Society and Style: Prints from the Sheldon Museum of Art

Society and Style: Prints from the Sheldon Museum of Art Society and Style Prints from the Sheldon Museum of Art An Exhibition Focus Gallery, Sheldon Museum of Art Lincoln, Nebraska January 10—March 2, 2014 Edited by Alison G. Stewart and Paul Royster Zea Books Lincoln, Nebraska 2014 Contents Introduction and Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Anthony Van Dyck, Lucas Vorsterman (Rachel Moore) . . . . . . . . . . 8 James Gillray, The Fashionable Mamma, or The Convenience of Modern Dress (Lucy Windle) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Hans Holbein the Younger, Dance of Death, The Rich Man (Anne Rimmington) . . 12 Lucas Cranach, Das Symbolum Apostolicum, St. Andrew (Archana Verma) . . . . . 14 Giovanni B. Piranesi, Veduta di Piazza Navona sopra le rovine del Circo Agonale (Ruben Mejia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 William Hogarth, After (Britiany Daugherty) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . 20 William Hogarth, A Rake’s Progress, Plate III (Eric Himmelberger) . . . . . . . 22 William Hogarth, Beer Street (Christopher Dorwart) . . . . . . 24 William Hogarth, A Midnight Modern Conversation (Kaylie Hogan-Schnittker) . . . 26 William Hogarth, The Bruiser (Kelly Wold) William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate II (Patrick Graybill) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 William Hogarth, The Polling (Amanda Mobley Guenther) . . . . . . . . . 30 James Gillray, Shakespeare Sacrificed; or The Offering to Avarice (Eder Jaramillo) . . . 32 William Merritt Chase, The Court Jester (Felicia Nehl) . . . . . . . . . . 34 Stephen Alonso Schoff, The Sea Serpent (Paula Rotschafer) . . . . . . . . . 36 Alphonse Mucha, Monaco Monte-Carlo (Elizabeth Slonecker) . . . . . . . . 38 Suggested Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Copyright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 . . . Opposite: Detail of Giovanni B. Piranesi, Veduta di Piazza Navona sopra le rovine del Circo Agonale (pages 16–17). Opposite title page: Detail of Lucas Cranach, Das Symbolum Apostolicum, St. Andrew (page 15). Introduction and Acknowledgments This collection of works explores how Societies and Styles changed over the course of Early Modern Europe (1500-1800) from the time of the advent of printing on paper to the Industrial Revolution and beyond through little-seen printed masterpieces from the Sheldon Museum of Art’s collection. Today, “print” continues to endure even as new forms of digital publications transform our world in previously unimaginable ways, just as printing did centuries ago. This exhibition offers a view into the ways printed works of art on paper (mostly woodcuts, engravings, and etchings) showcase society and its various aspects, ranging from one Christian martyrdom of a saint to secular works focusing on fashion and death, portraits, and views of a sea serpent, Rome, and Monte Carlo. Half the prints feature William Hogarth’s satires of contemporary social practices surrounding election politics, beer drinking, and relations between the sexes. Although other notable artists designed prints here—Anthony Van Dyck, Hans Holbein the Younger, Giovanni Piranesi, and Alphonse Mucha—the exhibition’s organization was determined by the prints selected by the sixteen students in Prof. Alison Stewart’s “History of Prints: New Media of the Renaissance” class during fall 2013 in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. An expression repeatedly heard throughout the class was “times change, people don’t.” We leave it to the viewer to determine the ways in which this expression still holds sway for universal values, truths, and experiences seen in the prints shown here. P This exhibition and the corresponding catalogue and ebook originated in Professor Alison G. Stewart’s “History of Prints: New Media of the Renaissance” class during fall 2013 in the Department of Art and Art History. It was prepared in collaboration with Paul Royster, Coordinator of Scholarly Communications, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, and Ashley Hussman, Curatorial Associate at the Sheldon Museum of Art, who generously took over from Gregory Nosan, whose example and guidance helped establish our path on this project and its model in 2011–2012. This is the second in what will hopefully be a long series of such collaborations at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, designed to give faculty and students the opportunity to work intimately with the Sheldon’s rich collections and share their discoveries with the university community and the world. We are grateful for the support of our colleagues in the Department of Art and Art History and at the Sheldon, especially Genevieve Ellerbee and Peter Pinnell. Thanks and congratulations to the students whose scholarship fills these pages. Alison G. Stewart Paul Royster Opposite: Detail of William Hogarth, After (page 19). 7 Anthony Van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641) Lucas Vorsterman, c. 1630–41 Etching on cream laid paper 24.5 x 15.6 cm plate (9 2/3 × 6 1/8 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1923 Anthony Van Dyck was celebrated for his portrait paintings and his popular Iconography, a series of as many as one-hundred and ninety prints of half-length portraits showing contemporary business contacts, princes, soldiers, friends, savants, and artists of his time, made after the artist’s drawings and paintings. Van Dyck etched less than twenty of the portraits himself. The remainder were engraved and etched by the top professional printmakers in Antwerp he commissioned to bring this series to life including Lucas Vorsterman (shown here), Paulus Pontius, Giles Hendrix, and Pieter de Jode II. Hendrix was responsible for etching this portrait of his contemporary engraver Lucas Vorsterman. From his friend and master, Peter Paul Rubens, Van Dyck learned the practice of mass producing and advertising his work. Vorsterman worked with Rubens and Van Dyck the majority of his life. Around 1617 Vorsterman and Van Dyck became friends while working in Ruben’s workshop in Antwerp; Van Dyck