Laura Reese AHi 4743 Just like a picture print by Currier and Ives: The hand of printmaking in shaping

American ideas of the West We are often taught in history classes that the western world was revolutionized by one piece of technology: the printing press. Indeed, prints and printmaking have had a large impact on our society; the transmission of images by way of printed multiples has allowed common Americans to view otherwise inaccessible images, such as the subject matter of the American West. It was printmaking that was crucial, by bringing folios of images, varying from Morans landscapes to Catlins Indian portraits, to the homes of many, in helping to solidify the ideas of the American West. The American West is, in turn crucial to the print culture of the day, because printmakings brightest hours in the nineteenth century were around the time when white Americans were still striving for a distinctive cultural identity that would liberate them from European domination and the West held the key1. Printmaking in America extends beyond the mere reproduction of an artists paintings, as the process of making prints became an art form in itself. This paper is meant to, at first, take a look at the ways images of the West have been transmitted via prints, and then consider printmaking, as its own phenomenon, in the American West. The printed media may be the first form of visual propaganda that was effective on a large scale, giving the media to the populous rather than sending the populous to
1

Ron Tyler, Karl Bodmer and the American West in Karl Bodmers North American Prints, ed. Brandon K. Ruud (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 2004), p. 3

the media. Of course, historians see the propaganda and advertising easily found in print; yet, there has been much that has been overlooked, as to how the processes and techniques applied in the studio have also strongly (even if inadvertently) influenced the nature of the images that were perceived, thereby also influencing how the public interpreted the subjects of these images. Thus, although bureaucracy or politics have, of course, played roles in what art was able to be reproduced, a printmakers unique hand and attention to effectiveness can also influence the way the populous is swayed. The American printmaking tradition must be seen, in large part, as the product of how the forces of capitalism drove the print industry. Printmaking was seen part of the graphic arts, practical means for the artistically inclined to earn a living, but not considered either an artists medium or profession2. This divides the American tradition from the European, where the peintre-graveur, the painter-engraver, signified a higher class of artist who could produce and print his own work. In America it was not just the interests of those individuals who were making prints, but also the increasing voice of public demand that steered the direction of this tradition. At the same time, printmakers were very much constrained by the technical limits of their means of reproduction and distribution, because print was often, and this also affected (and limited) the role of printmaking in influencing the public image of the West. As it related to the West, prints were often engravings, wood cuts, wood engravings, or lithographs; either done by the original artist or, as was usually the case, printed by a professional printer or print service, to reproduce the original art. John James Audubons The Birds of America, first
2

Clinton Adams, Printmaking in New Mexico 1880-1990 (Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1991), 1.

published in 1826, was a first-hand look of the birds of America, and of parts of America that were further West than most settlements at the time, the West as it was called to the white settlers of America. The original 435 prints in the book were hand colored aquatint engravings on copper plates, the first ten of which were engraved by William H. Lizars, which were later reprinted by Robert Havell and Son, who later worked on the remaining plates after Lizars colorists went on strike3. It is interesting to note that the engravers here are English, not American, and one can assume that it is because England had more experienced printmakers and a more experienced print tradition. Audubons look at the birds was not just a naturalists rendering for a select audience, but a book that, because of its extensive reproduction, (due to the beauty and novelty of its contents) found its audience in many homes. Printmaking has been, on the one hand, a form of art just as is painting or sculpture, and yet, on the other hand, it has also been the first major step in the industrialization, and thus mass production of images most notably art. It is widely assumed that it was primarily the large scale printing of words that led to widespread literacy, given that for the first time people might aspire to afford to have something to read, however the printed image created a universal visual culture without language. Without dismissing the importance of the spread of the printed word, is seems likely that it was also the ability of artists, through printmaking, to place their images before many more eyes than would have ever seen the images of a single painting, that helped to lift large portions of the American and European populous, from being provincial, and
3

William Vogt, Introduction and Trascript to Birds of America, by John James Audobon (New York: Macmillian Company, 1941): v

towards a more widespread cosmopolitanism. Not all citizens had access to galleries, academies, or other such institutions to teach art, and, as one chromo lithograph salesman wrote without these agencies the only substitute the only efficient educator of the people, is the [lithograph]; the print became the most accessible form of education in art, one did not have to travel to see art anymore4. Prints gave the country a visual vocabulary that would help define its morals and aspirations, and in turn, the country defined what would be consumed visually5. In this context, prints were to play an important role in the early almost mythic image of the American West that was to capture the imaginations of people around the world. The 18th and 19th centuries were ones of rapid change in all aspects of life, especially in the ability of ordinary citizens to gain some understanding of the lives of others, and of the very different, as well as similar, lives lived by others in often strikingly exotic places. A good example of how dramatically these times were changing is the case of Birds of America, where the typical consumer was not an ornithologist, but just an average American. At no previous time in history, could a typical citizen of any country have the opportunity to have personal possession of such an extensive body of newly discovered knowledge, let alone such stunning body of fine art. The reproduction of mass imagery in nineteenth century American art publishing was changed by the innovation of wood engraving6. Because wood was much cheaper
4

