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Item Ships From: Wisconsin
"Yanagibashi in Snow, " Color Woodcut Portrait with Umbrella
By Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni III)
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"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...
Category
1920s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
17th century etching Rembrandt biblical scene crucifixion figures
By Rembrandt van Rijn
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Rembrandt's print 'Christ Crucified Between Two Thieves: an oval plate' is one of the most captivating of the artist's oeuvre. Etched to an oval rather than a rectangular plate and t...
Category
1640s Dutch School Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Etching, Printer's Ink, Drypoint
19th century woodcut engraving print figurative American forest trees scene
By Winslow Homer
Located in Milwaukee, WI
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...
Category
1850s Victorian Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut, Engraving
Toulouse Lautrec Original Lithograph Famous Political 1800s Collection Signed
By Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Lautrec Book: From Au Pied du Sinai written by Georges Clemenceau" lithographs created by the legendary Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. This book, Au Pied...
Category
1890s Post-Impressionist Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Mulberry Paper, Lithograph
"Family of Six, " Original Lithograph signed by John Thomas Biggers
By John Thomas Biggers
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Family of Six" is an original black and white lithograph by John Biggers. The artist signed and dated the piece in the lower right and titled and editioned it (AP III) in the lower ...
Category
1980s Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Original Lithograph Native American Figure Portrait Male Tribe Bold Stoic Signed
By Leonard Baskin
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Kill Spotted Horse" is an original lithograph created by Leonard Baskin. It was published by Fox Graphics. This is a proof purchased directly from the artist. Baskin signed the work in the lower right margin and labelled the work as a proof in the lower left margin, written with graphite. It depicts Kill Spotted Horse, an Assinniboine Native American, in a feather headdress against a light blue background.
Artwork Size: 15" x 13 1/2"
Frame Size: 27 1/2" x 26 3/8"
Artist Bio:
Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) was an american artist born in New Jersey and taught art classes in Massachusetts. He has received many public commissions (including a bas relief for the FDR Memorial), honors, and his work is owned by many major museums around the world. Additionally, Baskin was a teacher at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. As a champion for human rights, Baskin created many pieces celebrating those who were seldom recognized.
Baskin’s interest in nineteenth century Native Americans was roused into acute attendance from ignorant indifference, when the National Park Service asked him to provide illustrations for the handbook that described the then called “Custer National Park”, now called “Little Big...
Category
1990s Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Ink
"La Reconnaissance Infinie (The Infinite Recognition)" Litho after Rene Magritte
By René Magritte
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"La Reconnaissance Infinie (The Infinite Recognition)" is a color lithograph after the 1963 painting by Rene Magritte. Two of Magritte's bourgeois "littl...
Category
2010s Surrealist Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Early 20th century aquatint landscape figure boat water trees lake print signed
By Manuel Robbe
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Le Pecheur' is an excelletn example of the aquatints of Manuel Robbe, a French artists working during the turn of the 20th century. The image draws upon th...
Category
Early 1900s Impressionist Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Aquatint
Original Lithograph Native American Female Figure Mystery Secret Society Signed
By Leonard Baskin
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Cheyenne Woman in the Robes of a Secret Society" is an original lithograph by Leonard Baskin. It depicts a Native American woman in pale green robes. The title is written on the lef...
Category
1990s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Ink
"Boy With Book Looking Out Window, " Original Lithograph print classic gift
By James Ormsbee Chapin
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Boy With Book Looking Out Window" is an original lithograph print by James Ormsbee Chapin. The artist signed the piece in pencil lower right. This piece depicts a boy looking out th...
Category
1940s Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'In Memory of (66)' original Kellogg & Comstock hand-colored mourning lithograph
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present hand-colored lithograph was produced as part of the funeral and mourning culture in the United States during the 19th century. Before the printmaking boom of the 1830s, however, such inexpensive memorial images were not widely available. These prints became popular as ways of remembering loved ones, an alternative to portraiture of the deceased or to meticulous hand-embroidered memorials often made by female academy students. In the image, the urn-topped monument contains a space where a family could inscribe the name and death dates of a deceased loved one, though this example was never used. In the variations of this image type produced by the Kellogg...
Category
Mid-19th Century Romantic Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Watercolor
"Derriere Le Miroir, " Three Original Color Lithographs by Saul Steinberg
By Saul Steinberg
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Derriere Le Miroir" is an original color lithograph signed by the artist Saul Steinberg. The artist's signature is in the bottom left margin.
