Recently in Prints, Drawings, Paintings Category

Seven untitled engravings [Etudes de chevaux de bataille blesses (Studies for Wounded Warhorses)], 1600s
Etched by Jan van Huchtenburgh (1647-1733)
after Adam Frans van der Meulen (1631 or 1632-1690)
after Charles Le Brun (1619-1690)
GC070 Dutch Prints Collection

The Graphic Arts Collection holds seven prints believed to be part of the ten studies described as Etudes de chevaux de bataille blesses related to various battle scenes by Charles Le Brun (see Bartsch 44. Hollstein 44)

We also believe these studies might have been referenced for such large-scale prints as our Untitled [Defeat of Porus by Alexander the Great at the Battle of the Hydaspes], engraved by Bernard Picart (1673-1733), based on a work by the architect Thomas Gobert, ca. 1730.

Below are a few of the isolated studies of horses in battle and then, a few comparisons with the finished print. Note, the horses are laterally reversed in the final image. What do you think?

The Flemish painter, Frans van der Meulen (1632-1690) specialized in battle scenes. Charles Le Brun brought him to Paris around 1662 to work on designs for Louis XIV.

“The fact that Le Nôtre and Le Brun were to be found at the siege of Valenciennes in 1677 is perhaps less unlikely than it might seem. Louis himself wrote to Colbert to say that ‘Le Brun and Le Nôtre arrived this morning with Van der Meulen. I am very glad that Le Brun will see the disposition of this siege because it is very fine.’ Le Brun and the Fleming Adam Frans van der Meulen could be classed as war artists. Shortly after his arrival in France, Van der Meulen was commissioned to paint a series of views depicting Louis’ military successes.”—from Ian Thompson, The Sun King’s Garden: Louis XIV, Andre Le Notre and the Creation of the Gardens of Versailles (2006) Firestone SB470.L4 T56 2006

Originally trained as an attorney, James Sayers (active 1748-1825) drew the first British caricature using the symbolism of a comet (later copied many times). His print was released on February 18, 1789, the day before the scheduled third reading of the Regency Bill, which would take power away from George III (1738-1820). Happily, the King’s porphyria had begun to recede in January and by early February, various politicians were leaving Charles Fox (1749-1806), and returning to the side of King George and William Pitt (1759-1806).

Sayers’s comet is headed by the Prince of Wales, a possible allusion to Louis XIV, the Sun King. Here, it is George III who is the unseen sun. Riding on the tail of the Prince are Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Fox; William, 3rd Duke of Portland; Sir Grey Cooper; John Warren, and several others.

The text of the print, which is difficult to read, has been transcribed by the British Museum:
“A Return of the Comet which appeared in 1761 [1762] is expected this Year and to be within our horizon from the month of Octr 1788 to Augt 1789 but is expected to be most -visible (if it forces itself upon our Notice) in the Winter months Febry & March ——— vide Dr Trusslers Almanack…”

“…Sr Isaac Newton asserts That the Tail of a Comet is nothing else than a fine Vapour which the Head of the Comet emits by its heat that Heat the Comet receives from the Sun and the magnitude of the Tail is always proportional to the degree of heat which the Comet receives, and Comets which are nearest to the Sun have the longest Tails———”

A recent search on Amazon.com uncovered 105 books, videos and recordings teaching you how to win at lotto or other types of lotteries. In 1751, when Austria introduced a national lottery, there was a similar outpouring of books teaching the secret of picking numbers.

Based on the lotto di Geneva, Austria’s game consisted of 90 numbers and each one became connected with an animal or an object or an action. A person’s dreams might provide the basis of the winning number. Princeton libraries already hold several dream books used to decode dreams in order to play lotto but recently, we acquired this wall chart for the convenient study and selection of lottery numbers.

The chart has 90 squares and each one offers four images or terms connected to that number, thereby charting 360 symbols. The number 40, for example, might relate to a rooster, a flowering plant, a swimmer, or a letter.

