Print Quarterly Publications

Review: Nineteenth-century Reproductive Prints

Author(s): Donato Esposito
Review by: Donato Esposito
Source: Print Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 2 (JUNE 2008), pp. 222-223
Published by: Print Quarterly Publications
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41826718
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 Nineteenth-century Reproductive Prints

Donato Esposito

Robert Verhoogt, Art in Reproduction: Nineteenth-Century John Everett Millais's The Order of Release (1856), Thomas
Prints after Lawrence Alma-Tadema , Jozef Israels and Ary Scheffer , Faed's The Mitherless Bairn (i860) and, at the centre, Frederick
Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 2007, 718 pp., 29 Sandys's portrait of the dour philanthropist, f1 Earl of
col. and 102 b. & w. ills., €59.50. Shaftesbury (1855). Verghoot is entirely correct in his summa-
tion of a painting as (among other definitions) a 'cluster of
Impeccably researched, splendidly written and hand- rights that could be exploited', and in the examples of the
somely produced, this volume is a welcome addition to the three painters presented here this exploitation yielded fruit-
steady scholarly interest in (reproductive) printmaking in the ful and far-reaching results. Sadly the index is wanting,
nineteenth century. Despite its hefty 700 pages it is none the failing to cite any artworks mentioned in the volume.
less immensely readable, owing to a thoughtful and compact Perhaps the most interesting example was that of
design. The broad scope of the volume also reaches far Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who was one of the best-known
beyond the three Dutch-born painters on whom Verhoogt painters in the late nineteenth century and was avidly col-
focusses, who had special relationships with their printed lected on both sides of the Channel and the Adantic. Prints
reproductions, and outlines the theoretical, commercial, contributed to this glowing fame in no small measure. He
practical and artistic frameworks for print production. made his Paris Salon début in 1864 with Pastimes in Ancient
These artists cover virtually the entire nineteenth century, Egypt, 3000 Tears Ago (1863; Harris Museum and Art Gallery,
from Scheffer's first print after his work in 1817, to Alma- Preston), which secured him a gold medal and launched
Tadema in 1907. Their shared background yet different what was to become his specialism: history painting and its
working contexts makes these three painters interesting peculiarly nineteenth-century variant, historical genre. That
examples to pursue. Despite the abundance of research same year Alma-Tadema met the art dealer and print pub-
materials - letters, published reviews, art works, contracts, lisher Ernest Gambart (1814-1902), who transformed his
advertisements, stock lists - the nineteenth century is one of career and placed it on an international platform, as he had
the least investigated eras with regard to print production. previously done with Israels and Scheffer. Prints again were
Most Old Masters have been decendy researched, but this is central to this transformation and the two men would
not so for this period's practitioners. This is largely due to become inextricably linked. In 1870 Alma-Tadema moved
prevailing prejudices against the art of a time that did not to London. He later became a British citizen, was knighted
rush headlong towards a notional avant-garde. Happily, this in 1899 and received the Order of Merit in 1905. These hon-
position has largely evaporated and Verhoogt's contribution ours, and many others, were due in part to the shrewd oper-
is therefore a much-welcomed addition to the growing liter- ating tactics both of Alma-Tadema and his primary dealer,
ature and the more so for his clear and structured approach. which made his work among the most visible in an already
The examples and illustrations in the book likewise commercially heated atmosphere. In March 1871 Gambart's
extend beyond the three Dutchmen. The dust jacket fea- business was transferred to his nephew, Léon Henri Lefèvre,
tures William Macduff's irresistible Shaftesbury, or Lost and who through another later partnership formed Pilgeram &
Found (1862; Museum of London), which was also the dust Lefèvre, continuing the closeness with the painter that his
jacket to Anthony Dyson's superb Pictures to Print: The uncle had initiated and even operating from the same
Mneteenth-Century Engraving Trade (1984), to which in many premises at iA King Street in London.
ways the present volume is the successor. In a book virtually The marketing and sale of Alma-Tadema's oils (and
impossible to fault here, Verhoogt had not known that the watercolours) and the equivalent for the prints made after
painting was acquired by the Museum of London in 1993 them went hand in hand. Paintings were sometimes com-
and lists its location as 'private collection'. This is unfortu- missioned from the painter expressly for reproduction and,
nate, since Verhoogt is up to date on a vast range of topics, in turn, paintings were sent on long tours, often abroad, to
including the sale in 2002 of a rare photograph, the earliest publicize printed reproductions. Print publishers often
known, made in 1825, which interestingly reproduces a deployed ingenious marketing strategies. Prints were often
seventeenth-century print. The dust jacket's image of two made - or at least marketed - to form pendants with one
young boys staring at the window display of the print pub- another, even if the prints reproduced the work of different
lisher Henry Graves & Co at 6 Pall Mall in central London painters. In 1884, for example, Thomas Agnew & Sons
was probably commissioned by the publisher, who soon advertised Alfred Louis Brunet-Debaines's etching of
issued the painting as a print, in 1864. The display contains Charles Edward Johnson's FingaVs Cave, Staffa, published in
a number of recently published prints after contemporary June 1884 as a pendant with Millais's Chill October by the
British painters, including Edwin Landseer's Saved (1859), same etcher, previously published in January 1883.

