David Barnett Gallery

"Yanagibashi in Snow" is an original color woodcut by Utagawa Kunisada. This woodblock print depicts a woman walking in the snow near the Motoyanagi canal, which was located in Tokyo...

"En Auto" is an original color lithograph by Singils. The artist signed the piece in stone and wrote the title in the lower left. The edition number, also written lower left, is 46/5...

"Song For Lovers" is an original oil painting on canvas by Xiao Ming. This artwork features two abstracted figures embracing, a seated figure with a dress, multiple animal heads, and other abstract symbols over a dark blue and black background. 23 3/4" x 19 1/2" art 31 1/2" x 26 1/2" frame Born in the Yunnan province of China, Close to Tibet, Xiao Ming found her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue, Mings work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"Farmers are Ploughing Their Fields II" is a mixed media piece by Xiao Ming. The artist stamped their mark lower right. It features abstracted figures farming. 20" x 10 3/4" art 28" x 28" art Born in the Yunnan province of China, Close to Tibet, Xiao Ming found her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue, Mings work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"Tree & Half Dome (Yosemite National Park, CA" is a black and white photograph signed by Thomas Ferderbar. This photo shows a vista in the Yosemite National Park in California. The center of the piece is a evergreen with asymmetrical limbs. In the distance, one can see the mountains, valley, and clouds...

"Pray Sky & Sky Mask" is a mixed media piece on paper signed by the artist Xiao Ming. It depicts a variety of surreal and abstracted figures in red, blue, and yellow. 34" x 34 1/4" art 43 1/2" x 43 5/8" frame Born in the Yunnan province of China, close to Tibet, Xiao Ming founds her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue. Ming’s work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"Any Life of Home" is an original mixed media painting on paper by Xiao Ming. The artist signed the piece lower right. This artwork features a variety of the artist's personal symbol...

"The Hunter" is a mixed media piece on paper with a stamped signature by Xiao Ming. It depicts an abstracted figure shooting a boar with an arrow. There are various other creatures and it is created with brightly colored inks. 32 1/2" x 33" art 42 1/2" x 42 3/4" frame Born in the Yunnan province of China, close to Tibet, Xiao Ming founds her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue. Ming’s work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"The Spirit Song of Mind" is by emerging contemporary Chinese artist Xiao Ming. It has a stamped signature lower right. 34" x 31 1/2" art 43 1/2" x 41" ...

"Sky Eye 2" is a mixed media on paper by emerging contemporary Chinese artist Xiao Ming. 34 1/4" x 34 1/4" art 43 1/2" x 43 5/8" framed Born in the Yunnan province of China, close to Tibet, Xiao Ming founds her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue. Ming’s work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

"Sky Mask 3" is an original mixed media painting on paper by Xiao Ming. The artist signed the piece lower right. This artwork features a variety of abstracted and simplified figures and symbols. The artwork was created on a background of black and yellow. 33 3/4" x 33 3/4" art 43 1/2" x 43" frame Born in the Yunnan province of China, Close to Tibet, Xiao Ming found her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue, Mings work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

Chinese artist Xiao Ming's mixed media on paper artwork titled "Life is Here" depicts an abstract landscape surrounded by impressive mountains to the north and the rich blues of lake...

"The East Light" is an original mixed media artwork on paper by Xiao Ming. The artist signed the piece lower right. This artwork features a variety of abstract symbolic figures and a...

"Sky Eye" by emerging contemporary Chinese artist Xiao Ming is a signed mixed media on paper from 2001. 34" x 34 1/2" art 44 1/2" x 44 1/2" framed Born in the Yunnan province of China, close to Tibet, Xiao Ming found her artwork on her beliefs and traditions of living with nature as a guardian and protector. These beliefs and traditions may have influenced Ming to favor colored inks, a gouache of sorts derived from mineral pigments bound by using animal glue. Ming’s work is steeped in Chinese art history, influenced by the ancient scroll...

'Woman Vaping Juul II' is an original color pencil drawing by Elise Rise, produced as part of her 'Hinged' series. This series presents small-scale drawings and panel paintings of co...