See also:
George Wither (1588-1667), A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne: Quickened with Metricall Illustrations, Both Morall and Divine: and Disposed into Lotteries, that Instruction, and Good Counsell, May Bee Furthered by an Honest and Pleasant Recreation (London: Printed by A. M. for Richard Royston, 1635). Rare Books (Ex) N7710 .W68 1635q

Brother Richard Betts Scudder, Class of 1935 (1913-2012)
Brother Edward Wallace Scudder Jr., class of 1935 (1911-2003)
Parents Edward Wallace Scudder, class of 1903 (1882-1953) and Katherine Hollifield Scudder (1885-19 )
Grandparents Wallace McIlvaine Scudder (1853-1931) and Ida Quimby (1857-1903)
Great Grandparents Edward Wallace Scudder, class of 1844 (1822-1893) and Mary Louisa Drake (1823-1890)
Great Great grandparents Mary Stillwell Reeder (1797-1883) and Jasper Smith Scudder (1797-1887)
Great Great Great grandparents Mary Stillwell (1776-1806) and Amos Reeder (1770-1855)

Charles Williams wasn’t the only British caricaturist to pick up on the symbolism (Williams made three caricatures on the subject). James Gillray (1756-1815) completed a print the same month, followed by one by Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) in May.

Owners of this rare set of seventeenth-century French engravings are encouraged to cut them up. Once carefully trimmed, four prints link together to form a circle, approximately 46 inches in diameter, with the final plate dropped into the center to complete the picture.

Engraved by Gérard Audran (1640-1703), these scenes from the old and new testament were designed and frescoed by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) on the cupola of the chapel at the Château de Sceaux. The house was built in 1670, not far from Paris by the French minister of finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) inside a park laid out by André Le Nôtre (1613-1700). Fifty-five year old Le Brun finished two frescos in 1674.

Seven years later, Audran engraving, printing, and published Le Brun’s circular design. The title in the Inventaire du fonds français (17e - vol. 1) reads Coupole de la Chapelle de Sceaux. Triumphe du Nouveau Testament sur l’Ancien (Triumph of the New Testament over the Old Testament or Triumph of the New Law.)

Gérard Audran (1640-1703) after Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), Set of five plates, known as Triumph of the New Testament over the Old Testament, 1681. Etching and engraving. GA 2012.01256-01260.
1. “Car. Le Brun Regis Pictor primarius, udo tectorio pinxit in Capella Castelli vulgo de Seaux, Girardus Audran aeri incidit, 1681.” Depicts angels bearing the Ark of the Covenant.
2. “Le Pere Eternel porte sur les ailes des Anges, prononeant ces paroles au baptesme de Iesus Christ, voicy mon fils bien aime &c.” Depicts God the Father on the wings of angels.
3. “Peint a fraisque dans la voute de la Chapelle du Chasteaux de Sceaux.” Depicts the adoring angels.
4. “Pater Aeternus sedens super pennas Angelorum, haec verba in Baptismate Iesu Christi proferens, Hic est Filius meus dilectus &c.” Depicts the baptism of Jesus Christ.
5. Untitled [center section was perhaps not meant to be cut apart]

Print:
Designed by Sir John Gilbert (1817-1897); Drawn by Frederick John Skill (1824-1881) and William Walker the Younger (1791-1867); Engraved by William Walker and Georg Zobel (1810-1881); Printed by J. Brooker. The Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in the Years 1807-8. Published by William Walker, London. 4 June 1862. Stipple engraving. 65 x 111 cm (25 ½ x 44 in). Graphic Arts Collection GA2013- in process.

