Wisconsin - Prints and Multiples

Presented here as a group are four original etchings of women in European national dress from the master printmaker Wenceslaus Hollar's series "Aula V...

This print is from a highly regarded series by the Edo woodblock artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi: in the period, there were at times prohibitions in depicting a...

"Fruit & Flowers" is an original hand-colored lithograph by Nathaniel Currier. It features a still life with grapes, roses, and other botanical objects. The colors are muted blues and yellows. The artist signed the piece in plate lower left. 11 3/4" x 8 1/2" art 22 1/8" x 18" frame Nathaniel Currier was born March 27, 1813 to Nathaniel and Hannah Currier in Roxbury, Massachusetts. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to William S. and John Pendleton of Boston who had set up the first lithographic establishment in America. His apprenticeship served him well as he went on to be the largest publisher of lithographs. Mr. Maurer described Nat Currier as being very gentlemanly and liberal. As is evident to the success of the firm of Currier & Ives he was very devoted to his business. Nat Currier had many friends including Horace Greely and P.T. Barnum. He was well known for his sense of humor and Harry T. Peters tells one story about P. T. Barnum. "Currier had heard that one day his friend, the great showman, had rushed into the barber shop of the old Park Hotel, at Beekman and Nassau Streets, to get a shave. Barnum had hurried up to Tom Higginson, the barber, and said, 'Tom, I'm in a hurry.' 'Sorry for it,' said Tom, 'but it's that gentleman's turn next.' 'That gentleman' was an unshaven irshman waiting for a ten-cent shave. Barnum turned to him and said, 'My friend, if you will let me have your turn, I'll pay for what you have done.' The gentleman consented, and, as Barnum found out later, had a full job done - absolutely everything the house had. The check was for a dollar and sixty cents. When Currier heard this story he found the very Irishman and had him pose. The result was the famous cartoon, "The Man that Gave Barnum 'His Turn.'" Nathaniel was married twice; his first wife was Miss Eliza West of Boston. He had one son with Eliza, Edward West Currier. In 1847 he married Miss Laura Ormsbee of Vermont. Laura and Nathaniel are memorialized in the famous N. Currier lithograph The Road Winter...

The print 'Jones Island' is something of a self portrait. In the image, an artist stands before and easel, depicting the docks and buildings on the coast. The title indicates that this is Jones Island in Milwaukee, the peninsula along Lake Michigan that today is home to largely industrial buildings. The buildings and figures in the print suggest that this might be a view of the last of the Kashubian or German immigrant settlements on the peninsula before they were evicted in the 1940s to make way for the development of the harbor. The artist in the image thus acts as a documentarian of these peoples. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures and buildings looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated American artists during the Great Depression. This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints – one for each week of the year. 6 x 5 inches, image 10 x 7.13 inches, sheet 13.43 x 12.43 inches, frame Signed "GS" in the print block,upper left Entitled "Jones Island" lower left (covered by matting) Inscribed "Wood Engraving" lower center (covered by matting) Artist name "Gerrit V. Sinclair" lower right (covered by matting) Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and museum glass, all housed in a silver gilded moulding. Gerrit Sinclair studied at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 - 1915, under Vanderpoel, Norton, and Walcott. In World War I, he served in the Army Ambulance Corps and later recorded his experiences in a series of oil paintings. He taught in Minneapolis before arriving in Milwaukee in 1920 to become a member of the original faculty of the Layton School of Art. He was also a member of the Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors. Sinclair's paintings and drawings were executed in a lyrical, representational style, usually expressing a mood rather than a narrative. His paintings reveal a great sensitivity for color and atmosphere. His subject matter focused on cityscapes, industrial valleys, and working-class neighborhoods, captured from eye-level. A decade before the popularity of Regionalism, Sinclair's strong interest in the community was reflected not only in his paintings, but also in his encouragement to students to return to their communities as artists and teachers. Joseph Friebert...

"L'Acrobate Vert - Coverture (The Green Acrobat)" is an original Lithograph made by Marc Chagall for the front cover of Derrière le Miroir #235. It is a geometrical green based carni...

The present print, 'Spring Wildflowers,' is a giclée print on watercolor paper reproducing the artist's original watercolor painting. Deb Wright's approach to painting verges on phot...

"Scene on the Wabash, and Potawattamie Indians" is an original hand-colored engraving, executed by Wellstood & Kirk after the original painting by George Winter. The image captures the kind of scene of the American landscape for which Winter is best known: among the lush trees and flowing rivers, Pottawatomi men, women and children relax from their travels, their horses tied...

"La Peine Perdue (The Wasted Effort)" is a color lithograph after original 1962 painting by Rene Magritte. Two blue curtains are parted on either side. Two curtain shaped mirrors show a sky and clouds. A ball sits right to the left of the mirrors. Art: 12 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...

"Allee" is an original color lithograph by Harold Altman. It is 21 out of an edition of 285, signed by the artist in the lower right hand corner. This print features a bustling parkw...

"Maeght Editeur" is an original color lithograph poster signed by Alexander Calder. This poster was for an exhibit on Alexander Calder's work in Paris, France. It depicts a black tre...

