The Lady of the Rains (1886), woodcut by Arthur Burgess, issue of The Century Guild Hobby Horse.
Published in 1484, Herbarius of Arnoldus de Villanova, this is the first known printed picture of a Peony.
Reprinted in The Book of the Peony (1917), by Mrs. Edward Harding.
A black ink on rag paper woodcut showing cows grazing and resting under a tree. The artist described this as a “composite scene of a typical Kansas vista.” Noonday Rest was drawn by Herschel C. Logan, who was born April 19, 1901 in Magnolia, Missouri and shortly after his birth the family moved to Winfield, Kansas. He attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts for one year. Logan was a commercial and advertising artist in Salina, Kansas, until his retirement in 1968. He was a member of the Prairie Print Makers. After retirement, Logan moved to Santa Ana, California.
Creator: Herschel C. Logan
Date: 1938
Dirk van Gelder Wild Plants (1925) pen, ink, watercolour (study for a litho of the same name).
delicate first growths
(via botanikopress)
Woodblock prints of the Cornucopia appear throughout several volumes of books published by Cesare Ripa (1560-1622). Ripa was an Italian aesthetician who was knighted after his book Iconologia (translation: “Moral Emblems”) was published. In all, 151 emblematic woodcuts illustrate subjects such as virtue, vice, passion, science, and art. The books were influential to painters throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries.
By: Utagawa Yoshitsuya II, 1873 (Meiji 6). Calico and Tortoise-shell Rabbits, woodblock prints.
The scene: 1870’s Japan, the end of the Edo period, when Japan has resumed diplomatic trade relations with the West, and begins importing exotic plants and animals. Emperor Meiji 6 (inspired by Britain’s theories of free markets without the burden of governmental interference) proclaims: All classes high and low shall unite in vigorously promoting the economy and welfare of the nation.
Of the most exotic imports, the “calico” or “tortoise shell” rabbit brings about an immediate breeding frenzy in the larger cities, particularly Osaka and Tokyo. “All classes, high and low” embrace the business of breeding, buying, trading, and selling rabbits, resulting in a frenetic speculative rabbit trade. The high-stake rabbit trade introduces a new crime wave, as everyone rushes to make millions from the exotic rabbits, and it isn’t long before city governments implement regulations, requiring traders to report monthly activity and pay a one yen tax per rabbit sold to the government. The high-stake hopes of rabbit-breeding-wealth comes abruptly to an end, after a tumultuous two-year (1872-74) bubble.
The Entomologist (1830), George Spratt.
The Entomologist is made from the objects of his own fascination.
Still Life (1927), rotogravure, Henri Fantin-Latour
Maidenhair and Mushrooms, print, by Amber Alexander, Vermont.
Woodcut prints by Bryan Nash Gill.
