GREAT REVEAL: ARTIST AS ILLUSTRATOR JASON W. DEAN March 4, 2013
PREFACEINTRODUCTIONS, ET CETERA
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Some background on the concept of Artist as Illustrator.
On Moran, Prang, and our highlighted book.
Book Time!
Questions?
ARTIST AS ILLUSTRATOROR, ARTIST OR ILLUSTRATOR?
WHERE IS THE LINE?
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When does illustration become art?
Should there be a distinction?
Let’s think about an example from our own collection…
IS ILLUSTRATION ART?
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Norman Rockwell
Rosie the Riveter
1943
Oil on canvas
52 x 40 in. (132.1 x 101.6 cm)
Cover, The Saturday Evening Post
May 29, 1943
FREDERIC REMINGTON
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Frederic S. Remington (1861–1909)
A Dash for the Timber, 1889
Oil on canvas
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
The Ambushed
Cover, Harper’s Weekly
June 8, 1889
THOMAS MORAN1837 – 1926
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• Born in England
• Worked in the Hudson River School of
painting.
• Started his career as an illustrator and
engraver.
• Most famous for his works depicting the
American West.
• Joined the Hayden Expedition of 1871
during their time in Yellowstone.
• His paintings (and the prints we have
today) helped to both make Yellowstone
the first National Park, but also helped
to form the idea of the “West” in the
minds of Americans as a magical place.
LOUIS PRANG1824 – 1909
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• One of the two best printers of
chromolithography in America.
• Born in Europe, and learned painting
from his father.
• Emigrated to Boston in 1850, and
founded his first printing business in
1856 to produce lithographs.
• From the Civil War on, he was
considered one of the finest
chromolithographers, producing many
important books, as well as his American Chromos series.
YELLOWSTONEHAYDEN, F. V., THOMAS MORAN, AND WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON. 1876. THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, AND THE MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF PORTIONS OF IDAHO, NEVADA, COLORADO AND UTAH. BOSTON: L. PRANG AND CO.
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• In 1869, the Cook-Folsom-Peterson party were the first to publicize the remarkable natural features of the Yellowstone area.
• Responding to the interest generated by the previous expedition, the US government authorized an expedition by Ferdinand V. Hayden to explore Yellowstone in a systematic, scientific way.
• Moran was interested in Yellowstone, based on previous illustration work he completed for Scribner’s Monthly Magazine. • Based on this previous work, and the lobbying of Jay Cooke, Moran was included as the official illustrator in the expedition, and William Henry Jackson was the photographer.
YELLOWSTONEHAYDEN, F. V., THOMAS MORAN, AND WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON. 1876. THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, AND THE MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF PORTIONS OF IDAHO, NEVADA, COLORADO AND UTAH. BOSTON: L. PRANG AND CO.
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• Printed in an edition of 1,000, each set sold for $60.00
(approx. $1000.00 today).
• These were the first color printed images of Yellowstone
and its surrounding areas.
• Prang commissioned Moran to create 15 watercolors from
his field sketches in Yellowstone, from which Prang would
create 15 chromolithographs.
YELLOWSTONENEWARK DAILY ADVERTISER, MARCH 9, 1877.
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The book is not a book. It is a portfolio, each of those exquisite chromos… It is a genuine triumph of American graphic art.. The two great pictures which adorn
the Capitol at Washington are almost as beautiful, in this comparatively miniature form, as they are in the originals.