• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

' PRINTS AND ILLUSTRATED BOOKS A I HOW DO IN (.(^' I i PRESENTED TO BOWDOIN COLLEGE BY BOWDOIN COLLEGE MUSEUM OF ART 500 YEARS OF PRINTMAKING I i i I I I 500 YEARS OF PRINTMAKING Prints and Illustrated Books at Bowdoin College David P. Becker Bowdoin College Museum of Art • Brunswick, Maine • 1978 / © 1978 The President and Trustees of Bowdoin College designed by Katy Homans frontispiece: 22. Jacques Callot, St. Armand typeset and printed by Thomas Todd Company, Boston PREFACE 500 Years of Printmaking: Punts and lllustiated Books at Bowdoin College is an exhibition intended to give the pubUc a rare opportunity to see objects seldom displayed: selections from the Museum of Art's print collection, and a group of the Library's most treasured books. Normally, these works are kept in closed draw- ers or cases for reasons of preservation. The printed images fade with too much exposure to light, and dust can abrade the surface of the paper. Concurrently with the exhibition, an attempt has been made to demon- strate printmaking techniques and to explain issues of print connoisseurship. It is hoped that 500 Years of Printmaking will engender enough enthusiasm to prevent the prints and books from being again hidden from view, becoming instead objects used in teaching at the College, and available to interested visitors to the Art Museum and Library for study. This effort could not have been possible without David Becker, who came to know the print collection in great depth, first as an undergraduate at Bowdoin and then, for four years, as Museum Registrar. With real loyalty and generosity to the Bowdoin Museum, while holding a full-time position at Harvard's Hough- ton Library, he agreed to act as Curator for the show and to write the accompanying catalogue. I am most grateful to him for the sharing of knowledge and dona- tion of time. It was also his idea to include illustrated books from the Bowdoin College Library. Mr. Arthur Monke, Librarian, and Mrs. Mary Hughes, Keeper of Special Collections, helped in many ways to facilitate the loan of volumes to the exhibition. This fine col- laboration between the Museum of Art and the Library is particularly appreciated. Katharine J. Watson Dhectoi 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This exhibition has evolved from years of working in like to record my debts particularly to Marjorie Cohn, the print collections at Bowdoin and the resulting wish Eleanor Garvey, Philip Hofer, Robert Light, Konrad to inform visitors and students of their riches. It would Oberhuber, Andrew Robison, Marvin Sadik, Arthur not have come about without the support of the Direc- and Charlotte Vershbow, Gary Welch, and Richard tor, Katharine Watson, who immediately upon her ar- West. rival a year ago fostered this project. Her personal en- D P B couragement and advice are appreciated. The editorial skills, suggestions, and "stage-managing" of Peggy Clunie, Brenda Pelletier, and especially Lynn Yanok of the Museum staff have been invaluable. I am indebted to Kerry O'Brien, Curatorial Intern, for the Glossary, much of the technique section of the exhibition, and a great deal of logistical help in the exhibition prepara- tions. Laura Harrington, former Curatorial Intern, and the other members of the supporting staff, particularly Ken Daniel, have assisted efficiently at all times. The College Library has been most supportive of this endeavor. My training in illustrated books led me to explore the Library's collections, and I was delighted to find so many works there of which I had not known. The College Librarian, Arthur Monke, and the Keeper of Special Collections, Mary Hughes, immediately made available all their resources, and have cooperated generously in every loan request I made of them. Although undertaking this project outside my regular work at the Houghton Library at Harvard, I have re- ceived encouragement from my colleagues there, par- ticularly my Curator, Eleanor Garvey. The biblio- graphic resources at Houghton, the Fogg Art Museum Fine Arts Library, and the Print Room at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts were essential for my research and a pleasure in which to work. I am also very grateful to the Houghton Library and a private collector for the loan of several prints and illustrated books to the exhi- bition of preparatory drawings. The College Editor, Edward Born, gave helpful advice on the catalogue. Its production has been admirably carried out by Thomas Todd Co., and its handsome de- sign is due to Katy Homans. Finally, for personal en- couragement and perseverance during the writing of this catalogue, I would particularly like to thank Steven Weissman. In many ways, I consider this project an expression of my continuing learning in the field of prints. Any ex- pertise I may have has been gained with the aid of many individuals who have shared their insights and at- tempted to train my eye. On this occasion, I would 98. