May 2009 Archives

William Hogarth created this scene in 1721 as a satire of the South Sea investment frauds in 1720. A monument to the destruction that was caused is shown on the right, with wolves fighting at the top. The central Wheel of Fortune is labeled “Who’l Ride” and is crowned with a goat. At the left, a devil is auctioning off pieces of Fortune’s body as religious leaders gamble below. The naked figure of Honesty, at the bottom center, is being tortured by Self-interest. At the right, Honor is whipped by Villainy and Trade lies dead below.

The text at the bottom reads:

See here the causes why in London
So many men are made and undone
That arts and honest trading drop,
To swarm about the Devil’s Shop (A),
Who cuts out (B) Fortune’s golden haunches,
Trading their souls with lots and chances,
Sharing ‘em from Blue Garters down
To all Blue Aprons in the town.
Here all Religions flock together,
Like tame and wild fowl of a feather,
Leaving their strife Religious battle,
Kneel down to play at pitch and hustle(C) :
Thus when the Shepherds are at play
Their flocks must surely go astray
The woeful cause that in these times
(E) Honour and Honesty (D) are crimes
That publickly are punish’d by
(G) Self-Interest and (F) Vilany
So much for mony’s magic power,
Guess at the rest, you find out more.
Price One Shilling

Anna Letitia Barbauld (1743-1825), Lessons for Children, in Four Parts. Wood engravings designed by S. Pike and engraved by Alexander Anderson (Philadelphia: Benjamin Warner, 1818) Graphic Arts Collection (GAX), Hamilton 265

Anna Laetitia Aikin (later Mrs. Rochemont Barbauld) and her brother John began publishing small books in 1773. When Anna adopted John’s son, Charles, she began writing a series of books for children, including Lessons for Children in 1778 and Hymns in Prose for Children in 1781. Anna was a dedicated teacher and hoped these volumes would introduce “elements of society’s symbol-systems and conceptual structures, inculcate an ethics, and encourage [children] to develop a certain kind of sensibility.”

As depicted in the image shown above, the text is meant to be a personal dialogue between mother and child. The books were printed in large type with wide margins making them easy to read for all ages. Their popularity led to numerous editions in several languages. Anna and her brother also collaborated on the six-volume Evening at Home, or The Juvenile Budget Opened; The Farm-Yard Journal; and Books of Stories, or, Allegorical Instruction and Entertainment, from Animated Creation, for Children.

Graphic Arts is fortunate to hold copies of all these books as well as the original wood-engraved block for one illustration from Lessons for Children.

Octavio Paz (1914-1998), Discos visuals (México: Ediciones Era, 1968). Edición de 1,000 ejemplares. Contents:, I. Juventud.—II. Pasaje.—III. Concorde.—IV. Aspa. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX), PQ7297.P285 D5

Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was an activist and a writer. During the 1960s, he served for six years as the Mexican ambassador in New Delhi before resigning in support of the student demonstrations at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. His poem “The Shame of the Olympics” was translated by Mark Strand and published in the New York Review of Books.

That same year, Paz published the essay “Marcel Duchamp o el castillo de la pureza,” which was later translated by Donald Gardner and republished as “Marcel Duchamp, or the Castle of Purity.” His interest in concrete poetry and the role of chance in art led to experiments in graphic poetic devices. The visual artist Vicente Rojo helped Paz with the design of an edition of visual poetry discs, entitled Discos visuals.

These four overlapping cardboard circles, with openings top and bottom, can be turned in either direction revealing words and phrases written by Paz, creating poems by accidental combinations. Part scrabble and part Ouija board, these discs are now extremely rare.

Lovis Corinth (1858-1925), Self-portrait, no date. Drypoint. GC018 German print collection.

In the last years of the nineteenth-century, discontented artists in Germany and Austria chose to leave the formal, academic salons to form a “free association for mounting art exhibitions.” The Munich Secession formed in 1892, the Vienna Secession in 1897 and the Berlin Secession in 1898.

German artist Franz Heinrich Louis Corinth (1858-1925), later called Lovis Corinth, founded the Munich Secession. It’s interesting to note this influential artist hadn’t yet sold a single painting—his first sale was in 1895. Corinth then moved to Berlin, where he joined the 65 dissident artists of that Secession, eventually serving as their president from 1915 to 1925.

By that time, however, the power of the organization was lessening. There was a new generation of young artists who objected to what had become the establishment. They left Corinth’s Secession and formed their organization, they called The New Secession.

