tseng Kwong Chi. Looks fantastic framed as a set.
Off-set printed gallery announcements, 1983.
Dimensions: 6 x 4 inches (applies to each individual).
Good overall condition with well-preserved colors. Some surface creating to red card.
Unsigned from an edition of unknown.
Further About:
In 1983 Keith Haring teamed up with award-winning choreographer and dancer Bill T. Jones, founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. Keith and Bill met in London in 1983 at a time when the graffiti artist was opening a major show at the Robert Fraser Gallery, and together they produced a series of exceptional collaborations in both performance and drawing.
Keith Haring was an American artist and social activist known for his illustrative depictions of figures and symbols. His white chalk drawings could often been found on the blank poster marquees in New York’s public spaces and subways. “I don't think art is propaganda,” he once stated. “It should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination and encourages people to go further. It celebrates humanity instead of manipulating it.” Born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, PA, he grew up in neighboring Kutztown, where he was inspired to draw from an early age by Walt Disney cartoons and his father who was an amateur cartoonist. After briefly studying commercial art in Pittsburgh, Haring came across a show of the works of Pierre Alechinksy and decided to pursue a career in fine art instead. He moved to New York in the late 1970s to attend the School of Visual Arts, and soon immersed himself in the city’s graffiti culture. By the mid-1980s, he had befriended fellow artists Andy Warhol, Kenny Scharf, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and collaborated with celebrities like the singer Grace Jones. Diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1988, Haring’s prodigious career was brief, and he died of AIDS-related complications on February 16, 1990 at the age of 31. Before his death, Haring established the Keith Haring Foundation, a non-profit committed to raising awareness of the illness through art programing and community outreach. Throughout his career, Haring made his art widely available through the location of his murals, as well as through the Pop Shop—Haring's own storefront which he used to sell his memorabilia.The artist’s mural Crack is Wack (1986), can still be seen today on a retaining wall along FDR Drive in Manhattan. Haring’s works can be found in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Related Categories
Modern Dance. Ballet. Keith Haring Figurative Drawings. Keith Haring Into 84 poster. Keith Haring and Tony Shafrazi. Haring Shafrazi.
Category
1980s Pop Art Figurative Prints
Materials
Offset, Lithograph
$520 Sale Price
20% Off
High Life. Figurative etching print, Animals, Cats, Realistic, Polish artist
Located in Warsaw, PL
Contemporary etching print by Polish artist Marian Bocianowski. The print depicts two cats walking down the street, smartly clothed, with dog on a leash. Title of this print is 'High...
Category
Early 2000s Other Art Style Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Paper
Children - Lithograph by Giuseppe Migneco - mid-20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Children is a modern artwork realized by Giuseppe Migneco in the mid-20th Century.
Mixed colored lithograph.
Hand signed and numbered on the lower margin
Edition 60/150
Includes ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Nautical Girl #1 - 9.5"x9.5", Children's Art Print, Navy And White Dress
Located in Mississauga, Ontario
This children's Art Print on recycled paper features a delightfully sweet little girls dress. The contemporary and timeless aesthetic makes it perfect for a child's room or nursery. ...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper
Feed Everyone (for the Black Panthers at 1960s Harvard Square Be-in) food in art
Located in New York, NY
Unknown Artist
Feed Everyone, ca. 1969
Offset lithograph poster
Frame included: held in original vintage metal frame
Measurements:
Framed
27.5 inches vertical by 16 inches vertical b...
Category
1960s Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Offset
Arrest of the Palateros
By Frank Romero
Located in Palm Springs, CA
32 color Serigraph print completed at Modern Multiples in Los Angeles under the guidance of Richard Duardo. Signed and numbered #105 from the edition of 110. printed to the sheet edg...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
Untitled, Street Scene
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Raphael Soyer (Russian, American, 1899-1987)
Title: Untitled
Year: Circa 1975
Medium: Lithograph
Edition: Inscribed A.P (Artist Proof) in pencil
Paper: Arches
Image s...
Category
Late 20th Century American Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Composition, Cirque (Saphire, N° 44-106)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin d’Arches paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the folio, Cirque, Lithographies Originales. Published by Les Édition...
Category
1950s Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
$1,996 Sale Price
37% Off
Cacao lacté (Milky cocoa) - Lithograph (Les Maîtres de l'Affiche), 1895
Located in Paris, IDF
Lucien LEFEVRE
Cacao lacté (Milky cocoa), 1895
Lithograph
Printed signature in the plate
On vellum
Size 39 x 29 cm (c. 15.3 x 11.4")
INFORMATION : Plate...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Ancient Roman Fresco - Original Etching by Carlo Nolli - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Ancient Roman Fresco, from the series "Antiquities of Herculaneum", is an original etching on paper realized by Carlo Nolli in the 18th Century.
Signed on the plate on the lower ...
