this page tell the stories behind the designs using vintage art
(april 16th, 2018)
Louis Renard’s “Fanciful Fish”
I came across this work when I was looking for vintage art to
digitize for my embroidery machine … what little I read about
him absolutely fascinated me …
Louis Renard (c1678-1746) was a publisher in Holland who
also sold medicines, brokered English bonds and if that wasn’t
enough he was also a spy for the British Crown under Queen Anne,
George I and George II and he didn’t try to hide that fact either …
he openly used it to his advantage.
Samuel Fallours was the artist commissioned by the Dutch East
India Company to document the marine life in the east indies
waters … various people brought his art to Louis Renard to publish
between 1708 and 1715. Well this is where the story gets
interesting … Renard felt compelled to embellish them and
added to some of the fish: hearts, moons, stars, suns and even
a potted plant and a human face … and embellished the colors as well …
Renard published a 2 volume collection of Fallours’ art …
a total of 460 engraved illustrations, printed
from a hundred copper plates, 415 fish, 41 crustaceans,
two stick-insects, one Indian
dugong and one mermaid.
Well this story only gets stranger … Fallours mentions other
eyebrow-raising facts. In the description of the Sambia or
frog fishes he claims: ‘I kept the animal for
three days in my house: it followed me everywhere, just like a
small dog.’ And of the mermaid mentioned before
is written that she was caught on the isle of Boeroe or Buru near
Ambon. In Fallours’ house the mermaid had lived for four days,
and seven hours in a container of water. With regular intervals
she squeaked like a mouse. Finally she died of starvation because
she refused to eat ... you gotta love it
Well the icing on the cake was after Renard published the 2 volume collection
of all this information the public reaction was severely critical
… but I am glad he did it because it makes me wonder if he
had not done all this would we even be aware of this
interesting collection.
There is loads of information online about all this and each site
seems to offer some interesting tidbit as well …
These designs mean so much to me. To digitize art that is over
300 years old is so rewarding …
Tullio Crali (December 1910 in Milan) was an Italian artist associated with Futurism. A self-taught painter, he was a late adherent to the movement, not joining until 1929. He is noted for realistic paintings that combine "speed, aerial mechanization and the mechanics of aerial warfare", though in a long career he painted in other styles as well. At the age of fifteen, while a student at the local technical institute, Crali discovered Futurism. He took up painting, influenced by Giacomo Balla and Enrico Prampolini.
In 1928 Crali flew for the first time. His enthusiasm for flying and his experience as a pilot influenced his art. In 1929 reality traditionally constituted by a terrestrial perspective" and that "Painting from this new reality requires a profound contempt for detail and a need to synthesize and transfigure everything.”
Despite his relative youth, Crali played a significant part in aeropittura. His earliest aeropitture represent military planes, Aerial Squadron and Aerial Duel (both 1929). In the 1930s, his paintings became realistic, intending to communicate the experience of flight to the viewer. His best-known work, Nose Dive on the City (1939), shows an aerial dive from the pilot's point of view, the buildings below drawn in dizzying perspective.
Crali exhibited in Trieste and Padua. In 1932 Marinetti invited him to exhibit in Paris in the first aeropittura exhibition there. He participated in the Rome Quadrennial in 1935, 1939 and 1943 and the Venice Biennale of 1940. At that time Crali was researching signs and scenery, leading in 1933 to his participation in the film exhibition Futuristi Scenotecnica in Rome. In 1936 he exhibited with Dottori and Prampolini in the International Exhibition of Sports Art at the Berlin Olympics.
Crali lived in Turin after the war, where he continued to promote Futurist events. Despite the ending of the Futurist movement with the death of Marinetti in 1944 and its Fascist reputation, Crali remained attached to its ideals and aesthetic.
Thomas Nast
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Photograph of Nast by Napoleon Sarony, taken in Union Square, New York City
BornSeptember 27, 1840
Died December 7, 1902 (aged 62)
Thomas Nast (/næst/; German: ; September 27, 1840 – December 7, 1902) was a German-born American caricaturist and cartoonist considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was the scourge of the Democratic Representative "Boss" Tweed and the Tammany Hall Democratic party political machine. Among his notable works were the creation of the modern version of Santa Claus (based on the traditional German figures of Sankt Nikolaus and Weihnachtsmann) and the political symbol of the elephant for the Republican Party (GOP). Contrary to popular belief, Nast did not create Uncle Sam (the male personification of the American people), Columbia (the female personification of American values), or the Democratic donkey, though he did popularize these symbols through his artwork. Nast was associated with the magazine Harper's Weekly from 1859 to 1860 and from 1862 until 1886.