Image Size: 14"x20"
Frame Size: 25 5/8...
Category
1970s American Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Paper
20th century color lithograph French scene female figures cafe street signed
By Francois Batet
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Terrasse aux Champs Elysees" is an original color lithograph by Francois Batet. The artist signed the piece in the lower right and wrote the edition number (126/200) in the lower le...
Category
1980s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Lovers of Okazaki' Original Erotic Shunga Woodblock Print by Utagawa Hiroshige
By Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando Hiroshige)
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present work is an excellent example of the erotic Shunga prints produced by Utagawa 'Ando' Hioshige and his school. Shunga imagery became especially widespread in Japan with the...
Category
Mid-19th Century Edo Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
19th century color woodcut Japanese ukiyo-e print female geisha figure signed
By Utagawa Kuniyoshi
Located in Milwaukee, WI
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...
Category
1850s Edo Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Pigment, Woodcut
Original Lithograph Native American Figure Portrait Male Tribe Bold Stoic Signed
By Leonard Baskin
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Magpie Eagle Feathers" is an original lithograph proof for Fox Graphics signed by the artist Leonard Baskin. It depicts a Cheyenne man named Magpie Eagle Feathers in a black hat against a blue background.
Artwork Size: 38 1/2" x 26 3/4"
Frame Size: 49 3/4" x 37 1/2"
Artist Bio:
Leonard Baskin (1922-2000) was an American artist born in New Jersey and taught art classes in Massachusetts. He received many public commissions (including a bas relief for the FDR Memorial), honors, and his work is owned by many major museums around the world. Additionally, Baskin was a teacher at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. As a champion for human rights, Baskin created many pieces celebrating those who were seldom recognized.
Baskin’s interest in nineteenth century Native Americans was roused into acute attendance from ignorant indifference, when the National Park Service asked him to provide illustrations for the handbook that described the then called “Custer National Park”, now called “Little Big...
Category
1990s Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Ink
20th century color lithograph figurative print male subjects sketch scene signed
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Le Portrait Equestre" is an original color lithograph by Claude Weisbuch. This piece depicts a number of figures in black robes looking at horses. The a...
Category
1970s Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
'Sagot-Le Garrec' Poster
By Jacques Villon
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The frame is included.
Art size: 25" x 19"
This is an original and very rare vintage art poster from a Jacques VILLON's exhibition. It took place ...
Category
1970s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Dolly (I Love you!), " Original Color Lithograph Poster by the Clérice Frères
By Clerice Frères
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Dolly" is an original color lithograph poster by The Clérice Frères (The Clérice Brothers), signed within the composition on the lower left edge, just ...
Category
1920s Art Deco Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Fashionable Boulevard Montmartre, " Original Lithograph Poster by Pierre Brenot
By Pierre Laurent Brenot
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Fashionable Boulevard Montmartre" is an original lithograph poster by Pierre Laurent Brenot. This piece depicts four figures in fashionable costumes in a variety of dynamic poses. T...
Category
1940s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
20th century lithograph figurative print male subjects hats dark scene signed
By Claude Weisbuch
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Five Dutchmen with Hats" is an original lithograph by Claude Weisbuch. The artist signed the piece lower right and wrote the edition number (EA 15/30) in the lower left. This piece ...
Category
1970s Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Paper
"Play, " Figurative Etching Nude with Children signed by Kenneth Hayes Miller
By Kenneth Hayes Miller
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Play" is an original etching by Kenneth Hayes Miller. The artist signed the piece in pencil and in the plate. This piece features a nude figure with two smaller doll-like figures.
...
Category
1920s American Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
"Solidarity, " Etching of an Surrealist Landscape signed by Yves Tanguy
By Yves Tanguy
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Solidarity" is an original etching by surrealist artist Yves Tanguy. The artist signed the piece in pencil in the lower right and wrote the edition number, 109/150, in the lower lef...
Category
1940s Surrealist Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
'Merry Christmas' original color woodcut on paper, signed in block
By Sylvia Spicuzza
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Art: 5 1/2 x 4 3/8"
Frame: 10 1/8 x 8 1/8"
Original color woodcut on paper, signed in block.
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...
Category
1950s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
19th century color woodcut Japanese ukiyo-e print samurai figure
By Toyoharu Kunichika
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Ichimura Hazaemon as Hatsuyumeya Mitsujiro" is a woodcut print by Toyoharu Kunichika in red, blue, and black.