Category
18th Century Old Masters Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
Beaudin, Composition, André Beaudin, Verve: Revue Artistique (after)
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin des Papeteries du Marais paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: From the volume, André Beaudin, Verve: Revue Artistique et...
Category
1960s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
$716 Sale Price
20% Off
The Street - Original Lithograph - 19th Century
Located in Roma, IT
The Street is an original Hand-colored lithograph on brownish paper realized by an Anonymous artist of the 19th Century.
Titled and the description on the lower.
Plate-signed on t...
Category
19th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Marc, Der Traum, Derrière le miroir (after)
By Franz Marc
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Lithograph on vélin paper. Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition, with centerfold, as issued. Notes: From Derrière le miroir, N° 133-134, 1962. Published by...
Category
1960s Modern Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
$716 Sale Price
20% Off
Bath, Lithograph by John Hardy
Located in Long Island City, NY
Bath
John Hardy, American (1923–2014)
Date: circa 1976
Lithograph, Signed in Pencil
Edition of 275
Size: 30 in. x 22 in. (76.2 cm x 55.88 cm)
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Cocteau, Composition, Nous croyons en l'Europe (after)
By Jean Cocteau
Located in Auburn Hills, MI
Silkscreen on vélin papier Ingres de chez Arjomari-Prioux paper. Inscription: signed in the plate and unnumbered, as issued. Good condition. Notes: from the folio, Nous croyons en l'...
Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
$796 Sale Price
20% Off
MEDICINE (SEPIA)
Located in Aventura, FL
Hand signed and numbered by the artist. From Tom Sawyer Portfolio. Sheet size 25.5 x 19.5 inches. Image size approx 17 x 13 inches. Frame size approx 28 x 24 inches. AP edition. ...
Category
1970s American Impressionist Portrait Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
$2,065 Sale Price
30% Off
Ancient African Customs - Lithograph by Auguste Wahlen - 1844
Located in Roma, IT
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...
Category
1840s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Surreal Grail V (cup overflowing, wings)
Located in Jersey City, NJ
Surreal Grail V (cup overflowing, wings), 2019, digital collage, print, framed and matted, figurative, Digital Print / Feminist Art and Contemporary Feminist / Surrealistic / Human F...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Digital
Edward Bawden, Modern British art, Kew Gardens
Located in Harkstead, GB
A wonderful image by one of the great modern masters of English art, depicting a whimsical pastiche of Kew Gardens.
Edward Bawden (1903-1989)
Kew Gardens
Signed, titled and numbered 36/40
Engraving
17 x 10.5 cm
Edward Bawden was a watercolourist, illustrator, designer, printmaker and teacher, born in Braintree, Essex, the county in which he spent much of his life, finally living in Saffron Walden. Studied at Cambridge School of Art from 1919, then at Royal College of Art, 1922-5, on a scholarship, in the design school being taught by Paul Nash. Soon began on commercial work for Poole Pottery and Curwen Press, then in 1928-9 with Eric Ravilious and Charles Mahoney did decorations for Morley College. Bawden went on studying engraving and bookbinding at Central School Arts and Crafts after leaving the Royal College and himself taught there, the Royal Academy Schools and Goldsmiths' College School of Art. First one-man show at Zwemmer Gallery in 1934, after which he showed extensively including RA, being elected RA in 1956. Work poured from Bawden's studio in the 1930s, for companies such as Shell-Mex; book illustrations such as Good Food, 1932, and The Week-end Book, 1939; and a mass of often ephemeral work which evinced a wonderful wit, economy and aptness to subject. Official War Artist in World War II, much of his output being in the Imperial War Museum. Tate Gallery and many other public collections hold his work. Bawden did decorations for the SS Orcades and Oronsay and for the Unicorn Pavilion for the Festival of Britain of 1951. His son was the artist Richard Bawden...
Category
Early 20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Engraving
Two Girls with a Dog - Stone Lithograph - Mourlot, 1928
Located in Paris, IDF
Marie LAURENCIN
Two Girls with a Dog (1928)
Stone Lithograph
Printed in Atelier Mourlot
Printed signature in the plate
On China paper 42 x 31 cm (c. 17 x 12")
Excellent condition
Category
1920s Realist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Personages with Lambs
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Personages with Lambs" 1924 is an original colors aquatint by noted French artist Felix Roy A.K.A Sylvain Sauvage, 1888-1948. It is hand signed and numbered 88/350 in pencil by the artist.
The image size is 13 x 9.5 inches, framed is 20 16 inches. Published and printed by La Societe Des Graveurs Modernes, Paris. Custom framed in a wooden gold frame.
It is in excellent condition, especially considering the age of this artwork
About the artist.
Félix Roy, said Sylvain Sauvage (born in Baume-les-Messieurs ( Jura ) on May 8 , 1888 and died in Paris in January 1948 ) is an illustrator and technician of the French book.
He was an exhibitor at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs and Director of École Estienne . He illustrated many books of the French classic literature. The work of Sylvain Sauvage is held in numerous private collections in France and Europe.