In this print, Wenceslaus Hollar presents a portrait of an unidentified woman, copying a portrait by Hans Holbein the Younger. The identity of the sitter is a mystery: formerly, the portrait was believed to be of Catherine of Aragon, and the National Portrait Gallery in London identifies her as Queen Mary I...

In the mid-nineteenth century, the United States government set out to survey and document its newly acquired lands and territories west of the Mississippi. The goals of these surveys were manifold: to produce topographical maps, to document flora and fauna, and to document natural resources to build the emerging US economy. These surveys, and the images from them, also functioned to build the new sense of American identity with the landscape, condensing vistas into the 'picturesque' tradition of European image making. Thus, the entire span of US territory could be seen as a single, cohesive whole. This lithograph comes from one of six surveys commissioned by the Army's Topographic Bureau in 1853, which sought to find the best route to construct a transcontinental railroad. The result was a thirteen-volume report including maps, lithographs, and technical data entitled 'Explorations and Surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a Railroad from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean.' In particular, the print comes from the northern survey, commanded by Isaac Stevens, which explored the regions between the 47th and 49th parallels. In this image, Stanley shows an encampment of the people known as the Red River of the North hunters. They were generations of European and mixed-race trappers who lived on the frontier and had Indian wives and mixed-race children. They had come to the area for bison hunting, as the herds were still vast on the prairies. In the image, the figures and their encampment are dwarfed by the vast landscape around them, indicating the sublimity of these new American territories. 5.75 x 8.75 inches, image 6.5 x 9.25 inches, stone 17 x 20 inches, frame Artist 'Stanley Del.' lower left Entitled 'Camp Red River Hunters' lower center margin Publisher 'Sarony, Major & Knapp. Lith.s 449 Broadway N.Y.' lower right Inscribed 'U.S.P.R.R. EXP. & SURVEYS — 47th & 49th PARALLELS' upper left Inscribed 'GENERAL REPORT — PLATE XII' upper right Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting with French accents; glazed with UV5 Plexiglas to inhibit fading; housed in a gold reverse ogee moulding. Print in overall good condition; some localized foxing and discoloration; minor surface abrasions to frame. John Mix Stanley...

This poster, produced for an exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, features the bold work of American architect and designer Frank Lloyd Wright. Beneat...

'The Dealer' is an original lithograph from John Doyle's 'Gambler' series. The suite included ten different prints, each image capturing the exhilaration and danger of the games of chance played by casino goers. In one of the prints, a woman pulls the lever of a slot machine; in another, men queue before a lottery ticket window. In 'The Dealer,' a man faces the viewer directly. His stern gaze is hidden behind dark glasses as he springs cards between his hands in a flurry of aces and spades. His clothes reflect both the fashion of the 1970s while also hearkening to the villains of Western films. All the while, he is framed from behind by the arch of a blackjack table, which is itself lined by glistening lights of the casino. 29.5 x 20.5 inches, artwork 37.75 x 28.75 inches, frame Signed "doyle" in pencil, lower right Entitled "Dealer" in pencil, lower left Series title "Gamblers" in pencil, lower left Edition "XXXIII/XL" (33/40) in pencil, lower left Publisher blindstamp, lower left Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting, UV Clear glass to inhibit fading, and housed in a maroon-tinted mock tortoise shell finish wood moulding with a gold finish bevel. Artwork in excellent condition; housed in a new custom frame. John Lawrence Doyle...

The present hand-colored lithograph is an excellent example of patriotic mid-nineteenth century American imagery. The print shows the battle and several of the major figures involved in the Battle of Lake Erie: At the center is a view of several frigates on the lake, embroiled in conflict. Above the battle is the quotation: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." Surrounding are laurel-lined roundels with portraits of Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819), Stephen Dicateur (1779-1820), Johnston Blakeley (1871-1814), William Bainbridge (1774-1833), David Porter (1780-1843), and James Lawrence (1781-1813) - all of these framed by American flags, banners and cannons. This print shows that the Battle of Lake Erie, part of the War of 1812, still held resonance for American audiences several decades later and was part of the larger narrative of the founding of the country. 9.5 x 13.5 inches, artwork 20 x 23.38 inches, frame Entitled in the image Signed in the stone, lower left "Lith. and Pub. by N. Currier" Inscribed lower right "2 Spruce N.Y." and "No. 1" Copyrighted lower center "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1846 by N. Currier in the Clerk's office of the Southern District of N.Y." Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and 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...

