February 2010 Archives

At the age of fourteen, Lozowick left his family in the Ukraine to join a brother living in New Jersey. He quickly learned English and studied painting and printmaking at the National Academy of Design in New York. Lozowick’s work has been labeled Precisionist (an American form of constructivism) and although he travelled extensively, it is the scenes of the new industrial age in the United States for which he is best remembered. Lithography was his medium of choice.

Lozowick moved to Berlin in the early 1920s where he was a member of the artists’ circle that included László Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky. He had his first solo show in Berlin at K. E. Twardy Book Shop, which led to a number of commissions as a graphic artist and illustrator.

By the time the depression hit, Lozowick was back in the United States. He joined the Graphic Arts Division of the Works Progress Administration where he was employed until 1940. He also taught lithography at the John Reed Club School of Art and was a founder of the New Masses (and eventually its art editor).

Lozowick was a good friend of Elmer Adler, the first curator of graphic arts at Princeton University, and Adler collected a small group of his lithographs, including this one, for the library. Several are signed and dedicated directly from Lozowick to Adler.

Four elderly men peer pruriently at a painting of a reclining Venus, with similar framed work around the room. Lascivious old men or art historians? While the designer of this print, Thomas Rowlandson, was poking fun at the connoisseurs, he was himself as interested in sexual imagery as the others.

During the final years of his life, Rowlandson privately printed at least ten stipple engraving depicting sexual encounters he called Anatomy Diversions. Long after Rowlandson’s death, John Camden Hotten (1832-1873) collected a set of these prints and published them in a bound edition accompanied with his own equally explicit poems. Only 100 copies were printed, entitled Pretty Little Games for Young Ladies and Gentlemen with Pictures of Good Old English Sports and Pastimes ([London: J.C. Hotten], 1845 [i.e. 1872]). Graphic Arts Collection (GA), Rowlandson 1845

See Henry Spencer Ashbee, Centuria librorum abscondorum, (Encyclopedia of Erotic Literature, v.2), p. [346]-354.

Here are a few examples:

The Hairy Prospect or the Devil in a Fright

Once on a time the Sire of evil,
In plainer English call’d the devil,
Some new experiment to try
At Chloe cast a roguish eye -t
But she who all his arts defied,
Pull’d up and shew’d her sexes pride :
A thing all shagg’d about with hair,
So much it made old Satan stare,
Who frightend at the grim display,
Takes to his heels and runs away.

The Curious Wanton

Miss Chloe in a wanton way
Her durgling would needs survey.
Before the glass displays her thighs
And at the sight with wonder cries,
“Is this the thing that day and night
Makes men fall out and madly fight ?
The source of sorrow and of joy
Which King and beggar both employ?
How grim it looks, yet enter in,
You’ll find a fund of sweets begin!”

Rural Felicity or Love in a Chaise

The Winds were hush’d, the evening clear,
The Prospect fair, no creature near,
When the fond couple in the chaise
Resolved each mutual wish to please.
The kneeling youth his vigour tries,
While o’er his back she lifts her thighs.
The trotting horse the bliss increases,
And all is shoving love and kisses.
What couple would not take the air
To taste such joys beyond compare.

The French painter and engraver Jacques Gamelin (1738-1803) entered the Art Académie Royale de Toulouse under the patronage of Baron de Puymaurin, a wealthy industrialist (to whom he dedicates this book). Puymaurin also financed a trip to Rome, where Gamelin studied with the Neoclassical master painter Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) and eventually became the chief painter to Pope Clement XIV.

In 1777, Gamelin’s father died and he returned to Toulouse. Using his inheritance, Gamelin began work on the most important project of his career Nouveau recueil d’ostéologie et de myologie. With the assistance of local magistrates, Gamelin was given access to the corpses of executed criminals, which he both dissected and sketched. Then, he hired two engravers, Jacques Lavallée (active 1790-1830) and an artist known only as Martin, to assist him in converting these drawings to prints. After two years, Gamelin released his masterpiece in an edition of 200 copies, priced at forty livres each (nine livre may be the cost to dress a man at that period). The book did not sell and Gamelin went bankrupt. Most of the unsold copies were either pulped or dismembered, accounting for the book’s exceptional rarity.

