19th Century Figurative Prints

Actualités is an amusing satirical illustration by the French illustrator and caricaturist, Cham (alias Count Amédée de Noé, 1818-1879) realized in 1840. Beautiful Hand-colored lith...

Fairy is a lithograph on paper realized by Hégésippe Moreau in 1838. The artwork is in good conditions. Hégésippe Moreau (1810-1838) was a French ly...

Africa is a lithograph realized by Auguste Wahlen in 1844. Hand colored. Good condition. At the center of the artwork is the original title "Africa" and subtitle "Marcia trionfale...

Taira no Munekiyo Captures Tokiwa no Mae is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Hirosada (Japanese, active 1825–75) in 1856. Woodcut print oban format. Signature Ichiyosa...

Kabukie is an original artwork realized in the 1850s by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). Oban from a triptych. An actor in the role of Otokodate Abe no Homei stands ready at night in...

Ancient Ships is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, of the la...

Ancient Ships is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, of the la...

Meeting in Akashi is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada II and Hiroshige II in 1864. Woodcut Print Oban Format. From the series "Omo...

Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), Boy at the source, 1897. Algraph on strong wove paper after a drawing from 1897, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenös...

REDOUTÉ, Pierre-Joseph. Fritillaria Imperialis Paris, Chez L’Auteur, 1802-16 The highest peak of Redoute's artistic and botanical achievement... Among the most important monument...

Yakushae Aizurie is an original artwork realized in 1840-1843 by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (January 1, 1798– April 14, 1861). Woodcut Print. Actor in the r...

Étienne DENISSE (1785-1861) Gombeau Edible and Trompette. Collection of the most remarkable Flowers and Fruits, natural size. Two lithographs enhanced with watercolor. Around 1830. F...

Image dimensions: 18 x 14.9 cm. An Election Day in New Orleans is a wonderful black and white lithograph on paper, realized in 1880 by Henry Théophile Hildibrand...

Port Glasgow is a lithograph on paper realized by the artist W.H. Bartlett . Signed on the plate on the lower left. Titled on the lower center. The state of preservation is good, only a yellowed paper along the edge. William Henry Bartlett...

View of Avellino is a print realized by Tommaso Piroli in the mid-19th century. Etching Hand-watercolored on paper. Signed and titled on the plate. Good conditions with foxing

Uses and Customs - Wurtemberg is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the gover...

Harvesting Young Cedars is a lovely original woodcut print from the work of the famous Japanese master Utagawa Hiroshige from an early 19th century edition. It represents an agricult...

The Cats and Kitty is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper, realized by Paul Gervais (1816-1879). The artwork is from The Series of "Les Trois Règnes de la Nature", and was ...

Que lui conte-t-il? is a hand-watercolored etching on paper realized in 1800 by the French artist Louis-Philibert Debucourt (1755-1832). This is an original illustration (plate n. ...

Yamabayashi Fusahachi is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1861. Woodcut print Oban from a multi-heet, 1861 Actor in the role of Yamabayashi Fusahachi sta...

Lithograph on wove paper. Signed and dated in the stone lower right. This lithograph by Auguste Raffet, one of the most celebrated French lithographers of the 19th century, depicts...

Image dimensions: 23 x 35 cm. Original Title: Von Piraten überfallene Burg am Meer Pirates attack the Castle on the sea is a black and white xylograph on Japon applied on ivory-colored paper, after Arnold Böcklin...

Todos Caeran is a black and White aquatint, drypoint, and etching printed in blue-black ink on laid paper from Caprichos realized after Francisco Goya in 1881-1886. 6th Edition.  T...

The Attention is an original lithograph artwork on ivory-colored paper, realized by the French draftsman Paul Gavarni (after) (alias Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier Gavarni, 1804-1866) i...

after Carl Otto Czeschka, (1878-1960), Austrian A leading member of the Vienna Secession and later the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshop), Carl Otto Czeschka was a vital figu...

