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Louis Prang Art

American, 1824-1909

Born on March 12, 1824, Louis Prang was a famous printer, lithographer, publisher and Georgist. His early activities in the U.S. — publishing architectural books and making leather goods — were not very successful, and he began to make wood engravings for illustrations in books. In 1851, he worked for Frank Leslie, art director for Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, and later with John Andrew. In 1851, he married Rosa Gerber, a Swiss woman he had met in Paris in 1846. In 1856, Prang and a partner created a firm, Prang and Mayer, to produce lithographs. The company specialized in prints of buildings and towns in Massachusetts. In 1860, he bought the share of his partner, creating L. Prang and Company, and began work in colored printing of advertising and other forms of business materials. The firm became quite successful and became known for war maps, printed during the American Civil War and distributed by newspapers. In 1864, Prang went to Europe to learn about cutting-edge German lithography. Returning the next year, Prang began to create high quality reproductions of major art works. Prang also began creating a series of popular album cards, advertised to be collected into scrapbooks, showing natural scenes and patriotic symbols. 

On Christmas in 1873, Prang began creating greeting cards for the popular market in England and began selling the Christmas card in America in 1874. Therefore, he is sometimes called the "father of the American Christmas card." Prang is also known for his efforts to improve art education in the U.S., publishing instructional books and creating a foundation to train art teachers. Prang was an active supporter of women artists, both commissioning and collecting artworks by women. Many of his lithographs featured works by female artists, such as the botanical illustration of Ellen Thayer Fisher. In 1881, his company employed more than 100 women. In June 1886, Prang published a series of prints under the title Prang's War Pictures: Aquarelle Facsimile Prints. These became popular and helped inspire a genre of such prints, particularly the series issued by Kurz and Allison. However, Prang aimed at a more modern and individual treatment, as opposed to the panoramic style of Kurz and Allison, and before them, Currier and Ives. In 1897, L. Prang and Company merged with another firm, creating the Taber-Prang Company and moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. Prang died in Los Angeles on vacation in 1909.

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Artist: Louis Prang
19th century color lithograph rhinoceros trees nature forest animals signed
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Rhinoceros" is an original color chromolithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts two rhinos in a lush jungle forest. 7 1/2" x 5" art 12 1/2" x 9 1/4" paper 18 3/8" x 15 1/2" frame Lo...
Category

1880s Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Under the Apple Tree", Figurative Chromolithograph after George Niles, 188/250
By Louis Prang
Located in Soquel, CA
Original chromolithograph by Louis Prang (German/American, 1823-1909) of L. Prang & Co. (American, founded 1860), after "Under the Apple Tree" by George E. Niles (American, 1837-1898). This late 19th century figurative chromolithograph depicts a small boy in a country setting and period dress under an apple tree, reaching into a barrel with a basket of apples spilling into the grass. A German style chromolithograph, this limited edition 188/250 print was created with heavy, oil-based inks which were applied in several layers to impart a texture similar to an original oil painting. Signed and dated in the plate "G.E. Niles 1867". Tag on verso with "Prang's American Chromos - Under the Apple Tree, after Niles - Chromolithographed and published by L. Prang & Co. ...Boston". Displayed in a rustic giltwood beveled frame. Image size: 9"H x 7.25"W. Louis Prang was a foremost lithographer and publisher in New York City from the mid to the end of the 19th Century. Born in Breslau, Germany to a father who was a calico printer, he was an apprentice to his father during his teen-age years and then spent five years as a journeyman, learning printing and dyeing and living in Austria, France and England. However, Prang's liberal political vliews caused him to be deported by the Prussian government during the Revolution of 1848, and fled via Bohemia and Switzerland to get to America. In 1850, Prang went to Boston, having stopped briefly in New York City, and became a publisher and taught himself wood engraving. In 1856, he turned to lithography in partnership with Julius Mayer. In 1860, he founded Louis Prang and Co., which was his own company and the first stiff competition to Currier and Ives. A primary reason for this competition was Prang's active imagination and energetic pursuit of his business. During the Civil War, he published maps and battle plans so that people at home could follow military movements. He also created printed card portraits of Union soldiers...
Category

Late 19th Century American Impressionist Louis Prang Art

Materials

Cardboard, Lithograph

19th century color lithograph birds nature tree flowers animals forest signed
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Resplendent Trogon" is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts two large trogon birds in a lush jungle with various flora and fauna surroundin...
Category

Late 19th Century American Realist Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

19th century color lithograph butterflies flowers nature trees scene signed
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Erycinids" is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts colorful butterflies around a variety of flowers. 5" x 8" art 16 1/2" x 19" framed Louis Prang was an American printer, lithographer, and publisher. He is sometimes known as the father of the American Christmas card. He created L. Prang and Company in 1860 and became successful and known for their Civil War maps...
Category