became the godfather of Vorsterman’s child. The portrait of Vorsterman (Flemish, 1595-1675) is a brilliant pictorial image, consisting of rich line making and technique. Working under Van Dyck, Hendrix uses dynamic and precise lines to achieve a fluid motion throughout the entire print (sleeve at left, sash at center). Knowledge and expert skill can be recognized through the placement of the body toward the right, while his head looks left. Vorsterman’s face appears somewhat tired and in a contemplative state of longing for something the viewer cannot see. Ironically, Vorsterman evokes emotions of sadness and sorrow, while dressed in elegant and rich clothing that fill the majority of the composition. The boldness of lines (right sleeve) and evocative details (collar and cuffs) mark this portrait as nothing but extraordinary. Van Dyck’s works reflect an aristocratic attitude toward life and society seen in the elegant manner in which artists, like Vorsterman, are represented. Evidence of his widespread circle of admiration can be seen in the number of subjects in the series, not only artists but highly regarded members of society. Van Dyck shows himself here as excelling as both artist and teacher—guiding numerous men to etch and engrave a large series of portraits could not have been an easy task. Rachel Moore 8 James Gillray (English, 1756–1815) The Fashionable Mamma, or The Convenience of Modern Dress, 1796 Etching and stipple with hand coloring on paper 34.6 × 24.6 cm (13 5/8 × 9 11/16 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1753 James Gillray is best known for his satirical caricatures. He was born in Chelsea in 1756 and was apprenticed under letter engraver Harry Ashby of London, whom he deserted to join a company of itinerant actors. He returned to London and printmaking in 1775 and in 1778 was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy. Gillray’s prints and political caricatures proved popular, and in the 1780s he began a profitable association with print-sellers William Humphrey and his sister Hannah, with whom Gillray would live until his death. During Gillray’s producing years, the art of political caricature was gaining in popular favor. Gillray first became noticed for his satires of George III, though in later years his focus switched to jibing at the French. Satires of the French gained favor with the English, and Gillray’s prints were often published in a British political periodical, Anti-Jacobin Review. In The Fashionable Mamma, or The Convenience of Modern Dress, the mother in the caricature-portrait sits apparently distracted and disengaged while nursing a child held by the maid. The “pocket-hole” slits in the mother’s dress allow the child to nurse while the mother stays fully clothed, and in fact dressed for a fashionable outing. Outside the window, a baronet’s carriage awaits the mother who has donned a large feathered headdress, gloves, and fan, suggesting a fancy affair in store when the motherly duties are over. The bug-eyed enthusiasm of the nursing baby, possibly in the act of being forcibly detached from the breast by the maid, contrasts comically with the sidelong languid glance of the mother. The print’s satire is heightened and the unnaturalness of the scene emphasized by the more traditional breastfeeding scene in the painting labelled “MATERNAL LOVE” displayed on the wall above. Gillray here trounces the recent idea of “ideal motherhood” proposed to French women by philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Rousseau’s ideal mother breastfed her own children, rather than using a wet nurse. The dress with numerous slits worn by Gillray’s mother makes for easy nursing but ludicrous fashion. The dress is convenient and the mother “ideal” superficially. Lucy Windle 10 Hans Holbein the Younger (German, c.1497/8–1543) Dance of Death: The Rich Man, 1542 Woodcut on cream laid paper 12.2 × 7.1 cm (4 13/16 × 2 13/16 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-766 Hans Holbein designed a collection of forty-one woodcut images for his Dance of Death series, which was cut by Hans Lützelburger around 1526 in Basel, Switzerland. Twelve years later the Trechsel brothers published the series in Lyons, France. They included a Latin Bible verse above and a French quatrain below. Later editions, including the Sheldon’s print from 1542, were published by the Frellon brothers, and altered the series’ beginning essays and poems to have a more Protestant slant. Holbein’s Astrologer was printed on the verso of The Rich Man. The Dance of Death subject originates in the Middle Ages and customarily depicts Death “dancing” with individuals from all social and clerical ranks. Holbein’s Dance of Death series keeps the tradition of using social satire to convey a Christian moralizing theme that reminded viewers to focus on their eternal souls. Conventional imagery, satire, and Christian moral theme appear in The Rich Man. It depicts a wealthy man in his treasury with Death, represented as a skeleton. The presence of Death indicates the rich man has passed away as he leaps out of his chair to confront Death who is gathering his coins. Holbein makes material wealth the focus of this satire, placing chests and sacks of money in the foreground and on the table where the action between the two figures occurs. Ironically, the rich man seems more alarmed by the loss of his now worthless gold than by his own death. The Bible verse is Luke 12:20: “Fool, this night thy soul shall be required, and the things which thou hast prepared, whose will they be?” Regardless of the publisher’s attempts to orient the work as Catholic or Protestant with textual additions, the moralizing message of the satire remains unaltered. In keeping with the Dance of Death tradition, The Rich Man mocks the wealthy man for his concern with earthly possessions. The image warns viewers to remember that death comes for all and to focus their energies on their immortal souls rather than material wealth. Anne Rimmington 12 Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, c.1472–1553) St. Andrew, c.1510–1515; in the series Das Symbolum Apostolicum (1539) Woodcut on cream laid paper 16.2 × 12.6 cm (6 3/8 × 5 in) Printed