Lafayette Library, Wonders of the World Lecture October 14, 2015

A Fine Line The Dr. Maurice Alberti Print Collection of European and American Masters (b12/29/29-d11/1/12)

*All works belong to the Collection of the Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art

Dr. Maurice Alberti, Saint Mary’s College class of 1951, grew up in Oakland, CA. He attended Catholic schools where he developed a love of science. He eventually became a dentist. In addition to dentistry, Dr. Alberti had a passion for art. He was an avid print collector, establishing Malbert Fine Arts in 1974, buying and selling fine prints as a private dealer. He co- founded Prints Chicago, an annual print fair bringing together dealers from throughout the U.S. and overseas. Finally, he gave St. Mary's his vast print collection of museum quality American and European Prints to establish the Maurice A. Alberti Print Collection and Art Library at the Saint Mary’s College Museum of Art. The collection consists of master works on paper by leading Impressionists, Expressionists, Fauvists and Cubists in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

European Print Makers

Francisco Goya El Amor y la Muerte, 1799 Etching and aquatint

Goya was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker who lived from 1746 -1828. He was regarded both as the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. He was court painter to the Spanish Crown. Through his works he was both a commentator on and chronicler of his era. The subversive imaginative element in his art, as well as his bold handling of paint, provided a for the work of artists of later generations. Los Caprichos are a set of 80 prints published as an album in 1799. The prints were an artistic experiment: a medium for Goya's condemnation of the universal follies and foolishness in the Spanish society. He speaks against the ignorance and inabilities of the various members of the ruling class, pedagogical short-comings, marital mistakes and the decline of rationality. The informal style, as well as the depiction of contemporary society found in Caprichos, makes them (and Goya himself) a precursor to the modernist movement almost a century later.

Pierre Auguste Renoir Danse a la Campagne, in the Country, 1890

Renoir was a leading French painter who lived from 1841-1919 and was instrumental in the development of the Impressionist style. This piece is recorded as only the second etching Renoir created. There are earlier and of this subject. The models were Renoir's brother, Edmond, and a woman in his art circle. As a young boy Renoir worked in a porcelain factory where his talents led to his being chosen to paint designs on fine china. During those early years, he often visited the Louvre to study the French master painters. Although Renoir first started exhibiting paintings at the Salon in 1864, he received little recognition partly as a result of the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War. The Paris Salon beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and between 1748 and 1890 it was the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. Renoir joined forces with Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, and several other artists to mount the first Impressionist exhibition in April 1874. Critical response to the exhibition was largely unfavorable.

Edouardo Vuillard La Naissance d’Annette, 1894 Color lithograph

Edouardo Vuillard Interieur a la Suspension (Interior with Ceiling Lamp), 1899 Color lithograph

Vuillard lived from 1868 –1940 in Paris. In the 1890s, Vuillard was a member of a Parisian group of avant-garde artists known as or “prophets” in Hebrew and Arabic, a group of Post-Impressionist avant-garde artists inspired by Gauguin. Among them were , and . During his Nabi period, Vuillard produced some of his best-known artworks: paintings of friends and family in warm interiors filled with patterned wallpapers, draperies, carpets, and clothing.

Pierre Bonnard Untitled, 1895 Lithograph

Pierre Bonnard Femme Debout Sansa Baignoire, 1925 Lithograph, Ed. 100

Pierre Bonnard Le Bain, 1925 Lithograph, Ed. 525

Pierre Bonnard, who lived from 1867 –1947, was a French painter and printmaker, as well as a founding member of the Post-Impressionist group of avant-garde painters previously mentioned, Les Nabis. Bonnard preferred to work from memory, using drawings and photographs and his notes on color and mood. His works are often characterized by a dreamlike quality. He said of the subjects he painted "I go back and look at them. I take notes. Then I go home. And before I start I reflect, I dream." He worked on numerous canvases simultaneously, which he tacked onto the walls of his small studio. In this way he could more freely determine the shape of a painting; "It would bother me if my canvases were stretched onto a frame. I never know in advance what dimensions I am going to choose." Although Bonnard avoided public attention, his work sold well during his life. Maurice Denis L’Enfant Couronnant Sa Mere, 1930 Color lithograph,