Soldier is an lithograph realized by Alphonse de Neuville in 1883. Signed on Plate. Good conditions. The Artwork is depicted through soft strokes.

Wakana (Gengjie) is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Kunisada in 1850s. Woodcut print Oban yokoe format From the series "Sono sugata yukari no utsushie" (Faithful im...

Famous Waterfalls is an original artwork realized in the 1850s by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865). From the series "Meitaki ga". Bust portrait of the actor Sawamura Tanosuke in Onnaga...

Veduta interna delle Sostruzioni dei Portici del tempio d'Ercole in Tivoli (...) is an original etching realized by Luigi Rossini. From the series “Le antichità de’ contorni di Roma (...)” it is an artist's proof with real technical virtuosity, with sharp details, representing the walkways under the portici of Hercules Temple in Tivoli. Signed on plate “Rossini dis. e inc.” lower-left corner, with indication of date and place “Roma, 1824”. In very good conditions. Luigi Rossini (1790 – 1857) Like Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Luigi Rossini was an architect and his etchings have the same tendency to emphasize the massive constructions of the Ancient Rome. He became famous thanks to his etchings representing Roman landscapes and antique monuments...

Kabuki Theatre Scene is a color woodblock print on paper, realized by Utagawa Toyokuni II around 1810 ca. This lovely ukiyo-e print depicts a kneeling actress, more precisely a geis...

Elevation of the Temple of Balbek is a  lithograph realized in 1864. Good conditions. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe, or Histo...

Samurai, " Japanese man in the costume of ceremony", is an original Hand-colored lithograph on paper, realized by an Anonymous artist of the 19th Century....

Morning Awakening by Alfons MUCHA (1860-1939) "Morning Awakening" from the series "The Times of the Day" Variant 1 Original lithograph Signed "Mucha" and dated "99" for 1899, at t...

Goujaterie Allemande et... Résignation Française is an satyrical original lithograph realized by the italian illustrator and engraver Giuseppe Tarantino...

The Samurai Genta Kajiwara - Japanese Woodblock Diptych in Ink on Paper Boldly colored woodblock by Utagawa Yoshitora (Japanese, active c.1840-1880)...

La Phalane is a print realized by Mary Renan in 1895. Lithograph on paper. Stamped on the plate on the lower. Good condition with slight foxing.