'Winter Silhouettes,' a small and delicate print, is an original offset lithograph by the Milwaukee artist Schomer Lichtner. The composition displays registers of foliage, emerging from the white of the paper as though emerging from the snow-covered ground. The artwork is thus plays with the materials of printmaking; the paper is both the support and the primary indication of the season. The subtle texture of the tooth of the paper also adds life to the image, giving the snow a wind-swept, creature trodden surface. The free forms of the grasses and leaves resemble the lyrical mid-century works of the French artist Henri Matisse, which combined with these material concerns demonstrate Lichter's modern sensibilities. 3.75 x 2.75 inches, image 5.5 x 4.5 inches, paper 10 x 8 inches frame Signed and dated in the stone, lower right Framed to conservation standards in a shadow-box style mounting, using 100 percent rag matting, museum glass, and housed in a cherry wood moulding Overall excellent condition; some toning to edges of paper; some minor abrasions to frame Milwaukee artist Schomer Lichtner was well known for his whimsical cows and ballerinas and abstract imagery. He and his late wife Ruth Grotenrath, both well-known Wisconsin artists, began their prolific careers as muralists for WPA projects, primarily post offices. Lichtner also painted murals for industry and private clients. Schomer was a printmaker and produced block prints, lithographs, and serigraph prints. His casein (paint made from dairy products) and acrylic paintings are of the rural Wisconsin landscape and farm animals. He became interested in cows when he and Ruth spent summers near Holy Hill in Washington County. According to David Gordon, director of the Milwaukee Art Museum, Schomer Lichtner had a tremendous joie de vivre and expressed it in his art. Schomer Lichtner was nationally known for his whimsical paintings and sculptures of black- and white-patterned Holstein cows and elegant ballerina dancers. Lichtner also painted all sorts of combinations of beautiful women, flowers and country landscapes. James Auer, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel art critic, said that his art eventually "exploded into expressionistic design elements with bold, flat areas of color and high energy that anticipated Pop Art." Auer went on to describe Lichtner’s work as full of "wit, vigor and virtuosity." As early as 1930, Lichtner’s work was shown at the prestigious Carnegie International Exhibition in New York and at museums throughout the Midwest. As a student, he was a protégé of another icon of 20th century American art, Gustave Moeller. Lichtner and his wife, Ruth Grotenrath (1912-1988), are celebrated as Milwaukee’s first couple of painting and are regarded as major Wisconsin artists. Lichtner’s impressive production, perseverance, longevity, and positive approach to his life and art made him and his work distinctive and much loved by his many admirers. His work is currently represented in collections at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the John Michael Kohler Art Center, the West Bend Museum, and in the collections of many individuals. Books on the lives and art work of both Lichtner and Grotenrath are in progress and it is anticipated that they will be published next year. Schomer Lichtner passed away on May 9, 2006 at the age of 101. He continued to amaze and create with his whimsical paintings of ballerinas...

François Vivares was known to have produced several copies of images after older masters, such as, in this case, Rembrandt van Rijn. In this set, Vivares reproduces "The Quacksalver" (1635, Bartsch 129), "Beggar man and beggar woman conversing" (1630, Bartsch 164), and "Beggar Seated Warming...

"The Rose" is an original intaglio print by Fred Reichman. It depicts a single rose on a hazy blue and beige background. 8 1/8" x 8" art Fred Reichman ...

"Galerie Maeght Miro" is an original color lithograph poster with art by Joan Miro. It was printed by Maeght Editeur Imprimeur in 1970. The poster showcase...

Charles H. Wells (1832–1884), most often known simply by C.H. Wells, was an American artist active in Philadelphia. The publication of this wood engraving made this view of George Wa...

"Dahkota Mission of Peace 1820, Warning Against Tresspass" is a color lithograph by Seth Eastman. It features figures trying to warn people against trespassing on their land. 7 3/4...

"Derièrre le Miroir, Couverture: La Peintre devant le Village I (Cover of Dèrriere le Miroir No. 182: The Artist at the Village I) M 603a" is an ...

This is an excellent example of the kind of portraiture produced by Castiglione during the early part of the 17th century. In the image, we see the visage of a man with a mustache, wearing a fur-lined hat topped with a feathery decoration. The image is reminiscent of the work of Rembrandt van Rijn, himself known for his portraits in the form of etchings. 4 x 3.5 inches, image 15.25 x 13.25 inches, frame Inscribed "GC" in the plate, lower left This impression is from the edition ca. 1825 from the original plate of ca. 1635. Unlike many Italian artists, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione was profoundly influenced by foreigners. He first studied with local artists in his native Genoa, absorbing not only Tuscan Mannerism and Caravaggism but also the style of Peter Paul Rubens, who had worked in Genoa. From 1621 Castiglione also worked in Anthony van Dyck's Genoa studio. Early on, he was attracted to Flemish animal...

The present hand-colored lithograph presents the viewer with a hunting scene in a picturesque landscape. In the foreground, a man approaches two partridges as his two pointers prepare to flush them out. Beyond, a white fence draws our eyes to the homestead in the distance. Images like this one show how people in the United States were trying to identify themselves as a new nation in the North American landscape - as separate from their European counterparts but with similar similar and specific wildlife and magesties of nature. It also identifies hunting in this landscape as an American pastime. 9.25 x 12.5 inches, artwork 18.38 x 22 inches, frame Entitled bottom center "Partridge Shooting...

Jan Gillisz van Vliet (1605–1668) was a Dutch Golden Age artist and student of Rembrandt. He worked with Rembrandt between 1628 and 1637, inspired by his master's work. Like Rembrandt, van Vliet made a series of beggar figures, though often with a greater degree of satire and expressiveness. For example, this image of a rat catcher...