Maurice Denis (1870 –1943) was a French painter and writer, and was also a member of Les Nabis movement. And his theories contributed to the foundations of , , and . Maurice Denis was born in the region of France which influenced his depictions of Waters and coastlines which would remain his favorite subject matter throughout his career. In addition to this he also drew on material from the Bible. For such an avant-garde figure, Denis had a surprisingly broad religious streak, writing in his notebook at age fifteen, "Yes, it's necessary that I am a Christian painter, that I celebrate all the miracles of Christianity, I feel it's necessary." Maurice attended both the École des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. At the Académie, he met painters Bonnard and Vuillard they formed Les Nabis. They chose "Nabi"—Hebrew for "Prophet"—because they understood they would be creating new forms of expression. The subjects of his mature works include landscapes and figure studies, particularly of mother and child. Denis founded The Ateliers d'Art Sacré (Studios of Sacred Art) in 1919 after World War I as part of a broad movement in Europe to reconcile the church with modern civilization. The Studio created art for churches, particularly those devastated by the war. Denis said that he was against because it sacrificed emotion to convention and artifice

Georges Rouault Ballerine, 1926-27 (Ref. Chapon/Rouault 205) Lithograph

Georges Rouault La Mort l’a Pris Comme Il Sortait, (Death Took Him as he Rose from his Bed of Nettles), 1922-26 Lithograph

Rouault was a French painter whose work is often associated with Fauvism and . Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family. His mother encouraged his love for the arts, and in 1885 at fourteen he embarked on an apprenticeship as a glass painter and restorer. This early experience as a glass painter has been suggested as a likely source of the heavy black contouring and glowing colors, likened to leaded glass, which characterize Rouault's mature painting style. In 1891, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts, the official art school of France. Rouault met and through this friendship he was introduced to the movement of Fauvism. Fauvism is the style of les Fauves ("the wild beasts"), a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by . In 1907, Rouault commenced a series of paintings dedicated to courts, clowns and prostitutes. These paintings are interpreted as moral and social criticism. He became attracted to Spiritualism and later dedicated himself to religious subjects. Rouault died in Paris in 1958.

These prints were published by . Ambroise Vollard, (1866–1939), was the legendary art dealer, patron, and publisher who put on the map by launching the careers of some of its most major figures. The first major show he sold out of was work by Manet which he acquired from his widow. Most likely as a result of this exhibition Vollard met Renoir and Degas, and he began dealing the works of both artists. This period witnessed the rise of the commercial dealer. Throughout the 1890s and early , Vollard exhibited and sold works by Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso, and others, defining his position as a dealer in avant-garde art and shaping the reputations of those artists.

Jacques Villon Monsieur Duchamp, 1962 Color aquatint and drypoint with lithographic elements, Ed. 125 (Ref. Ginestet/Pouillon A118)

Villon was a French Cubist painter and printmaker. Born Gaston Duchamp he adopted the pseudonym of as a tribute to the French medieval poet François Villon. He came from a prosperous and artistically inclined family. In 1894, he and his brother Raymond moved to in Paris. There, he studied law at the University of Paris but received his father's permission to study art on the condition that he continue studying law. Villon lost interest in the pursuit of a legal career, and for the next 10 years he worked in graphic media, contributing cartoons and illustrations to Parisian newspapers as well as drawing color posters. In 1903 he helped organize the drawing section of the first Salon d'Automne in Paris. His first works were influenced by Edgar Degas and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but later he participated in the fauvist, Cubist, and abstract impressionist movements. In 1913, Villon created seven large drypoints in which forms break into shaded pyramidal planes. That year, he exhibited at the in New York City, helping introduce European modern art to the United States. His works proved popular and all his art sold.