Albert Boime argues that:
As a political cartoonist, Thomas Nast wielded more influence than any other artist of the 19th century. He not only enthralled a vast audience with boldness and wit, but swayed it time and again to his personal position on the strength of his visual imagination. Both Lincoln and Grant acknowledged his effectiveness in their behalf, and as a crusading civil reformer he helped destroy the corrupt Tweed Ring that swindled New York City of millions of dollars. Indeed, his impact on American public life was formidable enough to profoundly affect the outcome of every presidential election during the period 1864 to 1884.
Henry Constantine Richter (7 June 1821 – 16 March 1902) was an English zoological illustrator who produced a very large number of skillful coloured lithographs of birds and mammals, mainly for the scientific books of the renowned English 19th century ornithologist John Gould.
Many of the original drawings used by Richter as the basis for his coloured lithographs were by Gould's wife, Elizabeth Coxen, produced before her death in 1841.
Richter's reputation was overshadowed by that of his much-celebrated employer. Since it was not customary to acknowledge illustrators alongside authors in the titles of publications, his name was forgotten. But in 1978 his great ability and the extent of his contribution to Gould's work came to light, in the work of the researcher Christine E Jackson
Edward Lear, (born May 12, 1812, Highgate, near London, England—died January 29, 1888, San Remo, Italy), English landscape painter who is more widely known as the writer of an original kind of nonsense verse and as the popularizer of the limerick. His true genius is apparent in his nonsense poems, which portray a world of fantastic creatures in nonsense words, often suggesting a deep underlying sense of melancholy. Their quality is matched, especially in the limericks, by that of his engaging pen-and-ink drawings
The youngest of 21 children, Lear was brought up by his eldest sister, Ann, and from age 15 earned his living by drawing. He subsequently worked for the British Museum, made drawings of birds for the ornithologist John Gould, and, during 1832–37, made illustrations of the earl of Derby’s private menagerie at Knowsley, Lancashire. Lear had a natural affinity for children, and it was for the earl’s grandchildren that he produced A Book of Nonsense (1846, enlarged 1861). In 1835 he decided to become a landscape painter.
Lear suffered all his life from epilepsy and melancholia. After 1837 he lived mainly abroad. Though naturally timid, he was a constant and intrepid traveler, exploring Italy, Greece, Albania, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, and, later, India and Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]. An indefatigable worker, he produced innumerable pen and watercolour sketches of great topographical accuracy. He worked these up into the carefully finished watercolours and large oil paintings that were his financial mainstay.
Lear published three volumes of bird and animal drawings, seven illustrated travel books (notably Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, &c., 1851), and four books of nonsense--A Book of Nonsense mentioned earlier, Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1871), More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc. (1872), and Laughable Lyrics (1877). A posthumous collection, Queery Leary Nonsense (1911), was edited by Constance Braham Strachey.
John Gould (14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist and bird artist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates that he produced with the assistance of his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists including Edward Lear, Henry Constantine Richter, Joseph Wolf and William Matthew Hart. He has been considered the father of bird study in Australia and the Gould League in Australia is named after him. His identification of the birds now nicknamed "Darwin's finches" played a role in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. Gould's work is referenced in Charles Darwin's book, On the Origin of Species.
Gould's position brought him into contact with the country's leading naturalists. This meant that he was often the first to see new collections of birds given to the Zoological Society of London. In 1830 a collection of birds arrived from the Himalayas, many not previously described. Gould published these birds in A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains (1830–1832). The text was by Nicholas Aylward Vigors and the illustrations were lithographed by Gould's wife Elizabeth, daughter of Nicholas Coxen, of Kent. Most of Gould's work were rough sketches on paper from which other artists created the lithographic plates.