The present is one of the many prints John Thomas Smith produced of English cottages and vernacular architecture. This example, a view of a cottage in Edmonton, is closely related to...

"Paricutin (Volcano in Michoacan, Mexico)" is a woodcut and monotype signed by Carol Summers. In the image, an abstracted volcano erupts in a joyous burst of purples and oranges. The playfulness of the image is enhanced by Summers' signature printmaking technique, which allows the ink from the woodblock to seep through the paper, blurring the edges of each form. Art: 8 x 11 in Frame: 17 x 19 in Carol Summers (1925-2016) has worked as an artist throughout the second half of the 20th century and into the first years of the next, outliving most of his mid-century modernist peers. Initially trained as a painter, Summers was drawn to color woodcuts around 1950 and it became his specialty thereafter. Over the years he has developed a process and style that is both innovative and readily recognizable. His art is known for it’s large scale, saturated fields of bold color, semi-abstract treatment of landscapes from around the world and a luminescent quality achieved through a printmaking process he invented. In a career that has extended over half a century, Summers has hand-pulled approximately 245 woodcuts in editions that have typically run from 25 to 100 in number. His talent was both inherited and learned. Born in 1925 in Kingston, a small town in upstate New York, Summers was raised in nearby Woodstock with his older sister, Mary. His parents were both artists who had met in art school in St. Louis. During the Great Depression, when Carol was growing up, his father supported the family as a medical illustrator until he could return to painting. His mother was a watercolorist and also quite knowledgeable about the different kinds of papers used for various kinds of painting. Many years later, Summers would paint or print on thinly textured paper originally collected by his mother. From 1948 to 1951, Carol Summers trained in the classical fine and studio arts at Bard College and at the Art Students League of New York. He studied painting with Steven Hirsh and printmaking with Louis Schanker. He admired the shapes and colors favored by early modernists Paul Klee (Sw: 1879-1940) and Matt Phillips (Am: b.1927- ). After graduating, Summers quit working as a part-time carpenter and cabinetmaker (which had supported his schooling and living expenses) to focus fulltime on art. That same year, an early abstract, Bridge No. 1 was selected for a Purchase Prize in a competition sponsored by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1952, his work (Cathedral, Construction and Icarus) was shown the first time at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in an exhibition of American woodcuts. In 1954, Summers received a grant from the Italian government to study for a year in Italy. Woodcuts completed soon after his arrival there were almost all editions of only 8 to 25 prints, small in size, architectural in content and black and white in color. The most well-known are Siennese Landscape and Little Landscape, which depicted the area near where he resided. Summers extended this trip three more years, a decision which would have significant impact on choices of subject matter and color in the coming decade. After returning from Europe, Summers’ images continued to feature historical landmarks and events from Italy as well as from France, Spain and Greece. However, as evidenced in Aetna’s Dream, Worldwind and Arch of Triumph, a new look prevailed. These woodcuts were larger in size and in color. Some incorporated metal leaf in the creation of a collage and Summers even experimented with silkscreening. Editions were now between 20 and 50 prints in number. Most importantly, Summers employed his rubbing technique for the first time in the creation of Fantastic Garden in late 1957. Dark Vision of Xerxes, a benchmark for Summers, was the first woodcut where Summers experimented using mineral spirits as part of his printmaking process. A Fulbright Grant as well as Fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the Guggenheim Foundation followed soon thereafter, as did faculty positions at colleges and universities primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. During this period he married a dancer named Elaine Smithers with whom he had one son, Kyle. Around this same time, along with fellow artist Leonard Baskin, Summers pioneered what is now referred to as the “monumental” woodcut. This term was coined in the early 1960s to denote woodcuts that were dramatically bigger than those previously created in earlier years, ones that were limited in size mostly by the size of small hand-presses. While Baskin chose figurative subject matter, serious in nature and rendered with thick, striated lines, Summers rendered much less somber images preferring to emphasize shape and color; his subject matter approached abstraction but was always firmly rooted in the landscape. In addition to working in this new, larger scale, Summers simultaneously refined a printmaking process which would eventually be called the “Carol Summers Method” or the “ Carol Summers Technique”. Summers produces his woodcuts by hand, usually from one or more blocks of quarter-inch pine, using oil-based printing inks and porous mulberry papers. His woodcuts reveal a sensitivity to wood especially its absorptive qualities and the subtleties of the grain. In several of his woodcuts throughout his career he has used the undulating, grainy patterns of a large wood plank to portray a flowing river or tumbling waterfall. The best examples of this are Dream, done