probably by Symphorian Reinhart (flourished c. 1509 and later, from Strassburg, active Wittenberg) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-769 Lucas Cranach, a major artist and printmaker in Germany of the early 16th century, designed this image as part of a series of woodcuts representing the twelve Apostles between 1510–1515, though they were not initially intended as part of a book. Afterwards, when Martin Luther propagated his opposition to practices in the Catholic Church, Cranach became a follower, though he kept on making prints for Catholic patrons as well. In 1539, Luther’s German translation of the Apostles’ Creed (Das Symbolum Apostolicum) was published in book form, with the twelve prints designed by Cranach serving as the illustrations for the Apostles, whom tradition held had each contributed one article to the Creed. The coat of arms of Saxony, above, indicate that Cranach worked as the court painter for Elector Frederick the Wise in Wittenberg, Saxony. The Elector early on protected Luther who became close friends with Cranach. The print shows the legendary version of the martyrdom of St. Andrew, tied (rather than nailed) to an X-shaped cross (crux decussata), preaching to the crowd of followers below, who have gathered to witness his crucifixion. His executioners too are seen in the crowd, guarding him. The German text below the image, which continues on the back of the sheet, gives the second article of the Apostles’ Creed: “Ich gleub an Jhesum Christum / seinen eigen Son, unsern HERRN.” (“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord.”) While Protestant Reformers opposed the veneration of images and some more radical iconoclasts removed and often destroyed all paintings and sculptures from altars and churches, Luther defended the use of images within the context of Christian education. This print, embodying both traditional iconography and Luther’s interest in making Christianity accessible to a broad audience, is an important link in the history of Christianity in Northern Europe. Archana Verma 14 Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778) Veduta di Piazza Navona sopra le rovine del Circo Agonale, 1773 Etching on heavy tan paper 45.72 × 66 cm (18 × 26 in) UNL–Gift of Dale Gibbs in memory of Robert Huff, U-3038 Giovanni Piranesi was born on October 4, 1720 in Moliano, Italy, the son of Angelo Piranesi, a stonemason. He first learned to draw in the workshop of his uncle, Matteo Lucchesi, an architect. He learned etching from Giuseppe Vasi, an accomplished etcher, and in 1747 began a series of small prints consisting of views of Rome that continued until his death in 1778. The prints depicted both ancient and modern monuments, with a total of 135 plates of various sizes ranging from small to large, as in this print. This view of Piazza Navona is presented in landscape format using linear perspective to arrange the scene. The view looks northward, with three fountains visible in the print: farthest away in the distance is the Fountain of Neptune, while closer to the viewer is the Fontana del Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) with the Obelisk of Domitian. In the foreground and significantly larger is the Fontana del Moro (Moor Fountain). The Sant’Agnese in Agone church is visible on the left side of the Piazza Navona, with the Palazzo Pamphili adjacent to the church. Apparent in the print are visitors and everyday individuals scurrying around the plaza. Broad and narrow lines of hatching make up the gravel with casual stippling used to show its texture. A sense of movement is achieved in the sky with curvilinear hatching visible in the clouds. While the print was intended to celebrate the architectural glory of Rome, past and present, its depiction of tourists and everyday individuals throughout the scene as elaborate figures mostly hunched over is uncharacteristic of a classical illustration. The print was considered too elaborate and detailed to be produced rapidly for mass distribution. While most views of Rome were simplified for quick turnover, this print departs from commercial routine and focuses on details to attract tourists to the scene. Although the details enliven the print, the buildings seem less striking in person. Ruben Mejia 17 William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764) After, 1736 Engraving and etching on beige paper 40.6 × 32.4 cm (16 1/16 × 12 13/16 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1865 Printmaker William Hogarth is recognized for the satirical style in which he caricatured the social and erotic antics of eighteenth-century London society. He pioneered the technique of creating a narrative across multiple scenes in series of sequential canvases. His prints comment on aspects of human sexuality, providing an ironically moral image of the erotic. The fine lines of the engraving and etching techniques allowed Hogarth to saturate his prints with an abundance of anecdotal details that, when unpacked within the context of his contemporary society, provoke both humor and moral implications. Hogarth’s After print is the second in a two-part series, made after paintings of 1731 (Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge), paired with Before, and the scenes suggest, but do not show, the sexual exploits of a man and woman. All the visual clues point to the erotic: the man with his pants unbuttoned, the woman fawning over him, the knocked-over desk, broken mirror, and an open book by Aristotle (undoubtedly his On the Generation of Animals) with a line that translates as “every animal is sad after sex” (see detail, p. 6). Further the wall paintings in Hogarth’s two engravings include Cupid to offer sexual commentary: in Before he lights his rocket and in After he grins as it is spent. Similarly, in the engravings the man is wild-eyed with excitement in Before and dazed, perhaps with exhaustion, in After. What might be questioned is the woman’s relationship to this man—wife, fiancée, victim, or prostitute? Answers are suggested by the visual clues, and ultimately, by understanding Hogarth’s contempt for the masquerade of prostitution and the vulnerability of young women. Interpretations