14" x 9 1/2" art
20 3/4" x 16 3/4" framed
From the series “First Per...
Category
1860s Edo Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
'Babylone d'Allemagne' original lithograph poster by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
By Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Babylone d'Allemagne' or 'German Babylon' is an original lithograph poster by the lauded artist of the Art Nouveau style Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. This is the second poster that La...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Paper, Lithograph
Untitled
By Ananda Kesler
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Edition 2/13
Signed to lower right
Ananda Kesler was born in Haifa, Israel. In 2002 she received her BA in Fine Art from the University of Iowa. She has continued her art education ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Le Passant, " Original Color Lithograph
By Robert Engels
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Le Passant" is an original Art Nouveau color lithograph. It depicts two women in the foreground wearing medieval white robes and a knight passing behind them on a black horse. Features the L'Estampe Moderne blindstamp bottom right hand corner. 1898.
15 3/4" x 12" art
23" x 19 1/4" framed
Robert Engels studied in Dusseldorf and moved shortly thereafter to work in Munich. Later, he became a professor at a school of applied arts at the KGS in Munich. He created many decorative prints as well as stained glass windows and also created compositions to illustrate Joseph Bedier's rendition of "Tristan and Iseult...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Art Nouveau Lithograph 1800s Landscape Romantic Figure Floral
By Georges De Feure
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Retour (L'Estampe Moderne I)" is a color lithograph by Georges de Feure. It features a woman with red hair in an environment of flora and fauna with muted colors and the Art Nouveau...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
20th century engraving figurative print interior dramatic black and white signed
By Auguste Brouet
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Les Emigrants" is an original roller engraving by Auguste Brouet. The artist signed the piece lower right and wrote the edition number (30/50) lower left. This engraving depicts a f...
Category
Early 1900s Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Engraving
"Speedway" large French movie poster with Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra
Located in Milwaukee, WI
This poster for the 1968 film Speedway is an energetic and playful work of graphic design. The poster is dominated by vibrant magenta and yellow, making the image of Elvis Presley an...
Category
1960s Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
late 19th century color lithograph poster military figure drummer text
By Jules Chéret
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Rappel" is an original lithograph poster designed by Jules Cheret. This poster depicts a young man drumming. There is a small stain in the upper left corner. This poster was publish...
Category
1890s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Requiem/Let Them Be, " Etching and Aquatint signed by Joan Snyder
By Joan Snyder
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Requiem" is an original etching and aquatint by Joan Snyder. The artist signed the piece, and the edition is of 120. This piece features abstract, expressionist text and an striking portrait of a woman with red lipstick on a pink background.
25 5/8" x 20" art
32" x 26" frame
Joan Snyder was born on April 16, 1940, in Highland Park, New Jersey. She received her AB from Douglass College in New Brunswick, New Jersey (1962), and an MFA from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey (1966). She was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1974) and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1983). Snyder lives in Brooklyn and Woodstock, New York.
Although Snyder’s paintings are often placed under various art-movement umbrellas—Abstract...
Category
1990s Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
"Man with Horn, " Poster after Pablo Picasso
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Man With Horn" is an poster after an artwork by Pablo Picasso. It advertises an exhibition of Picasso's works at Marlborough Gallery in New York from Oc...
Category
1970s Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Color
Untitled
By Ananda Kesler
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Edition 1/13
Signed to lower right
Ananda Kesler was born in Haifa, Israel. In 2002 she received her BA in Fine Art from the University of Iowa. She has continued her art education...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Kinderfest (Wie die Alten sungen, so zwitschern die Jungen)
Located in Milwaukee, WI
Framed 46 x 57.50 in13
Printed by L. Angerer. Engraved by Paul Sigmund Habelmann after the original oil painting by Ludwig Knaus.
The inscription "Wie die Alten sungen, so zwitschern...
Category
1860s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Engraving
'Courtesan and Young Man at Fuchu' Original Erotic Shunga Woodblock
By Utagawa Hiroshige (Ando Hiroshige)
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present work is an excellent example of the erotic Shunga prints produced by Utagawa 'Ando' Hioshige and his school. Shunga imagery became especially widespread in Japan with the...
Category
Mid-19th Century Edo Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Derriere Le Miroir
By Saul Steinberg
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Derriere Le Miroir" is an original color lithograph created by the artist Saul Steinberg.