in 1965 and the later Flash Flood Escalante, in 2003. In the majority of his woodcuts, Summers makes the blocks slightly larger than the paper so the image and color will bleed off the edge. Before printing, he centers a dry sheet of paper over the top of the cut wood block or blocks, securing it with giant clips. Then he rolls the ink directly on the front of the sheet of paper and pressing down onto the dry wood block or reassembled group of blocks. Summers is technically very proficient; the inks are thoroughly saturated onto the surface of the paper but they do not run into each other. The precision of the color inking in Constantine’s Dream in 1969 and Rainbow Glacier in 1970 has been referred to in various studio handbooks. Summers refers to his own printing technique as “rubbing”. In traditional woodcut printing, including the Japanese method, the ink is applied directly onto the block. However, by following his own method, Summers has avoided the mirror-reversed image of a conventional print and it has given him the control over the precise amount of ink that he wants on the paper. After the ink is applied to the front of the paper, Summers sprays it with mineral spirits, which act as a thinning agent. The absorptive fibers of the paper draw the thinned ink away from the surface softening the shapes and diffusing and muting the colors. This produces a unique glow that is a hallmark of the Summers printmaking technique. Unlike the works of other color field artists or modernists of the time, this new technique made Summers’ extreme simplification and flat color areas anything but hard-edged or coldly impersonal. By the 1960s, Summers had developed a personal way of coloring and printing and was not afraid of hard work, doing the cutting, inking and pulling himself. In 1964, at the age of 38, Summers’ work was exhibited for a second time at the Museum of Modern Art. This time his work was featured in a one-man show and then as one of MoMA’s two-year traveling exhibitions which toured throughout the United States. In subsequent years, Summers’ works would be exhibited and acquired for the permanent collections of multiple museums throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Summers’ familiarity with landscapes throughout the world is firsthand. As a navigator-bombardier in the Marines in World War II, he toured the South Pacific and Asia. Following college, travel in Europe and subsequent teaching positions, in 1972, after 47 years on the East Coast, Carol Summers moved permanently to Bonny Doon in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Northern California. There met his second wife, Joan Ward Toth, a textile artist who died in 1998; and it was here his second son, Ethan was born. During the years that followed this relocation, Summers’ choice of subject matter became more diverse although it retained the positive, mostly life-affirming quality that had existed from the beginning. Images now included moons, comets, both sunny and starry skies, hearts and flowers, all of which, in one way or another, remained tied to the landscape. In the 1980s, from his home and studio in the Santa Cruz mountains, Summers continued to work as an artist supplementing his income by conducting classes and workshops at universities in California and Oregon as well as throughout the Mid and Southwest. He also traveled extensively during this period hiking and camping, often for weeks at a time, throughout the western United States and Canada. Throughout the decade it was not unusual for Summers to backpack alone or with a fellow artist into mountains or back country for six weeks or more at a time. Not surprisingly, the artwork created during this period rarely departed from images of the land, sea and sky. Summers rendered these landscapes in a more representational style than before, however he always kept them somewhat abstract by mixing geometric shapes with organic shapes, irregular in outline. Some of his most critically acknowledged work was created during this period including First Rain, 1985 and The Rolling Sea, 1989. Summers received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Bard College in 1979 and was selected by the United States Information Agency to spend a year conducting painting and printmaking workshops at universities throughout India. Since that original sabbatical, he has returned every year, spending four to eight weeks traveling throughout that country. In the 1990s, interspersed with these journeys to India have been additional treks to the back roads and high country areas of Mexico, Central America, Nepal, China and Japan. Travel to these exotic and faraway places had a profound influence on Summers’ art. Subject matter became more worldly and non-western as with From Humla to Dolpo, 1991 or A Former Life of Budha, 1996, for example. Architectural images, such as The Pillars of Hercules, 1990 or The Raja’s Aviary, 1992 became more common. Still life images made a reappearance with Jungle Bouquet in 1997. This was also a period when Summers began using odd-sized paper to further the impact of an image. The 1996 Night, a view of the earth and horizon as it might be seen by an astronaut, is over six feet long and only slightly more than a foot-and-a-half high. From 1999, Revuelta A Vida (Spanish for “Return to Life”) is pie-shaped and covers nearly 18 cubic feet. It was also at this juncture that Summers began to experiment with a somewhat different palette although he retained his love of saturated colors. The 2003 Far Side of Time is a superb example of the new direction taken by this colorist. At the turn of the millennium in 1999, “Carol Summers Woodcuts...