The atlas is a mixture of imaginative artistic life-studies and technical anatomical drawings. The first part is devoted to bones and the second part to muscles. Allegorical scenes of death, battle, and genre scenes appear throughout.

The plates of the second part are larger and more expressive, while those of the first part more fantastical in their conceptions. Many are done in the crayon manner with Gamelin personally engraving much of the second part. Chalk or crayon manner engraving is a technique used to imitate chalk or pastel drawings. Special toothed tools, such as roulettes, mattoirs (punches), or champignons were used to create dotted patterns on the plate that suggest the grainy appearance of chalk strokes on paper.

Gamelin hoped to offer this work to both anatomy students and artists, thereby embracing both art and science.

“Gamelin is acknowledged as one of the “little masters” of French eighteenth-century painting. The plates for his anatomical atlas … were prepared from drawings made at his own dissection facility; they are distinct from the plates of other works of its type, being larger, more artistically varied, and more expressive and fantastic in their conceptions. ….Gamelin’s technical perfection, coupled with the emotional and fantastical elements in his images, have led him to be seen as a precursor of Goya; in fact, the young Goya may have known or studied with Gamelin, who taught in Rome during the time Goya was there.” (The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine, p.316).

To read more, see Hook & Norman, The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine (1991) no. 872, Annex A, Z7401 .H347 1998.
Also Garrison-Morton 401.1. Choulant-Frank 352. Campbell Dodgson, “The Macbre in Two Centuries,” in Print Collector’s Quarterly, April 1929, XVI, 135-143. G. Bazin, “Un Précurseur de Goya et de Delacroix,” Marianne, 17 August 1938, p.8. Waller 3404. Rifkin & Ackerman, Human Anatomy, 219-227.

These vignettes, historiated initials, and ink illustrations are for an unfinished entertainment by Robert Ballantyne, dedicated to Jane Macdonald, the wife of the Scottish painter John Faed (1819-1902). The Invalids was begun just three years after Ballantyne’s first published book (he went on to complete over eighty volumes) and is his only known attempt at drama or illustration.

The main characters are Count Fadino, a convalescent painter; Giovanni, a sick painter; and Roberto, a sick author. Roberto and Giovanni are the Ballantyne brothers, Robert and John. Fadino represents John Faed.

Robert’s brother John Ballantyne (1815-1897) was a portrait painter who played a significant role in Edinburgh’s art world. He was a founder and president of the Smashers, a sketching club, and preceptor of life classes at the Royal Scottish Academy. He completed at least seventeen portraits of London artists at work in their studios, including William Holman Hunt, John Millais, and David Roberts. Despite his success, John was primarily supported by Robert’s publishing income and the two worked closely on projects throughout their lives.

Raymond Pettibon (born 1957), Captive Chains (Lawndale, Ca.: SST Publications, 1978). Graphic Arts GAX 2010- in process.

California artist Raymond Pettibon has published forty-four zines, 120 fliers, and a variety of album covers, as documented in the 2008 exhibition organized by David Platzker at Specific Object. http://www.specificobject.com/projects/pettibon/index.cfm?project_id=18

The first, entitled Captive Chains (1978) has also been labeled an artists’ book and/or a graphic novel, depending on who is reviewing the material. Pettibon’s early work was published and distributed by SST Records, an imprint established by his brother, Greg Ginn, the guitarist for the punk band Black Flag. The band also used Pettibon’s art for their fliers, album covers and T-shirts, as did other bands that joined the label, including the Minutemen, Hüsker Dü, the Meat Puppets and Sonic Youth.