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Ciucifixion INTRODUCTION 1. The Exhibition in its Special Collections a small but remarkable group of illustrated books from the sixteenth century to the This exhibition has two purposes: to introduce the present day. viewer to the diverse history and range of printed The collection at the Museum has grown steadily over images and to reveal the considerable wealth of prints the years through the gifts of several generous donors at Bowdoin College. Equally hoped for, of course, is and recent purchases from the albeit slim income of a that the exhibition will be enjoyable and stimulating. few donated funds. The first prints to enter the collec- The history of printmaking over the past five centuries tion were a small number of mezzotint portraits of is a source of information for the study of art, history, ancient philosophers, the bequest of James Bowdoin religion, sociology, geography, literature, and countless III in 1811. There were no additions until 1923, when other fields. In conjunction with the availability of paper Charles A. Coffin, Bowdoin h'22, assembled and in the fifteenth century and the invention at the same donated a collection of 64 prints. Included in his gift time of movable types for the printing of books, the were several impressions from the seventeenth and development of printmaking was a profound revolu- eighteenth centuries (cat. no. 25, 26, 31); the remaining tion: until the invention of photography around 1840 prints date to the late nineteenth and twentieth cen- and the enormous influence of television in this cen- turies. The Coffin collection serves as a fascinating tury, prints were the only ready source of pictorial in- microcosm of the prevailing, fairly conservative taste formation which could be easily reproduced in multiple of the time (for instance, several French Impressionists, images. Of all the visual media, prints have always but no Romantics, no Picasso, no modern Americans been the most "democratic." Inexpensive and easily such as Sloan or Marin were included). Thirty etchings portable, they are readily accessible to both the artist and lithographs by Childe Hassam were the gift in and the viewer. 1940 of Mrs. Maude Hassam, followed by a gift of 27 Objects have been chosen from the collections in Ernest Haskell prints in 1947 from the artist's widow. three groups. The first exhibition forms an introduction The 1935 bequest of Charles Potter Kling included a to various methods of producing prints (see the Glos- large group of eighteenth century portraits, a Boydell sary), along with examples of certain technical aspects Shakespeare series, and several fine Piranesis. of examining prints. The major exhibition contains an It is no exaggeration to state that the print collections historical selection of prints and illustrated books, ar- would be of far less significance without the several ranged chronologically. A third, relatively small exhibi- gifts of Miss Susan Dwight Bliss. Indeed, a representa- tion comprises several drawings in the Museum collec- tive exhibition such as this would be virtually impos- tion which were done specifically in preparation for sible (one third of the prints in this catalogue are her prints. They are paired with impressions of the finished gift). Miss Bliss' first donation dates to 1956; a large prints, to reveal a part of the creative process in the group was added in 1963; and the last part came to the transition between the two media. A basic premise for College as her bequest in 1967. The Bliss collection con- the entire exhibition and this catalogue is that, after tains large selections of eighteenth, nineteenth, and early the temporary showing has been dismantled, every one twentieth century prints, along with several significant of these works will be available for individual and earlier images. In addition, she made a gift of a large repeated study in the Museum and the Library. group of illustrated books to the College Library, add- ing many significant volumes in the fields of architec- 11. The Collections ture, decoration, topography, and literature (no. 10, 15, The print collection is the largest in quantity and 36, 57, 63). one of the broadest in range of technique and During the 1950s several important purchases were chronology among the various art collections at made of modern prints (including no. 49, 97, 106, 108), Bowdoin College. The Museum's collection comprises some through the fames Phinney Baxter Fund, given in approximately 2,500 sheets, dating from 1478 to 1978. memory of the first Director of the Museum of Art, In addition, another, less well-known, source for Henry Johnson. In 1961 came the major collection of printed images is the College Library, which possesses John Sloan's graphic work, the bequest of Mr. and Mrs. 7 George Otis Hamlin, who were personal friends of the there is a fine group of prints by German Expressionist artist.

Load more

  52

Copy Link