Corinth created over 900 prints, including 60 self-portraits. The Graphic Arts collection is fortunate to own these two drypoints.

When President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was assassinated, his body was carried by train and by carriage through 180 cities before reaching Springfield, Illinois, where it was buried. The route passed through New Jersey and Princeton students are reported to have stood in silence as it passed. The train stopped briefly in New Brunswick and Newark, before the body was transferred to a ferry, which carried it from Jersey City to New York City.

Once in NYC, the casket remained at City Hall Park all day and through the next morning, when it was loaded into a glass-sided hearse pulled by sixteen horses and taken to the Hudson River Railway Depot at 10th Avenue and 30th Street. This albumen photograph taken on April 25 shows the procession moving up Broadway, just south of Astor Place. The Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) is seen at the center of the frame.

The platform of the hearse was fourteen feet long, eight feet wide, and five feet from the ground, so the crowds could see the coffin through the glass. The New York Times’ Henry J. Raymond wrote that “the hearse, drawn by six [sic] gray horses, heavily draped in black, took its place in the procession, headed by General [John A.] Dix and other officers, escorted by the Seventh Regiment, and the whole cortege moved, through densely crowded streets and amidst the most impressive display of public and private grief, to the City Hall.” (Henry Raymond, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, John Shaw Pierson Civil War Collection W96.587.75.3)

Right: A Turkish Cavass (Police Officer)

Henry Van Lemmep traveled to Turkey as a missionary in 1840 and did not return to the United States for twenty years. After his retirement, he gathered all his drawings and had them printed by the lithographer Charles R. Parsons (1821-1910) and published by Anson D. F. Randolph (1820-1896) as The Oriental Album. “In terms of American color plate books, this is one of the only large projects from the 1860s, when the Civil War seems to have curtailed production of such lavish enterprises.”—William Reese

Parsons began as an apprentise to the artist George Endicott (1802-1848) at the age of twelve, learning first to draw and then to make lithographs. He became a partner at Endicott & Company, producing work for Currier & Ives, as well as Frank Leslie. At the age of forty-two, Parsons took over the art department at Harper’s on Franklin Square, where he hired the best young artists of that time. Later, Joseph Pennell wrote “the growth of real and vital American art started in the department of Mr. Parsons in Franklin Square.”

Gypsy Telling Fortune Albanian Guard

Turkish and Armenian Ladies

The frontispiece for Crispijn de Passe’s five volume manual for painters depicts Minerva as the patroness of the arts.

She is holding a torch to symbolize the light mentioned in the title of this volume. In her lap is an open book with the artist’s motto: Nulla dies sine linea (Never a day without a line). Behind her are eight Utrecht painters: Abraham Bloemaert, Gerard van Honthorst, two unidentified, Jan van Bronckhorst, Roelandt Saverij, Joachim Wtewael, and Paulus Moreelse. Apprentices sit at Minerva’s feet drawing.

The manual was meant for a wide audience and so, the text is printed in Italian, Dutch, French, and German. Part one is devoted to proportions; part two to drawing from the male nude; part three drawing from the female nude; part four to figure studies by famous contemporary master including Guercino, Jan Cousin, Abraham Bloemaert, and Roelandt Saverij; and part five focuses on the study of mammals, birds, fish, and insects.

There are only four other copies of this book in the United States. One is at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., one at the Getty Research Institute, and two at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Each copy is slightly different in the plates included, their sequence, and the altering of dates. The title pages of part 1-2 in Princeton’s copy have imprint: t’Amsterdam : By Crispijn de Pas, M.D.C.XLIV (altered with pen to M.D.C.LXIV), while the National Gallery of Art’s copy is altered similarly for parts 2-3. Princeton’s copy also has plate dates altered to reflect the addition of a number of prints.

Each of the five parts has its own title page, hence the combined title: La prima-[quinta] parte della luce del dipingere et disegnare, used for the single bound volume. The polyglot book is also known as Van ‘t Licht der teken en schilderkonst and Luce del dipingere et disegnare.

Most of the 225 plates in these volumes were engraved by Crispijn the Younger himself, although the years following the publication of this opus were troublesome for the artist. He had more and more trouble keeping up with demand for his work and in 1645, the artist was admitted to an asylum to be “cured of his insanity of mind.” Although he returned to work, this manual remains his most ambitious project.