Book:
William Walker (1791-1867), Memoirs of the Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain living in the years 1807-08 (London: W. Walker & Son, 1862). “Originally compiled for the purpose of accompanying the engraving of The Distinguished Men of Science of Great Britain Living in 1807-8, assembled at the Royal Institution, to which the outline at the commencement of this work is intended to serve as a key.” Graphic Arts Collection GAX 2013- in process

“We are glad to be able to inform our readers, that a large engraving has just been completed by Mr. Walker, of 64, Margaret-street, Cavendishsquare, in honour of the men of science who have done so much towards the establishment of our present commercial prosperity.”

“This work, which may well be called historical, represents fifty-one illustrious men, living in the early part of the present century, assembled in the Upper Library of the Royal Institution. The picture is divided into three groups, and comprises authentic portraits of our greatest inventors and discoverers in astronomy, chemistry, engineering machinery, and other departments of science.”

“The grouping of so large a number of figures must have been a difficult task; this has, however, been successfully accomplished by John Gilbert, the designer of the original picture, who, by a skilful combination of various attitudes, has given both grace and ease to the figures represented.”

“Among those present are Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), discoverer of hydrogen and the decomposition of water; John Dalton (1766-1844), discoverer of atomic theory; Humphry Davy (1778-1844), discoverer of sodium, potassium, barium, and magnesium; William Herschel (1738-1822), discoverer of Uranus; Edward Jenner (1749-1823), creator of the smallpox vaccination; Count Rumford (1753-1814), the American science teacher named Benjamin Thompson, who founded the Royal Institution; and James Watt (1738-1819), inventor of the steam engine.”

See: Archibald Clow, “A Re-examination of William Walker’s ‘Distinguished Men of Science’,” Annals of Science, xi (1955), pp. 183-93
and the extended essay in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.princeton.edu/view/theme/97115?backToResults=list=yes|group=yes|feature=yes|aor=8|orderField=alpha

For eighteen years, the French printer and engraver Philippe Pigouchet (active 1488-1518) and the printer Simon Vostre (active 15th century) worked together to produce hundreds of Books of Hours for the European public. According to Sandra Hindman, Parisian printers turned out more than 1,775 editions of Books of Hours from about 1475 to 1600.

Princeton University Library owns six bound copies published by Pigouchet and Vostre, with as many as 16 large metalcuts along with other illustrations. The Graphic Arts Collection holds a set of leaves, ten metalcuts, which have been removed from a 1496 edition. Here are a few examples.

GC110 Bookleaves, 15th century. Graphic Arts Collection

Catholic Church, Ces presentes heurues a lusage de Romme (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, August 2, 1493). Rare Books: South East (RB) EXI 5942.247

Catholic Church. Horae secundum usum Romanae Curiae (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet, for Simon Vostre, 17 Sept. 1496). Rare Books: South East (RB) EXI 5942.247.12

Catholic Church. Ces presentes heures a lusaige de Rome … (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 4 Nov. 1497). Rare Books: William H. Scheide Library (WHS) 5.3.4

Catholic Church. Incipiunt hore beate Marie virginis secu[n]dum vsum Sarum … (Paris: Phillipe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre [1498?]). Rare Books: South East (RB) EXI 5942.247.13

Catholic Church. Les presentes heures a lusaige de Rom[m]e fure[n]t acheuez le xvi. iour de Septembre, lan Mil LLLL.iiii.xx. et xviii. pour Simon Vostre, libraire demourant a Paris a la rue neuue nostre dame a lymage sainct Jehan leuangeliste ([Paris: Philippe Pigouchet, for Simon Vostre, 16 Sept. 1498]) Rare Books: South East (RB) EXKA Incunabula 1498 Catholic Church

Catholic Church. Ces presentes heures a lusaige de Rōme sōt au lōg sās req̄rir & ont este faictes pour Symō vostre Libraire: demourant a Paris a la rue neuue nostre dame a lenseigne sainct Jehan leuangeliste par Philippe pigouchet (Paris: P. Pigouchet [1502?]). Rare Books (Ex) BX2080 .xA2 1502

See also: Jules Renouvier (1804-1860), Des gravures sur bois dans les livres de Simon Vostre libraire d’Heures, par Jules Renouvier; avec un avant-propos par Georges Duplessis (Paris: Aubry, 1862). Marquand Library (SA) NE1200.V5 R29.