This work was followed by four more in the next seven years, including Birds of Europe in five volumes. It was completed in 1837; Gould wrote the text, and his clerk, Edwin Prince, did the editing. Some of the illustrations were made by Edward Lear as part of his Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae in 1832. Lear, however, was in financial difficulty, and he sold the entire set of lithographs to Gould. The books were published in a very large size, imperial folio, with magnificent coloured plates.
Eventually 41 of these volumes were published, with about 3000 plates. They appeared in parts at £3 3s. a number, subscribed for in advance, and in spite of the heavy expense of preparing the plates, Gould succeeded in making his ventures pay, realising a fortune. This was a busy period for Gould who also published Icones Avium in two parts containing 18 leaves of bird studies on 54 cm plates as a supplement to his previous works.[7] No further monographs were published as in 1838 he and his wife moved to Australia to work on the Birds of Australia. Shortly after their return to England, his wife died in 1841
In 1838 the Goulds sailed to Australia, intending to study the birds of that country and be the first to produce a major work on the subject. They took with them the collector John Gilbert. They arrived in Tasmania in September, making the acquaintance of the governor Sir John Franklin and his wife. Gould and Gilbert collected on the island. In February 1839 Gould sailed to Sydney, leaving his pregnant wife with the Franklins. He travelled to his brother-in-law's station at Yarrundi,[10] spending his time searching for bowerbirds in the Liverpool Range.
In April he returned to Tasmania for the birth of his son. In May he sailed to Adelaide to meet Charles Sturt, who was preparing to lead an expedition to the Murray River. Gould collected in the Mount Lofty range, the Murray Scrubs and Kangaroo Island, returning again to Hobart in July. He then travelled with his wife to Yarrundi. They returned home to England in May 1840.
The result of the trip was The Birds of Australia (1840–1848). It included a total of 600 plates in seven volumes; 328 of the species described were new to science and named by Gould. He also published A Monograph of the Macropodidae, or Family of Kangaroos (1841–1842) and the three volume work The Mammals of Australia (1849–1861).
Elizabeth died in 1841 after the birth of their eighth child, Sarah, and Gould's books subsequently used illustrations by a number of artists, including Henry Constantine Richter, William Matthew Hart and Joseph Wolf.
Beardsley was born in Brighton, England, on 21 August 1872, and christened on 24 Oct 1872. His father, Vincent Paul Beardsley (1839–1909), was the son of a tradesman; Vincent had no trade himself, however, and instead relied on a private income from an inheritance that he received from his maternal grandfather when he was twenty-one years of age.
In 1892, Beardsley travelled to Paris, where he discovered the poster art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the Parisian fashion for Japanese prints, both of which would be major influences on his own style
Beardsley was the most controversial artist of the Art Nouveau era, renowned for his dark and perverse images and grotesque erotica, which were the main themes of his later work.
Beardsley was a public as well as private eccentric. He said, "I have one aim—the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing."
Wilde said he had "a face like a silver hatchet, and grass green hair." Beardsley was meticulous about his attire: dove-grey suits, hats, ties; yellow gloves. He would appear at his publisher's in a morning coat and patent leather pumps.
Beardsley converted to Roman Catholicism in March 1897, and would subsequently beg his publisher, Leonard Smithers, to “destroy all copies of Lysistrata and bad drawings... by all that is holy all obscene drawings." Smithers ignored Beardsley’s wishes, and actually continued to sell reproductions as well as forgeries of Beardsley's work.