'O'Tannenbaum' (Artist's #30129) is an original color silkscreen print by Ruth Grotenrath, signed by the artist on verso. Influenced by the works of Expressionists like Henri Matisse and the woodblock prints of early modern Japanese artists like Katsushika Hokusai, Ruth Grotenrath's 'O'Tannenbaum' combines the expressive use of color of the former with the precision of the latter to create a Christmas card that is as vibrant as it is subtle. Depicting a pine tree decked with ornaments and stockings, Grotenrath has rendered the tree-topping star as a ball of flames to analogize the warmth and spirit of the holiday season. Original color silkscreen 6.625 x 4 inches, silkscreen 14.375 x 11.375 inches, frame Signed in screen on verso inside-letter Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting and mounting materials, Museum Glass to inhibit UV damage and reduce glare, and housed in a gold finish wood frame. "The paintings of Ruth...

'The Great Republic' is a hand-colored lithograph depicting the prized steamship of the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company. The ship was a huge side-wh...

"Job en Prière (Job Praying), M 253/276" is an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. This original color lithograph was designed for and printed by VERVE for the book “Dessins pour La...

'Improvisation 7' second ed. woodcut from 'Klänge' is a woodcut print created by Wassily Kandinsky. The present woodcut print comes from the second edition of 'Klänge (Sounds),' a book of original graphics and poetry by Wassily Kandinsky. The title of the album and of this print, 'Improvisation,' demonstrated Kandinsky's interest in music and how abstract musical forms could be translated into images on a two-dimensional surface. This particular composition is difficult to read, but through the abstraction, one can make out various figures and a landscape beyond. Originally carved and printed in 1911, this second edition print was done ca. 1938. It is a woodcut in black ink on woven paper. Signed with encircled 'K' in the block, lower right (from the book, signed in ink, ed. 117/300) Image Size: 7 1/2" x 5 inches Frame Size: 22 1/4" x 18 3/4" Ref. Roethel 124 Artist Bio: The Museum of Modern Art described 'Klänge (Sounds)' as follows: Vasily Kandinsky's self-described "musical album," Klänge (Sounds), consists of thirty-eight prose-poems he wrote between 1909 and 1911 and fifty-six woodcuts he began in 1907. In the woodcuts Kandinsky veiled his subject matter, creating increasingly indecipherable images (though the horse and rider, his symbol for overcoming objective representation, runs through as a leitmotif). This process proved crucial for the development of abstraction in his art. Kandinsky said his choice of media sprang from an "inner necessity" for expression: the woodcuts were not merely illustrative, nor were the poems purely verbal descriptions. Kandinsky sought a synthesis of the arts, in which meaning was created through the interaction of, and space between, text and image, sound and meaning, mark and blank space. The experimental typography shows his interest in the physical aspects of the book. Klänge is one of three major publications by Kandinsky that appeared shortly before World War I, alongside Über die Geistige in der Kunst (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) and the Blaue Reiter almanac...

"North Fork" is an original color lithograph by Helen Rundell, signed in the lower right corner and numbered in the lower left. The piece features a brick c...

The present woodcut engraving is an original print designed by Winslow Homer, originally published in Harper's Weekly on April 30, 1859. It is an excellent example of the many prints Homer produced of fashionable people engaged in leisurely activities, in this case along a picturesque countryside lane. The sign reading 'Belmont' on the left indicates this is probably near his home in Belmont Massachusetts. The image presents multiple figures, both men and women, riding horseback: Some in the distance gallop away, toward a town marked by a church steeple beyond. Three others in the foreground, including two equestrian women, gather around a group of children who have been gathering flowers and trapping birds...

"Stabile with Red Sun Galerie Maught" is an original color lithograph by Alexander Calder. The Stabile is a black topsy-turvy statue taking up most of the piece. A red sun sits to th...

The present artwork is an excellent example of the woodcut engravings of Auguste-Louis Lepère (1849 - 1918). He was the son of the sculptor Francois Lepère, and is considered a leade...

In this artist’s proof giclée print, David Barnett commemorates the Boerner Botanical Garden’s gala with a stunning nocturnal scene of the garden illuminated by fireworks. Confetti s...

"La race blanche (The White Race)" is a color lithograph after the original 1937 painting by Rene Magritte. A female figure is made out of a mix of body parts. An eye sits on top of an ear, which is on top of a mouth, then two noses. Two breasts lying on a stomach; two arms come from the breasts. Legs are tucked under the stomach. This figure is on a sand dune next to the ocean. Art: 26.5 x 19.63 in Frame: 40.88 x 33.88 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...

In the mid-nineteenth century, the United States government set out to survey and document its newly acquired lands and territories west of the Mississippi. The goals of these surveys were manifold: to produce topographical maps, to document flora and fauna, and to document natural resources to build the emerging US economy. These surveys, and the images from them, also functioned to build the new sense of American identity with the landscape, condensing vistas into the 'picturesque' tradition of European image making. Thus, the entire span of US territory could be seen as a single, cohesive whole. This lithograph comes from one of six surveys commissioned by the Army's Topographic Bureau in 1853, which sought to find the best route to construct a transcontinental railroad. The result was a thirteen-volume report including maps, lithographs, and technical data entitled 'Explorations and Surveys to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a Railroad from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean.' In particular, the print comes from the northern survey, commanded by Isaac Stevens, which explored the regions between the 47th and 49th parallels. Stanley shows here the stop the Stanley Party made at the junction of the Bitterroot and Hell Gate, in present day Montana. While there, the Party met with the Flathead Chief by the name Victor, as is shown in the image. The figures and their encampment are dwarfed by the vast landscape around them, indicating the sublimity of these new American territories. 5.75 x 8.75 inches, image 6.5 x 9.25 inches, stone 17 x 20 inches, frame Artist 'Stanley Del.' lower left Entitled 'Victor's Camp - Hell Gate Ronde' lower center margin Publisher 'Sarony, Major & Knapp. Lith.s 449 Broadway N.Y.' lower right Inscribed 'U.S.P.R.R. EXP. & SURVEYS — 47th & 49th PARALLELS' upper left Inscribed 'GENERAL REPORT — PLATE XXXI' upper right Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting with French accents; glazed with UV5 Plexiglas to inhibit fading; housed in a gold reverse ogee moulding. Print in overall good condition; some localized foxing and discoloration; minor surface abrasions to frame. John Mix Stanley...