Selected books illustrated by the artist.
L'Ingénue de Voltaire, Kieffer, 1922
La fille aux yeux d'or de Balzac, G. Crès, 1923
Monsieur Nicolas ou le cœur humain dévoilé. Mémoires intimes de Restif de la Bretonne, illustrés par Sylvain Sauvage de Restif de la Bretonne, Henri Jonquières, 1924
Les Belles Dames de Paris, historiettes de Tallemant de Réaux, coll. « Le livre du lettré », 1924 (avec une préface de Gérard Bauër)
Anatole France, Les sept femmes de la Barbe Bleue et autres contes merveilleux, A.&G. Mornay, Paris, 1925
Marquis de Sade, Ernestine, Cabinet du Livre / Jean Fort Éditeur, Paris, 1926 : 10 eaux-fortes
Casanova (J. de, Seigneur de Seingalt.), Une aventure de Casanova, Histoire complète de ses amours avec la belle C. C. et la religieuse de Muran. Compositions de Sylvain Sauvage gravées avec la collaboration de E. Feltesse. Paris, [chez l'artiste], 1926.
Candide de Voltaire, chez l'Artiste (imprimé chez Frazier-Soye et Haasen), 1928
Les Dieux ont soif de Anatole France, Éditions du Nord, 1928
Le Bon Plaisir d’Henri de Régnier, La Roseraie, 1929 : 20 eaux-fortes en couleurs et vingt bois gravés
La Troisième Jeunesse de madame Prune de Pierre Loti, Calmann-Levy, 1936
Les Romanesques ; Les Deux Pierrots ; La Dernière Nuit de Don Juan d’Edmond Rostand, éditions Pierre Laffitte, 1939 ; illustrations de Auguste Leroux...
Category
Early 20th Century Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Needle in a Haystack by Zedsy
Located in New York, NY
Rare#163/264 edition direct from Zedsy.
21 x 26 Inches (53 x 66 cm)
Screen print on 100% cotton 330gsm archival fine art paper.
Print edition of Zedsy's 'Needle in a Haystack' Mon...
Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen
Joseph Hirsch "September Morn" Rare Variant Signed / Numbered, circa 1960s
Located in San Francisco, CA
Joseph Hirsch (1910-1981) "September Morn" rare variant signed / numbered, circa 1960s
"September Morn" is most recognized in its color variant. This i...
Category
Mid-20th Century Other Art Style Landscape Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Le Rire - Vintage Comic Magazine - 1897
Located in Roma, IT
Le Rire is an Original Comic Magazine published on September 1897 with illustrations by Hermann Paul (1864-1940).
Good condition on a yellowed paper, except s...
Category
19th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Offset
$227 Sale Price
20% Off
Virgil expelled - Signed lithograph - Mourlot 1953
Located in Paris, IDF
Jacques Villon
Virgil expelled
Original stone lithograph
Signed in pencil
On Japan paper 38 x 56.5 cm (c. 15 x 23 in)
INFORMATION : This lithograph is part from the set Les Bucoliq...
Category
1950s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Salvador Dali - The Vision - Original Lithograph
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Salvador Dali - The Vision - Original Lithograph
Joseph FORET, Paris, 1957
PRINTER : Detruit.
SIGNATURE : plate signed by Dali.
LIMITED : 233 copies.
SIZE : 41 x 33 cm
REFERENCES ...
Category
1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Sarah and the Angels
By Marc Chagall
Located in OPOLE, PL
Marc Chagall (1887-1985) - Sarah and the Angels
Lithograph from 1960.
Dimensions of work: 35 x 26 cm
Publisher: Tériade, Paris.
The work is in Excellent condition.
Fast and sec...
Category
20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Food - Chromolithograph after Karl Werner - 1881
Located in Roma, IT
Food is a modern artwork realized d'apres Karl Werner
Mixed colored Chromolithograph.
The artwork is after the watercolor realized by the artist during a trip to Egypt between 18...
Category
1880s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Human Anatomical Skeleton - Original Lithograph by Paul Gervais - 1854
By Paul Gervais
Located in Roma, IT
Human Anatomical Skeleton is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper, realized by Paul Gervais (1816-1879). The artwork is from The Series of...
Category
1850s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
$199 Sale Price
40% Off
Do You Know...?, from the New York Collection for Stockholm portfolio (Signed/N)
Located in New York, NY
Nam June Paik
Do You Know...?, from the New York Collection for Stockholm portfolio, 1973
Silkscreen on paper, in original portfolio sleeve
Signed and dated '73 and numbered 36/300 i...