Camille Pissarro Faneuses d’Eragny, 1897 Etching

Camille Pissarro, lived from 1830 –1903 and was a Danish-French painter born on the island of St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but then in the Danish West Indies). When Pissarro was twelve his father sent him to boarding school in France. While a young student, he developed an early appreciation for the masters. When he turned twenty-one, Pissarro chose to leave his family and job and live in Venezuela, where he spent the next two years working as an artist in Caracas. He enrolled in various classes taught by masters, at schools such as École des Beaux-Arts and Académie Suisse. But Pissarro eventually found their teaching methods "stifling". This prompted him to search for alternative instruction, which he requested and received from Corot. In 1859 his first painting was accepted and exhibited at the Paris Salon. He and Corot both shared a love of rural scenes painted from nature. It was by Corot that Pissarro was inspired to paint outdoors, also called "plein air" painting. Pissarro became friends with a number of younger artists who likewise chose to paint in the more realistic style. Among them were , and Paul Cézanne. What they shared in common was their dissatisfaction with the dictates of the Salon. In 1875, the first 'Impressionist' Exhibition was held, which shocked and "horrified" the critics, who primarily appreciated only scenes portraying religious, historical, or mythological settings. The manner of painting was too sketchy and looked incomplete, especially compared to the traditional styles of the period. The use of visible and expressive brushwork by all the artists was considered an insult to the craft of traditional artists, who often spent weeks on their work. In 1885 he met and , both of whom relied on a more "scientific" theory of painting. Pissarro then spent the rest of his career practicing this more time-consuming and laborious technique, referred to as .

Edouard Manet Chanteur Espagnol, 1861 Etching

Édouard Manet (1832 –1883) was a French painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, and a pivotal figure in the transition from to Impressionism. Manet studied under the academic painter Thomas Couture and in his spare time, he copied the old masters in the Louvre. A major early work is The Luncheon on the Grass (Le déjeuner sur l'herbe). The Paris Salon rejected it for exhibition in 1863 but Manet exhibited it at the Salon des Refusés (Salon of the Rejected) later in the year. The painting's juxtaposition of fully dressed men and a nude woman was controversial, as was its abbreviated, sketch-like handling. He became friends with the Impressionists through the painter Berthe Morisot. Morisot is credited with convincing Manet to attempt plein air painting.

Henri de la Toulouse-Lautrec Le Coiffeur, 1893 Color lithograph

Henri de la Toulouse-Lautrec Guilbert Dans la Glue, 1898 Lithograph, Ed. 350

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864 –1901), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the late 19th century yielded a collection of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern and sometimes decadent life of those times. Toulouse-Lautrec is among the best-known painters of the Post- Impressionist period. Toulouse-Lautrec's parents were first cousins which sometimes is attributed to his health conditions. At the age of 13, Toulouse-Lautrec fractured his right thigh bone and, at 14, the left. The breaks did not heal properly. Modern physicians attribute this to an unknown genetic disorder, known now as Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome, or a variant disorder along the lines of osteopetrosis. Physically unable to participate in many activities typically enjoyed by men of his age, Toulouse-Lautrec immersed himself in art. He was drawn to Montmartre, the area of Paris famous for its bohemian lifestyle and the haunt of artists, writers, and philosophers. There he met Émile Bernard and . From 1889 until 1894, Toulouse-Lautrec took part in the "Independent Artists' Salon" on a regular basis. He made several landscapes of Montmartre. When the Moulin Rouge opened, Toulouse-Lautrec was commissioned to produce a series of posters for the cabaret. The cabaret reserved a seat for him and displayed his works.His style was influenced by the classical Japanese woodprints which became popular in art circles in Paris at this time. He excelled at depicting people in their working environments, with the colour and movement of the gaudy night-life present but the glamour stripped away, and was masterful when painting crowd scenes in which the figures are highly individualized.