“Perhaps the most charming objects in Professor Friend’s collection are the two sketchbooks by the Venetian artist and stage designer Domenico Fossati (1743-1784),” writes David R. Coffin, Class of 1940 for the Princeton University Library Chronicle.

“The small sketchbook … has on its first folio the date “4 Febrajo 1784,” the year of Fossati’s death, but there is evidence that it was used by him earlier. A pocketbook of thirty-eight folios, most of the sketches are hasty ones for stage sets done in ink, but scattered among the stage designs are some wonderful details of rococo ornament done in pencil or in a gray-blue wash with a brush.”

“The larger notebook …, with forty-two bound folios and two smaller loose sketches pasted in at the end, commences with a large series of very finished drawings, many of them magnificent in their choice of colored washes. Perhaps the most striking of these is an underworld scene, and still other designs are exotic in character, combining the wonderful curves of late rococo decoration with elements of chinoiserie.”

The scrapbooks are part of TC020, a collection of theatrical drawings given by Professor Albert M. Friend, Jr., Class of 1915 (1894-1956). The collection consists of some sixty-two single sheets of drawings and two double leaves, the latter probably from sketchbooks of the Austrian theatrical designer Josef Platzer (1751-1806). Along with the Fossati sketchbooks, there are also drawings by Juvara, Sacchetti, Bernardino Galliari, Minozzi, and others. Here is a checklist: http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/ga_pdf/TC020checklist.pdf

Albert Mathias Friend Collection of 18th-century Set Designs, 1700s. Graphic Arts Collection (GA) TC020

View William Heath and his Print Dealers in a larger map

In order to better understand the activities of the British caricaturist William Heath, I created a google map of his dealers from 1808 to 1840. Control/click on the link above to see a larger view. Although it is often repeated that he worked exclusively with Thomas McLean, Heath was doing business with many of the print and book shops around town.

Teresia Constantia Phillips (1709-1765) was a notorious London courtesan who wrote several memoirs during her lifetime. A portrait painting by Joseph Highmore became the source for numerous engravings and mezzotints, published as frontispieces and sold individually with great success.

“It is probable that she commenced a life of intrigue at a very early age,” begins her biography in the DNB. “To avoid arrest for debt, on 11 Nov. 1722 she went through the form of marriage with a Mr. Devall, who had previously been married under another name, and with whom she never exchanged a word. According to the ‘apologist’ of Lord Chesterfield, although her amours were soon ‘as public as Charing Cross,’ she married, on 9 Feb. 1723, Henry Muilman, a Dutch merchant of good standing. In the following year Muilman managed to obtain from the court of arches a sentence of nullity of marriage, but he agreed to pay Constantia an annuity of 200l. This was discontinued upon her cohabitation at Paris with another admirer (Mr. B.). Henceforth the sequence of her adventures becomes bewildering.”

“…After many experiences in France, England, and the West Indies, she determined to blackmail her friends by publishing ‘An Apology for the Conduct of Mrs. Teresia Constantia Phillips, more particularly that part of it which relates to her Marriage with an eminent Dutch Merchant.’ A motto from the ‘Fair Penitent’ adorned the title-page of the book, which, in consequence of the difficulty of finding a bookseller, was printed for the author in parts, subsequently bound in three volumes, in 1748. A second edition was called for at once, a third appeared in 1750, and a fourth in 1761.”