Since that period, Pettibon has gone on to make a career for himself and his art apart from the California punk scene, including important exhibitions at The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

“But my drawing also came out of editorial-style cartoons I was doing at the time. Music was one thing and art was another, and there weren’t really any standards for my art. If you look at old punk album covers they were mainly Russian constructivist or Heartsfield [sic] collages. There was no defined punk look or style. Not in art at least. Maybe in fashion. My work was just drawings, and basically drawings just as I would do now. They weren’t done with any aspirations of becoming a part of that scene.”

See the catalogue raisonné of Pettibon’s artists’ books: Raymond Pettibon: the Books 1978-1998 (New York: D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers, c2000) Marquand Library (SA) N6537.P393 O3713 2000

and

Joel J. Rane, Scream at the Librarian: Sketches of Our Patrons in Downtown Los Angeles. Illustrations by Raymond Pettibon and Cristin Sheehan Sullivan ([Brooklyn]: Booklyn Artists Alliance, 2007). Graphic Arts Collection (GAX), 2008-0124N

“This is not autobiographical work, by any means. Even the emotions involved. If someone thinks they understand me and disagree, then okay. But there’s something in the nature of comedy and especially in the element of caricature and cartoons that my work retains. An editorial cartoon is trying to be positive. It’s usually really very cloying and sappy and there’s no hook to it at all. I also don’t like my humor to be in the service of making fun of people based on superficialities. People get picked on or looked down at. I’m conscious about that as a problem.”

George Bourne (1780-1845), Picture of Slavery in the United States of America (Middletown, Conn.: E. Hunt, 1834). Wood engravings designed by H.A. Munson (born 1814)and G.W. Flagg (1816-1897), carved on wood by Munson. Original cloth binding. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) Hamilton 1870

George Bourne was a Presbyterian minister and abolitionist who called for the “immediate emancipation without compensation” of American slaves. As one of the founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Bourne was himself the object of persecution throughout his adult life.

At the National Antislavery Society meeting in Philadelphia on December 4, 1833, Bourne was chosen as one of three delegates to prepare

“a synopsis of Wesley’s Thoughts on Slavery, and of the Antislavery items in the note formerly existing in the Catechism of the Presbyterian Church of the United States; and of such other similar testimony as they can obtain, to be addressed to Methodists, Presbyterians, and all professed Christians in this country, and published under the sanction of this convention.”

Following the 1833 conference, Bourne re-issued an expanded version of The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable (originally published in Virginia, 1816) under the title Picture of Slavery in the United States. One of several appendixes in this volume is the statement he helped to write for the 1833 National Antislavery Society.

The Kineograph (later called flip book) was patented in 1868 by John Barnes Linnett. Graphic Arts holds eleven modern and historical examples. For over 5,000 examples see http://www.flipbook.info/index_en.php

Fatima moving picture dance book: the Maxixe ([S.l.]: Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, [1914]); 50 x 65 mm. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2007-0082S

The Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company (better known as L&M) produced a brand of Turkish cigarettes under the name Fatima. L&M marketed Fatimas through magazines, radio, television, and much more. In 1914, L&M released ten flipbooks under the theme of modern dance. “These moving picture booklets on the Dances of to-day … make it possible for all to know what the latest accepted dances are and how to dance them.” The flipbook shown here offers a Russian dance called the Maxixe, with images and step-by-step instructions.

Season’s greetings from Solomon & Gelman ([S.l. : s.n., 19—]). 51 x 82 mm. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2007-0081S

The cartooning team of Woody Gelman (1915-1978) and Ben Solomon (active 1930s-1950s), working for Max Fleischer Studios, created the first animated versions of Popeye (1930s) and Superman (1940s), and the original Bazooka Joe for Bazooka bubble gum (1953). In addition, they published a series of juvenile novelettes called Triple Nickel books because they sold for three nickels (15 cents).

One year, as a Christmastime treat, the team created this flip book showing two men wearing Santa Claus masks on the back of their heads. As the pages flip, the heads slowly turn and we see their real faces along with their names.