of the scene include rape, but visual clues and knowledge of the Before scene refute this theory: the woman’s corset placed on the chair, at right, was taken off even when she was (temporarily) refusing the man’s advances in Before. Her possession of the Aristotle book addressing sex and procreation, which requires both the female and the male, underscores the physical act and even animal appetites. A further inference may also be taken from the age discrepancy of the two, and one might conclude that the older, possibly married, wigged man has taken advantage of a young woman or come calling on the services of a young prostitute. Some sexual pursuits never change. Britiany Daugherty 18 William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764) A Harlot’s Progress, Plate II, 1732 Etching and engraving on cream paper 31.4 × 37.9 cm (12 3/8 × 14 15/16 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1846 A Harlot’s Progress, the first of William Hogarth’s “modern moral subjects,” was a turning point in sequential art because it represented the first time an engraver consistently used a variety of elements (gestures, facial expressions, and characteristic settings) and symbols (black spots indicating syphilis) to infuse life into his figures repeatedly throughout the series. In this series Hogarth unfolds the brief, unhappy history of the ironic non-progress of a naïve country girl, Mary Hackabout, who journeys from her home in rural Yorkshire to London to seek her modest fortune as a seamstress. However, Mary is quickly drawn into a life of vice that finally destroys her. In this plate, Mary has become the mistress of a man of wealth whose Jewishness is suggested by the paintings with Old Testament subjects on the wall behind. Mary is surrounded by luxuries and fashionable trifles as she unloosens her bodice and tips over a table to distract her benefactor while her maid quietly ushers out a second lover. The mask on the table, lower left, points to the masquerade where Mary met her new lover the night before. The initial plate had shown Mary arriving in London, falling unwittingly into the hands of a procuress; subsequent plates show her as a common prostitute, as a prisoner in the workhouse, as an invalid dying of syphilis, and as the corpse at her wake. By composing pictorial elements (sets, props, actors, costumes, lighting, space) within a rectangular frame, Hogarth constructs a visual image with both drama and meaning. His narrative sequences use images and symbols that lead the reader to imagine what happened before and after the moment depicted in each print. Before Hogarth, narrative transitions depended heavily on the words printed below or above the panels of the strips, and more often than not the images were mere illustrations. Hogarth played a pivotal role in the tradition of picture stories and paved the way for his successors by developing a purely visual language to establish a narrative discourse. Patrick Graybill 21 William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764) A Rake’s Progress, Plate III, 1735 Engraving and etching on cream paper 31.75 × 38.9 cm (12 ½ × 15 5/16 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1857 The painter and printmaker William Hogarth published the eightpart series of prints A Rake’s Progress on June 25, 1735, the date that copyright protection was extended to graphic works by the Engravers Act. Based on a series of paintings done 1732–1733 (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), the prints tell the story of Tom Rakewell, a university student who inherits a large fortune on the death of his miserly father. Rakewell squanders his wealth in wasteful and hedonistic ways until the money is gone and his accumulated debts send him to the Fleet debtor’s prison. By the end, Rakewell’s financial downfall—and possibly the late stages of syphilis—have claimed his sanity, and his life ends miserably in the Bedlam asylum. Plate III of A Rake’s Progress depicts Rakewell and a companion enjoying the entertainments of the Rose Tavern brothel. Hogarth arranges the scene as an image of the collapse of civilization itself. At Rakewell’s feet, at lower left, the staff and broken lantern of a constable suggest that law and order are not intact in this establishment. Paintings of Roman emperors line the back wall of the room, but the portraits of these men with achievements have all been defaced, except for the one of Nero who accomplished nothing but debauchery. Between the portraits, a woman sets fire to a map of the world, symbolizing the destruction of knowledge and order. Plate III also demonstrates the direct harm that has already overtaken the debauched young man. Rakewell sits slouched and disheveled, in a state of inebriation that prevents him from noticing that the prostitute caressing him has stolen his watch. Throughout the room the women’s faces are marked with black spots, which contemporary viewers would have recognized as make-up to hide sores caused by syphilis, and the small bottle of pills spilled open at Rakewell’s feet shows that he too suffers already from this disease. Hogarth warns viewers in this print that a life of unrestrained hedonism is bound to lead to poverty, misery, and insanity. Eric Himmelberger 23 William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764) Beer Street, 1751 Etching and engraving on ivory paper 38 × 32.5 cm (15 × 12 ¾ in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1894 William Hogarth was born in London and served an apprenticeship with a goldsmith. He began producing his own engraved designs around 1710, and by the 1730s he had become an established artist. Prints such as Beer Street, Gin Lane, and the Four Stages of Cruelty were immensely popular and sold in large quantities. Hogarth suffered financially, however, from print-sellers using his work without pay, and in 1735 he and other artists persuaded friends in Parliament to pass the Engravers’ Copyright Act, which conferred exclusive rights for 14 years and extended protection for the first time to graphic works. Hogarth’s Beer Street print, and its companion Gin Lane, were produced in connection with another Act of Parliament, the Gin Act