Henri Matisse Danseuse Assise, 1925-25 Lithograph, Ed. 150

Henri Matisse Nu Renverse Au Brasero, 1929 Lithograph, Ed. 50

Henri Matisse lived from 1869-1954, and is known as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, his stylistic innovations fundamentally altered the course of modern art and spanned almost six and a half decades. His vast repertoire encompassed painting, drawing, , graphic arts, paper cutouts, and book illustration. His varied subjects comprised landscape, , portraiture, domestic and studio interiors, and particularly focused on the female figure. Matisse's early work was informed by the dry academic manner, particularly evident in his drawing. He, however, began to experiment with a diversity of styles, employing new kinds of brushwork, light, and composition to create his own pictorial language. In the summer of 1904, while visiting Saint-Tropez, a small fishing village in , Matisse discovered the bright light of southern France, which contributed to a change to a much brighter palette. Matisse created brilliantly colored canvases structured by color applied in a variety of brushwork, ranging from thick impasto to flat areas of pure pigment. Paintings such as (San Francisco ), gave rise to the first of the avant-garde movement, "Fauvism". In the autumn of 1917, Matisse traveled to Nice in the south of France. Here his principal subject remained the female figure depicted as standing, seated, or reclining in a luxurious, exotic interior of Matisse's own creation. These paintings are infused with southern light, bright colors, and a profusion of decorative patterns.

Georges Braque Descente Aux Enfers, Plate IV, 1961 Color lithograph, Ed. 200

George Braque Les Trois Oiseau En Vol, 1961 Color etching, Ed. 75

Georges Braque (1882 –1963) was a major 20th-century French painter, collagist, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. His most important contributions to the were in his alliance with Fauvism, and the role he played in the development of Cubism. Braque’s work is closely associated with that of his colleague . He was trained to be a house painter and decorator like his father and grandfather. However, he also studied artistic painting during the evening at the École des Beaux-Arts. Braque's earliest works were impressionistic, but after seeing the work exhibited by the "Fauves", he adopted their style. Braque's style began a slow evolution as he became influenced by Paul Cézanne whose works were exhibited in Paris for the first time in 1906. The Cézanne retrospective greatly affected the avant-garde artists of Paris, resulting in the advent of Cubism.Braque's paintings of 1908–1913 reflected his new interest in geometry and simultaneous perspective. He conducted an intense study of the effects of light and perspective and the technical means that painters use to represent these effects, questioning the most standard of artistic conventions. Beginning in 1909, Braque began to work closely with Pablo Picasso who had been developing a similar proto-Cubist style of painting. Braque is quoted as saying “The things that Picasso and I said to one another during those years will never be said again, and even if they were, no one would understand them anymore. It was like being roped together on a mountain. ”

Marc Chagall Le Table Fleurie, 1973 Color lithograph. Ed. 50

Marc Chagall was born in 1887, in Vitebsk, Russia. He studied in Saint Petersburg, at the Imperial Society for the Protection of the Arts. In 1910 he moved to Paris and encountered Fauvism and Cubism. Chagall visited Russia in 1914 and was prevented from returning to Paris by the outbreak of war. He was appointed Commissar for Art in 1918 and he founded the Vitebsk Popular Art School and directed it until disagreements with the government resulted in his resignation. He moved to Moscow and executed his first stage designs for the State Jewish Chamber Theater there. During World War II Chagall fled to the United States. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, gave him a retrospective in 1946. During the 1960s Chagall continued to travel widely, often in association with large-scale commissions he received. Among these were windows for the synagogue of the Hadassah University Medical Center, Jerusalem, a ceiling for the Paris Opéra, a window for the United Nations building, New York, murals for the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and windows for the cathedral in Metz, France. He died in 1985.

American Print Makers

Childe Hassam The Old Mumford House, 1926 Etching

Frederick Childe Hassam (1859 –1935) was a prolific American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt, Hassam was instrumental in disseminating Impressionism to American collectors, dealers, and museums. Hassam left high school after two years despite his uncle's offer to pay for a Harvard education. He found employment with a wood engraver and he quickly proved an adept draftsman as he produced designs for commercial engravings such as letterheads and newspapers. Having had relatively little formal art training, Hassam took a two-month "study trip" to Europe during the summer of 1883. He traveled throughout the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain, studying the Old Masters and creating watercolors of the European countryside. Hassam moved to France so that he could study figure drawing and painting at the prestigious Académie Julian. Although he quickly moved on to self-study, finding that "[t]he academy is the personification of routine academic training and crushes all originality out of growing men. He returned to the United States in 1889, taking residence in New York City. He found a studio apartment at Fifth Avenue and 17th Street, a view that he would paint very frequently. The fashionable street was traveled at that time by horse-drawn carriages and trolleys. This was one of his favorite paintings and he exhibited it several times. "New York is the most beautiful city in the world. There is no boulevard in all Paris that compares to our own Fifth Avenue...the average American still fails to appreciate the beauty of his own country."