Peter C. Marzio, The Democratic Art of Chromolithography in America: An Overview, in Art & Commerce: American Prints of the Nineteenth Century, 76-102 (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1978), 77. 5 Amanda Lett, The Popular Print: Elegant and Salable Pictures, Journal of the Gilcrease Museum, 18, no. 1 (2011): p. 5. 6 Albert F. Moritz, America the Picturesque (Toronto, ON: New Trend, 1983), 29

than metal plates, engraved illustrations could be reproduced on to wood at a much cheaper rate, giving easier access to the public to works such as the folio Pictureque America, which satisfied a national appetite for American landscapes that met the need for picturesque imagery. It was the idea of the picturesque in landscape art that became an important cultural stepping stone for the literate groups from the new industrialized period. The folio included many vistas and scenes associated with the West: trappers, Native Americans, and wide sky over mountains and prairies. The reproduction of Thomas Morans Cliffs of Green River is one such subject, it displays a typical southwestern landscape, unique to the American West7. Printmaking in and of the West was revolutionized by the development of stone lithography, and later, the chromolithograph. Chromolithography, along with the development of new photographic printmaking processes to go along with lithography, allowed for detailed reproductions of fine art, sold cheaply, to the public. Stone lithography is a planographic printing process that is unlike its predecessors of relief and intaglio printing that required the substrate (the base material images are printed from) be physically manipulated by being etched or carved into, the etching in lithography uses nitric acid and gum Arabic to chemically alter the ink receiving properties of the stone to only accept ink where there has been grease laid down, meaning that the substrate is reusable, thereby cheaper. The problems with, and limitations of, chromolithography, however, were probably not fully understood by the average person buying these prints. The alterations made by the lithographer were up to his discretion,
7

W. Roberts Cliffs of Green River, wood engraving, after Thomas Moran, 6 x 9 , from Picturesque America (See Plate 1)

which means that many changes could be made in the process of coloring, line quality, perspective, even subject matter. Take, for instance Thomas Morans Lower Yellowstone Range8, a painting done in 1874 after Moran visited the range with the Hayden Geological Survey; the original image uses many blue and green hues, staying on the cooler side of the spectrum with a mid-morning light cast on the scene. The reprinted image, done by Louis Prang9, has much more contrast and intensity of shadows, as well as a change in the hues. It seems to be a sunset, increasing the drama of the scene, and the mountains have significantly more warmth and heightened energy to them since the change of the colors and shadows. The significant change of the colors gives the viewer a very different impression of the place and. Changes of this sort were would have significantly influenced peoples impressions and expectations of the new lands, sometimes by sheer inadvertence, but sometimes as an intentional piece of artistic license by the printmaker. It was Louis Prangs reproduction of Morans series of watercolors, not the original watercolors, of Yellowstone, that were hailed as just subject for national pride, and the critics were convinced that these, and other chromos were indeed faithful to Morans work10.

Thomas Moran, The Lower Yellowstone Range, 1874. Watercolor, 14x19 in. Division of Graphic Arts, National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution. (See Plate 2) 9 Louis Prang. The Lower Yellowstone Range, 1875. Chromolithograph after a watercolor of 1874 by Thomas Moran, 14x19 in. Included in a folio by F.V. Hayden: The Yellowstone National Park (Boston: L. Prang and Co., 1876). Division on Graphic Arts, National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution. (see Plate 3)
10

Peter C. Marzio, The Democratic Art of Chromolithography in America

Indeed the impressions of the new lands as they were being settled during the early nineteenth century were seldom informed directly by original art, but rather by reproductions being published in a folio or periodical, as was the case of the reproductive Moran work. Although Moran did offer a limited artist edition of some of his works, which expressed great skill in handling minute detail11 because of the artists manipulation of the substrate, far more people would buy the mass produced prints, helping printers to flourish whilst it encouraged the original artists to starve12. As to how important were the distortions, intentional and otherwise, introduced by printmakers, and by the inherent limitations of their technology, this may be a matter of subjective interpretation. European artists were still being trained in peintre-graveur methods, such as Karl Bodmer. Karl Bodmers expedition to the West was that of a complete foreigner, but his art is very noteworthy for its attention to detail in scenes of Native American life in the West. Bodmer was in fact a printmaker, and this might set him apart from his contemporaries for his choice in practices. He could have easily turned his paintings into prints using the less expensive method of lithography but he wanted the finest quality that could be achieved, similar to Audobons prints, and it could be because he was trained as an engraver that he chose the same aquatint engraving method that was used by Havell in Birds of America13. Even though Bodmers expertise as a engraver might have set him apart, the prints were still susceptible to alterations, some might have been virtual copies of the original, but
11 12