of 1751, which restricted and discouraged the sale of gin. Beer Street shows that beer can be drunk safely almost anytime and anywhere. There are smiths, pawnbrokers, roofers, fishmongers, booksellers, and street workers all taking a break to enjoy a beer while on the job. All throughout there are people drinking, and all seem relaxed, happy, and prosperous—except the pawnbroker, whose workplace is in ruins, thanks to the wholesale prosperity. In stark contrast, Hogarth’s Gin Lane print portrayed the evils of gin consumption and presented a scene of ruin and disarray. The prints were designed to be viewed alongside each other and were widely reprinted. Technically, Beer Street uses dense diagonal cross-hatching in the shaded areas, with much detail in the foreground where there are baskets containing fish and books, and considerably less detail in the background, where we can still make out what is happening but the image consists mainly of straight parallel lines. Chris Dorwart Hogarth, Gin Lane etching and engraving, 1751 British Museum, London 25 William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764) A Midnight Modern Conversation, 1733 Etching and engraving on cream paper 34.3 x 47.13cm (13 ½ x 18 5/8 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1852 William Hogarth was a printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic, and editorial cartoonist, as well as a painter, whose works ranged from portraiture to comic series of pictures, better known as “modern moral subjects.” First painted in the late 1720s and engraved for printing a few years later, A Midnight Modern Conversation was possibly inspired by similar satirical works of the Dutch Baroque painter Jan Steen, such as As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young (1668, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), a messy scene of merrymaking with music, drink, smoking, and children, that depicts a disorderly family at table. Hogarth’s Conversation contains much drinking and smoking, however, and the all-male group is far more riotous, dissolute, and inebriated, and more ironically titled as well, since the clock shows 4 AM and no one pictured appears capable of anything resembling coherent conversation. While not conceived as a series of pictures, A Midnight Modern Conversation is still considered one of Hogarth’s modern moral subjects. More comical and less morally rigorous than prints such as Gin Lane, which satirizes drinking for the working class and shows its deleterious effects, A Midnight Modern Conversation shows gentlemen of the professional classes overindulging in liquor and demonstrating the follies that the different degrees of intoxication can produce. The men drink, smoke, gesticulate, laugh, argue, spill, and tumble, their wigs askew, while the man at right uses a candle to light his sleeve rather than his pipe. Some viewers found resemblances to particular known individuals, prompting Hogarth’s caption disclaimer that he censured the vices, not the persons. Despite its overtly moral tone and message, the scene embodies a richness and vitality similar to Steen’s that belies the admonition. If it is satire, it nonetheless retains an indulgent sympathy for its objects and a robust tolerance for a vice conducted with such extravagant style. Kaylie Hogan-Schnittker 26 Jan Steen, As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young oil on canvas, 1668 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764) The Bruiser, 1763 Etching and engraving on beige paper 39.4 x 28.6 cm (15 ½ x 11 1/4 in) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1917 William Hogarth is considered by some as the most dynamic and influential artist working in England in the mid-eighteenth century. Having been brought up in a family with limited financial resources, Hogarth wished to present himself as a proper English gentleman, knowledgeable and with good moral standing, and a visual interpreter of contemporary urban society. Called a “roving satirist” in a contemporary article, he strove to promote proper ethical qualities while graphically demonstrating the interactions of members of high and low society. In visually representing the intermingling of social classes, Hogarth shows real-life situations as both cautionary tales with a moral and as engaging, humorous stories. Hogarth’s satirical etching and engraving The Bruiser illustrates his perception of the deterioration of British principles of loyalty and patriotism. In 1762 John Wilkes, publisher of the radical weekly paper The North Briton, attacked King George III’s policies and protested the ending of the Seven Years War (the French and Indian War) with a rhetoric and tone that others found blatantly libelous, though Wilkes escaped conviction on a technicality. Hogarth published several caricatures of Wilkes, and was answered in turn by Wilkes’s champion, the poet Charles Churchill. Hogarth’s response was to take a recent copperplate portrait of himself and his pug, burnish out his own image, and replace it with that of a drunken bear, representing Churchill, who clasps a stein and drools onto his torn clergyman’s collar and ruffled sleeves. He leans unsteadily on a large club, representing The North Briton Hogarth, Self Portrait with dog Trump (Churchill’s newspaper), inscribed with the words “lye” etching and engraving, 1749 and “fallacy.” The dog in the foreground represents the artBritish Museum, London ist himself and urinates on Churchill’s writings, while the small picture at lower right shows a bear-baiting scene. The composition utilizes meticulous linear and diagonal cross-hatching techniques to build form, develop texture, and create space through a monochromatic color scheme. The Bruiser culminated a year-long battle of wits that began over politics and ended in personal invective. It showcased both Hogarth’s cutting intellect and his skill in satirical illustration. Confident that society understood his own moral perspective, Hogarth the dog bested Churchill the bear. Kelly Wold 28 29 30 William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764) The Polling, Plate III: Four Prints of an Election, 1758 Etching and engraving on beige paper 55.63 x 43.69 cm (17.2 x 21.9 in.) