Category Archives: art history

Private Press Movement

The Private Press Movement rose to strength in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. William Morris’s Kelmscott Press (founded in 1890) can be seen to be the flagship for the movement, and Morris himself as the champion. Essentially the … Continue reading

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Mr Franklin’s printing press

At age 12, Ben Franklin was apprenticed to learn the printing trade from his brother James. Three years later, James founded The New-England Courant, the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies. When a letter written by Ben Franklin was … Continue reading

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Utagawa – Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770-1900

From the Brooklyn Museum web site: Utagawa: Masters of the Japanese Print, 1770–1900 presents more than seventy prints from the renowned Van Vleck collection of Japanese woodblock prints at the Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin–Madison and approximately twenty … Continue reading

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Wood-Block Printing

Wood-Block Printing, by F. Morley Fletcher, Illustrated by A. W. Seaby A Description of the Craft of Woodcutting and Colour Printing Based on the Japanese Practice A free e-book, available for download from Project Gutenberg. Traditional Japanese woodblock prints were … Continue reading

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M.C. Escher at work

So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars; amen. — M.C. Escher You can watch … Continue reading

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The Death of William Blake

William Blake (28 November 1757–12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. … Continue reading

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Rembrandt’s Etching Technique: An Example

Rembrandt’s Etching Technique: An Example — by Peter Morse This book is available for free download from Project Gutenburg. From the document: A Rembrandt print in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution has been made the subject of a study … Continue reading

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Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528): prints

A supremely gifted and versatile German artist of the Renaissance period, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was born in the Franconian city of Nuremberg, one of the strongest artistic and commercial centers in Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He was … Continue reading

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