Edition: 53/150
Artwork Size: 14"x 20"
Frame Size: 33 1/8"x 25 5/8"
From the Saul Steinb...
Category
1970s Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Ink, Lithograph
From: Ilsée, Princess of Tripoli Recto: "Eldenias " Verso: "Hilderich "
By Alphonse Mucha
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"From: Ilsée, Princess of Tripoli Recto: "Eldenias" Verso: "Hilderich" is an original color lithograph by Alphonse Mucha. Exquisite double-sided color lithographs from "Ilsee, Princ...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
20th century woodcut ink black and white figures musical instruments dramatic
By Robert Franz Von Neumann
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Chamber Music" is an original wood engraving by Robert Franz von Neumann. It features a room full of men in the thralls of creating music together. A small audience stands outside their circle.
Image: 5.5" x 7"
Framed: 14" x 15.56"
1888 - 1976 Born in Rostock, Mecklenburg, Germany, Robert von Neumann...
Category
1930s American Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
20th century color lithograph postcard indigenous figures landscape rock sky
By Joseph Roy Willis
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Navajo Indians At Home" is a color lithograph postcard by Joseph Roy Willis. A number of American Natives of varying ages and genders are depicted in the brightly colored clothing a...
Category
1930s Other Art Style Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Postcard, Lithograph
"The Court Jesters, " Two Woodcuts by Andre Derain
By André Derain
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"The Court Jesters" includes two original color woodcuts by Andre Derain. This is from an edition of 200. It features two vignettes of brightly-clad j...
Category
1940s Fauvist Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Woodcut
Late 19th century color lithograph art nouveau ornate bookplate figures floral
By Alphonse Mucha
Located in Milwaukee, WI
From: Ilsée, Princesse de Tripoli "Ilsee and Jaufre" is an original color lithograph by Alphonse Mucha. Exquisite double-sided color lithographs from "Ilsee, Princesse de Tripoli," ...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Four original etchings of women from 'Aula Veneris' series by Wenceslaus Hollar
By Wenceslaus Hollar
Located in Milwaukee, WI
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...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Paper
19th century color lithograph figures cemetery willow tree memorial headstone
By Nathaniel Currier
Located in Milwaukee, WI
The present hand-colored lithograph was produced as part of the funeral and mourning culture in the United States during the 19th century. Images like this were popular as ways of remembering loved ones, an alternative to portraiture of the deceased. This lithograph shows a man, woman and child in morning clothes next to an urn-topped stone monument. Behind are additional putto-topped headstones beneath weeping willows, with a steepled church beyond. The monument contains a space where a family could inscribe the name and death dates of a deceased loved one. In this case, it has been inscribed to a young Civil War soldier:
William W. Peabody
Died at Fairfax Seminary, VA
December 18th, 1864
Aged 18 years
The young Mr. Peabody probably died in service for the Union during the American Civil War. Farifax Seminary was a Union hospital and military headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The hospital served nearly two thousand soldiers during the war time. Five hundred were also buried on the Seminary's grounds.
13.75 x 9.5 inches, artwork
23 x 19 inches, frame
Published before 1864
Inscribed bottom center "Lith. & Pub. by N. Currier. 2 Spruce St. N.Y."
Framed to conservation standards using 100 percent rag matting and TruVue Conservation Clear glass, housed in a gold gilded moulding.
Nathaniel Currier was a tall introspective man with a melancholy nature. He could captivate people with his piercing stare or charm them with his sparkling blue eyes. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27th, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble yet spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel’s father unexpectedly passed away leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a life-long career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton.
A Bavarian gentleman named Alois Senefelder invented lithography just 30 years prior to young Nat Currier’s apprenticeship. While under the employ of the brothers Pendleton, Nat was taught the art of lithography by the firm’s chief printer, a French national named Dubois, who brought the lithography trade to America.
Lithography involves grinding a piece of limestone flat and smooth then drawing in mirror image on the stone with a special grease pencil. After the image is completed, the stone is etched with a solution of aqua fortis leaving the greased areas in slight relief. Water is then used to wet the stone and greased-ink is rolled onto the raised areas. Since grease and water do not mix, the greased-ink is repelled by the moisture on the stone and clings to the original grease pencil lines. The stone is then placed in a press and used as a printing block to impart black on white images to paper.