"A Quiet Moment" is an original oil painting on canvas by Pamela Papas. It depicts a woman in a white robe lounging on a couch in front of a window. 22" ...

"She Remained Still - Figure 28" is an original etching and mixed media piece by Joan Soppe. It depicts a wire bed frame and fields of color and text. This piece is edition 14/50. ...

Printed in 1943, by the U.S. Government Printing Office for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. The poster features the beloved Disney characters, Bambi (deer), Thumper (rabbit), and Flower (skunk) in wide-eyed shock leaning towards fear. With the slogan "Please, Mister, don't be careless" the poster is designed to tug at the heartstrings of the viewer and make them consider what actions they could take in their own lives to prevent forest fires. Poster: 20" x 14 1/4" Frame: 30" x 22 1/2" Framed to conservation standards with a 100% cotton fiber matboard border and UV clear glass that filters 99% of UV Rays. UV Rays can be especially damaging and cause fading to the inks used in poster making. All of these features are housed in a contemporary natural wood frame. Smokey Bear...

"Stone Skipper" is an original oil painting on board by Gregory D. Steele, signed in the lower left. This painted depicts a lakeshore beach in Door County, Wisconsin. The cold blue w...

"North Woods Road" is an original oil painting on board by Gregory Steele. The artist signed the piece lower left. It depicts a path in northern Wisconsin during the fall. There is a...

"An Eagle's Morning" is an original oil painting on board by Gregory Steele. The artist signed the piece lower left and signed and dated the artwork on verso. The artwork depicts a l...

In this drawing, Sylvia Spicuzza presents the viewer with a dark, subtle view of two milkweed pods, bursting forth with cotton. Examples like this show the ability of Spicuzza to draw in a naturalistic style, where most of her work is usually in a highly stylized, graphic mode. The richness and depth of the black charcoal makes for a moody image. 8 x 5 inches, artwork 18 x 14.5 inches, frame Born in 1908, Sylvia Spicuzza was the daughter of noted painter Francesco Spicuzza. Sylvia devoted herself to teaching art to the students of Lake Bluff...

"Lake Michigan Shore" is an original oil painting on board by Francesco Spicuzza. The artist shows the impact of Impressionism in his landscapes from around 1930. "Lake Michigan Shor...

"A Field for the Birds" is an original acrylic painting on canvas by Tom Shelton. The artist signed the painting in the lower right. This painting depicts a diagonal line of birds cu...

This small painting of the Forest at Fontainebleau in France is an excellent example of the Barbizon School. The Barbizon School of artists were working in France roughly between 182...

"The Orange Cart, Mazatlan, Mexico" is an original watercolor painting signed and dated in the lower right by artist F. Douglas Greenbowe. It depicts a ...

In this painting, Robert Richter presents the viewer with a deep and vibrant field of red grass. Indeed, the term 'field' here is apt, as the large expanse of red in the painting see...

In this painting, Robert Richter depicts a view of a hill in winter, with a tree and craggy rocks in the immediate foreground in high contrast to the grey-white of the recent snowfal...

"The Spirit of John Muir with Star Trails, Yosemite" is a performance chromogenic photograph created by Robert Kawika Sheer. The artist signed this work in the lower left and edition...

"Cordillera, Blanca-Ancash (White Mountains)" is an original oil painting on canvas by the Peruvian artist Abelardo Marquez. It depicts a mountain and stream in an impressionist styl...

"Erotic Song II" is an original oil painting on canvas by Alayna Rose. The artist signed the piece lower right. It features abstract, gestural, and expressionist marks in orange, blue, red, and purple over a black background. 30" x 24" art Custom framing is available Alayna Rose is a painter, jewelry designer and former illustrator. Her fashion jewelry has been featured in exclusive boutiques from Hawaii to the East Coast. In 1987 she was featured as an outstanding new designer in Accessories Magazine. Her copper enameled designs have been exhibited in shows in New York City, Chicago and other major venues in the United States. From 1990-2007 she was Vice President of a design company that specialized in illustrations for patent applications, trademarks and technical art. She studied with Gary Rosine, former department chair of Cardinal Stritch University’s Visual Studies Program, Kenn Kwint, nationally recognized Wisconsin painter and was mentored by one of Wisconsin’s most celebrated sculptors, Mary Nohl...