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1905 Recognized as the father of caricature, William Hogarth is known for his visual satire of morality as well as politics in eighteenth-century English society. This print, third in a series of four, based on oil paintings of 1754 (Sir John Soane’s Museum, London), satirizes the madness and corruption of the British electoral system, in particular the contest in 1754 between the Whig and Tory parties over the seats in the county of Oxfordshire, in southeast England. The passage of unpopular laws had created an outcry from the general public, but wealthy landowners continued to control the vote through bribes and swindles as they contended for positions of political authority. In The Polling the two rival candidates are seated on chairs at the rear of the booth, while their supporters include every available man enticed to the voting booth. Men handicapped by various physical and mental ailments, and even one apparently on the verge of death, are brought forward to vote for one party or the other. Behind the partition, lawyers argue whether a man may swear in his vote with his hook, rather than his hand as the law required. Opposite the polling booth, an elaborate allegorical coach, whose drivers are distracted with their card game, careens out of control, despite the efforts of lady Britannia, the passenger who tries to recall them to their duty. In the election, the initial tally of votes favored the Tories, but the Whigs contested the results and took the seat, and corruption continued to plague the political system. Hogarth used his political satire as a moralizing tool, drawing attention to political corruption as a choice between good and evil rather than between policies or parties. He may, in fact, have been making a broader point about the illusory nature of Parliamentary elections, in particular, and choice within society, more broadly. Society had become discontented with the appearance of choice, without the reality of true selection or change. Amanda Mobley Guenther James Gillray (English, 1756–1815) Shakespeare Sacrificed: or the Offering to Avarice, 1789 Etching and and aquatint on cream paper 50.5 × 38.5 cm (20 ¼ × 15 ¼ in) Published by Hannah Humphrey (British, ca. 1745-1818) UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H-1642.1 John Boydell (1720–1804), shown in profile here, was a successful English engraver and print dealer who is credited with elevating English engraving and publishing to a higher standard, but his reputation was challenged during the latter part of his career when he attempted an illustrated edition of Shakespeare’s plays. Boydell’s ambitious venture involved commissioning paintings of scenes from Shakespeare and appointing engravers to make the plates for the illustrations in a lavish printed edition. The paintings were put on display in Boydell’s “Shakespeare Gallery” in May 1789 as advertisement for the upcoming volumes, which were sold by subscription and appeared 1791–1805. Printmaker James Gillray, known today for his satirical prints, applied to participate in the project as an engraver but was rebuffed by Boydell. In revenge, Gillray turned to his skills as a caricaturist to satirize Boydell and his edition in the etching titled Shakespeare Sacrificed: or the Offering to Avarice. Gillray’s print depicts Boydell burning a pile of Shakespeare’s plays, and emerging from the smoke-cloud are images of Shakespearean characters (for example, Bottom with the head of a donkey from A Midsummer Night’s Dream), many copied from the paintings in Boydell’s Gallery. The allusions to the paintings suggest that Gillray’s resentment also extended to the artists who participated in the project, including Benjamin West, George Romney, and Henry Fuseli (the Englishman born in Switzerland, 1741-1825) who made numerous paintings with subjects from the London theater and Shakespearen productions. Gillray’s disdain for Boydell’s project is further evidenced by his images of inclusion and exclusion from the circle of the Royal Academy, whose Greek motto—ΟΥΔΕΙΣ ΑΜΟΥΣΟΣ ΕΙΣΙΤΩ (“Let no stranger to the Muses enter”)—is inscribed in the foreground. Just inside the circle a boy holds a painter’s palette and brush at right, while at left his arm bars the entrance of another boy who holds an engraver’s burin in one hand and a print plate in the other. Also within the circle is a thick book titled “Life of SUBSCRIBERS to the SACRIFICE” on top of a portfolio of “MODERN MASTERS,” while a desolate portfolio that reads “ANCIENT MASTERS,” on top of which can be seen a snail, is excluded from the circle. Boydell’s project ultimately failed and he died bankrupt—because of the economic downturn caused by war with France, not because of Gillray’s satire. Still, the print raises questions concerning Boydell’s alleged monetary motives for the scholarly illustrated edition of Shakespeare. Eder Jaramillo 32 William Merritt Chase (American, 1849–1916) The Court Jester, 1880 Etching on cream wove paper 14.7 × 8.9 cm (5 7/8 × 3 ½ in) UNL–University Collection U-423.8 William Merritt Chase is often considered a representative of American artists and the American style at the end of the 19th century. As a painter, Chase produced a large collection of works in portraiture and landscapes. The Shinnecock Summer Art School on Long Island and in New York the Chase School (now Parsons The New School for Design) gave Chase a teaching career that brought his American style to students eager to learn it. In much of his work, Chase exaggerated color and light to attract attention and highlight the subjects. In his oil painting Keying Up, The Court Jester of 1875 (Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia), made while studying at Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts, Chase uses vibrant reds, bright lights, and shimmering reflections to highlight the character of a dwarf jester. The painting was meant as an exhibition piece to show his wit and skill, and it was displayed in the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia where it was well received and won a medal. Chase produced this etching of the