The book is dedicated to the city of Utrecht, where his father Crispijn de Passe the elder, had moved for religious reasons. The entire family, father and four children, worked together as artists and print publishers. When the family estate was settled near the end of the 18th century, their work totaled more than 14,000 prints and around 50 print books or illustrated volumes. Princeton is fortunate to now hold 5 rare volumes with prints by Crispijn the younger, and 6 illustrated by Crispijn the elder.

The honour is immortal that remains
Of virtuous artists whose name shall never wither.
Just so with De Passe, the praise the Muses sing
In the vale of Pegasus, of all the wondrous marvels
That he disclosed with his needle,
By etching on the plate, of which Belgica boasts.
So skillfully done, stippled and boldly cut,
As can still be seen up to this very day.
The proof demonstrates the work’s deed to the master’s honour,
Aye, the hand may perish, but the spirit never dies.

This is one in a series of woodblock prints offering the Japanese public a look at the leading prostitutes of the Yoshiwara (pleasure district). Along the top of each sheet is a waka (thirty-one-syllable) poem written in the women’s own hand to show her abilities in calligraphy. Handwriting was only one of the many attributes expected from a high-class courtesan at that time.

The artist Kitao Masanobu was only twenty-two when he produced what would become his most famous work, Seirō meikun jihitsu-shū (Collection of calligraphy by celebrated Yoshiwara courtesans). The seven double ōban woodblock prints each depict two bijin or beauties along with their kamuro (eight to twelve year old attendants learning the business).

According to Cecilia Seigle’s book Yoshiwara (Firestone HN730.T65 S45 1993), Masanobu practically lived in the pleasure district during the 1780s and may have drawn these images from life. The following year, the artist teamed up with publisher Tsutaya Jūsaburō to reformat the series into a book, newly titled Shin Bijin Awase Jihitsu Kagami.

In this sheet, Hinazuru is on the right, showing her New Year kimonos. Chōzan is seated on the left at a writing desk. She has a calligraphy primer, a copy of the book Eiga monogatari (Tales of Glory), and strips of paper waiting for her to write New Years poems.

In 1860, the celebrated American photographer Mathew Brady (1822-1896) opened his fourth and last New York studio at 785 Broadway, near Tenth Street. He named it the National Portrait Gallery and it was here in 1862 that Brady exhibited photographs of the Battle of Antietam. Brady advertised the exhibition as “The Dead of Antietam,” and it was the first time the bodies of contemporary dead soldiers were seen by the general public. An extended biography of Brady can be found at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwbrady.html

Many of Brady’s commercial prints can be found in this photography album in the graphic arts collection. It holds a collection of studio portraits, primarily during the American Civil War, along with a visiting card for Charles Lamson, which might be a clue to the original owner. Several CDVs bear the imprint “Brady’s National Photographic Portrait Galleries” or “published by E. & H.T. Anthony from photographic negative in Brady’s National Portrait Gallery.”

There are individual portraits of Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet members: Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President; William Seward, Secretary of State; Salmon P. Chase, U.S. Treasury Secretary; Edwin M. Stanton, Attorney General (1860-1861), Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy; Montgomery Blair, Postmaster-General; and Edward Bates, Attorney General (1861-1864).

Also included are portraits of Union generals Ulysses S. Grant; Ambrose Burnside; Nathaniel P. Banks; Winfield Scott; Joseph Hooker; Edwin Vose Sumner; Benjamin Franklin Butler; and Daniel E. Sickles. Some of the other individuals identified includes portraits of Jefferson Davis, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry Ward Beecher, and Richard Cobden.

In particular, three photographs are by Chas. Paxson, N.Y. and J.E. McClees, Philadelphia with the verso caption: “The nett proceeds from the sale of these photographs will be devoted to the education of Colored people in the department of the Gulf, now under the command of Maj. Gen. Banks.” One photograph bear captions: “Rebecca, A slave girl from New Orleans”; one is titled: “Charley, A slave boy from New Orleans.”

The photographers represented in the album include Mathew Brady; Chas. Paxson, NY; J.E. McClees, Philadelphia; Charles Fredericks; Hargrave & Gubelman, NY; LeRoy’s Gem Gallery, Newburgh, NY; W. Notman, Montreal; D. Appleton & Co., NY; Geo. G. Rockwood & Co., NY; Golder & Robinson’s Ferrotype Rooms; H.S. Myer, Yonkers, NY; Brasier & Co., Brooklyn; Johnston Brothers, NY; Faris, 751 Broadway; W. Kurtz; Sarony, NY; New Orleans Photographic Gallery, A.A. Turner, photo.; Tourtin, Paris; Norman May, Malvern; Scidmore, Gloversville, NY; Martin Jacolette, South Kensington.