"Galerie Maeght - 5 Livres Graves" is an original lithograph poster by Eduardo Chillida. The poster features one of Chillida's signature abstract designs as well as some information ...

"La Bataille de l'Argonne (The Battle of Argonne)" is a color lithograph after the original 1959 painting by Rene Magritte. The landscape is shrouded by the mist of twilight. A cresc...

'Un fiacre a l'heure... (Emotions Parisiennes)' is an excellent example of the satirical caricatures produced by Honoré Daumier. The title, which translat...

'Hommage à Michel-Ange' is an original color lithograph signed by the contemporary artist Claude Weisbuch and shows the strong interest he took in the High Renaissance. In the image, Weisbuch draws from Michelangelo's frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel...

'The Smoker (Le Fumeur)' is an original etching by the celebrated Dutch painter and printmaker Cornelis-Pietersz Bega. It presents a genre scene of the type Bega was best known for: Bega's principal subjects were genre representations of taverns, domestic interiors and villages. He depicted nursing mothers, prostitutes, drunks, gamblers and fools such as quack doctors and alchemists. In this case, he shows a man seated on a chair with his foot on a flat stool and holding a smoking pipe. For Bega, this representation was more of a caricature than it was an image of a specific person, and such genre scenes would have held allegorical and symbolic meaning for the seventeenth-century viewer. During the seventeenth century, the Dutch of all levels of society consumed tobacco and alcohol, and these were an important part of the Dutch economy and a major source of wealth. At the same time, however, moralists and ministers sought to curb intoxication: they openly described drinking and smoking as sinful, immoral, and a general threat to one’s reputation. This paradox is reflected in prints such as this, which inherently carry the national pride of the Dutch economy alongside a moral warning in a print that could be just as easily consumed and collected. 2.5 x 2.25 inches, print 12.38 x 10.38 inches, frame Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting and mounting materials. Housed in a gold finish Spanish-style wood moulding. Overall good and stable condition; margins cut to plate; some wrinkling in the corners from previous mounting; housed in a new custom frame. Cornelis Bega was born into prosperous circumstances. His mother, Maria Cornelis, inherited half the estate (gold, silver, paintings, drawings and prints) and all of the red chalk drawings of her father, Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, a renowned Mannerist artist. Bega's father was Pieter Jansz Begijn (d 1648), a gold and silversmith. Like other family members, Bega was probably Catholic. Houbraken's claim that Bega studied with Adriaen van Ostade is likely to be correct; this was probably before 24 April 1653, when Bega joined Vincent Laurentsz. van der Vinne in Frankfurt for a journey through Germany, Switzerland and France. Bega had returned to Haarlem by 1 September 1654, at which time he joined the Guild of St Luke; he was already a competent draughtsman, as indicated by his first extant dated work, Interior with a Nursing Mother (1652; Frankfurt am Main, Städel. Kstinst.), and by a remarkable double portrait (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) drawn by him and Leendert van der Cooghen in 1654. Bega painted, drew, etched and made counterproofs in a wide variety of materials on different types of small-scale supports. He may have been the first Dutch artist to make monotypes, but this remains controversial. Approximately 160 paintings, 80 drawings and six monotypes by Bega have been catalogued, as well as around 34 etchings. Bega's principal subjects were genre representations of taverns, domestic interiors and villages. He depicted nursing mothers, prostitutes, drunks, smokers, gamblers and fools such as quack doctors and alchemists. Less common subjects include the ridiculed or pestered woman, as in Two Figures and Mother with a Spirits Bottle (c. 1662; Gouda, Stedel, Museum Catharina Gasthuis) and The Inn (etching), as well as witty satires on traditional scenes of middle-class music-makers, such as the Music Lesson (1663; Paris, Petit Palace). Bega's early paintings, such as the Weaver's Family (c. 1652; St Petersburg, Hermitage), are freely executed, dark and coarse, recalling the many-figured peasant subjects of van Ostade. Between c. 1660 and 1664 he began to paint genre scenes with fewer figures, which are finely articulated, colourful and psychologically expressive, for example Two Men Singing (1662; Dublin, N.G.). His exquisite, late fijnschilderen ('fine painting') manner, evident in The Alchemist (1663; Malibu, Getty Museum), compares well with that of Gerrit Dou. As a draughtsman Bega is noted for his single-figure studies, executed mainly in black and white chalk on blue paper or red chalk on white paper. None of the studies, which were drawn naer het leven (from life), seem to relate to a painting or etching. Bega traded drawings or shared models with other artists of the Haarlem school, including van der Cooghen, Gerrit Berckheyde, Dirck Helmbreker and Cornelis Visscher. These artists drew chalk figure studies in a very similar style, characterised by regular and precise parallel shading and well-defined forms; their drawings, especially those of Bega and Berckheyde, have been frequently confused. Unlike the realistic figure studies, Bega's etchings depict interiors with figures or single figures in the manner of van Ostade; the compositions, often with masterful chiaroscuro effects, reflect most closely the paintings of the 1650s. Bega is likely to have remained in Haarlem, where he paid dues to the Guild in 1661. He probably died from the plague; fees for his expensive funeral at St. Bavo's were paid on 30 August 1664. Among the artists he influenced were Thomas Wijck, Jan Steen, Richard Brakenburg (1650-1702) and Cornelis Dusart. Painters such as R. Oostrzaen ( fl ?1656) and Jacob Toorenvliet...