painting, in reverse, which was sold in multiple impressions and published in The American Art Review magazine, all of which served to promote interest in the original painting. The Court Jester was one of only a handful of etchings that Chase made during his lifetime. Chase’s print plays off the stock character of the jester, traditionally linked to folly and ignorance, and the dwarf, linked to earlier representations of less-than-human or humorous roles in society at a time when dwarfs were often employed as court jesters in Europe. Chase’s dwarf-jester stands under a cabinet and pours himself a drink, “keying up”—fortifying himself with alcohol in preparation for his antic performance. There is an unexpected dark sadness to the scene, as the man seems too old for youthful follies and dependent on drink for his enforced gaiety. He wears full jester’s costume of long tunic with bells, leggings, fool’s cap and slippers, and holds the bauble staff tucked under his arm. Felicia Nehl 34 William Merritt Chase, Keying Up, The Court Jester oil on canvas, 1875 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia Stephen Alonzo Schoff (American, 1818–1904) The Sea Serpent, 1880 Etching on laid paper 12.3 × 22.5 cm (4 7/8 × 8 7/8 in) UNL–Gift of anonymous donor, U-423.9 Stephen Alonzo Schoff was a commercial engraver and etcher. Born in Vermont, he trained in Boston and later in Paris. He began to engrave works of American artists and was admitted to membership in the National Academy of Design in 1844. Schoff also worked for numerous bank note companies, including the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the 1870s. He became well known for his portrait prints of famous nineteenth-century authors, including Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Hawthorne, and Whitman. In 1880, Schoff was commissioned by The American Art Review, a significant but short-lived magazine, to create a print of Elihu Vedder’s oil painting of 1864, Lair of the Sea Serpent. Vedder was known for his paintings of fantastic subjects against sublime backgrounds, and Lair of the Sea Serpent was the most famous of his oeuvre. Interpretations of Vedder’s original painting evoke its wartime symbolism and place the painting within a canon of 19th-century serpentine imagery. Roots of such imagery include Benjamin Franklin’s cartoon of 1754, “Join or Die,” followed by the “Don’t Tread on Me” campaign of 1775, culminating in “Scott’s Great Snake”—the 1861 Civil War “Anaconda Plan” to encircle the South like a giant constrictor. Additionally, reports of sea serpent sightings off the New England coast were numerous during the mid 19th century. Vedder’s image was undoubtedly informed by the combination of violence and turmoil of the Civil War along with the influx of such reports, suggesting an atmosphere of fear, curiosity, and unrest that carried through 1877 to the post-war period of the Reconstruction era. Vedder was highly critical of Schoff’s first proofs and required several reworkings throughout the process. For Vedder, it was less important that the print be an exact copy of his painting than a high quality, stand-alone work in its own right. Schoff’s engraving is a faithful monochromatic rendition of Vedder’s vibrant, almost pastel composition of azure sea and sky, white clouds and pale sand, and ominous silver serpent. Schoff’s serpent is perhaps even more ominous, since the black and white colors of the print stress less the setting’s natural beauty than the thick, dark body of the serpent and its eye, at the very center of the print. Paula Rotschafer Elihu Vedder, Lair of the Sea Serpent oil on canvas, 1864 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 37 Alphonse Mucha (Czech, 1860–1939) Monaco Monte-Carlo, 1897 106.6 × 70.6 cm (42 × 27 13/16 in) 7-color lithograph on beige paper UNL–Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust, H–1406 The Czech artist Alphonse Mucha was born in 1860, received training at the Munich Academy of Art, and moved to Paris in 1887. He was a photographer, designer and painter, but is best known for his color lithograph posters of beautiful women in decorative surroundings. Most of his posters were created between 1894 and 1900. His initial success came with one of his many commissioned posters of Sarah Bernhardt, the famous stage actress. Many of Mucha’s numerous colorful lithograph posters were conceived as advertisements. The poster Monaco Monte-Carlo appeared in 1897, just three years after Mucha’s first success. Monaco Monte-Carlo offers the promise of vacation on the coast of the French Riviera at Monte Carlo in the tiny principality of Monaco. As with most advertisements, it tries to enrapture its audience and “sell” something—in this case Monte Carlo. Mucha sells the concept by using a young female beauty, stunning fashion, and elegant decorative elements to persuade the consumer. Monte Carlo’s well-known casino towers can be seen along the shoreline in the background, but the real subject of the poster is the young woman in the foreground, wearing a flowing dress that accentuates her body, surrounded by wreaths of ornamental plants and flowers. With the lush and elaborate detail shown in the foreground of the print, Monte Carlo itself appears more reference than central concept. Monte Carlo, however, is best known for its casino and gambling, and the wreaths that surround the magnificent female figure resemble and suggest a roulette wheel and the possibility of good fortune. The women in all Mucha’s posters are young and beautiful dressed in luxurious circumstances, and in Monaco Monte-Carlo there awaits a stunning young goddess on a sandy beach surrounded by tall mountains and an endless ocean. The idea of Monte Carlo is slightly lost, but the longing of being this woman, or being with her within Monte Carlo, remains. Elizabeth Slonecker 38 Suggested Reading Harris, Elizabeth M. An Engraver’s Potpourri: Life and Times of a 19th-Century Bank-Note Engraver. Washington: Hall of Print, 1979. Jarret, Derek. England in the Age of Hogarth. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Lawson, James. Van Dyck: Paintings and Drawings. New York: Prestel, 1999. McCreery, Cindy. The Satirical Gaze: Prints of Women in Late Eighteenth-Century England. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Merback, Mitchell B. “Torture and Teaching: The Reception of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles in the Reformation Era.” Art Journal 57 (1998): 14-23. Moffitt, John F. “The Historical Significance of Elihu Vedder’s ‘The Lair of the Sea Serpent.’” Notes in the History of Art 26 2007): 39-46. Mucha, Jiri. The Graphic Work of Alphonse Mucha. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1973. Noble, Bonnie, Lucas Cranach the Elder: Art and Devotion of the German Reformation. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2009. Otto, Beatrice K. Fools are Everywhere: The Court Jester around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. Paulson, Ronald. Hogarth: His Life, Art, and Times. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971. ———. Hogarth, vol. 1: The “Modern Moral Subject”: 1697-1732. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1991. Ritchie, Fiona, and Peter Sabor. Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Rümelin, Christian. “The Images of Death.” In Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515-1532, edited by Christian Müller and Stephan Kemperdick, 471-472. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2006. Tatham, David. “Elihu Vedder’s ‘Lair of the Sea Serpent.’” American Art Journal 17 (1985): 33-47. Tietze-Conrat, Erika. Dwarfs and Jesters in Art, translated by Elizabeth Osborn. New York: Phaidon, 1957. Turner, Simon, and Carl Depauw. Anthony Van Dyck (The New Hollstein: Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings, and Woodcuts 1450-1700), 9 vols. Rotterdam: Sound & Vision, 2002. Uglow, Jennifer S. Hogarth: A Life and a World. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1997. Unger, Richard W. Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007. Wagner, Hans-Peter. “Eroticism in Graphic Art: The Case of William Hogarth.” Studies in Eighteenth Century Culture 21 (1992): 53-7. Wilton-Ely, John. The Mind and Art of Giovanni Battista Piranesi. London: Thames and Hudson, 1978. ———. Piranesi: As Architect and Designer. New York: Pierpont Morgan Library, 1993. General Books on Prints and Printmaking Eisenstein, Elizabeth. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Griffiths, Antony. Prints and Printmaking: An Introduction to the History and Techniques. London: British Museum Press, 1996. Hind, Arthur M. History of Engraving and Etching from the Fifteenth Century to the Year 1914. New York: Dover Publications, 1963. ———. An Introduction to a History of Woodcut. New York: Dover Publications, 1963. Hults, Linda. The Print in the Western World: An Introductory History. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996. Ivins, William M., Jr. How Prints Look: Photographs with a Commentary. Boston: Beacon Press, 1987. ———. Prints and Visual Communication. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. Landau, David and Peter Parshall. The Renaissance Print, 1470– 1550. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Mayor, A. Hyatt. Prints and People: A Social History of Printed Pictures. Princeton University Press, 1980. Melot, Michel. Prints: History of an Art. New York: Rizzoli, 1981. Books on Individual Artists and Artworks in this Catalog Bätschmann, Oskar, and Pascal Griener. Hans Holbein. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. Bate, Jonathan. “Shakespearean Allusion in English Caricature in the Age of Gillray.” In Journal of the Warburg & Courtauld Institutes 49 (1986): 196-210. http://www.jstor.org/stable/751296 Bindman, David. “Chairing the Member: Hogarth’s Election Paintings and their Influence.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 153 (2001): 3-7. ———. Hogarth and His Times: Serious Comedy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Brown, Christopher. Van Dyck. London: Phaidon, 1982. Buck, Stephanie. “The Images of Death and the Triumph of Life.” In Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 15151532, edited by Christian Müller, 117-123. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2006. Davis, Natalie Zemon. “Holbein’s Pictures of Death and the Reformation at Lyons.” Studies in the Renaissance 3 (1956): 97130. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2857103 Füssel, Stephan. The Bible in Pictures: Illustrations from the Workshop of Lucas Cranach. Cologne: Taschen, 2009. Gallati, Barbara Dayer. William Merritt Chase. New York: National Museum of American Art, 1995. Godfrey, Richard. James Gillray: The Art of Caricature. London: Tate Publishing, 2001. Hallett, Mark. The Spectacle of Difference: Graphic Satire in the Age of Hogarth. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. Hallett, Mark, and Christine Riding. Hogarth. London: Tate, 2006. Opposite: Detail of William Hogarth, A Midnight Modern Conversation (pages 26–27). 41 Opposite: Detail of William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 2 (pages 20–21) Front cover: William Hogarth, A Harlot’s Progress, Plate 2 Back cover: Alphonse Mucha, Monaco Monte-Carlo Copyright © 2014 Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Edited by Alison G. Stewart, Professor of Art History, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Paul Royster, Coordinator of Scholarly Communication, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries Photography coordinated by Genevieve Ellerbee, Associate Registrar, Sheldon Museum of Art Exhibition coordinated by Ashley Hussman, Curatorial Associate, Sheldon Museum of Art isbn isbn 978-1-60962-046-2 paperback 978-1-60962-047-9 e-book Set in Goudy Oldstyle types. Design and composition by Paul Royster. Zea Books are published by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. Electronic (pdf) edition available online at http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/ Print edition can be ordered from http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/unllib 43 The University of Nebraska–Lincoln does not discriminate based on gender, age, disability, race, color, religion, marital status, veteran’s status, national or ethnic origin, or sexual orientation.