The present print is one of several examples produced for Nathaniel Currier by his longtime collaborator Frances F. "Fanny" Palmer. Harry T. Peters wrote of her: "There is no more interesting and appealing character among the group of artists who worked for Currier & Ives than Fanny Palmer. In an age when women, well-bred women in particular, did not generally work for a living Fanny Palmer for years did exacting, full-time work in order to support a large and dependent family ... Her work ... had great charm, homeliness, and a conscientious attention to detail." One of a series of four prints showing American country life in different seasons, the image presents the viewer with a picturesque view of a successful American farm. In the foreground, a gentleman rides a horse with a young boy before a respectable Italianate country house. Two women and a young girl pick flowers in the garden and several farm workers attend to their duties. Beyond are other homes and a city on the coast. 16.63 x 23.75 inches, artwork 28.13 x 33.38 inches, frame Entitled bottom center "American Country Life - May Morning" Signed in the stone, lower left "F.F. Palmer, Del." Signed in the stone, lower right "Lith. by N. Currier" Copyrighted lower center "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1855 by N. Currier in the Clerk's office of the Southern District of N.Y." Inscribed bottom center "New York, Published by N. Currier 152 Nassau Street" Framed to conservation standards using silk-lined 100 percent rag matting and Museum Glass with a gold gilded liner, all housed in a stained wood moulding. Nathaniel Currier was a tall introspective man with a melancholy nature. He could captivate people with his piercing stare or charm them with his sparkling blue eyes. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27th, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble yet spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel’s father unexpectedly passed away leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a life-long career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton. A Bavarian gentleman named Alois Senefelder invented lithography just 30 years prior to young Nat Currier’s apprenticeship. While under the employ of the brothers Pendleton, Nat was taught the art of lithography by the firm’s chief printer, a French national named Dubois, who brought the lithography trade to America. Lithography involves grinding a piece of limestone flat and smooth then drawing in mirror image on the stone with a special grease pencil. After the image is completed, the stone is etched with a solution of aqua fortis leaving the greased areas in slight relief. Water is then used to wet the stone and greased-ink is rolled onto the raised areas. Since grease and water do not mix, the greased-ink is repelled by the moisture on the stone and clings to the original grease pencil lines. The stone is then placed in a press and used as a printing block to impart black on white images to paper. In 1833, now twenty-years old and an accomplished lithographer, Nat Currier left Boston and moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. With the promise of good money, Currier hired on to help Brown prepare lithographic stones of scientific images for the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. When Nat completed the contract work in 1834, he traveled to New York City to work once again for his mentor John Pendleton, who was now operating his own shop located at 137 Broadway. Soon after the reunion, Pendleton expressed an interest in returning to Boston and offered to sell his print shop to Currier. Young Nat did not have the financial resources to buy the shop, but being the resourceful type he found another local printer by the name of Stodart. Together they bought Pendleton’s business. The firm ‘Currier & Stodart’ specialized in "job" printing. They produced many different types of printed items, most notably music manuscripts for local publishers. By 1835, Stodart was frustrated that the business was not making enough money and he ended the partnership, taking his investment with him. With little more than some lithographic stones, and a talent for his trade, twenty-two year old Nat Currier set up shop in a temporary office at 1 Wall Street in New York City. He named his new enterprise ‘N. Currier, Lithographer’ Nathaniel continued as a job printer and duplicated everything from music sheets to architectural plans. He experimented with portraits, disaster scenes and memorial prints, and any thing that he could sell to the public from tables in front of his shop. During 1835 he produced a disaster print Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of the 15th of May 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives. The public had a thirst for newsworthy events, and newspapers of the day did not include pictures. By producing this print, Nat gave the public a new way to “see” the news. The print sold reasonably well, an important fact that was not lost on Currier. Nat met and married Eliza Farnsworth in 1840. He also produced a print that same year titled Awful Conflagration of the Steamboat Lexington in Long Island Sound on Monday Evening, January 18, 1840, by which melancholy occurrence over One Hundred Persons Perished. This print sold out very quickly, and Currier was approached by an enterprising publication who contracted him to print a single sheet addition of their paper, the New York Sun. This single page paper is presumed to be the first illustrated newspaper ever published. The success of the Lexington print launched his career nationally and put him in a position to finally lift his family up. In 1841, Nat and Eliza had their first child, a son they named Edward West Currier. That same year Nat hired his twenty-one year old brother Charles and taught him the lithography trade, he also hired his artistically inclined brother