Marsden Hartley Flowers in a Goblet #3, 1923 Lithograph, Ed. 25

Marsden Hartley (1877 –1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.When Hartley was 14, his family moved to Ohio and left him behind to work in a shoe factory for a year. These bleak occurrences led Hartley to recall his New England childhood as a time of painful loneliness. He once described his New England accent as "a sad recollection [that] rushed into my very flesh like sharpened knives." He eventually moved to Ohio to be with his family. There Hartley began his art training at the Cleveland Institute of Art after he won a scholarship. At age 22, he moved to New York City to study painting at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase, and then attended the National Academy of Design. The writings of Walt Whitman and American transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, inspired Hartley to view art as a spiritual quest. Hartley first traveled to Europe in 1912, and he became acquainted with 's circle of avante-garde writers and artists. He then moved to Berlin, where he continued to paint and befriended the painter His work during this period was a combination of abstraction and German Expressionism, fueled by his personal brand of . He returned to Maine in 1937, after declaring that he wanted to become "the painter of Maine" and depict American life at a local level. This aligned Hartley with the movement, a group of artists active from the early- to-mid 20th century that attempted to represent a distinctly "American art." He died in 1943

Martin Lewis Chance Meeting, 1940 Lithograph with drypoint, Ed. 105

Martin Lewis was an American artist born in Australia in 1881. He was the second of eight children and had a passion for drawing. In 1900, Lewis left Australia for the United States. His first job was in San Francisco, painting stage decorations for William McKinley’s presidential campaign of 1900. By 1909, Lewis was living in New York, where he found work in commercial illustration. It is said that he helped Edward Hopper learn the basics of etching. In 1920 Lewis traveled to Japan, where for two years he drew and painted and studied Japanese art. The influence of Japanese prints is very evident in Lewis’s work after that period. Lewis is most famous for his black and white prints, mostly of night scenes of non tourist, real life street scenes of New York City. He died in 1962.

George Bellows Shower Bath, 1917 Lithograph, Ed. 36

George Wesley Bellows (1882 –1925) was an American realist painter and printmaker, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City. Bellows attended The Ohio State University. There he played for the baseball and basketball teams and was encouraged to become a professional athlete. Despite these opportunities in athletics, Bellows desired success as a painter. He left Ohio State just before he was to graduate and moved to New York City to study art. Bellows' urban New York scenes depicted the crudity and chaos of working-class people and neighborhoods and satirized the upper classes. From 1907 through 1915, he executed a series of paintings depicting New York City under snowfall. These paintings were the main testing ground in which Bellows developed his strong sense of light and visual texture. In addition to painting, Bellows made significant contributions to , helping to expand the use of the medium as a fine art in the U.S. He installed a lithography press in his studio in and he collaborated with master printer Bolton Brown on more than a hundred images.

Thomas Hart Benton Self-Portrait, 1972 Lithograph, Ed. 300

Thomas Hart Benton (1889 –1975) was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood he was at the forefront of the Regionalist . His fluid, sculpted figures in his paintings showed everyday people in scenes of life in the United States. Though his work is strongly associated with the Midwest, he studied in Paris and lived in New York City. After studying in Europe, Benton moved to New York City and resumed painting. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Navy and was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia. His war-related work had an enduring effect on his style. He was directed to make drawings and illustrations of shipyard work and life, and this requirement for realistic documentation strongly affected his later style. .In 1934, Benton was featured on one of the earliest color covers of Time magazine. Benton's work was featured along with that of fellow Midwesterners Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry in an article entitled "The U.S. Scene". The trio were featured as the new heroes of American art, and Regionalism was described as a significant art movement.

