Tag: lithography

Gustave Doré

Gustave Doré, “Death of Eleazer”,1866, Engraving for the La Sainte Bible

According tothe Bible, during the Battle of Beit Zechariah, Eleazar identified a war elephant that he believed to carry the Seleucid King Antiochus V, due to the special armor the elephant wore. He decided to endanger his life by attacking the elephant and thrusting a spear into its belly. The dead elephant then collapsed upon Eleazar, killing him as well.

Eleazar’s death was a popular subject for art in the Middle Ages, where it was given significance as prefiguring Christ’s sacrifice of himself for mankind. This illustration by Gustave Doré is from the 1866 La Sainte Bible.

Murders in the Zoo

Advertising Poster for “Murders in the Zoo”, 1933, Directed by A. Edward Sutherland, Paramount Pictures

“Roars, shrieks, and cackling of the wild animals on the screen at the Paramount yesterday were echoed to an amazing degree by the audience, at times driven to a mild state of hysteria by scenes in ‘Murders in the Zoo’.”         – John Scott, “’Murders in Zoo’ Opens on Screen”, Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1933

François Schuiten

François Schuiten, “L’Ombre d’un Doute (Shadow of a Doubt)”, Lithograph, Edition of 1000

François Schuiten is a Belgian comic book illustrator. During his studies at Saint-Luc Institute in Brussels, he met Claude Renard, who led the comics department at the school, and together created several books.  Schuiten is best known for drawing the series “Les Cites Obscures” (Cities of the Fantastic), an evocation of fantastic, partly imaginary cities that he created with his friend Benoit Peeters from 1983 for the Belgian monthly comics magazine “A Suivre”.

Every story focuses on one city or building, and further explores a world where architects and urbanists are the leading powers and architecture is the driving force behind society. Styles explored int the series include stalinistic and fascist architecture as well as gothic cathedrals.

Henrique Alvim Corrêa

Henrique Alvim Corrêa, “Martian Viewing Drunken Crowd”, 1906, Pencil and Ink, Illustration for H. G. Well’s “War of the Worlds”, Brussels, Belgium

Henrique Alvim Corrêa was a Brazilian artist working in Belgium at the end of the 19th century, specialising in military and science fiction illustration. His best-known work is this illustrated French translation of H G Well’s “War of the Worlds”, for which only 500 copies were produced.

Unfortunately, Corrêa’s tuberculosis killed him four years later in 1910 at the age of thirty-four. His “War of the Worlds” drawings did not bring him fame in his lifetime or after, but his work has been cherished since by a devoted cult following. The original prints remained with the artist’s family until the sale of thirty-one prints were made in 1990.

Kellar the Magician

Keller the Magician Poster, “Levitation”, 1900-1909

Harry Kellar was an American magician, a predecessor of Harry Houdini and a successor of Robert Heller and Isaiah Hughes, under whom he apprenticed. Referred to as the “Dean of American Magicians”, he is shown here performing one his most memorable stage illusions, the “Levitation of Princess Karnac”.

William Blake

William Blake, “God Judging Adam”, 1795, Copper Etching, 42.5 x 52.7 cm, Tate Museum

A nude and aged Adam, newly aware of his own nakedness and mortality, hangs his head before a fiery chariot bearing the divine maker whom he resembles exactly. For many years, this image was thought to represent Elijah in the fiery chariot. Recently, it has been connected to a passage in Genesis 3:17-19 in which God condemns Adam for tasting the forbidden fruit.

The print was made using a unique method of Blake’s invention. A plate etched in relief was used to print the design; then colors were painted onto millboard, or a similar surface, and printed onto the sheet like a monotype. Finally, Blake enhanced the print by hand with watercolor and ink.