In 'The Rabbit,' Wisconsin artist Clarice George Logan presents the viewer with a multi-figural scene: under a wood-frame structure, four children crouch on the ground, gathered around a young woman who presents a rabbit. Under normal circumstances, such an image of children with a bunny would recall childhood storybooks. In this case, however, the image is more ambiguous and suggests the unfortunate economic circumstances many children suffered during the interwar years. Nonetheless, the group could also be interpreted as a nativity play, with the rabbit taking the place of the Christ child, shining light on the children like in a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Correggio. The careful line-work of the woodblock engraving adds a sense of expressionism to the scene, leaving the figures looking distraught and dirty, though the image nonetheless falls into the Social Realist category that dominated American artists during the Great Depression. This print was published in 1936 as part of the Wisconsin Artists' Calendar for the year 1937, which included 52 original, hand-made prints - one for each week of the year. Clarice George Logan was born in Mayville, New York in 1909 but moved to Wisconsin in 1921. She attended the Milwaukee State Teachers College from 1927 to 1931 where she studied with Robert von...

"Cover of "Chagall Lithographe IV," (M 729)" an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. It is the original book cover for "Chagall Lithographe IV," catalogue and notes by Charles Sorlie...

'Lobsterman's Wharf, Maine' is an original lithograph signed by Malvin Marr "Zsissly" Albright. While Malvin Marr – along with his better-known identical twin Ivan Albright – was known for his meticulous and unsettling magic realist compositions, he and his brother were also prolific in capturing landscapes of the coast of Maine where the two spent several consecutive summers away from Chicago over their lives. Sometimes these Maine landscapes and views would be painterly and seemingly antithetical to the careful realism of his other work; but in this example, however, the wharf is treated with the same macabre decay as his human subjects. In the composition, the shack...

"Ruth Glaneuse (Ruth Gleaning), M 246/269" is an original lithograph by Marc Chagall. This original color lithograph was designed for and printed by VERV...

"Cormar Attacking a Spirit on the Waters" is an etching by eighteenth-century Scottish artist Alexander Runciman, signed on the lower edge of the etching, "ARunciman inv. & fecit," i...

In this untitled serigraph, Vincent DiMattio combines the aesthetics of the space age with Pop Art sensibilities and techniques. In the postwar era of the 1950s and 1960s, the United States was in the midst of a period of economic growth for the middle class, and so the trappings and imagery of middle class life became the subjects of a number of artists. While figures like Andy Warhol focused on images of celebrities and soup cans, here DiMattio looks to robots and rockets. At the far left, a figure appears with a round green head and a small clamping arm. To the right, a form like a tank with phallic protrusions, one with a head like the form of a space ship. These signs all alight with the space age toys...

This giclee print on canvas is hand embellished with acrylic gel brushstrokes after the 2001 original oil painting. Depicting brightly colored flowers in a vase, this beautiful artwo...

"Le Dernier Cri (The Last Word)" is a color lithograph after original 1967 painting by Rene Magritte. A huge leaf levitates in the middle of a mountain view. A fully grown tree is pa...

This poster is a lithographic enlargement of the dry point print 'Il bouge sans arrêt' by the French artist Claude Weisbuch. The image is an early example of his explorations into th...

The present work, "Daydream," is an offset lithograph after the original painting by John Asaro – and it is a work glowing with light. In the image, a young...

This lithograph was one of sixteen Federico Castellón produced in 1968, published by Aquarius Press, to illustrate Edgar Allan Poe's 1832 story 'The Mask of the Red Death.' The image...

This lithograph was one of sixteen Federico Castellón produced in 1968, published by Aquarius Press, to illustrate Edgar Allan Poe's 1832 story 'The Mask of the Red Death.' The image...

‘Beaver Lake with Stargazer Lilies II (triptych),’ is an original mixed media giclée print on watercolor paper, signed by the artist in the right panel....

The present hand-colored lithograph is one of several decorative images of flower-filled vases published by Nathaniel Currier. This example contains roses, tulips, forget-me-nots, and others all within a vase with gold eagle head handles and an image of a beautiful young woman the belly. 16 x 11 inches, artwork 22.5 x 18.25 inches, frame Entitled bottom center Signed in the stone, lower left "Lith. and Pub. by N. Currier" Inscribed lower right "152 Nassau St. Cor. of Spruce N.Y." Copyrighted bottom center "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1848 by N. Currier in the Clerk's office of the Southern District of N.Y." with the number 249 Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting, housed in a lemon gold 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...

‘Giant Hybrid Hibiscus Butterfly’ is an artist’s proof giclée print on watercolor paper after the 2003 original, signed and dated by the artist in the lower right. The composition em...