Category
1970s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen, Pencil
Gerlach's Allegorien Plate #35: "Love & Wine" Lithograph
Located in Chicago, IL
Koloman Moser
(1868 –1918), AUSTRIAN
Instead of applying his flair and art education solely to painting, Koloman Moser embodied the idea of Gesamt Kunstwerk (all-embracing art work) by designing architecture, furniture, jewelry, graphics, and tapestries meant to coordinate every detail of an environment. His work transcended the imitative decorative arts of earlier eras and helped to define Modernism for generations to come. Moser achieved a remarkable balance between intellectual structure (often geometric) and hedonistic luxury.
Collaborating with Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann, the artist was an editor and active contributor to Ver Sacrum, (Sacred Spring), the journal of the Viennese Secession that was so prized for its aesthetics and high quality production that it was considered a work of art. The magazine featured drawings and designs in the Jugendstil style (Youth) along with literary contributions from distinguished writers from across Europe. It quickly disseminated both the spirit and the style of the Secession.
In 1903 Moser and Hoffmann founded and led the Wiener Werkstatte (Viennese Workshop) a collective of artisans that produced elegant decorative arts items, not as industrial prototypes but for the purpose of sale to the public. The plan, as idealistic then as now, was to elevate the lives of consumers by means of beautiful and useful interior surroundings.
Moser’s influence has endured throughout the century. His design sensibility is evident from the mid-century modern furniture of the 1950s and ‘60s to the psychedelic rock posters...
Category
1890s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Skier, Pop Art Lithograph by Alan Mardon
Located in Long Island City, NY
Skier
Allan Mardon, Canadian (1931)
Date: Circa 1980
Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition of 300
Size: 29 in. x 21 in. (73.66 cm x 53.34 cm)
Category
1980s American Impressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
The Conversation - Original Lithograph by Paul Gavarni - 1881
By Paul Gavarni
Located in Roma, IT
The Conversation is an original lithograph artwork on ivory-colored paper, realized by the French draftsman Paul Gavarni (after) (alias Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier Gavarni, 1804-1866...
Category
1880s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Sailor Man in 1579 - Woodcut Print by Charles Sterns - Early 20th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Sailor Man in 1579 is a woodcut print on creamy color paper print on paper realized by Charles Sterns in the early 20th century
Good conditions.
The artwo...
Category
Early 20th Century Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Knave of Sticks - Etching by Franco Gentilini - 1970s
Located in Roma, IT
Knave of Sticks is an etching realized by Franco Gentilini (Italian Painter, 1909-1981) in the 1970s.
The state of preservation of the artwork is good.
Hand-signed.
Numbered, edit...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Les Jeans-Jeans - Lithograph by Auguste Raffet - 1850
Located in Roma, IT
Les Jeans-Jeans is a Lithograph realized by Auguste Raffet (1804-1860).
Good condition on a yellowed paper.
Hand signed by the artist on the lower right corner.
Denis Auguste Marie Raffet (2 March 1804 – 16 February 1860) was a French illustrator and lithographer. He was a student of Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, and was a retrospective painter of the Empire. Raffet's chief works were his lithographs of the Napoleonic campaigns, from Egypt to Waterloo, vigorous designs inspired by ardent patriotic enthusiasm. In this endeavour he was a contemporary of other French artist-lithographers of Napoleon...
Category
1830s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Derriere Le Miroir, " Three Original Color Lithographs by Saul Steinberg
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Derriere Le Miroir" is an original color lithograph signed by the artist Saul Steinberg. The artist's signature is in the bottom left margin.
Image Size: 14"x20"
Frame Size: 25 5/8...
Category
1970s American Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Paper
Cruising - Naïve art, comical, colourful, Folk art, everyday life
Located in London, GB
Printer's Proof /5
Her appeal was classless and she rapidly became Britain’s most popular artist. She was a ‘heart and soul’ painter, compelled to paint with a passion. Her painting...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Screen, Archival Paper
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" - Surreal Lithograph in Ink on Paper (#1/9)
Located in Soquel, CA
Detailed and vivid close-up of an eye with a reflection by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century). In the reflection of the eye, there is a person seated on the ground with a lar...
Category
1990s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Ink
'Greta & Grace', Leapfrog, Modernism, Woman Artist, Art Deco, Smithsonian, Paris
By Nura Ulreich
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
A mid-century, stone lithograph titled 'Greta and Grace' by Nura Woodson Ulreich (American, 1899-1950), created in 1943 and with certification of ...
Category
1940s Art Deco Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
The Conversation - Original Lithograph by Paul Gavarni - 1881
By Paul Gavarni
Located in Roma, IT
The conversation is an original lithograph artwork on ivory-colored paper, realized by the French draftsman Paul Gavarni (after) (alias Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier Gavarni, 1804-1866...
Category
1880s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
H.O. Miethke Das Werk folio "Pallas Athene" collotype print
Located in Chicago, IL
Pallas Athene, no. 9 from the third installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts
The Klimt-led Vienna Secession which rebelled against the Academic State-run e...
Category
Early 1900s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper
Indigenous People, Stage Coach, Mexico, America, mid 19th century lithograph.