Helen Dryden (1887)-1981) was an American artist and successful industrial designer in the 20s and 30s … she was reported to be the highest paid woman artist in the united states though she lived in complete poverty in her later years
As a child she showed unusual artistic ability and would create paper fashion designs for childrens dolls … she eventually sold these to a newspaper for use in their fashion section which led her to position as an illustrator for 2 of the top Philadelphia newspapers in their fashion sections
She was basically self-trained … she did study landscape painting for 4 years under a famous artist and one summer school session at the Pennsylvania academy of fine arts … she finally decided she did not want to pursue that type of art and went
nto fashion
After moving to nyc in 1909 she pursued work as an illustrator for fashion magazines … vogue initially turned her down along with very harsh criticism of her work … later on conde nast assumed management of vogue and they loved her work … she stayed with them for 13 years producing their covers
She was also famous for designing the interior of the 1936 studebaker … they declared her the most important 20th century industrial designer
She was also successful as a costume designer along with industrial designs … producing a number of designs for tableware, lamps on behalf of revere corp … she was definitely in her heyday when the great depression hit and she never fully recovered from losing everything financially and she herself ended up in severe depression … she finished her days on welfare in a cheap hotel room
I am crazy about her covers … I found her trying to re-establish my stash of vintage covers along with another artist … I keep saying I want to cut back on the digitizing and start producing projects with my designs … but I keep finding these wonderful artists that I am so attracted to … they have my total admiration …
Some day if I live that long and my eyes can no longer digitize … I have decided I want to do abstract paintings … I really like them and its like being a kid doing them … you are free to create whatever you like … if someone says something negative you can just say well its abstract art
The Black Cat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Black Cat (1895–1922) was an American literary magazine published in Boston, Massachusetts. It specialized in short stories of an "unusual" nature.
The magazine's first editor was Herman Umbstaetter (1851–1913). It is best known for publishing the story "A Thousand Deaths" by Jack London in the May 1899 issue. Umbstaetter's magazine also carried material by Rupert Hughes, Susan Glaspell, Ellis Parker Butler, Alice Hegan Rice, Holman Day, Rex Stout, O. Henry, Charles Edward Barns, and Octavus Roy Cohen.
Although most of its fiction was nonfantastic, The Black Cat occasionally published science fiction stories by authors such as Frank L. Pollack, Don Mark Lemon and Harry Stephen Keeler.
It also printed the horror story "The Mysterious Card" (1896) by Cleveland Moffett.Clark Ashton Smith contributed two adventure stories to The Black Cat.[
One noted writer who appeared in the magazine's later years was Henry Miller.
Jessie Wilcox Smith
A pre-eminent illustrator and student of Howard Pyle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, she was known for her Good Housekeeping magazine covers of which she did several hundred and for other children's story illustrations.
She was educated at the School of Design for Women* and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts* in Philadelphia from 1885 to 1888, and in 1888, had her first illustrations published in St. Nicholas magazine. In 1894, she began study with Howard Pyle, who made illustration seem happy and easy, an attitude she welcomed after the what she perceived as the serious, moody, coldness of the atmosphere at the Pennsylvania Academy. Pyle teamed Smith with Violet Oakley to do colour chromolithographs* for Houghton Mifflin's edition of Longfellow's Evangeline.
A major landmark in her success was illustrating in 1905 A Child's Garden of Verses, and she also illustrated The Little Mother Goose, in 1915. In 1916, she did a series of plates for The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, said to be an exemplary combination of pictures and prose in the what became known as The Golden Age of Illustration* [mid 19th century to World War II in England and America beginning with George Cruikshank and ending with Arthur Rackham'sWind in the Willows].
Smith also illustrated Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and Heidi by Johanna Spyri. From 1918 to 1933, her paintings appeared regularly on the covers of Good Housekeeping magazine.
She shared a studio with Oakley and Elizabeth Shippen Green at 1523 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, and in 1902, they moved to The Red Rose, a remodeled colonial inn on a country estate, and they worked and lived there with several of their parents. This led to them being called The Red Rose Girls.* Later the three women lived together in Chestnut Hill, and when Green married the threesome broke up, and Smith lived and worked the remainder of her life at her home in Coghill, near Philadelphia, dying on May 3, 1935.
Although she never married and had no children of her own, Jessie Willcox Smith is considered one of the best children's book illustrators, and her rendition of Little Miss Muffet is considered “The Mona Lisa of children’s book illustrations.”
In addition to children’s books, she illustrated advertisements for Kodak, Procter and Gamble and Ivory Soap and painted over two hundred magazine covers for Good Housekeeping alone.
Born in Philadelphia, Ms. Smith originally trained in early childhood education and came to illustration in her early twenties after discovering how much she enjoyed drawing. She enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts* (PAFA) and studied under Thomas Eakins, graduating in 1888.
