Currier & Ives

19th century color lithograph seascape boat ship waves maritime landscape

c. 1850

"L'Entree en scene (The Emergence)" is a color lithograph after a 1961 original piece by Rene Magritte. A transparent bird flies over the ocean. The body of this bird shows through it a clean light sky with fluffy clouds. The view around the bird is instead the dark night, stars shine at the top of the scene. Clouds blow by and the waves are turbulent. Art: 12.13 x 9.75 in Frame: 22.75 x 20.38 in René-François-Ghislain Magritte was born November 21, 1898, in Lessines, Belgium and died on August 15, 1967 in Brussels. He is one of the most important surrealist artists. Through his art, Magritte creates humor and mystery with juxtapositions and shocking irregularities. Some of his hallmark motifs include the bourgeois “little man,” bowler hats, apples, hidden faces, and contradictory texts. René Magritte’s father was a tailor and his mother was a miller. Tragedy struck Magritte’s life when his mother committed suicide when he was only fourteen. Magritte and his two brothers were thereafter raised by their grandmother. Magritte studied at the Brussels Academy of Fine Arts from 1916 to 1918. After graduating he worked as a wallpaper designer and in advertisement. It was during this period that he married Georgette Berger, whom he had known since they were teenagers. In 1926, René Magritte signed a contract with the Brussels Art Gallery, which allowed him to quit his other jobs and focus completely on creating art. A year later he had his first solo show at the Galerie la Centaurie in Brussels. At this show Magritte exhibited what is today thought of as his first surrealist piece, The Lost Jockey, painted in 1926. In this work a jockey and his steed run across a theater stage, curtains parted on either side. Throughout the scene, there are trees with trunks shaped somewhat like chess pawns with musical scores running vertically up their sides and branches sticking out from all angles. Critics did not enjoy this style of art; it was new, different, and took critical thought to understand, but The Lost Jockey was only the first of many surrealist artworks Magritte would paint. Because of the bad press in Brussels, René and Georgette moved to Paris in 1927, with the hope that this center of avant-garde art would bring him success and recognition. In Paris, he was able to become friends with many other surrealists, including André Breton and Paul Éluard. They were able to learn from and inspire one another, pushing the Surrealist movement further forward. It was also in Paris that Magritte decided to add text to some of his pieces, which was one of the elements that made his artwork stand out. In 1929, he painted one of his most famous oil works: The Treachery of Images. This is the eye-catching piece centered on a pipe. Below the pipe is written “Ceci n’est pas un pipe,” which translates to “This is not a pipe.” This simple sentence upset many critics of the time, for of course it was a pipe. Magritte replied that it was not a pipe, but a representation of a pipe. One could not use this oil on canvas as a pipe, to fill it with tobacco and smoke it. Thus, it was not a pipe. In 1930, Magritte and Georgette moved back to Brussels. Though they would travel to his exhibitions elsewhere, their home going forward would always be in Brussels. Magritte had his first American exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City in 1936 and his first show in England two years later in 1938 at The London Gallery...

This poster, titled 'La Côte Basque' in the image, was intended to draw people to travel to the Basque coast of Spain. The image is dominated by the serene blues, greens and yellows of the golf course and sandy beach. Throughout the vista, figures can be seen at leisure golfing, riding horseback, eating at restaurants, and sunbathing. 34 x 23.75 inches, poster 43.5 x 33.25 inches, image Signed in the stone, lower right Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag mounting, UV5 Plexiglas to inhibit fading, and housed in a gold finished wood moulding with a 3-inch Belgian linen liner. Bernard Villemot (1911 – 1989) was a French graphic artist known primarily for his iconic advertising images for Orangina, Bally Shoe, Perrier, and Air France. He was known for a sharp artistic vision that was influenced by photography, and for his ability to distill an advertising message to a memorable image with simple, elegant lines and bold colors. From 1932 to1934, he studied in Paris with artist Paul Colin, who was considered a master of Art Deco. From 1945 to 1946, Villemot prepared posters for the Red Cross. In the late 1940s, he also began a famous series of travel posters for Air France that would continue for decades. In 1949, Villemot's works were exhibited with those of his contemporary poster artist Raymond Savignac at the Gallery of Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1953, Villemot began designing logos and posters for the new soft drink Orangina, and over time these works would become some of his best known. In 1963, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris held an exhibition of his works. By the end of his life in 1989, he was known as one of the last great poster artists, and many collectors and critics consider him to be the "painter-laureate of modern commercial art." Since his death in 1989, his memorable images have been increasingly sought after by collectors. At least three books have been published that survey his art: "Les affiches de Villemot," by Jean-Francois Bazin...

Business cards like this fall into the category of what art historians today generally refer to as "ephemera." Ones like this were produced for companies in the late 19th century, pr...

With the invention of the halftone print process, photographic postcards like this became inexpensive to produce and became widely distributed in the first decades of the 20th centur...

Lithograph on paper, 1925 by Alexander Kanoldt, Germany. Signed in pencil lower right with "Kanoldt". Framed. Sheet dimensions: 8.86 x 6.89 in ( 22,5 x 17,5 cm ) Alexander Kanoldt was born in 1881 as the son of the landscape artist Edmund Kanoldt. In 1909 he finished his studies at the Academy of Arts in Karlsruhe, Germany. In the same year he became one of the founding members of the ‘Die Neue Künstlervereinigung München’ (‘New Artist’s Association Munich’) that put forward the editorial team for the Blaue Reiter in 1911. Furthermore he was part of the artist’s group “Munich’s New Secession which was founded in 1913 and included Alexej Jawlensky...

Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic design and painting at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, earning his ...

Edition of 60 Lithograph in colors Plate: 8 1/2 x 11 inches Sheet: 13 x 17 inches Robert Bechtle was born in 1932 in San Francisco and raised in Alameda. He studied graphic des...

Lithograph on wove paper, 1920s by Karl Holtz ( Germany ). The unsigned lithograph is probably a later, possibly posthumous print. Black and white gold frame...