Amanda Lett, The Popular Print, p. 15 Lewis Mumford, The Brown Decades: A Study of Art in America 1865-1892, (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), p. 35-36. 13 Ron Tyler, Karl Bodmer and the American West, p 19

other were combinations of or altered from the watercolors, presumably to make a more attractive or pleasing scene14. Perhaps a more significant filter of what was being conveyed was the rapidly growing public buying power, and its influence on what images artists were likely to reproduce. This turn of events made public tastes themselves one of the forces that helped form both the public tastes and what images they would associate with the West. Just as western movies were to later feed a public with a product that was a mixture of actual western life and modern romantic expectations, so did the art forms of these times portray a mixture or reality and public hunger for a certain sort of adventure, or for the exotic. The publics taste in art has always had sway throughout the history of art, but nowhere else does it exhibit itself quite as it did in the case of the American West. The American Art Union was one particular place the American art scene has showcased its uniqueness and innovativeness, by its application of the democratic process to art. The American Art Union came into fruition while the mechanics for distribution of works of art had not been solved by the current art dealers, and the nation was still culturally unsettled15. The American Art Union had a lottery, up until it was declared illegal, somewhat of a collective patronage system, where each member paid a set fee to the union for a subscription and a chance to win the lottery. It was immediately recognized as a problem with the union (at least from the perspectives of those arts patrons

14

ibid Cantor, Jay. Prints and the American Art-Union. In Prints in and of America to 1850, ed. John D. Morse. (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1970) 307.
15

behind it) that might not be sufficiently swaying the customers in their tastes of art, but was instead pressuring artists to change their subject matter to meet the publics wants. In terms of printmaking, the American Art Union was dedicated to the production of large, costly engravings from paintings belonging to the institution, issued as consolations to those not winning an original artwork16. The often-associated imagery with the Art Union started out as the typical upper-class art of the day, neoclassical works with the occasional genre painting, but as the art-union developed a wide audience, Western genre paintings like George Caleb Binghams The Jolly Boatmen became more popular, with their wider appeal to the average person17. Prints and organizations like the Art union allowed average Americans access to the world of art on their terms18. The more typically American imagery of daily life in the West, such as fur Traders Descending the Missouri, and scenes of Westward expansion satisfied the Unions demands for national subject matter, and perhaps without this guidance, the worlds would have been given a far more impoverished, and certainly less accurate, view of life in the American West. As consumption of American imagery increased, artists like Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, inspired by artists like Catlin, started to create Western imagery of hunters and trappers and sold it through printing firms like Currier and Ives. An example of this work is the print of Taits painting American Frontier Life from Currier and Ives19, which provides the viewer with the
16
17

ibid Thomas Doney, The Jolly Flat Boat Men, Mezzotint engraving after painting by George Caleb Bingham. Offered 1846-47. 24x19, New York Historical Society. (See Plate 4) 18 Amanda Lett, The Popular Print, p. 15 19 American Frontier Life, Currier and Ives, American, after Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, American, b. England, chromolithograph, 1862 (See Plate 5)

imagined scenario of white trappers tricking, and gaining the upper hand against, Native Americans, using a color scheme of light blues, yellow ochres, vivid greens, and pale browns that one comes to associate with the early chromos of the West. These prints proved popular, and the revenue from these prints could be funded to work on paintings, presumably of similar imagery, which in turn created prints that the consumer could own20. The imagery of the West became involved in a cycle of consumption, and this kind of production does not have anything to do with the west as explored, but the west as imagined, often laden with stereotypes, as Tait, and presumably other Currier and Ives artists, was not on the frontier as he painted it, but was often imagining what the frontier would be from his New York home21. Currier and Ives played an interesting role as perhaps the most influential printmaking firm in the history of America if not only the best known printmaking name in America22. Currier and Ives shaped generations of minds with its imagery, and is often associated with peaceful vision of rural life in America, along with its unique scenes of frontier life that spread to a populous, but it is right to criticize the firm for its use of racist and stereotypical imagery that might otherwise have prevented progress, to which Native Americans were not pardoned23. Although the Art Unions desire for art that accurately represents life was commendable and valuable, it can also be argued that influence of public demand was
20 21