In 1833, now twenty-years old and an accomplished lithographer, Nat Currier left Boston and moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. With the promise of good money, Currier hired on to help Brown prepare lithographic stones of scientific images for the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. When Nat completed the contract work in 1834, he traveled to New York City to work once again for his mentor John Pendleton, who was now operating his own shop located at 137 Broadway. Soon after the reunion, Pendleton expressed an interest in returning to Boston and offered to sell his print shop to Currier. Young Nat did not have the financial resources to buy the shop, but being the resourceful type he found another local printer by the name of Stodart. Together they bought Pendleton’s business.
The firm ‘Currier & Stodart’ specialized in "job" printing. They produced many different types of printed items, most notably music manuscripts for local publishers. By 1835, Stodart was frustrated that the business was not making enough money and he ended the partnership, taking his investment with him. With little more than some lithographic stones, and a talent for his trade, twenty-two year old Nat Currier set up shop in a temporary office at 1 Wall Street in New York City. He named his new enterprise ‘N. Currier, Lithographer’
Nathaniel continued as a job printer and duplicated everything from music sheets to architectural plans. He experimented with portraits, disaster scenes and memorial prints, and any thing that he could sell to the public from tables in front of his shop. During 1835 he produced a disaster print Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives. The public had a thirst for newsworthy events, and newspapers of the day did not include pictures. By producing this print, Nat gave the public a new way to “see” the news. The print sold reasonably well, an important fact that was not lost on Currier.
Nat met and married Eliza Farnsworth in 1840. He also produced a print that same year titled Awful Conflagration of the Steamboat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Evening, January 18, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over One Hundred Persons Perished. This print sold out very quickly, and Currier was approached by an enterprising publication who contracted him to print a single sheet addition of their paper, the New York Sun. This single page paper is presumed to be the first illustrated newspaper ever published.
The success of the Lexington print launched his career nationally and put him in a position to finally lift his family up. In 1841, Nat and Eliza had their first child, a son they named Edward West Currier. That same year Nat hired his twenty-one year old brother Charles and taught him the lithography trade, he also hired his artistically inclined brother Lorenzo to travel out west and make sketches of the new frontier as material for future prints. Charles worked for the firm on and off over the years, and invented a new type of lithographic crayon which he patented and named the Crayola. Lorenzo continued selling sketches to Nat for the next few years.
In 1843, Nat and Eliza had a daughter, Eliza West Currier, but tragedy struck in early 1847 when their young daughter died from a prolonged illness. Nat and Eliza were grief stricken, and Eliza, driven by despair, gave up on life and passed away just four months after her daughter’s death.
The subject of Nat Currier’s artwork changed following the death of his wife and daughter, and he produced many memorial prints and sentimental prints during the late 1840s. The memorial prints generally depicted grief stricken families posed by gravestones (the stones were left blank so the purchasers could fill in the names of the dearly departed). The sentimental prints usually depicted idealized portraits of women and children, titled with popular Christian names of the day.
Late in 1847, Nat Currier married Lura Ormsbee, a friend of the family. Lura was a self-sufficient woman, and she immediately set out to help Nat raise six-year-old Edward and get their house in order. In 1849, Lura delivered a son, Walter Black Currier, but fate dealt them a blow when young Walter died one year later. While Nat and Lura were grieving the loss of their new son, word came from San Francisco that Nat’s brother Lorenzo had also passed away from a brief illness. Nat sank deeper into his natural quiet melancholy. Friends stopped by to console the couple, and Lura began to set an extra place at their table for these unexpected guests. She continued this tradition throughout their lives.
In 1852, Charles introduced a friend, James Merritt Ives, to Nat and suggested he hire him as a bookkeeper. Jim Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Jim was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. He was also a plump and jovial man, presenting the exact opposite image of his new boss.
Jim Ives met Charles Currier through Caroline Clark, the object of Jim’s affection. Caroline’s sister Elizabeth was married to Charles, and Caroline was a close friend of the Currier family. Jim eventually proposed marriage to Caroline and solicited an introduction to Nat Currier, through Charles, in hopes of securing a more stable income to support his future wife.
Ives quickly set out to improve and modernize his new employer’s bookkeeping methods. He reorganized the firm’s sizable inventory, and used his artistic skills to streamline the firm’s production methods. By 1857, Nathaniel had become so dependent on Jims’ skills and initiative that he offered him a full partnership in the firm and appointed him general manager. The two men chose the name ‘Currier & Ives’ for the new partnership, and became close friends.