Cigarette Cards: The Parisian

The “Parisian”, 1888, Commercial Color  Lithograph,  Issued by Allen and Ginter Cigarettes, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This trade card was from the “World’s Smokers” series (N33) issued in 1888 in a set of fifty cards to promote the Allen and Ginter brand cigarettes; the company was located in Richmond, Virgian. Printer’s samples were included in the set, as well. The printer’s sample cards are on a thinner card stock without printed text.

Each card in the series measures 2.75 x 1.5 inches. One card was packed in each box of ten cigarettes.

Carmine Santaniello

Carmine Santaniello, “Amore”, Lithograph, 9 x 12 Inches

Collage is an integral part of New York City-based Carmine Santaniello’s art and is usually the starting point for each work. Employing the traditional method of cut and glued paper, he creates new faces out of amassed facial images. He incorporates elements of his own photographs of exterior environments such as graffiti or street art. Some works remain as collage, some become drawings, some artist books or articulated paper dolls, but most become monoprints utilizing lithography.

Through the juxtaposition of techniques and mediums, he creates evocatively charged works of art. These new works have an erotic edge with a voyeuristic feel to them. Each subject is confined behind a the vale of marred graffiti-like images.

Reblogged with many thanks to the artist’s site: http://carminesantaniellofineart.blogspot.com    and   https://www.etsy.com/in-en/listing/585432108/original-art-monoprint-lithograph-gay

Harry Sternberg

Harry Sternberg, “The Atom”, 1949, Aquatint, 44 x 25 cm, Private Collection

Harry Sternberg, painter, lithographer and educator was born on July 19, 1904 in New York City. At the age of nine he began to take art classes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. From 1922 until 1926 he trained at the Arts Students League in New York. He rented his first studio in 1926 and began his career in etching, printmaking and painting.

During the depression Sternberg was a WPA artist, and his murals are in post offices in Chicago, Chester and Sellersville, Pennsylvania. From 1934 to 1968, he taught painting and graphics at the Art Students League in New York. He taught printmaking from 1942 to 1945 at the New School of Social Research. Sternberg was head of the Art Department in the Idylwild School of Music and Art at the University of Southern California from 1959 to 1969. He also wrote several books on graphics, including silk screening, etching and woodcutting.

Sternberg received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1936 and his work was included in the first Whitney Museum Invitational Annual in 1937. During this period, Sternberg was friendly with Mexican artists Diego Rivera and his wife Frida Kahlo, and David Siqueiros. Other artist- friends were Jacob Lawrence, Philip Evergood, and John Sennhauser, and the older artists, Rockwell Kent, Marsden Hartley and Max Weber.

Note: A more extensive biography and additional artwork by Sternberg can be found in the January, 2022, archive of this site.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, “The Bull”, Lithograph, Plate No. 1, December 1945, Norton Simon Museum

Picasso is credited with revolutionizing the art of lithography. The tradition at the time was that artists would send their works to master printers. Picasso, however was in the printers’ shops creating his pieces, working alongside the printers and altering his work as the technicians did their tasks.

The printers didn’t always understand what Picasso was doing, as sometimes the finished print didn’t appear as complete as an earlier state, His iconic series “The Bull” began with a realistic-looking sketch of the creature which Picasso then darkened and gradually reworked into a geometric-styled animal. He decisively and deliberately reduced the details to reveal a simple stick figure bull as the finished piece.

Julian Jordanov

Julian Jordanov, “Poetic Library”, Aquatint Bookplate, 2002, Printed on Fabriano Rosaspina 220 Paper

Julian Jordanov was born in Lovech, Bulgaria. He has continued to live and work there, after receiving his Masters in Fine Art from the National Academy of Fine Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria. His prints are strongly influence by both surrealism and symbolism, and he is highly sought after for the specialized medium of creating ex libris prints. These smaller prints are almost always accomplished in etching and aquatint, and show a superb level of detail and skill hard to find outside eastern Europe. He also works in lithography for larger, more surrealistic prints.

More of his work can be found through Largo Art Gallery located in Varna, Bulgaria. Their site is https://www.largogallery.com