See also:
Oxford scholar, The Parallel; or, Pilkington and Phillips Compared: Being Remarks upon the Memoirs of Those Two Celebrated Writers (London: M. Cooper, 1748). Rare Books (Ex) PR3619.P442 Z4683 1748

Teresia Constantia Muilman (1709-1765), A Letter Humbly Addressed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield (Dublin: printed by George Faulkner, 1750). Rare Books (Ex) 2007-0519N

Lynda M. Thompson, The Scandalous Memoirists: Constantia Phillips, Laeticia Pilkington and the Shame of Publick Fame (Manchester, UK; New York: Manchester University Press; New York: Distributed exclusively in the USA by St. Martin’s Press, 2000). Firestone Library (F) PR756.W65 T48 2000

British satirist John Collier (1708-1786), using the pseudonym Tim Bobbin, “developed his trade as a painter … producing inn signs, painted panels, and grotesque caricatures which were widely distributed, reaching the American colonies via a Liverpool merchant. He promoted and distributed his own work, travelling all over northern England collecting and delivering orders and commissions for books and pictures and consuming the proceeds as he went.

“…In 1773 was published his Human Passions Delineated, an upmarket edition of his caricatures which acted as a catalogue, in which he described himself as the ‘Lancashire Hogarth’…The 1810 London edition of Human Passions systematically softened his caricatures… The Victorian antiquary W. E. Axon thought his pictures ‘execrable … gross and cruel’, while the Dictionary of National Biography found them ‘grotesque’ and ‘absolutely devoid of artistic merit’.”— DNB

Bond Street print publisher Edward Orme (1775-1848) resurrected Collier’s caricatures in 1810 and reissued the set on 27 leaves with the only title on a printed label pasted to the wrapper (not included with this set).

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the First Bank of the United States stood on South Third Street in Philadelphia. Just down the block, Scottish-born artist William Charles (1776-1820) opened his first American print shop, publishing etchings, illustrated books, and caricatures. Over by the river on North Water Street, the shipping magnate and financier Stephen Girard (1750-1831) operated his trading business and made more money than anyone else in the United States.

When the charter for the First Bank expired in 1811, Girard bought the building and most of its stock, opening his own bank in its place. Charles watched as Girard’s fortune grew and eventually, published a caricature of the banker.

In the print Girard envisions a Spanish Dollar and conjures it to drop into his till. He says: “Surely my eyes do not deceive me—It certainly must be a dollar! I declare I have not seen such a thing since I sold the last I had in my vaults at 18 per cent premium—If thou art a real dollar do drop in my till and let me hear thee chink—As I have been sued for payment of part of my notes in specie I must collect some to pay them for quietness sake or the game would be up at once—”

A sign behind him reads, “Stephen Graspall, banker & shaver. Paper wholesale & retail NB No foreign bank notes taken on deposit except such as are about 5 per cent above par.”

See also Stephen Girard (1750-1831), The Will of the Late Stephen Girard, esq., procured from the Office for the Probate of Wills (Philadelphia: T. and R. Desilver, 1832). Rare Books (Ex) LD7501.P5 G583

Felix Octavius Carr Darley (1822-1888), Study for Thinking of Home, [1866]. Charcoal and graphite. Graphic Arts Darley collection GC007.

The Atlanta Constitution published an article in 1879 entitled Felix O.C.Darley. “‘Men with four names,’ said Dickens once to a friend, ‘are as useless as they would be with four legs.’ Darley comes under the ban thus pronounced and yet he is as useful, probably, as he could have been with a less number of titles. One of the most powerful draughtsmen of the age, his sketches of subjects from contemporaneous literature are unrivaled. His illustrations from Cooper and other novelist, and the drawings furnished by him for various standard periodicals, have stamped him as an artist of rare fidelity and unusual power.”

“His face is one of the most striking to be found in New York. A tremendous expanse of forehead, fringed with the silken hair, and lighted by a pair of deep-set eyes, that sparkle from their cavernous recess like two finely-set jewels of mammoth size and wondrous purity are the first of his features that catch the beholder’s vision … Mr. Darley is a hard worker, a companionable gentleman, and a hearty hater of anything like sham. That he may live to pencil, crayon, sketch, and design, in his own inimitable way many years to come, is the wish of all who have ever enjoyed the pleasure of his hearty friendship.”