Late 19th Century American Realist Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

19th century color lithograph beetles nature forest tree leaves animal signed
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Stag Beetle & Longicorn Beetle" is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts two forest-dwelling beetles. The artist signed the piece in the stone lower left. It was published by Selmar Hess in New York. 8" x 5" art 19 3/8" x 16" framed Louis Prang (March 12, 1824 – September 14, 1909) was an American printer, lithographer, publisher, and Georgist. He is sometimes known as the "father of the American Christmas card". Prang's early activities in the US publishing architectural books and making leather goods were not very successful, and he began to make wood engravings for illustrations in books. In 1851 he worked for Frank Leslie, art director for Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, and later with John Andrew. In 1851, he married Rosa Gerber, a Swiss woman he had met in Paris in 1846. In 1856, Prang and a partner created a firm, Prang and Mayer, to produce lithographs. The company specialized in prints of buildings...
Category

1880s Academic Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

19th century color lithograph birds nature tree leaves nature scene signed
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Weaver Birds" is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts multiple weaver birds with leaves surrounding them. 8 1/4" x 5" image 12 1/2" x...
Category

Late 19th Century American Realist Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

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"Japon 17 e Siècle" Lithograph by Unknown Artist, Printed in Italy
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This artwork titled "The Horsemen" 1935, is an original lithograph on paper by noted American artist William Gropper, 1897-1977. It is hand signed in pencil by the artist. The artwork (image) size is 9.5 x 12.75 inches, framed size is 17.5 x 20.40 inches. Published by Associated American Artists, New York, printed by George Miller. Referenced and pictured in the artist catalogue raisonne by Steinberg, page 246 and Windisch and Cole, plate #602. Custom framed in a black metal frame, with off white matting. It is in excellent condition, the frame have very minor scratches. An example of this particular artwork is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. and at the Portland Museum, Portland. About the artist: William Gropper was born in New York City's Lower East Side in 1897. He was the first of six children to parents who earned small wages working in sweatshops. At the age of fourteen, Gropper left school to help support his family. While carrying bolts of cloth for his deliveries, Gropper began to draw on scraps of paper, sidewalks, and walls. A passerby saw some of these drawings and invited Gropper to attend a life-drawing class at the Ferrer School. He studied there for three years from 1912 to 1915, attending classes taught by Robert Henri and George Bellows. From 1915 to 1918 Gropper attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Art part-time on scholarship. Gropper also won a scholarship to the National Academy of Design, but remained as a student for only a short time; the rigid and systematic institution conflicted with Gropper's belief in the personal nature of art. At the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, Gropper earned several prizes. One of these prizes was for his cartoons, which led him to be hired by the New York Tribune in 1917 to sketch for their features. A few years later through freelance work, his cartoons and drawings appeared in other newspapers and magazines, such as The Liberator, The New Masses, The New York Post, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. By the late 1920s Gropper was an established cartoonist and draughtsman. He sympathized with the labor movement and was a champion of peace and personal liberty. Gropper began to paint seriously, but privately, on these themes in 1921. Gropper's first exhibition of monotypes was held in 1921 at the Washington Square Book Shop in New York. At this time, he also began to do illustrations for books. Gropper took his first sketching trip in 1924 to the West with Morris Pass. By 1930 Gropper began to receive recognition as a fine artist. In 1934, he received two mural commissions from the Schenley Corporation in New York City. In 1935, he was commissioned to paint a mural for the Hotel Taft in New York City. In 1936, Gropper received several public mural commissions: one was for the Freeport, Long Island Post Office, which was completed in 1938 and followed by another mural for the Northwestern Postal Station, Detroit, Michigan. In his first gallery exhibition in 1936 at ACA Galleries, Gropper's work was so well received by critics, collectors, and artists that the following year he had two one-man exhibitions at ACA Galleries. In 1937, Gropper traveled west on a Guggenheim Fellowship and visited the Dust Bowl and the Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams, sketching studies for a series of paintings and a mural he painted for the Department of the Interior in Washington, DC. That same year he had paintings purchased by both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Gropper exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Whitney Museum of American Art (1924-55), Art Institute of Chicago (1935-49), Carnegie International (1937-50), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1939-48), and National Academy of Design (1945-48). He was a founder of the Artists Equity Association and member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. From 1940 to 1945 William Gropper was preoccupied with anti-Nazi cartoons...
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Mid-20th Century American Realist Louis Prang Art

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Horsemen
Horsemen
H 17.5 in W 20.4 in D 0.75 in
Lithograph Titled: Two Hares in the Moonlight. New York Graphic Society, 1976.
Located in Clinton Township, MI
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20th Century Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

Grey Heron, French antique natural history water bird art illustration print
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Soaking Up
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Category