After graduation, her interest in illustration attracted her to a job a year later with The Ladies’ Home Journal advertising department. Nearly five years later, she learned that Howard Pyle was starting a school of illustration at Drexel Institute,* and she was accepted into the inaugural class along with Maxfield Parrish, Violet Oakley and Elizabeth Shippen Green. Her first illustration commission was a result of a recommendation by Pyle for an 1897 edition of Longfellow’s Evangeline, which she and Violet Oakley worked on jointly. In fact, Pyle suggested that they get a studio to undertake work together and they invited their friend, Elizabeth Shippen Green to join with them as a triad team to undertake large commissions.
Interestingly, Howard Pyle’s Drexel Institute class was nearly fifty percent women students, and Ms. Smith was the oldest, having previous studied at PAFA, and worked for five years prior. She was nearly ten years older than most other students, but perhaps it was a reason to make her even more eager to learn.
While at Drexel, she met Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley, and the three women immediately hit it off. They became known as ‘The Red Rose Girls’*, spending fifteen years living and working together from 1901 onwards, at the Red Rose Inn in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Hence their group nickname. The three women became lifelong friends, art collaborators, and colleagues.
Upon graduation from Pyle’s school, Jessie started working for the illustration thirsty magazines and collaborated with Elizabeth Green on calendars while illustrating stories for Scribner’s Magazine. She and Violet Oakley also collaborated at times, but from about 1905 forwards, she was inundated with commissions and celebrity.
Within a few years, Jessie was working for: Century, Collier’s Weekly, Harper’s Bazaar, Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly, McClure’s Magazine, Scribner’s Magazine, Women’s Home Companion, and Good Housekeeping.
From 1918 through 1932, Smith illustrated covers exclusively for Good Housekeeping magazine, and her images influenced American nurseries and family rooms, elementary schools and playgrounds due to her selected subject matter.
Her book credits include: A Child’s Book of Stories, A Children’s Book of Modern Stories, Dickens’ Children, Little Women, A Child's Garden of Verses, At the Back of the North Wind, Boys and Girls of Bookland, Heidi, and The Water-Babies.
Her fame as an illustrator caused many parents to seek her out for portraits of children for which she was also well known. Her sensitiveness to children, their moods and expressions, their body language is all obvious in each image. It remains an extraordinary achievement for one who was never a parent. On the other hand, for a parent to view her works is touching and endearing for it always brings back moments of joy to the viewers. Jessie Willcox Smith has often been compared to Mary Cassatt, the noted American Impressionist*.
Biography from Ackerman's Fine Art, LLC:
Jessee Wilcox Smith was a student of the famous artist and art teacher, Howard Pyle. Born in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, she attended the School of Design for Women (today Moore College of Art and Design). She later enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and studied under Thomas Eakins. She started to work at the Ladies Home Journal in the production department and she remained there for the next five years.
It was then that she went to take classes with Howard Pyle at both Drexel and Brandywine schools. Her art shows that she took what Pyle taught her to heart as she would select a subject, study it thoroughly, and then paint the areas that she was most familiar with so that the subject would come to life in the paintings.
Early in her life, she studied the inner world of the child and she came to understand it thoroughly. She put her knowledge to painting and illustrating children's books. She also continued magazine illustration, notably Good Housekeeping. She did twelve illustrations for The Water Babies.
One thing that makes her work unique is that her illustrations are so good that they continue to sell as paintings. She depicts the child in all forms playing, sleeping, afraid of the dark, sleeping and even eating.