Currier & Ives produced their prints in a building at 33 Spruce Street where they occupied the third, fourth and fifth floors. The third floor was devoted to the hand operated printing presses that were built by Nat's cousin, Cyrus Currier, at his shop Cyrus Currier & Sons in Newark, NJ. The fourth floor found the artists, lithographers and the stone grinders at work. The fifth floor housed the coloring department, and was one of the earliest production lines in the country. The colorists were generally immigrant girls, mostly German, who came to America with some formal artistic training. Each colorist was responsible for adding a single color to a print. As a colorist finished applying their color, the print was passed down the line to the next colorist to add their color. The colorists worked from a master print displayed above their table, which showed where the proper colors were to be placed. At the end of the table was a touch up artist who checked the prints for quality, touching-in areas that may have been missed as it passed down the line. During the Civil War, demand for prints became so great that coloring stencils were developed to speed up production.
Although most Currier & Ives prints were colored in house, some were sent out to contract artists. The rate Currier & Ives paid these artists for coloring work was one dollar per one hundred small folios (a penny a print) and one dollar per one dozen large folios. Currier & Ives also offered uncolored prints to dealers, with instructions (included on the price list) on how to 'prepare the prints for coloring.' In addition, schools could order uncolored prints from the firm’s catalogue to use in their painting classes.
Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives attracted a wide circle of friends during their years in business. Some of their more famous acquaintances included Horace Greeley, Phineas T. Barnum, and the outspoken abolitionists Rev. Henry Ward, and John Greenleaf Whittier (the latter being a cousin of Mr. Currier).
Nat Currier and Jim Ives described their business as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures" and produced many categories of prints. These included Disaster Scenes, Sentimental Images, Sports, Humor, Hunting Scenes, Politics, Religion, City and Rural Scenes, Trains, Ships, Fire Fighters, Famous Race Horses, Historical Portraits, and just about any other topic that satisfied the general public's taste. In all, the firm produced in excess of 7500 different titles, totaling over one million prints produced from 1835 to 1907.
Nat Currier retired in 1880, and signed over his share of the firm to his son Edward. Nat died eight years later at his summer home 'Lion’s Gate' in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Jim Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895, when his share of the firm passed to his eldest son, Chauncey.
In 1902, faced will failing health from the ravages of Tuberculosis, Edward Currier sold his share of the firm to Chauncey Ives...
Category
Mid-19th Century Romantic Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Watercolor, Lithograph
"Carte de Voeux #731, " Lithograph by Marc Chagall in Chagall Catalog Raisonne
By Marc Chagall
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Carte de Voeux #731" is an original lithograph greeting card by Marc Chagall. It is in the Chagall Catalogue Raisonne and is from a rare edition of only 200. It depicts a face and a bird in Chagall's signature whimsical modernist style.
5 1/2" x 4 1/4" art
21" x 18 1/4" frame
Marc Chagall was born in Liozno, near Vitebsk, now in Belarus, the eldest of nine children in a close-knit Jewish family led by his father Khatskl (Zakhar) Shagal, a herring merchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite. This period of his life, described as happy though impoverished, appears in references throughout Chagall's work. The family home on Pokrovskaya Street is now the Marc Chagall Museum...
Category
1970s Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lucite, Lithograph
19th century lithograph art nouveau ornate female figures outline illustration
By Alphonse Mucha
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"From: Ilsee, Princess of Tripoli "Jaufre and Eymardine" is an original lithograph by Alphonse Mucha. From "Ilsee, Princesse de Tripoli," a rare illustrated book.
Image: 8.12" x 6"...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Four Women in National Costumes, " Etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar
By Wenceslaus Hollar
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Four Women in National Costumes" is a set of four original etchings by Wenceslaus Von Prachna Hollar.
3 5/8" x 2 3/8" each print
19 1/8" x 18 1/2" frame
Wenceslaus Von Prachna Ho...
Category
17th Century Old Masters Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching
"Swimmers, " Seascape Linoleum Cut by Clarice George Logan
By Clarice George Logan
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Swimmers" is an original linoleum print by Clarice George Logan. It features five figures enjoying a swim, jumping off from a small boat.
Image: 4.94" x 6"
Framed: 13.87" x 14.87"
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 Neumann...