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
'Indiani in viaggio' / 'Diligenza Messicana'
Italian lithograph, c1841. Originally from 'Galleria universale di tutti i popoli del mondo' by Giuseppe Antonelli, published in Venice,...
Category
Mid-19th Century Naturalistic Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
H.O. Miethke Das Werk folio "Life is a Struggle" collotype print
Located in Chicago, IL
Life is a Struggle (The Golden Knight), no. 10 from the second installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts
With his golden armor meticulously and faithfully rendered after examples found ...
Category
Early 1900s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints
Materials
Archival Paper
LE BALLON VERT
Located in Portland, ME
Rodo-Boulanger, Graciela. LE BALLON VERT. Lublin 20. Etching with aquatint in colors, 1967. Edition of 100. Numbered 31/100 and signed in pencil. 21 1/8 x 17...
Category
1960s Modern Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Indigenous Peoples celebrating, Mexico, America, mid 19th century lithograph.
Located in Melbourne, Victoria
'I Messicani celebrano il principio del secolo' / 'I selvaggi messicani celebrano il fine del secolo'
Italian lithograph, c1841. Originally from 'Galleria universale di tutti i popo...
Category
Mid-19th Century Naturalistic Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Devil at Cocktail Hour /// Funny Contemporary Monoprint Bar Romantic Alcohol Art
By Dan May
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Dan May (American, 1955-)
Title: "Devil at Cocktail Hour"
*Signed by May in pencil lower left
Year: 2003
Medium: Original Monoprint on unbranded ...
Category
Early 2000s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Paint, Monoprint, Oil
Tennis, Contemporary Lithograph by Beryl Cook
By Beryl Cook
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Beryl Cook, British (1927 - 2008)
Title: Tennis
Medium: Lithograph, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 300
Size: 34 in. x 27 in. (86.36 cm x 68.58 cm)
Category
1980s Contemporary Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"The Holy Hour with Six Figures" Copper Plate Heliogravure
Located in Chicago, IL
2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extol...
Category
1910s Symbolist Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper
Original Pink Panther Supporting Characters, Production Cel/Drawing
By MGM Studios
Located in Fairfield, CT
Artist: MGM Studios
Title: Pink Panther, Supporting Characters
Year: 1993-1995
Medium: Original, hand-painted production animation cel with laser color background, plus pencil drawin...
Category
1990s Pop Art Figurative Prints
Materials
Ink, Acrylic
"LA CHAINE SIMPSON" by Toulouse-Lautrec from Les Maitres de l'Affiche
Located in Hinsdale, IL
TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, HENRI DE
(1864-1901)
"LA CHAINE SIMPSON"
Original lithograph from "Les Maitres de L'Affiche" series
Printed by Imprimerie Chaix, Paris
Bearing MDL stamp lower right, from issue #60, 1900. Plate #238
Unframed Size: 11 3/8 x 15 3/4”
The "Les Maitres de l'Affiche" series was offered as a subscription series to collectors every month for 60 months, from December 1895 through November 1900. The "Maitres de l'Affiche," were issued as separate numbered sheets, referred to as "plates". They were numbered, with the printers name "Imprimerie Chaix," in the margin at the bottom left hand corner, "PL.1" to "PL.240." In the margin at the bottom right hand corner of each, is a blind embossed stamp from a design of Cheret's. The smaller format and the fact the "Maitres" were a paid subscription series, allowed Imprimerie Chaix to use the latest state of the art printing techniques, not normally used in the large format posters due to cost. A very high quality of paper was used, where as the large format posters were printed on lesser quality newsprint, due to cost and a short expected life span. This explains why the quality of the printing, in the "Maitres de l'Affiche," usually far exceeds that of their larger counterparts. "In her recent excellent biography of Lautrec, Julia Frey indicates that 'Henry, the frustrated athlete, was compulsively familiar with the vocabulary and technical aspects of a variety of sports in which he could participate as a spectator: horse and bicycle racing, wrestling, yachting, bullfighting. He watched them all with the same intensity that he watched a line of dancers or a circus bareback rider, attracted by the beauty of movement, but also by the smells, sounds and excitement of the spectacle (Frey, p.353) His 'insider' knowledge of the cycling field shows up abundantly in this poster for the French agent of the Simpson bicycle chain company. In the foreground is the champion cyclist Constant Huret. In the background are Tristan Bernard, the sports impresario who was a close friend of Lautrec, with Louis Bougle, the French agent who adopted the name 'Spoke.' A touch of levity is added by what appears to be a 'bicycle-built-for-ten' in the upper-left corner, in fact it's two five-seaters, known at the time as 'quints.'"(Rennert, PAI-XXII, 35)Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec came from an aristocratic background, having been born the son of an earl.Even as a schoolboy he showed a talent for drawing. By 14 he had suffered two horse back riding accidents, combined with a serious bone disease which eventually left him crippled for life. His body continued to grow but not his legs, he would remain only five feet tall and suffer pain and embarrassment his entire life.At the age of 18, Lautrec moved to Montmartre in Paris to study art seriously. He worked with artists Louis Anquentin, Emile Bernard, Degas, Van Gogh and others. He became a frequenter of the the cafes, cabarets and brothels of the neighborhood, drawing from them inspirations for his artistic themes. As the artist's stature grew, several magazines wanted to publish his work, including Le Rire. His subjects, as well as street life, included some of the most famous music-hall performers, with whom he became friends, such as Yvette Guilbert, La Goulue Jane Avril, May Milton, May Belfort...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"The World Weary" Copper Plate Heliogravure
Located in Chicago, IL
2018 marks the centenary anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death. In that 100 years time, the art world’s esteem of this important artist has proved fickle. It has shifted from extolling his artistic merits during his lifetime to showing something of a feigned disdain- more reflective of the world political order than a true change of heart for Hodler’s work. After years of Hodler being all but a footnote in the annals of art history and generally ignored, finally, the pendulum has righted itself once again. Recent retrospective exhibitions in Europe and the United States have indicated not only a joyful rediscovery of Hodler’s art but a firm conviction that his work and world view hold particular relevance today. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is not only a collection of printed work reflecting the best of all of his painted work created up to 1914 just before the outbreak of World War I, the portfolio itself is an encapsulation of Hodler’s ethos, Parallelisme.