Smith was the second woman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Illustrators, and there have been only seven more women members since she was selected. Her papers can be found at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Joseph Christian Leyendecker (1874-1951)
leyendecker was born in germany and his family immigrated to chicago in 1882 … he and his brother attended the chicago art institute and spent 1 year at the academie julian in paris
he and his sister and brother lived in new rochelle, ny in quite a grand home where their lifestyle was quite decadent 20’s style… although he lived like …. I would compare it to the style of the great gatsby …he was actually quite shy and rarely spoke to anyone other than his sister and brother … his brother did not live a long life due to drug abuse
he had quite of few prominent clients i.e. kellog cereral box covers … he was regarded as one of the top commerical artists much like helen dryden … he also did the recruitement posters for the government during wwII
i think if you asked most people what artist they associated with the saturday evening post they would answer norman rockwell … well leyendecker worked for the post a number of years when rockwell came on board and rockwell idolized him and was strongly influenced by his work … he was also a pallbearer at his funeral
i came across his work while i was researching vintage artists and a lot of his work is really beautiful … what caught my attention the most was his pictures using babies … as charming as some of them are … i find some of them extremely disturbing … with some of them he uses them as political statements or whatever was going on in the country at the time that people were probably disturbed by … and the more i look at those the more they bother me … i wonder why he used babies for these political and social statements .. what is he really trying to get across to people … i feel there is a strong deep meaning to these with the children like its more than what meets the eye … they make me feel very uncomfortable
the one i just finished i found interesting because obviously its political regarding the country’s budget … it made me think well we do not learn from our mistakes do we … here it is some 75+ years later and its still a big issue
anyway … maybe this reaction i am having is just me … but if you go to the link below you can see a lot of his posters …
http://www.allposters.com/-st/Joseph-Christian-Leyendecker-Posters_c26131_p2_.htm
his career pretty much was dying out at the same time that helen dryden’s career was coming to end … which made me think just how difficult that era had to be … that crash of 29 was much worse than what we are going thru now … the general state of mind for people had to have been very depressing … they did not have some of the resources that we have today to help people in time of crisis
Redouté was born July 10, 1759, in Saint-Hubert, in the present-day Belgian Province of Luxembourg. Both his father and grandfather were painters, and his elder brother, Antoine Ferdinand, was an interior decorator and scenery designer.
He would never gain much in the way of formal education, instead leaving home at the age of 13 to earn his living as an itinerant painter, doing interior decoration, portraits and religious commissions. Eventually, in 1782, he made his way to Paris to join his brother in painting scenery for theaters. In Paris, Redouté met the botanists Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle and René Desfontaines, who steered him towards botanical illustration, a rapidly growing discipline.
L'Héritier became his instructor, teaching him to dissect flowers and portray their specific characteristics with precision. L'Heritier also introduced Redouté to members of the court at Versailles, following which Marie Antoinette became his patron. Redouté eventually received the title of Draughtsman and Painter to the Queen's Cabinet.
Cheveau, a Parisian dealer, brought the young artist to the attention of the botanical artist Gerard van Spaendonck at the Jardin du Roi, which would become the Jardin des Plantes of the National Museum of Natural History in 1793, after the Revolution. Van Spaendonck became another of Redouté's teachers, especially influencing his handling of watercolor.
In 1786, Redouté began to work at the National Museum of Natural History cataloguing the collections of flora and fauna and participating in botanical expeditions. In 1787, he left France to study plants at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew near London, returning the following year. In 1792 he was employed by the French Academy of Sciences.
In 1798, Empress Joséphine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, became his patron and, some years later, he became her official artist. In 1809, Redouté taught painting to Princess Adélaïde of Orléans.
After Empress Joséphine's death (1814), Redouté had some difficult years until he was appointed a master of draughtsmanship for the National Museum of Natural History in 1822. In 1824, he gave some drawing classes at the museum. Many of his pupils were aristocrats or royalty. He became a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1825.
Although particularly renowned for his botanical exploration of roses and lilies, he thereafter produced paintings purely for aesthetic value. Redouté died suddenly on June 19 or 20, 1840, and was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery. A Brussels school bears his name: the Institute Redouté-Peiffer in Anderlecht. (from Wikipedia)
J. Howard Miller (1918–2004) was an American graphic artist. He painted posters during World War II in support of the war effort, among them the famous "We Can Do It!" poster, frequently misidentified as Rosie the Riveter.
Miller studied at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1939. He lived in Pittsburgh during the war. His work came to the attention of the Westinghouse Company (later, the Westinghouse War Production Co-Ordinating Committee), and he was hired to create a series of posters. The posters were sponsored by the company's internal War Production Co-Ordinating Committee, one of the hundreds of labor-management committees organized under the supervision of the national War Production Board.