Grant Wood Tree Planting Group, 1937 Lithograph, Ed. 250

Grant Wood In , 1939 Lithograph, Ed. 250

Grant Wood (1891 –1942) was an American painter born on a farm in Iowa. He is best known for his paintings and prints depicting the rural American Midwest. From 1922 to 1928, he made four trips to Europe, where he studied many styles of painting, especially Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. But it was the work of the 15th-century Flemish artist Jan van Eyck that influenced him to take on the clarity of this new technique and to incorporate it in his new works.

He became a great proponent of regionalism in the arts, lecturing throughout the country on the topic.

Wood is most well known for the painting American Gothic which is also one of the most famous paintings in American art. It was first exhibited in 1930 at the , where it is still located. It made news stories country-wide, bringing Wood immediate recognition. It has been borrowed and satirised endlessly for advertisements and cartoons. Art critics who had favorable opinions about the painting, such as Gertrude Stein, assumed the painting was meant to be a satire of repression and narrow-mindedness of rural small-town life. Wood rejected this reading of it. With the onset of the Great Depression, it came to be seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit. He died at the age of 51 in 1942.

Louis Lozowick Above , 1932 Lithograph, Ed. 200

Louis Lozowick (1892 –1973) was a Russian American painter and printmaker. He is recognized as an artist, and mainly produced streamline, urban-inspired monochromatic lithographs. Deco emerged from the interwar period when rapid industrialization was transforming culture. One of its major attributes is an embrace of technology. This distinguishes Deco from the organic motifs favored by its predecessor .

Robert Riggs Shadow Boxer, 1932 Lithograph, Ed. 50

Robert Riggs Trial Horse, 1932 Lithograph, Ed. 50

Robert Riggs was born in Illinois in 1896. Riggs had a successful career and is known for his paintings of prize-fighting and circus-genre scenes. His painting "The Brown Bomber," showed the boxing victory of Joe Louis over Max Schmeling. This painting earned Riggs election to the National Academy of Design in 1946. He studied at the James Millikin University in Illinois and then trained at the Art Students League in New York, but his study was interrupted by Army service in World War I. He stayed overseas and attended the Academie Julian in Paris and then returned to the United States where he settled in Philadelphia and worked for an advertising agency for whom he did numerous illustrations. Riggs died at 74 in 1970.

Armin Landeck East River Construction, 1941 (Ref. Copper Engraving

Armin Landeck Demolition – Houston Street, 1971 Copper plate engraving, Ed. 100

Armin Landeck was born in Wisconsin in 1905. He received a Bachelor of Architecture degree in Architecture from Columbia University. He and his wife traveled to and studied art in Europe and returned after the collapse of the stock market in 1929. Unable to find work as an architect upon his return, he turned his attention to . Landeck is known for creating citycapes representing a lonely and barren New York City. These won him popular and critical acclaim, and established his reputation as a skillful printmaker. In the 1950s his work became more abstract, and Landeck used larger plates to achieve bold, compelling lines. In 1953, he received the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship to work in Europe. He died in 1984

Jackson Lee Nesbitt The Matthew W. Johnson Family, 1990 Lithograph, Ed. 250

Jackson Lee Nesbitt Stripping Ingots, 1938 Etching, Ed. 60

Jackson Lee Nesbitt, born in 1913, was a noted printmaker and painter of the American Scene, and dedicated his artistic career to the portrayal of ordinary people going about the business of their lives. He attended the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Two years later Nesbitt enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri. Thomas Hart Benton, who joined the faculty in the fall of 1935, quickly became a close friend and mentor to the younger artist.In 1937 the Sheffield Steel Corporation commissioned him to document their warehouse. He was taken to the open- hearth furnace area, where he diligently sketched anonymous workers in that dramatic setting. On the strength of his sketches, he was commissioned to create a series of etchings illustrating different phases of the steel industry. The commission launched Nesbitt's career as a professional artist. He died in 2008.