C.F. Bridgman, Monumenta (Lewes, ca. 1880). Red and black ink and watercolor wash. Graphic Arts GA2010- in process

This pattern book for Victorian grave stone designs and stone roundels for grave ornaments contains eighty miniture designs with twelve large relief roundels. According to the antiquarian dealer Charles Wood, C.F. Bridgman was a well-known firm. Mr. Wood found this entry for them: http://www.rootschat.com/history/hastings/content/view/78/29/

The records of C.F.Bridgman, a firm of Stonemasons (formerly Parsons) based in Lewes from the early 18th century, were deposited in the East Sussex Records Office in 1965 by Hillman Sons, Vinall and Carter, Solicitors of Lewes, and consists of some 98 volumes of Ledgers, Day Books, Letter Books, Wage and Cash Books together with Classified Accounts which cover the period 1834-1959…

Connections between Herman Melville (1819-1891) and Princeton University began in the eighteenth century, with his grandfather Major Thomas Melvill (1751-1832) graduating with Princeton class of 1769. His uncle Peter Gansevoort (1788-1876) followed in the class of 1808. To celebrate the centenary of Moby Dick in 1951, Firestone Library mounted a Melville extravaganza featuring dozens of the significant holdings, detailed in a catalogue compiled by Howard C. Rice, Jr., Alexander D. Wainwright, Julie Hudson, and Alexander P. Clark. http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/pulc/pulc_v_13_n_2.pdf

Melville and Moby Dick continue to make connections with our students, as AMS 353/ENG 355 “Moby-Dick Unbound” taught by Professor William Howarth begins this week. It is a good excuse to post a few of the dozens of editions available to researchers through rare books and special collections.

Princeton University’s science historian and an editor at Cabinet magazine, Professor D. Graham Burnett will be part of a panel entitled “The Art of Hypochondria” along with Brian Dillon and Marina van Zuylen on Tuesday, 9 February 2010, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York City. In honor of their talk, here are a few of our own hypochondriacs:

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), The Hypochondriac, 1788. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112, Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895. Inscribed: ‘The mind disemper’d - say, what potent charm, // Can Fancy’s spectre-brooding rage disarm? // Physics prescriptive, art assails in vain, // The dreadful phantoms floating cross the brain! - Until with Esculapian skill, the sage M.D. // Finds out at length by self-taught palmistry, // The hopeless case - in the reluctant fee, // Then, not in torture such a wretch to keep // One pitying bolus lays him sound asleep.’

Anonymous, The Cramers or Political Quacks, ca. 1762. Etching. Graphic arts, GC021 British Cartoons and Caricatures Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895. “Britannia tormented with discord and Strife … For Poison lurks their and deconstruction ensues”.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), after a design by George Moutard Woodward (ca. 1760-1809), A Visit to the Doctor, no date. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), Wonderfully Mended. Should’t Have Known You Again!!, 1808. Etching. Graphic arts, GC112 Thomas Rowlandson Collection. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.

Charles Ramelet (1805-1851) after a design by Honoré Daumier (1808-1879), Le malade imaginaire. Je suis perdu…. il faut faire mon testament……. ils vont m’ensevelir… m’enterrer…. adieu!, 1833. Lithograph. Graphic arts, GA 2009.00086. Gift of William H. Helfand. From the series L’Imagination, no. 10 published in Le carivari May 21, 1833.

Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811), after a design by George Moutard Woodward (ca. 1760-1809), The Sailor and the Quack Doctor, 1807. Etching. Bound with Caricature magazine, v. 1. Graphic arts, Rowlandson R 1807.51F. Gift of Dickson Q. Brown, class of 1895.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878), Radical Quacks Giving a New Constitution to John Bull, 1821. Etching. Graphic arts, GC022 Cruikshank Collection. Gift of Richard W. Meirs, class of 1888. “Designed by an Amateur. May 25, 1820.”