In 1784, British artist Thomas Rowlandson submitted two watercolors to the Royal Academy member’s exhibition: The Serpentine River and Vauxhall. They were recognized by the critics and at 28 years-old, Rowlandson emerged as an artist of note. The later work was engraved by Robert Pollard for wide distribution the following year. One of the finest aquatintists of the period, Francis Jukes (1745-1812), was hired to recreate the look of the watercolor and the print was published by John Raphael Smith (1752-1812), one of the leading printmakers of the day, who published prints after Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Romney.

In Vauxhall, figures are caricatured but identifiable, including Mrs. Weichsel singing from the front balcony and Mr. Barthelemon leading the orchestra. Below is a supper party with James Boswell, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Mrs. Thrale, and Oliver Goldsmith. Boswell did frequent Vauxhall and said “I am a great friend to pubic amusements; for they keep people from vice. You would now have been with a wench had you not been here.” Playwright and columnist Captain Topham is looking through a spyglass at the Duchess of Devonshire and her sister, Lady Duncannon. Further to the right, the Prince of Wales flirts with his former mistress Perdita Robinson, who remains on the arm of her husband.

Vauxhall Gardens originated in 1661, was renovated in 1732 and remained a popular venue well into the 19th century. As described in Boswell’s Life of Johnson, “There being a mixture of curious shew, gay exhibition, musick, vocal and instrumental, not too refined for the general ear; for all which only a shilling is paid; and, though last, not least, good eating and drinking for those who choose to purchase that regale.”

Rowlandson liked to go there in the evening to watch and draw. He created at least two watercolors and several prints featuring the Garden. However, there is no recorded impression of this image “drawn and engraved by Rowlandson” as the Princeton print claims. The inscribed border of our print gives the publisher as Richard Powell, with no date, and names many of the celebrities in the scene, but there is no listing of such a print in Grego’s catalogue raisonné. Most likely it is one of many illegal reprintings of Rowlandson’s popular prints.

Joseph Grego (1843-1908), Rowlandson the Caricaturist (London: Chatto and Windus, 1880) Graphic Arts Collection (GA) Oversize Rowlandson 703.3q

James Boswell (1740-1795), The Life of Samuel Johnson (Printed by Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly …, 1791) Rare Books (Ex) 3804.3.59

The Friends of the Princeton University Library are pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Elmer Adler Undergraduate Book Collecting Prize. The $2,000 first prize goes to Jac Mullen, Class of 2010, for his essay, “A Zealous Declaration,” in which he reveals his passion for the great novels of the twentieth century, “those works of linguistic robustness and playfulness, the brashly experimental, fiercely prophetic works of Weltliteratur.” The Adler award also put Mullen in touch with some family history. “When I told my grandfather I’d won,” Mullen said, “he gave me a copy of a very old issue of the Princeton University Library Chronicle [which] featured a bibliography of works collected by my great-grandfather, Gilbert Chinard, who was a professor of French literature here at Princeton in the 1930s and 1940s. More to the point, however, the issue was introduced by an essay my great-grandfather wrote about—of all things—book collecting!”

The second place prize of $1,500 is presented to Emily Rutherford, Class of 2012, for her essay, “The Beat Generation: A Book Collection for My Generation.” When Rutherford first read Allen Ginsberg’s famous line “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked …,” she was hooked, and she began to acquire and read everything she could by and about Ginsberg and his contemporaries. She now lives with that first page of Howl affixed to the wall over her desk. The lines, she writes, “never, ever fail to comfort and inspire me.”

The Friends awarded the $1,000 third prize to Cindy Hong, Class of 2009, for her essay, “Dipping into Life: Collecting Letters of Modernist Writers.” The key to her favorite authors, she discovered, was in their personal correspondence. “No matter what happens to the future of letters,” writes Hong, these published collections will “provide contemporary readers with a glimpse into the lives of favorite modern writers.”

Each winner will receive a certificate from the Dean of the College and a new book chosen specifically for her/his collection, donated by Princeton University Press. Jac Mullen’s first prize essay will be published in the Princeton University Library Chronicle and will also be submitted to the National Undergraduate Book Collecting competition sponsored by Fine Books & Collections magazine.

The Friends of the Princeton University Library play a vital role in supporting the acquisitions and operations of the Library. All members of the community who have an interest in books, libraries, manuscripts, and the graphic arts are welcome to join. For further information on the Friends, please contact Linda Oliveira at 609-258-3155.