Hodler developed his philosophy of Parallelisme as a unifying approach to art which strips away detail in search of harmony. By means of abstraction, symmetry and repetition, Hodler sought ways to depict Nature’s essence and her fundamental, universal order. He believed these universal laws governing the natural, observable world extend to the spiritual realm. Symbolist in nature with Romantic undertones, his works are equally portraits of these universal concepts and feelings governing all life as they are a visual portrait in the formal sense. Whether his subject is a solitary tree, a moment in battle, mortal fear, despair, the awe inspired by a vast mountain range, a tender moment or even the collective conviction in a belief, Hodler unveils this guiding principle of Parallelisme.
Several aspects of Hodler’s portfolio reinforce his tenets of Parallelisme. The Table of Contents clearly preferences a harmonious design over detail. The two columns, consisting of twenty lines each, list the images by order of appearance using their German titles. The abbreviated titles are somewhat cryptic in that they obscure the identities of the sitters. Like the image Hodler presents, they are distillations of the sitter without any extraneous details. This shortening was also done in an effort to maintain a harmonious symmetry of the Table of Contents, themselves, and keep titles to a one-line limit. The twenty-fourth title: “Bildnis des Schweizerischen Gesandten C.” was so long, even with abbreviation, that it required two lines; so, for the sake of maintaining symmetry, the fortieth title: “Bauernmadchen” was omitted from the list. This explains why the images are not numbered. Hodler’s reasoning is not purely esoteric. Symmetry and pattern reach beyond mere formal design principles. Finding sameness and imposing it over disorder goes to the root of Hodler’s identity and his art. A Swiss native, Hodler was bi-lingual and spoke German and French. Each printed image, even number forty, have titles in both of Hodler’s languages. Certainly, there was a market for Hodler’s work among francophones and this inclusion may have been a polite gesture to that end; however, this is the only place in the portfolio which includes French. With German titles at the lower left of each image, Hodler’s name at bottom center and corresponding French titles at the lower right of each image, there is a harmony and symmetry woven into all aspects of the portfolio. This holds true for the page design, as it applies to each printed image and as it describes the Swiss artist himself. Seen in this light, Hodler’s portfolio of printed work is the epitome of Hodler’s Parallelisme. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS is also one of the most significant documents to best tell the story of how Hodler, from Switzerland, became caught between political cross-hairs and how the changing tides of nations directly impacted the artist during his lifetime as well as the accessibility of his art for generations to come.
The Munich-based publisher of the portfolio, R. Piper & Co., Verlag, plays a crucial role in this story. Publishing on a wide range of subjects from philosophy and world religion to music, literature and the visual arts; the publisher’s breadth of inquiry within any one genre was equal in scope. Their marketing strategy to publish multiple works on Hodler offers great insight as to what a hot commodity Hodler was at that time. R.Piper & Co.’s Almanach, which they published in 1914 in commemoration of their first ten years in business, clearly illustrates the rapid succession- strategically calculated for achieving the deepest and broadest impact - in which they released three works on Hodler to hit the market by the close of 1914. DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS was their premier publication. It preceded C.A. Loosli’s Die Zeichnungen Ferdinand Hodlers, a print portfolio after 50 drawings by Hodler which was released in Autumn of 1914 at the mid-level price-point of 75-150 Marks; and a third less expensive collection of prints after original works by Hodler, which had not been included in either of the first two portfolios, was released at the end of that year entitled Ferdinand Hodler by Dr. Ewald Bender.