Miller may have based the "We Can Do It!" poster on a United Press International (UPI) picture taken of Geraldine Doyle working at a factory. At the time of the poster's release the name "Rosie" was not associated with the picture; that came after 1982 when the poster was rediscovered in the US National Archives.
these designs are based on the artwork of ernst haeckel from germany ... he was a biologist, naturalist, physician and artist who left a legacy of incredible art ...these plates were published in 1904 and are in public domain ... he has quite a following ... if you google his name in images its quite impressive what comes up ... I have even seen jewelry based on his art ....there is also a company that makes buttons and mens ties using his art ...i had never heard of him until about 2 years ago ... there are even 2 mountains named after him ... one is in nevada and another in new zealand ... there is even an asteroid named after him
Radiolarians are microorganisms in the order Radiolaria. They are most commonly found in the ocean, where they drift with the currents at all depths and all over the world, with some biologists suspecting that there may be freshwater species as well, although this has not been confirmed. From a scientific point of view, radiolarians are especially interesting to study because they evolve very rapidly, creating a sprawling family tree which can be used to establish the history of other organisms alongside the radiolarians.
Several features make these protozoans distinctive. The first is their silicate skeletons, which often form into complex patterns which cause them to resemble delicately blown glass. Numerous researchers have commented on the elegant beauty of radiolarians, and some very fine examples are often on display in the photography collections of people who study these interesting creatures. Historically, radiolarians were a topic of intense interest to scientists as they explored the technology of the microscope.
the fish and the hummingbird collection is his art also
William Curtis (11 January 1746 – 7 July 1799) was an English botanist and entomologist, who was born at Alton, Hampshire.
Curtis began as an apothecary, before turning his attention to botany and other natural history. The publications he prepared effectively reached a wider audience than early works on the subject had intended. At the age of 25 he produced Instructions for collecting and preserving insects; particularly moths and butterflies.
Curtis was demonstrator of plants and Praefectus Horti at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1771 to 1777. He established his own London Botanic Garden at Lambeth in 1779, moving to Brompton in 1789. He published Flora Londinensis (6 volumes, 1777–1798), a pioneering work in that it devoted itself to urban nature. Financial success was not found, but he went on the publish The Botanical Magazine in 1787, a work that would also feature hand coloured plates by artists such as James Sowerby, Sydenham Edwards, and William Kilburn.
Curtis was to gain wealth from the ventures into publishing, short sales on Londinensis were offset by over 3,000 copies of the magazine. Curtis said they had each brought 'pudding or praise'.
The genus Curtisia is named in his honour. His publication was continued as the esteemed botanical publication, Curtis's Botanical Magazine. The noted natural history illustrators, James Sowerby and Sydenham Edwards both found a start with the eminent magazine.
He is commemorated in a stained glass window at St. Mary's Church, Battersea, as many of his samples were collected from the churchyard there.
Basilius Besler
this collection is based on the art from "the work (in besler florilegium" originally published in 1613
bontanist, basilius besler of nuremberg recorded, season by season, every variety of plant in the garden he helped create for konrad, bishop- prince of eichstatt, germany ... hundreds of species were imported from the "new world"
... besler assembled a team of artists and typographers and created this incredible catalog ... the initial printing produced 300 copies of which fewer than ten are known to exist today
Albrecht Dürer German: 21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528 was a painter, printmaker, and theorist of the German Renaissance. Born in Nuremberg, Dürer established his reputation and influence across Europe when he was still in his twenties due to his high-quality woodcut prints. He was in communication with the major Italian artists of his time, including Raphael, Giovanni Bellini and Leonardo da Vinci, and from 1512 he was patronized by emperor Maximilian I. Dürer is commemorated by both the Lutheran and Episcopal Churches.
The Expulsion From Paradise by Albrecht DürerDürer's vast body of work includes engravings, his preferred technique in his later prints, altarpieces, portraits and self-portraits, watercolours and books. The woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), are more Gothic than the rest of his work. His well-known engravings include the Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513), Saint Jerome in his Study(1514) and Melencolia I (1514), which has been the subject of extensive analysis and interpretation. His watercolours also mark him as one of the first European landscape artists, while his ambitious woodcuts revolutionized the potential of that medium.
Dürer's introduction of classical motifs into Northern art, through his knowledge of Italian artists and German humanists, has secured his reputation as one of the most important figures of the Northern Renaissance. This is reinforced by his theoretical treatises, which involve principles of mathematics, perspective, and ideal proportions.