Late 20th Century American Realist Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

Soaking Up
Soaking Up
H 17.5 in W 21.65 in D 0.01 in
Sunday, Central Park
By Harold Altman
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Harold Altman (American, 1924-2003) Title: Sunday, Central Park Year: c. 1985 Medium: Color lithograph Edition: Numbered 56/285 in pencil Paper: Wove Image size: 17.5...
Category

Late 20th Century American Impressionist Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

Sunday, Central Park
Sunday, Central Park
H 29.35 in W 36.65 in D 1 in
Duck Pond
By Harold Altman
Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Harold Altman (American, 1924-2003) Title: Duck Pond Year: circa 1980 Medium: Original color lithograph Edition: 285. This one: 29/285 in pencil Paper: Arches Image size...
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Late 20th Century American Impressionist Louis Prang Art

Materials

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Duck Pond
Duck Pond
H 22.25 in W 25 in D 1.25 in
Four Walking Figures
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Located in San Francisco, CA
Artist: Harold Altman (American, 1924-2003) Title: Four Walking Figures Year: c.1980 Medium: Original color lithograph Edition: Inscribed "Artist Proof" in pencil Paper: Arches ...
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Late 20th Century American Impressionist Louis Prang Art

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Four Walking Figures
Four Walking Figures
H 20.15 in W 25 in D 1.25 in
Previously Available Items
"Cicadae, Lantern Fly, Etc., " original color lithograph by Louis Prang
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Cicadae, Lantern Fly, Etc." is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts exotic flowers, plants, and insects. The artist signed the piece in the stone lower right. It was published by Selmar Hess in New York. 8 1/8" x 5" art 19 1/2" x 16" framed Louis Prang (March 12, 1824 – September 14, 1909) was an American printer, lithographer, publisher, and Georgist. He is sometimes known as the "father of the American Christmas card". Prang's early activities in the US publishing architectural books and making leather goods were not very successful, and he began to make wood engravings for illustrations in books. In 1851 he worked for Frank Leslie, art director for Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, and later with John Andrew. In 1851, he married Rosa Gerber, a Swiss woman he had met in Paris in 1846. In 1856, Prang and a partner created a firm, Prang and Mayer, to produce lithographs. The company specialized in prints of buildings...
Category

1880s Academic Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Hermit-Crabs, " Original Color Lithograph Seafloor Print by Louis Prang
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Hermit Crabs" is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts some underwater sea creatures. The artist signed the piece in the stone lower right. It was published by Selmar Hess in New York. 9 1/8" x 5" art 19 1/2" x 16" framed Louis Prang (March 12, 1824 – September 14, 1909) was an American printer, lithographer, publisher, and Georgist. He is sometimes known as the "father of the American Christmas card". Prang's early activities in the US publishing architectural books and making leather goods were not very successful, and he began to make wood engravings for illustrations in books. In 1851 he worked for Frank Leslie, art director for Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, and later with John Andrew. In 1851, he married Rosa Gerber, a Swiss woman he had met in Paris in 1846. In 1856, Prang and a partner created a firm, Prang and Mayer, to produce lithographs. The company specialized in prints of buildings...
Category

1880s Academic Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Holothurians and Sea Star, " Original Color Lithograph by Louis Prang
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Holothurians and Sea Star" is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts some underwater sea creatures. The artist signed the piece in the stone lower left. It was published by Selmar Hess in New York. 7 3/4" x 5" art 19 3/8" x 16" framed Louis Prang (March 12, 1824 – September 14, 1909) was an American printer, lithographer, publisher, and Georgist. He is sometimes known as the "father of the American Christmas card". Prang's early activities in the US publishing architectural books and making leather goods were not very successful, and he began to make wood engravings for illustrations in books. In 1851 he worked for Frank Leslie, art director for Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, and later with John Andrew. In 1851, he married Rosa Gerber, a Swiss woman he had met in Paris in 1846. In 1856, Prang and a partner created a firm, Prang and Mayer, to produce lithographs. The company specialized in prints of buildings...
Category

1880s Academic Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Puma, " an Original Color Chromolithograph by Louis Prang
By Louis Prang
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Puma" is an original color lithograph by Louis Prang. It depicts two large puma in a lush jungle with various flora and fauna surrounding them. 7 7/8" x 5" art 12 5/8" x 9 3/8" pa...
Category

Late 19th Century American Realist Louis Prang Art

Materials

Lithograph

Louis Prang art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Louis Prang art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Louis Prang in lithograph, board, cardboard and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 19th century and is mostly associated with the Impressionist style. Not every interior allows for large Louis Prang art, so small editions measuring 11 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Peter Moran, Stephen Parrish, and Neil Welliver. Louis Prang art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $250 and tops out at $1,300, while the average work can sell for $1,300.

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