Lorenzo to travel out west and make sketches of the new frontier as material for future prints. Charles worked for the firm on and off over the years, and invented a new type of lithographic crayon which he patented and named the Crayola. Lorenzo continued selling sketches to Nat for the next few years. In 1843, Nat and Eliza had a daughter, Eliza West Currier, but tragedy struck in early 1847 when their young daughter died from a prolonged illness. Nat and Eliza were grief stricken, and Eliza, driven by despair, gave up on life and passed away just four months after her daughter’s death. The subject of Nat Currier’s artwork changed following the death of his wife and daughter, and he produced many memorial prints and sentimental prints during the late 1840s. The memorial prints generally depicted grief stricken families posed by gravestones (the stones were left blank so the purchasers could fill in the names of the dearly departed). The sentimental prints usually depicted idealized portraits of women and children, titled with popular Christian names of the day. Late in 1847, Nat Currier married Lura Ormsbee, a friend of the family. Lura was a self-sufficient woman, and she immediately set out to help Nat raise six-year-old Edward and get their house in order. In 1849, Lura delivered a son, Walter Black Currier, but fate dealt them a blow when young Walter died one year later. While Nat and Lura were grieving the loss of their new son, word came from San Francisco that Nat’s brother Lorenzo had also passed away from a brief illness. Nat sank deeper into his natural quiet melancholy. Friends stopped by to console the couple, and Lura began to set an extra place at their table for these unexpected guests. She continued this tradition throughout their lives. In 1852, Charles introduced a friend, James Merritt Ives, to Nat and suggested he hire him as a bookkeeper. Jim Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Jim was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. He was also a plump and jovial man, presenting the exact opposite image of his new boss. Jim Ives met Charles Currier through Caroline Clark, the object of Jim’s affection. Caroline’s sister Elizabeth was married to Charles, and Caroline was a close friend of the Currier family. Jim eventually proposed marriage to Caroline and solicited an introduction to Nat Currier, through Charles, in hopes of securing a more stable income to support his future wife. Ives quickly set out to improve and modernize his new employer’s bookkeeping methods. He reorganized the firm’s sizable inventory, and used his artistic skills to streamline the firm’s production methods. By 1857, Nathaniel had become so dependent on Jims’ skills and initiative that he offered him a full partnership in the firm and appointed him general manager. The two men chose the name ‘Currier & Ives’ for the new partnership, and became close friends. Currier & Ives produced their prints in a building at 33 Spruce Street where they occupied the third, fourth and fifth floors. The third floor was devoted to the hand operated printing presses that were built by Nat's cousin, Cyrus Currier, at his shop Cyrus Currier & Sons in Newark, NJ. The fourth floor found the artists, lithographers and the stone grinders at work. The fifth floor housed the coloring department, and was one of the earliest production lines in the country. The colorists were generally immigrant girls, mostly German, who came to America with some formal artistic training. Each colorist was responsible for adding a single color to a print. As a colorist finished applying their color, the print was passed down the line to the next colorist to add their color. The colorists worked from a master print displayed above their table, which showed where the proper colors were to be placed. At the end of the table was a touch up artist who checked the prints for quality, touching-in areas that may have been missed as it passed down the line. During the Civil War, demand for prints became so great that coloring stencils were developed to speed up production. Although most Currier & Ives prints were colored in house, some were sent out to contract artists. The rate Currier & Ives paid these artists for coloring work was one dollar per one hundred small folios (a penny a print) and one dollar per one dozen large folios. Currier & Ives also offered uncolored prints to dealers, with instructions (included on the price list) on how to 'prepare the prints for coloring.' In addition, schools could order uncolored prints from the firm’s catalogue to use in their painting classes. Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives attracted a wide circle of friends during their years in business. Some of their more famous acquaintances included Horace Greeley, Phineas T. Barnum, and the outspoken abolitionists Rev. Henry Ward, and John Greenleaf Whittier (the latter being a cousin of Mr. Currier). Nat Currier and Jim Ives described their business as "Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures" and produced many categories of prints. These included Disaster Scenes, Sentimental Images, Sports, Humor, Hunting Scenes, Politics, Religion, City and Rural Scenes, Trains, Ships, Fire Fighters, Famous Race Horses, Historical Portraits, and just about any other topic that satisfied the general public's taste. In all, the firm produced in excess of 7500 different titles, totaling over one million prints produced from 1835 to 1907. Nat Currier retired in 1880, and signed over his share of the firm to his son Edward. Nat died eight years later at his summer home 'Lion’s Gate' in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Jim Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895, when his share of the firm passed to his eldest son, Chauncey. In 1902, faced will failing health from the ravages of Tuberculosis, Edward Currier sold his share of the firm to Chauncey Ives...