The title and timing of DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS' debut leaves little doubt as to the connection it has with another avant-garde portfolio of art prints, Das Werk Gustav Klimts, released in 5 installments from 1908 -1914 by Galerie Miethke in Vienna. Hodler, himself, was involved in Klimt’s ground-breaking project. As the owner of Klimt’s 1901 painting, “Judith with the Head of Holifernes” which appears as the ninth collotype print in the second installment of Das Werk Gustav Klimts, Hodler was obliged to grant access of the painting to the art printers in Vienna for them to create the collotype sometime before 1908. Hodler had been previously invited in 1904 to take part in what would be the last exhibition of the Vienna Secession before Klimt and others associated with Galerie Miethke broke away. In an interview that same year, Hodler indicated that he respected and was impressed by Klimt. Hodler’s esteem for Klimt went beyond the art itself; he emulated Klimt’s method aimed at increasing his market reach and appeal to a wider audience by creating a print portfolio of his painted work. By 1914, Hodler and his publisher had the benefit of hindsight to learn from Klimt’s Das Werk publication.
Responding to the sluggish sales of Klimt’s expensive endeavor, Hodler’s publisher devised the same diversified 1-2-3 strategy for selling Hodler’s Das Werk portfolio as they did with regards to all three works on Hodler they published that year. For their premium tier of DAS WERKS FERDINAND HODLERS, R. Piper & Co. issued an exclusive Museum quality edition of 15 examples on which Hodler signed each page. At a cost of 600 Marks, this was generally on par with Klimt’s asking price of 600 Kronen for his Das Werk portfolio. A middle-tiered Preferred edition of 30, costing somewhat less and with Hodler’s signature only on the Title Page, was also available. The General edition, targeting the largest audience with its much more affordable price of 150 Marks, is distinguishable by its smaller size.
Rather than use the subscription format Miethke had chosen for Klimt’s portfolios which proved to have had its challenges, R. Piper & Co. employed a different strategy. In addition to instantly gratifying the buyer with all 40 of the prints comprising DAS WERK FERDINAND HODLERS and the choice among three price points, they advertised in German journals a fourth possibility of ordering single prints from them directly. These printed images are easily discernible from the three complete folio editions. The paper size of the single purchased images is of the larger format like the Museum and Preferred editions, measuring 65 h x 50 w cm; however, the paper itself is the same copper print paper used in the General edition and then mounted on poster board. The publishing house positioned itself to be a direct retailer of Hodler’s art. They astutely recognized the potential for profitability and the importance, therefore, of having proprietary control over his graphic works.
R. Piper & Co. owned the exclusive printing rights to Hodler’s best work found in their three publications dating from 1914. That same year, a competing publication out of Weimar entitled Ferdinand Hodler: Ein Deutungsversuch von Hans...
Category
1910s Symbolist Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper
Pablo Picasso, "Carnet de la Californie", original lithograph
Located in Chatsworth, CA
This piece is an original crayon lithograph on transfer paper created by Pablo Picasso in 1959. The zinc in this piece has been re-worked with crayon marks and this composition was u...
Category
1950s Surrealist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Apeles Fenosa Spanish Sculptor Mourlot Lithograph Abstract Expressionist Figures
Located in Surfside, FL
This is from a hand signed, limited edition (edition of 125) folio or full page lithographs some having a poem verso. The individual sheets are not signed or numbered. This listing is just for the one sheet, not for the cover sheet or the signed sheet.
This was printed at Mourlot in Paris, France, on velin D'Arches paper.
Apel les Fenosa i Florensa (1899 - 1989) lived in Spain. Apelles Fenosa is known for Expressionist Sculpture.
Artist's alternative names: Apel·les Fenosa, Apelles Fenosa
Spanish Sculptor Fenosa was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1899 and as a young man worked in the studio of sculptor Enrique Casanovas where he came into contact with the ideas and adherents of the Modernist Movement and its influence in Barcelona, Paris and other European cities. In 1917 he founded together with Joan Rebull, Josep Granyer and Josep Viladomat the group The Evolutionists. He arrived in Paris in 1921. There he quickly gravitated into the Parisian avant garde artist community and became friends with Pablo Picasso, who became an early patron of his work, buying a significant number of his sculptures, and with the sculptor Max Jacob. By 1924 Fenosa was exhibiting in Paris and in his native city of Barcelona. Max Jacob wrote the preface to the catalogs of Fenosa's first Paris exhibition, and his show at the Zborowski gallery in 1928. In 1931 Fenosa was in Catalonia when the Second Spanish Republic was declared. There he remained in order to work with the anarchist movement and participate in the Republican ranks during the Spanish Civil War. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1936 and with the coming to power of the Franco Fascist regime left Spain once again to settle in Paris. In 1942, he met the painter and poet, Paul Eluard, who became a close friend.
In 1944, the Comite de Liberation du Limousin (Organization for the Liberation of the Limousin) commissions a sculpture to commemorate the Nazi killings of Oradour-sur-Glane. He creates the "Monument aux Martyrs d'Oradour-sur-Glane" (Monument to the Martyrs of Oradour) presently in Limoges.