"Le Retour (Return)" is a color lithograph after the original 1940 painting by Rene Magritte. A bird which is really just the sky in the day and clouds. A nest bellow the bird has th...

"The Long White Road" is an original wood engraving by Lowell Merritt Lee. A long white road stretches past empty barren trees under a cloudy sky. Image: 6" x 5" Framed: 15.37" x 1...

This painting is an excellent example of the work of Daniel Klewer, coming from his series 'Botanical Abstractions.' His works in this series follow strict, self-imposed rules: Klewe...

"La Tempete" is an original etching by Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellee). This is Claude's earliest dated etching (1630). The work depicts a storm-tossed sea with ships on the verge of ...

"Memory Four" is an original acrylic painting on paper by Karen Hoepting. The artist signed the piece in the lower right and titled it in the upper left. The painting features a quil...

"Portrait of Young Woman with Bonnet" is an original watercolor and graphite drawing on paper by Hannah de Rothschild. This artwork features a woman in a hat holding a ring. 10" x 7" art 19" x 16" frame Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery (27 July 1851 – 19 November 1890) was the daughter of Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen. Upon the death of her father in 1874 she became the richest woman in Britain. During the final quarter of the 19th century her husband, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, was one of the most celebrated figures in Britain, an influential millionaire and politician, whose charm, wit, charisma and public popularity gave him such standing that he "almost eclipsed royalty." Yet his Jewish...

"Untitled" is an original color lithograph by Angelika Thusius. This is an artist proof and a completely unique impression. This piece depicts two women sharing beans in front of a d...

In this image, Jessie Spiess applies the multiple-exposure technique to the downtown of the City of Milwaukee as seen from the Milwaukee River. She often turns her camera to views of...

In this image, Jessie Spiess applies the multiple-exposure technique to the Milwaukee Art Museum's famous Quadracci Pavilion, designed by architect Santiago Calatrava. She often turn...

"Koi Fish II" is an original oil painting on linen by Leslie Parke. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. This hyper-realist painting depicts a school of multi-colored koi ...

"Tracks" is an original oil painting on linen by Leslie Parke. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. This hyper-realist painting depicts tire tracks in wet grey mud. 31" ...

"Conversaciones Alternadas (Alternated Conversations)" is an original mixed media piece on handmade paper by Teresa Olabuenaga. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. It dep...

"Entre Mitos (Within Myths)" is an original mixed media artwork on canvas by Teresa Olabuenaga. This piece depicts the head of a woman below abstract forms and other images. 54" x ...

"El Gozo en el Recuerdo (The Pleasure in Memory)" is an original mixed media piece on handmade paper by Teresa Olabuenaga. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. It depicts ...

"And She Was Red" is an original oil painting on canvas created by Alayna Rose. Layers of red with expressionist mark making, this contemporary abstract painting depicts the complexi...

"Transcendence" is an original oil painting on canvas signed and dated in the lower right by the artist Karin Krohne Kaufman. This painting depicts a woman in red and yellow with a b...

"Landscape Pink & Red" is an original framed pastel drawing by Sue Bartfield. 36" x 25" art 47 1/2" x 36" framed Artist's Statement: "You might be surprised to know that I do not ...

"Progress Regress" is an original oil painting on canvas by Renee McGinnis. The artist signed the piece in the lower right. This piece depicts a boy scrunching up his face, revealing that his teeth say "Progress Regress", the title of the painting. This boy is laying on a pillow in front of a stormy sky. 36" x 48" art 42" x 54" frame Renee McGinnis grew up on a farm in central Illinois and attended Illinois Wesleyan University, earning a BFA in 1984. She continued with graduate work in sociology and anthropology at the University of Chicago. Her work has been exhibited widely in Chicago and has also been shown in Germany, Australia, New York City, Washington D.C. and Baltimore, Md. Her curatorial debut occurred when she launched “The Chicago Solution Show 2003" with the late Ed Paschke as juror, then again in 2005 with Art Institute of Chicago Curator of contemporary Collections- James Rondeau. Awards include: * Honorable Mention, Artists of The Millennium, Rockford Art Museum, juror: James Yood 2000 * Best of Show, juror Ed Paschke, Animal Images 2002 *Best of Show, 13th Annual Women’s Works, Woodstock, IL 2000 *1st Place, International Platform Assoc. Wash. D.C. 1999 *Honorable Mention, jurors: Tom Blackman, Gelsy Verna, Jay Dandy. Hyde Park Art Center...