橋口五葉 / Hashiguchi Goyō (1880-1921), 浮世風俗やまと錦繪 / Ukiyo fūzoku yamato nishikie / Japanese Colour Prints in Ukiyo Style (Tōkyō: Nihon Fūzoku Zue Kankōkai, 1917-1918. 12 v., 240 woodblock-printed reproductions. Contents: v. 1. Edo shoki jidai — v. 2. Tan’e jidai — v. 3. Benie jidai — v. 4-6. Nishikie shoki jidai — v. 7-9. Nishikie zensei jidai — v. 10-12. Edo makki jidai. Graphic Arts Collection 2013- in process

“Born in Kagoshima, in the south of Kyushu, the son of a minor traditionalist painter, [Hashiguchi Goyo] became interested in Kano-school painting in his youth and in 1899 went to Kyoto to study with Hashimoto Gaho (1835-1908). However, he was persuaded to take up Western painting by the influential Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924) who came from the same district as Goyo, and went to Tokyo to study at the Hakuba-kai (Western Painting Institute) and then at the Tokyo School of Art, where he graduated in 1905.”

“In 1911 he became interested in ‘Ukiyo-e’ prints after winning a poster competition with a study of a beautiful woman, and began to publish articles and studies on early artists of that school. As a consequence of these activities he met the publisher Watanabe Shozaburo, for whom he designed a print (‘Bath’, 1915) which was virtually the first of the ‘Shin Hanga’ movement, but wishing to have complete control over all the processes, he published his subsequent prints himself. In 1916-17 he supervised the twelve-volume ‘Ukiyo-e fuzoku Yamoto nishikie’ (Japanese Brocade Prints in Ukiyo-e Genre Style) containing hundreds of woodblock reduced-size facsimiles of the works of early masters.” —Goyo biography posted by the British Museum

In 1815 a small volume was published in Paris under the pseudonym of Mr. de La Jobardière, with illustrations by Adolphe Lalauze (perhaps the father of the etcher Adlophe Lalauze 1838-1906). M. de La Jobardière aux acteurs, actrices et critiques du Théâtre français is the first published mention of the character of de La Jobardière, named after the French city. He is a tall, unsophisticated man who has many adventures and troubles.

In the Vinck collection of prints at the Bibliotheque Nationale De France, there are a series of caricatures featuring Mr. de la Jobardière. At least one can be dated to March 1815 and the only artist’s named are Forceval and Aubry, of which little it known. Fifteen years later a one-act comedy appeared at the Variétés by Théophile Marion Dumersan (1780-1849) and Henri Dupin (1791-1887) entitled Monsieur de La Jobardière, ou La Révolution impromptu.

A few of the print titles are Bravoure et générosité de M.r de La Jobardière; Vision de M.r de La Jobardière; M.r de La Jobardièrede retour dans son Manoir; Déjeuné frugal de M.r Aricosec cousin de la Jobardière dans son voyage a paris; M.r de La Jobardière chez son secrétaire; M.r De La Jobardière Marquis de terre en cour; and M.r de la Jobardière se pousse chez les Grands.

Oddly, in April 1860, a comic story turns up in the Chicago Tribune titled The Czar and the Frenchman, describing a trip by a Frenchman Mr. De La Jobardière, clearly taken from this earlier series.

François Chauveau (1613-1676), Masques de coquillages et de rocaille / Larvae variis lapillis et conchis compactae. Plate 15 in Description de la grotte de Versailles, 1675. Etching. Graphic Arts Collection French prints

In Psyché, I, Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) described the beauty of the grotto:
Au haut de six piliers d’une égale structure,
Six masques de rocaille, à grotesque figure,
Songes de l’art, démons bizarrement forgés.
Au-dessus d’une niche en face sont rangés.
De mille raretés la niche est toute pleine:
Un triton d’un côté, de l’autre une Sirène,
Ont chacun une conque en leurs mains de rocher;
Leur souffle pousse un jet qui va loin s’épancher.
Au haut de chaque niche un bassin répand l’onde:
Le masque la vomit de sa gorge profonde;
Elle retombe en nappe, et compose un tissu
Qu’un autre bassin rend sitôt qu’il l’a reçu.