From 1946 Fenosa exhibited individually or collectively in Paris, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, New York, Tokyo, Rabat, Osaka, Casablanca, Carrara.
His personal exhibition catalogs are prefaced by the most famous writers and poets of his time, including Paul Eluard, Jean Cocteau, Jules Supervielle, Josep Carner, Alexandre Cirici-Pellicer, Francis Ponge, Pablo Neruda, Michel Cournot, Roger Caillois, Salvador Espriu. He was part of a generation of Spanish and Catalan artists that included Jose Amat Pages, Ramon Pichot, Alfredo Opisso Cardona, Ramon Aguilar More, Juan Cardona Llados, Josep Miquel Serrano...
Category
1970s Expressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Kostume, Plakate, und Dekorationen, "Hagen-Pathe"
Located in Chicago, IL
Walter Schnackenberg’s style changed several times during his long and successful career. Having studied in Munich, the artist traveled often to Paris where he fell under the spell o...
Category
1910s Expressionist Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Jean Cocteau - Jean Monnet's Vision - Original Lithograph
By Jean Cocteau
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Original Lithograph by Jean Cocteau
Title: Jean Monnet's Vision
Signed in the stone/printed signature
Dimensions: 33 x 46 cm
Edition: 200
Luxury print edit...
Category
1960s Modern Portrait Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Three Masted Ship, 2' – Artist's Personal Letterhead, Bauhaus Modernism
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Lyonel Feininger, 'Three Masted Ship, 2 (Dreimastiges Schiff, 2)', woodcut, 1937, one of a small but unknown number of letterhead proofs; Prasse W296. Feininger estate stamp and inventory no. 'W 865' in pencil, bottom left sheet corner. Annotated 'W 296' and 'on block : 3702a' in pencil, bottom right sheet corner.
A fine impression, on cream, laid, letterhead stock; hinge remains on the left and right top sheet edges, verso, in excellent condition. Very scarce.
Image size 2 1/4 x 2 11/16 inches; sheet size 10 x 6 3/4 inches. Archivally sleeved, unmatted.
Exhibited: 'Lyonel Feininer, Woodcuts Used As Letterheads'; Associated American Artists; Feb 4 - March 2, 1974; New York, NY.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956) was born in New York City into a musical family—his father was a violinist and composer, his mother was a singer and pianist. He studied violin with his father, and by the age of 12, he was performing in public, but he also drew incessantly, most notably the steamboats and sailing ships on the Hudson and East Rivers, and the landscape around Sharon, Conn., where he spent time on a farm owned by a family friend. At the age of 16 he left New York to study music and art in Germany, from where his parents emigrated. Drawn more to the visual arts, he attended schools in Hamburg, Berlin, and Paris from 1887 to 1892.
After completing his studies, Feininger began his artistic career as a cartoonist and illustrator, his originality leading him to great success. In 1906, after working for a dozen years in Germany, he was offered a job as a cartoonist at the Chicago Tribune, the largest circulation newspaper in the Midwest. He worked there for a year, inventing what became the standard design for the comic strip: in the words of John Carlin, “an overall pattern. . . that allowed the page to be read both as a series of elements one after the other, like language and as a group of juxtaposed images, like visual art.” His originality did not end there: he went on to become one of the great abstract painters. Like Kandinsky, music was his model, but Kandinsky only knew music from the outside—as a listener (inspired initially by Wagner, then by Schoenberg)—while Feininger knew it from the inside. He lived in Paris from 1906 to 1908, during which time he met and was influenced by the work of progressive painters Robert Delaunay and Jules Pascin, as well as that of Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. He began painting full-time, developing his distinctive Iyrical style based on Cubist and Expressionist idioms and a concern for the emotive qualities of light and color. He exhibited with the Der Blaue Reiter group in 1913, and in 1917, he had his first solo exhibition at Galerie Der Sturm in Berlin.
One year after his solo exhibition, in 1918, Feininger began making woodcuts. He became enamored with the medium, producing an impressive 117 in his first year of exploring the printmaking medium. In 1919 at the invitation of the architect Walter Gropius, he was appointed the first master at the newly formed Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar. His woodcut of a cathedral crowned...
Category
1930s Bauhaus Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Not All Heroes Wear Capes (framed hand signed serigraph)
Located in Aventura, FL
4 layer serigraph on TW Graphic Ink on Coventry Rag vellum paper with deckled edges. Hand signed lower right by Kai. Hand numbered 264/643 lower left. Artwork size: 20 x 20 inches...
Category
2010s Street Art Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Screen
$2,212 Sale Price
25% Off
19th century color lithograph figures cemetery willow tree memorial headstone
Located in Milwaukee, WI
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...
Category
Mid-19th Century Romantic Figurative Prints
Materials
Watercolor, Lithograph