"Two Ladies in White" is an original pastel drawing by Sue Bartfield in white and purple. 27 1/4" x 40 3/4" art 33 5/8" x 48" framed Artist's Statement: "You might be surprised to...

"Inside My Soul" is an original oil painting on canvas by Karin Krohne Kaufman. The artist signed and dated the piece lower right. This piece features a woman in Asian-inspired dress...

"Back Into the Future" is a fine example of the mid-career work of Ugandan artist Sanaa Gateja. It comes from a period in his work in the early 2000s w...

For the Yoruba people of Nigeria, beads and shells are applied to ceremonial garments and headdresses. Beads are an important part of Yoruba culture. henry John Drewal has written th...

The Ewe people from Ghana are master weavers. People of means commission cloths called adanudo ("skilled/wise cloths"). Ewe adanudo textiles often display a tweed effect by twisting ...

Among the most well-known West African textiles is kente cloth, woven by the Ewe and Asante peoples of Ghana. The word kente is not used by the Asante people; it may be derived from ...

"Les Bucoliques X" is an original black and white lithograph signed in stone by the artist Henri Fantin-Latour. It depicts two figures spending free time in bucolic nature. This prin...

"Passage a Village" is an original drypoint print by Hermine David. It depicts a number of figures on a path into a village using various forms of transportation. This piece is edition 120/150. 11" x 9 3/4" art 21 5/8" x 17" frame Hermine Lionette Cartan David (19 April 1886 in Paris-1 December 1970 in Bry-sur-Marne) was a French painter and the wife of Jules Pascin. She was also a great-granddaughter of the revolutionary painter Jacques-Louis David. Hermine David was one of the Ecole de Paris...