PRINT QUARTERLY, XXV, 2008, 2

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 CATALOGUE AND BOOK REVIEWS 223

Weekly Courant , Birmingham Daily Post , the Leeds Mercury and

Darlington's Northern Echo carried the news of his death, and
some of these notices were ahead of the London-based
newspapers! Carel Vosmaer felt unqualified admiration for
Rajon's work and described his etching A Roman Emperor: AD
41 published in February 1877 as 'one of the finest and most
complete interpretations of a painting through means of
etching', extolling the 'pleasure of all those little lines, fol-
lowing their movements and intersections, feeling what the
draughtsman felt'. Verhoogt's use of judicious quotes is
exemplary. Contemporary nineteenth-century voices enliv-
en much of the text and provide an opportunity that the
author has not lost. He has trawled periodicals for interest-
ing reviews of the reception both of exhibitions and indi-
vidual prints; and although they are numerous, scholars
who overlook these will do so at their peril. Verhoogt has
incorporated them into the text seamlessly. These reviews
are joined by unpublished material found in the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the University of Leiden and
elsewhere. In a revealing pronouncement, John Ruskin took
great exception to some strands of contemporary painting
popular with the 'common' crowd that josded in front of the
print publishers on Pall Mall, King Street and the Strand,
and noted the decline of a wholesome output in painting
103. Emile Boilvin, Portraits of Paul Rajon , 1867, etching, 133 that was 'superceded, in the windows that stop the crowd, by
X 120 mm (London, British Museum). the thrilling attraction with which Doré, Gérôme, and
[Alma-] Tadema have invested the gambling table, the
duelling ground, and the [ancient Roman] arena'. None the
less, Alma-Tadema oversaw that his pictures were both satis-
Sometimes prints after paintings were themselves exhibited factorily and profitably reproduced, and was accommodat-
as independent objects, although the strict hierarchy in ing in allowing more than twenty of them to be shown in his
operation at the time meant that these were usually kept retrospective at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882, claiming in
away from paintings and displayed in separate spaces. The part 'authorship' of the printed reproductions in his exhibi-
Times noted Auguste Blanchard's 'large and severe' engrav- tion.
ings of The Picture Gallery and The Sculpture Gallery after Alma- Alma-Tadema is remarkable for himself supplying paint-
Tadema's enormous pair of paintings, 'which claimed and ed replicas or reduced watercolour versions of his work for
received ample tribute of recognition in the display of work reproduction. In addition, he often loaned photographs and
in black and white at the last [Royal] Academy exhibition related drawings to his printmakers to clarify any 'difficult'
[in 1878]' and that had themselves been shown at the Royal passages. This was an unusually generous gesture. Moore,
Academy (and the Paris Salon) a few years beforehand.1 McQueen & Co. had, for example, commissioned Rebecca
Pilgeram & Lefèvre also published work after Israels, includ- Solomon to make a copy of Millais's Christ in the House of His
ing his celebrated Past Mother's Grave in December 1880 by Parents (1849-50; Tate, London) for an engraving issued in
Leopold Lowenstam. 1866. Alma-Tadema was immensely proud of the reproduc-
One of Alma-Tadema's favourite printmakers, and a tions after his work and Verhoogt has discovered that the
close friend, was the Frenchman Paul Rajon (see fig. 1Ô3). painter owned 33 framed photogravures and more than a
His reputation was such that at his death in June 1888 The dozen etchings and engravings of his work, all signed by
Times lamented the departure of 'one of the greatest of him. This superb volume points to an interesting avenue of
modern French etchers', signalling that Rajon's (and there- research in which more remains to be done. Alma-Tadema's
fore Alma-Tadema's) internationalism was 'equally well commercial and critical reception in France, for example, is
known in the artistic circles of Paris, London and New one possible future focus. Daunting, though, is the path left
York'.2 Extraordinarily, he was so well known throughout the to follow in the wake of such accomplished research and
United Kingdom that the Liverpool Mercury , the Newcastle assured presentation

i. 'Recent Engravings', The Times , 27 August 1878, p. 10. 2. 'Obituary', The Times , 21 June 1888, p. 9.

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