Etienne Prosper BERNE BELLECOUR (1838-1910) Woman in Traditional Japanese Suit Looking at the Sea Original etching Printed signature i...

Marco Dente, After by Amand Durand, Italian (1493 - 1527) - La Vierge au Poisson (d'apres Raphael), Year: circa 1878, Medium: Heliogravure, Image Size: 10...

Japanese Woman is a beautiful print realized around 1830 by Utagawa Kunisada. Original colored woodblock print. This wonderful modern artwork represents a portrait of a Japan woman...

Giovanni Mataloni Incandescence, 1897 Original lithograph Printed signature in the plate Printed on paper vélin Size 40 x 29 cm (c. 15.7 x 11.4") INFORMATION : Plate 72 of "Les Maîtres de l'Affiche", Paris, 1897, printed by l'Imprimerie Chaix. Bears the blind stamp of the editor bottom right. This image was created for an Italian advertisement...

Si Sabrá Mas is a black and White aquatint, drypoint, and etching printed in blue-black ink on laid paper from Caprichos realized after Francisco Goya in 1881-1886. 6th Edition.  T...

Chiton is an original etching realized by Francisco Goya and published for the first time in 1799. Etching on paper. The plate belongs the Third Edition of "Los Caprichos" that has...

Richard Dighton (1795-1880) A View from St John's College (1809) Hand coloured engraving 28 x 22 cm Richard Dighton (1795–1880) was a prominent Engl...

Plate from Journal Des Demoiselles is an original artwrok realized in the 19th century by Paul Lacourière Mixed colored lithograph from the Le...

The conversation is an original lithograph artwork on ivory-colored paper, realized by the French draftsman Paul Gavarni (after) (alias Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier Gavarni, 1804-1866...

Kabuki is an original artwork realized in 1862 by Utagawa Kunisada II (1823-1880). Boatman with elegant passenger in snowy landscape. Sign: Kochoro Kuni...

The Skull is an original lithograph on ivory-colored paper, realized by Paul Gervais (1816-1879). The artwork is from The Series of "Les Trois Règnes de la Nature", and was published...

Uses and Customs - Valachie is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the governm...

Baigneuses is an original artwork realized by the French artist Lionel Lecouteux in 1899. Original etching on paper. The original dry hallmark on the lower right corner is present....

Kabuki Actor is an original Woodcut print realized in mid 19 century and attributed to Utagawa Kunisada. Beautiful colored woodblock print, included a cardboard passpartout. Includ...

Physiology of Boxing is an Original Litograph realized by Luc Albert Moreau (1882-1948). The artwork is in good condition included a cream colored cardboard passpartout (49x32 cm). No signature. In the 1920s, French painter Luc-Albert Moreau created a suite of 60 lithographs of the many aspects of boxing, which he considered a noble sport. Physiologie de la Boxe featured paintings and drawings of boxing winners and losers, as well as spectators and managers. Moreau was a painter with the Cubists up to 1912, but soon reverted to a more traditional style. He also produced lithographs of Parisian bars...

Ancient View of Damascus is an original modern artwork realizedin the first half of the 19th Century. Original B/W Lithograph on Ivory Paper. Inscripted on the lower margin: Damas...

Commissioned by The Ault & Wiborg Co., USA. Color Zincograph on wove paper, 1896. Hand-signed in black crayon. Wittrock C (of C) edition. Reference: Wittrock; P28, vol. 2 pg 810. ...

Uses and Customs - Four Sibyls is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the gove...

Interior is a lithograph on paper realized in 1862. The artwork belongs to the Suite Uses and customs of all the peoples of the universe: " History of the government, of the laws, o...

Hasta La Muerte is a black and White aquatint, drypoint, and etching printed in blue-black ink on laid paper from Caprichos realized after Francisco Goya in 1881-1886. 6th Edition. ...

Costume of Civita Castellana is original Hand-colored etching artwork realized by Bartolomeo Pinelli in 1819. Good conditions. Included a white Passepartout: 34 x 49 The artwork r...

The delightful chit-chatis an original lithograph artwork on ivory-colored paper, realized by the French draftsman Paul Gavarni (after) (alias Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier Gavarni, 18...

Arashi Rinosuke II is an original modern artwork realized by Utagawa Hirosada (Japanese, active 1825–75) in 1848. Woodcut Print Chuban format, 1848 From the series "Kokon yujin ki"...