John Steuart Curry "Sketching Wisconsin," 1946 oil on canvas 31.13 x 28 inches, canvas 39.75 x 36.75 x 2.5 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Overall excellent condition Presented in a 24-karat gold leaf hand-carved wood frame John Steuart Curry (1897-1946) was an American regionalist painter active during the Great Depression and into World War II. He was born in Kansas on his family’s farm but went on to study art in Chicago, Paris and New York as young man. In Paris, he was exposed to the work of masters such as Peter Paul Rubens, Eugène Delacroix and Jacques-Louis David. As he matured, his work showed the influence of these masters, especially in his compositional decisions. Like the two other Midwestern regionalist artists that are most often grouped with him, Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) and Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889-1975), Curry was interested in representational works containing distinctly American subject matter. This was contrary to the popular art at the time, which was moving closer and closer to abstraction and individual expression. Sketching Wisconsin is an oil painting completed in 1946, the last year of John Steuart Curry’s life, during which time he was the artist-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. The painting is significant in Curry’s body of work both as a very revealing self-portrait, and as a landscape that clearly and sensitively depicts the scenery of southern Wisconsin near Madison. It is also a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Kathleen Gould Curry, and is unique in that it contains a ‘picture within a picture,’ a compositional element that many early painting masters used to draw the eye of the viewer. This particular artwork adds a new twist to this theme: Curry’s wife is creating essentially the same painting the viewer is looking at when viewing Sketching Wisconsin. The triangular composition of the figures in the foreground immediately brings focus to a younger Curry, whose head penetrates the horizon line and whose gaze looks out towards the viewer. The eye then moves down to Mrs. Curry, who, seated on a folding stool and with her hand raised to paint the canvas on the easel before her, anchors the triangular composition. The shape is repeated in the legs of the stool and the easel. Behind the two figures, stripes of furrowed fields fall away gently down the hillside to a farmstead and small lake below. Beyond the lake, patches of field and forest rise and fall into the distance, and eventually give way to blue hills. Here, Curry has subverted the traditional artist’s self-portrait by portraying himself as a farmer first and an artist second. He rejects what he sees as an elitist art world of the East Coast and Europe. In this self-portrait he depicts himself without any pretense or the instruments of his profession and with a red tractor standing in the field behind him as if he was taking a break from the field work. Here, Curry’s wife symbolizes John Steuart Curry’s identity as an artist. Compared with a self-portrait of the artist completed a decade earlier, this work shows a marked departure from how the artist previously presented and viewed himself. In the earlier portrait, Curry depicted himself in the studio with brushes in hand, and with some of his more recognizable and successful canvases behind him. But in Sketching Wisconsin, Curry has taken himself out of the studio and into the field, indicating a shift in the artist’s self-conception. Sketching Wisconsin’s rural subject also expresses Curry’s populist ideals, that art could be relevant to anyone. This followed the broad educational objectives of UW’s artist-in-residence program. Curry was appointed to his position at the University of Wisconsin in 1937 and was the first person to hold any such position in the country, the purpose of which was to serve as an educational resource to the people of the state. He embraced his role at the University with zeal and not only opened the doors of his campus studio in the School of Agriculture to the community, but also spent a great deal of time traveling around the state of Wisconsin to visit rural artists who could benefit from his expertise. It was during his ten years in the program that Curry was able to put into practice his belief that art should be meaningful to the rural populace. However, during this time he also struggled with public criticism, as the dominant forces of the art market were moving away from representation. Perhaps it was Curry’s desire for public acceptance during the latter part of his career that caused him to portray himself as an Everyman in Sketching Wisconsin. Beyond its importance as a portrait of the artist, Sketching Wisconsin is also a detailed and sensitive landscape that shows us Curry’s deep personal connection to his environment. The landscape here can be compared to Wisconsin Landscape of 1938-39 (the Metropolitan Museum of Art), which presents a similar tableau of rolling hills with a patchwork of fields. Like Wisconsin Landscape, this is an incredibly detailed and expressive depiction of a place close to the artist’s heart. This expressive landscape is certainly the result of many hours spent sketching people, animals, weather conditions and topography of Wisconsin as Curry traveled around the state. The backdrop of undulating hills and the sweeping horizon, and the emotions evoked by it, are emphatically recognizable as the ‘driftless’ area of south-central Wisconsin. But while the Metropolitan’s Wisconsin Landscape conveys a sense of uncertainty or foreboding with its dramatic spring cloudscape and alternating bands of light and dark, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm and reflective mood. The colors of the foliage indicate that it is late summer and Curry seems to look out at the viewer approvingly, as if satisfied with the fertile ground surrounding him. The landscape in Sketching Wisconsin is also revealing of what became one of Curry’s passions while artist-in-residence at UW’s School of Agriculture – soil conservation. When Curry was a child in Kansas, he saw his father almost lose his farm and its soil to the erosion of The Dust Bowl. Therefore, he was very enthusiastic about ideas from UW’s School of Agriculture on soil conservation methods being used on Wisconsin farms. In Sketching Wisconsin, we see evidence of crop rotation methods in the terraced stripes of fields leading down the hillside away from the Curry’s and in how they alternate between cultivated and fallow fields. Overall, Sketching Wisconsin has a warm, reflective, and comfortably pastoral atmosphere, and the perceived shift in Curry’s self-image that is evident in the portrait is a positive one. After his rise to favor in the art world in the 1930’s, and then rejection from it due to the strong beliefs presented in his art, Curry is satisfied and proud to be farmer in this self-portrait. Curry suffered from high blood...

"Deer Shooting in the Northern Woods" is an original hand-colored lithograph by Currier & Ives. It depicts a landscape with a hunter aiming his gun at a deer on a winter day. 10" x 14" art 19 1/2" x 23 1/4" frame 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. In 1907, faced with competitive pressures from advancements in offset printing and photo engraving, Chauncey closed the venerable lithography business and sold the printing equipment and lithographic stones to his shop foreman, Daniel W. Logan. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives are laid to rest along with their families at the Greenwood Cemetery...

"Le Rhone a Avignon" is an original hand colored etching signed by the artist Armand Coussens. This incredibly rare print depicts a church in Avignon, where Pablo Picasso had one of ...