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Chromolithography: The Art of Color
Natural History
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A pair of superb, fruit still life chromolithographs by American artist Helen R. Searle (1834-1884). Helen was born in Burlington, Vermont, the daughter of architect Henry Searle. The Searle family moved to Rochester, New York, where the highly talented Helen began to paint fruit, flower and game still-lifes. In 1863, she exhibited six paintings in Rochester and in the following years similar paintings at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy. This led to her appointment as art teacher at Mrs. Bryan's Female Seminary in Batavia. Desiring to improve her skill, Helen set off to Germany, where she became the private student of Johann Wilhelm Preyer, the leading still-life painter in Düsseldorf. She refined her style to reflect the realism and clarity for which the Düsseldorf school was noted and continued to exhibit her paintings, including at the National Academy of Design from 1866 to 1868. Upon her return to the United States in 1871, Helen married painter and art critic, James William Pattison. They lived in France, where Helen exhibited at the Paris Salon, Germany and in England. In 1881, the Pattisons move back to New York, then Chicago, followed by Jacksonville, Illinois, where Helen died in 1884.
Though there is no publisher information on the print, it has been written that some of Searle's still-lifes were reproduced as chromolithographs by Ehrgott & Forbriger, printmakers from Cincinnati, one of the centers of chromolithographic printing in the United States. Whoever made this, the quality is first rate. This print is very rare and is a superb example of both a talented American artist and American printmaking in the nineteenth century.
An early and rare Currier & Ives chromolithograph. The Currier & Ives firm is best known for their hand-colored lithographs, but from time to time they made use of the process of chromolithography. This is one of their earliest prints produced by this process, and it is based on a painting by one of their most popular artists, A.F. Tait. Chromolithography was particularly suited for reproducing the quality and texture of an oil painting, and this charming print well illustrates this. An usual and desirable print for anyone interested in "America's Printmakers." $725
After J.F. Herring. "Just Caught." Boston: L. Prang, ca. 1860- 1880's. 7 3/4 x 12 /4. Minor surface abrasions. Otherwise, very good condition. In period frame.
While Prang specialized in using American artists and scenes, he also offered European images that would appeal to a wide American audience. British sporting art was as popular in the nineteenth century as today, and so Prang issued this bright image based on one of the greatest of the British artists of this genre, J.F. Herring. $450
After A.F. Tait. "Ducklings." Boston: L. Prang, 1866. 10 x 12 1/4. Very good condition. In period frame with publisher's original label.
A charming natural image after A.F. Tait, one of the most popular artists for Prang. Such images would have graced many a nineteenth century home. $350
Prints by John James Audubon. From The Birds of America. New York: J. Bien, 1860. Chromolithographs. Very good condition, except as noted.
Because of the continued strong demand for the prints, a second edition of Audubon's work was begun in 1860. Published in New York, these prints were lithographs using chromolithography, a relatively new and expensive process at the time. With the disruptions caused by the Civil War, this edition was never completed, and so these prints are even rarer than those of the first edition. As the first totally American Audubon prints, matching those of the first edition in beauty and drama, these are wonderful pieces of American history. The following prints are from this edition.
Alexander Pope Jr. was one of a group of important sporting artists who developed an American style of watercolors in the late nineteenth century. Many of these artists, including Pope, issued portfolios of chromolithographs after their watercolors, and these prints are from Pope's series of game birds and water fowl.
Along with Alexander Pope, other artists from the turn of the century were developing an American style of sporting art and many of their images were, like Pope's, being turned into chromolithographed prints. A.D. Turner was one of these artists and the chromolithographs of fish made after his watercolors are among the most impressive of the period.
A excellently and accurately rendered series of prints of North American game fish from William C. Harris' ambitious late nineteenth century folio volume. This work was intended to be of superior quality, and efforts were made to this end to the extent that the costs were so high that only one of the two intended volumes was ever completed. In the first part, the publishers stated "neither labor nor money will be economized in the effort to make the publication unequaled in angling literature." Unfortunately, this care in production was not rewarded with financial success, though the artistic success was considerable.
Harris stated that the volume was intended to give as much information as possible about the native American game fish as well as to provide lifelike portraits of various species. For this purpose a professional artist, J.L. Petrie, accompanied Harris around the country in order to paint the fish in as fresh a state as possible, "before the sheen of their color tints had faded." Harris would catch a fish, lay it out for Petrie, who would immediately paint the subject. These paintings were then painstakingly reproduced by chromolithography, using as many as 15 tints per image in order "to reproduce the exact tone and mellow transfusion of color so frequently seen in many species of fish when alive. So closely has the oil effect been followed that an expert cannot distinguish the painting from its copy at a distance of ten feet." With much justification, Harris states that the prints "are minutely accurate in anatomical detail and in the more difficult matter of coloration."
Samuel A. Kilbourne. "Mackerel." From Game Fishes of the United States. Boston: Armstrong & Co., 1878-1881. 13 x 19. Chromolithograph. Mounted on board. Otherwise, very good condition.
Samuel A. Kilbourne (b. 1836, d. 1881) was a native of Bridgetown, Maine. As a youth, he studied landscape painting, and in 1858 took up the painting of fish. His technical ability and keen eye made him a favorite illustrator for scientists and sportsmen alike. At the time of his death, he had just completed a series of illustrations for his book, Game Fishes of the United States. This work gave Kilbourne the opportunity to combine his two great strengths as a painter, landscapes and fish. The plates depict fish in the water eating or fighting a fisherman's line, or drawn up on a bank by the water. The landscapes contain beautiful details, foliage in the foreground and backgrounds of finely drawn trees or sailboats. $425
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