Above six even, ordered pillars stand
Six masks of shell and rock grotesquely shaped
Imagining of art, bizarre demonic forms
Perch high above them can a facing niche.
Inside it jostle myriad rarities:
A Triton and a mermaid, stand each side,
And in their hands a conch of rock they hold,
Hurling a jet of water as they breathe.
Above each niche, a basin spills the flow;
Spewed from within the mask’s cavernous throat;
It cascades, as a curtain, falling into folds
Caught by another basin, and instantly let go.

Taken from Michel Baridon, A History of the Gardens of Versailles (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008) Marquand SB466.F83 P37213 2008

An this anti-Jacobin, pro-Girondist print, seven prisoners are seated on stools in a prison cell. Each one wears a feathered Liberty cap and each is tied to the cell wall by a rope around his neck. The red caps were a symbol of the French revolutionaries in the 1790s. The caption at the bottom of the print is a proverb that can be translated “To those who want evil, evil comes.” At the top, “Les Commissaires devenus des otages - arrestation de Dumouriez”.

“After a major defeat in the Battle of Neerwinden in March 1793, [Dumouriez] made a desperate move to save himself from his radical enemies. Arresting the four deputy-commissioners of the National Convention who had been sent to inquire into his conduct (Camus, Bancal-des-Issarts, Quinette, and Lamarque) as well as the Minister of War, Pierre Riel de Beurnonville, he handed them over to the enemy, and then attempted to persuade his troops to march on Paris and overthrow the revolutionary government.” [wikipedia]

The unknown artist may be reacting to the Commission extraordinaire des Douze, established during the French revolution by the French National Convention. The commission was to take all necessary measures to find proof of these conspiracies and to arrest the conspirators.

See also Lectures on the French Revolution by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, first baron Acton (London, Macmillan and co., 1910). Firestone Library (F) DC143 .A3 1910

Thank you to Prof. Volker Schroder for his help with the translations.

“Acquisition of the extensive theatrical collection of the late William Seymour, who was actively connected with the American stage as actor and stage manager for seventy years, was announced tonight by Dr. Harold W. Dolds, president of Princeton University.” The article in The New York Times (November 23, 1936) continued, “The collection has been presented to the university by Mr. Seymour’s five children, May Davenport Seymour, curator of the theatrical collection of the Museum of the City of New York; Edward Loomis Davenport Seymour, horticultural editor of New York City; the former Fanny Lydia Davenport Seymour of Princeton, wife of [Geology] Professor Richard M. Field; James William Davenport Seymour of Hollywood, lately on the staff of Warner Brothers; and John Russell Davenport Seymour, actor of New York City.”

William Seymour was born in New York City on December 19, 1855, the son of two actors, James Seymour (The Irish Comedian) and Lydia Eliza Griffith. He had his first speaking role at the age of seven and in 1865, played Hendrick to Joseph Jefferson’s Rip Van Winkle at the Varieties Theatre. After a lengthy career as an actor, director, and stage manager, Seymour died in Plymouth, Massachusetts on October 3, 1933.

We do not know what year Mary Evangeline Walker painted this portrait. A Boston native trained at the Boston Museum School of Fine Art and elsewhere, Walker returned to teach and paint in Boston for most of her adult life. Seymour worked for the Boston Museum Stock Company as stage manager from 1879 to 1889 and married May Davenport, a member of that company. When he retired in 1927, the well-traveled actor chose South Duxbury as his home and spent his last years directing high school theater groups in his neighborhood. It may have been in the late 1920s that Walker asked him to pose.