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Maurice Sendak (American, 1928 to 2012)
Maurice Sendak was a Caldecott award-winning children’s book author and illustrator. The Brooklyn native illustrated more than 80 books by other authors before writing one himself: in 1963 he turned the children’s book world upside down with his first masterpiece, Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak’s dark, moody illustrations were a shocking contrast to the comparatively light and happy fare typically found in children’s books of the time. [...] Click here to continue reading.
Frank Weston Benson (American, 1862 to 1951)
Frank Weston Benson was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1862. He studied at the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston and the Academie Julian in Paris. Benson was a hunter and often depicted sporting scenes of birds in his artwork. The landscape around his studio on North Haven Island, Maine provided inspiration for his etchings and paintings. Benson taught at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts [...] Click here to continue reading.
Cartouche – Definition
The decorative arts world has many “squishy” and vague vocabulary words, but few are “squishier” and vaguer than cartouche. Originally, the term comes from Egyptology and is used to describe a oval enclosing hieroglyphics and having a horizontal line at one end. (The line denotes royalty.) The oval had significance not unlike that of a closed circle, in that it was believed that an oval around a person’s name provided protection [...] Click here to continue reading.
Sorting Out Sizes of Pages and Prints
Page and Book Sizes You may not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can at least tell its size, but to do that, you have to know a little bit about the printing process, which basically, at least when it comes to paper sizes, has two eras: the modern era and the hand press era. In the hand press era (pre-1820, for [...] Click here to continue reading.
Riviere Book Bindery
Robert Riviere (1808 to 1882), born the son of a drawing master and the brother of artists, apprenticed as a bookseller and binder in London. In 1829, he established himself as a seller and binder in Bath, and in 1840, he removed to London and focused solely on bookbinding. His skill was recognized by both nobility and royalty, receiving commissions from Queen Victoria, exhibiting at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, and binding [...] Click here to continue reading.
Collection of Florence P. and William W. Griffin
Bill and Florence Griffin met at an Atlanta Bird Club meeting in 1945. Bill was a published amateur ornithologist; Florence was interested in all of nature – she knew the names of all the plants as well as the birds.
Both were from Georgia, and soon began to see their state changing before their eyes as the New South swept away the Old. They quickly became [...] Click here to continue reading.
Newell Convers Wyeth (1882 to 1945)
N.C. Wyeth was born Newell Convers Wyeth on October 22, 1882 in Needham, Massachusetts, the oldest of four boys, who spent their young lives outdoors doing farm chores, hunting, fishing, or exploring the countryside. N.C. displayed an early talent for art, encouraged by his mother, and by twelve, he was producing quality watercolors. After drafting courses at the Mechanics Arts School, he went on to study illustration art [...] Click here to continue reading.
John James Audubon (1785 to 1851)
John James Audubon was born in Haiti on April 26, 1785 on a sugar plantation, the son of Lt. Jean Audubon, a French naval officer, and Audubon’s mistress, Jeanne Rabin, a Louisiana chambermaid. After the death of Jeanne Rabin and a slave uprising that convinced Audubon’s father to give up his holdings in the colony, John James Audubon, still a toddler, and his younger sister returned to France [...] Click here to continue reading.
William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody
The year 1883 neatly divides William Cody’s former life as a hunter, scout and guide from his later career as a showman. He was 37 in this year of transition.
The early life of William Frederick Cody (1846 to 1917) was colorful, adventurous and, thanks to Dime novels, exaggerated. He fought for the Union Army in the Civil War at 18. By 21, he earned his lifelong nickname [...] Click here to continue reading.
Frederick Maxfield Parrish (1870 to 1966)
Frederick Maxfield Parrish was born July 25, 1870 in Philadelphia to Stephen Parrish, an American artist famous for his landscapes, illustrations and engravings and his wife Elizabeth Bancroft Parrish. It’s not surprising that, finding himself surrounded by the tools of his father’s trade, that Frederick (he would begin to use Maxfield as his name later in life) would begin to draw to amuse himself. Around 1881, the Parrish [...] Click here to continue reading.
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