Category
1930s American Modern Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Linocut
'Fatima' original lithograph in colors signed by Rudolph Carl Gorman
By Rudolph Carl Gorman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
'Fatima' is an original color lithograph by the renown printmaker R.C. Gorman. from Arizona, the artist's later works focus almost entirely on the female figure and take Native American and Southwestern imagery as a source of inspiration. Here, a single woman sits in a colorful yet undefined space. The form of her yellow dress as she kneels is repeated in the delicately drawn bunches gladiolus flowers...
Category
1990s Contemporary Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
Late 19th century color lithograph art nouveau ornate bookplate figures floral
By Alphonse Mucha
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Dream Weavers" and "Soul of the Land" are two sides of a double-sided lithograph by Alphonse Mucha. These illustrations were created for "Ilsee, Princess of Tripoli" and are the rare proofs before the text. These artworks were for pages 31 and 32.
8" x 6 1/4" art
19 1/4" x 17 1/8" frame
Alphonse Mucha was born in 1860 in the small town of Ivancice, Monrovia. Though it is rumored that Mucha was drawing before he was walking, his early years were spent as a choirboy and amateur musician. It wasn’t until after he finished high school that he came to realize that living people were responsible for the art that he admired in the local churches. That epiphany made him determined to become a painter. He was soon sent off to Paris, where he studied at the Academie Julian. On January 1, 1985, he presented his own new style to the citizens of Paris. Spurning the bright colors and the more square-like shape of the more popular poster artists, the design was a sensation. Art Nouveau can...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
20th century color lithograph French scene female figure boats water signed
By Francois Batet
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Le Printemps" is an original color lithograph by Francois Batet. The artist signed the piece in the lower right and wrote the edition number (184/200) in the lower left. This piece ...
Category
1980s Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Rayon des Soieries, Opera Bouffe en un Acte, " Litho Poster by Maurice Dufrene
By Maurice Dufrêne
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Rayon des Soieries, Opera Bouffe en un Acte" is an original color lithograph poster by Maurice Dufrene. The artist's name is written lower right. This piece depicts an Art Deco repr...
Category
1930s Art Deco Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Les Petites Barnett, " Color Lithograph Poster by Charles Levy
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Les Petites Barnett" is an original color lithograph poster by Charles Levy. This poster features five dancers in matching dresses and it advertises an Operette. Unsigned.
23" x 30...
Category
1890s Victorian Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"La Naissance D'Eve, " Surreal Lithograph from "Je Reve" signed by Andre Masson
By André Masson
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"La Naissance D'Eve" is an original color lithograph from the "Je Reve (I Dream)" portfolio by Andre Masson. The artist signed the piece lower right in pencil and wrote the edition n...
Category
1970s Surrealist Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
18th century etching figurative neoclassical mythology scene dynamic
By Alexander Runciman
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Cormar Attacking a Spirit on the Waters" is an etching by eighteenth-century Scottish artist Alexander Runciman, signed in plate on the lower edge of the etching, "ARunciman inv. & ...
Category
1770s Academic Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Etching, Paper, Ink
From: Ilsee, Princess of Tripoli Recto: "Dream Woman " Verso: "Visions "
By Alphonse Mucha
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"From: Ilsee, Princess of Tripoli Recto: "Dream Woman" Verso: "Visions" is an original color lithograph by Alphonse Mucha. Exquisite double-sided color lithograph from "Ilsee, Princ...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"La Phalène des Isles de la Mer, " figurative art nouveau ornate print
By Franz Melchers
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"La Phalène des Isles de la Mer" or "The Moth of the Islands of the Sea" is an original color lithograph by Franz Melchers. This piece was published in L'Estampe Moderne I, an Art No...
Category
1890s Art Nouveau Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph
"Sambaso after Hirosada" original lithograph signed pop art bold Japanese figure
By Michael Knigin
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Sambaso After Hirosada" is an original color lithograph by Michael Knigin from his Osaka series. This lithograph features a portrait of a traditional Japanese man in front of the Ne...
Category
1970s Pop Art Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph, Ink
19th century lithograph landscape battle scene military figurative print
By Kurz and Allison
Located in Milwaukee, WI
"Battle of Monmouth June 28, 1778" is an original lithograph by Kurz & Allison. It depicts a battle in the American Revolutionary War.
12 1/4" x 18" art
21 1/4" x 27" frame
Kurz &...
Category
1890s Other Art Style Wisconsin - Figurative Prints
Materials
Lithograph