ibid Sheluk, Judy Penz, An American Lithographic Legacy Currier and Ives Continue to Charm 21st Century Collectors, Antiques and Collecting Magazine, 112, no. 9 (2007) 22 John Dorsey Currier and Ives America Could be a Dark Place, Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), June 26, 1997. 23 ibid

also playing a constructive role in the progress of the arts, and in the role of the individual artist. This is because broader public support would gradually replace the sort of patronage in which artists might need to devote much of their efforts commissions such as portraits of a particular patron, or this patrons family, as was in Europe. Such traditions, while allowing artists to develop their skills, definitely constrained their freedom to choose to focus on what they found to be the most compelling aspects of the world. In contrast, artists catering to the tastes of a broader public would often retain a greater degree of freedom to choose their subject, even while being conscious of their need to find an audience. And there is little doubt that anything about the American West seemed to find an audience. The discussion of popular media and print could be discussed to great lengths, but little is ever discussed on the printmaker as an artist. It is rare to hear discussion of printmakers in the West outside of reproduction of work, because for the longest time, American printmaking tradition had yet to expand its own ambition to see itself growing beyond mere means to an end of faithful reproduction. The adage of the printmaking community is that printmaking is not always about reproduction. It is very hard to see this application in the early prints of the American West, and it is not until the early 20th century when we see art that is responsive to the medium used. Of course, it is almost certain that these new directions in the world of printmaking were, at least in part, born of necessity, due to the fact that photography had rapidly eroded much of the commercial profit to be found in making prints as a way to convey a given image as broadly as possible. It was the main flaw of printmaking,

the fact that it can never generate a perfect reproduction of a painting, that would ultimately become central to its raison dtre. It is the constraints on what can be conveyed by these technologies that gives prints their unique place in visual arts. The different techniques and applications of printmaking that were being explored were not limited to the contemporary subject matter of the early 20th century. The West as a subject matter was not estranged from new methods or experimentation. Artists in colonies like Santa Fe started to apply the new styles of printmaking to their work, while keeping the subject matter of the traditional West alive. For example, Mary Todd Aarons Osage Dance does not seek to recreate a painting, but uses the characteristics of wood and woodcut to create the energy of the scene24. Yet even as printmaking techniques advance with technology, artists continually return to older methods and more primitive techniques in order to elicit the essences of the west. The influence of printmaking has made its mark on other aspects of Western art, where large flat areas of color replace detailed scenes, such as the paintings of Ernest Blumenschein, whose paintings reflect the trends of Japonisme and poster making that base themselves upon the principles of printmaking25. Printmaking in and of the West today has, of course, changed. But have American expectations of printmaking? We expect prints to be cheap, fast, and accurate, but however our technology might have improved, they are not just that. In regards to prints and the American West, we can see how print culture and mass media have changed a populous, and in turn how the populous has changed the print culture
24 25

Mary Todd Aaron, Osage Dance, woodcut, unknown date or size, (Plate 6) See Plate 7.

and art that was meant to sway it in the first place. But more importantly, we can see how the unique hand of printmaking as an art form has affected the perception of the American West, and how it continues to affect the art.

Bibliography Adams, Clinton. Printmaking in New Mexico, 1880-1990. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1991. Cantor, Jay. Prints and the American Art-Union. In Prints in and of America to 1850, edited by John D. Morse, 297-326. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1970. Dorsey, John. Currier and Ives America Could be a Dark Place. Baltimore Sun, (Baltimore, MD), June 26. 1997. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-0626/features/1997177066_1_currier-ives-ives-print-unintentionally-funny Flint, Janet. The American Painter-Lithographer. In Art & Commerce: American Prints of the Nineteenth Century, 126-142. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1978. Hitchings, Sinclair H. Fine Art Lithography in Boston: Craftsmanship in Color, 18401900. In Art & Commerce: American Prints of the Nineteenth Century, 103-125. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1978. Klein, Carole. Unique Impressions: Mechanics and Creativity of Printmaking. Journal of the Gilcrease Museum 18, no. 1 (2011): 22-43. Lett, Amanda, The Popular Print: Elegant and Salable Pictures, Journal of the Gilcrease Museum 18, no. 1 (2011): 4-21. Levinson, Luna Lambert. Images That Sell: Color Advertising and Boston Printmakers 1850-1900. In Aspects of American Printmaking, edited by James F. OGorman, 81-104. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1988.

Marzio, Peter C. The Democratic Art of Chromolithography in America: An Overview. In Art & Commerce: American Prints of the Nineteenth Century, 76-102. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1978 Moritz, Albert F. America the Picturesque. Toronto, ON: New Trend, 1983. Mumford, Lewis. The Brown Decades: A Study of Arts in America 1865-1892. New York, NY: Dover Publications, 1955. Norton, Bettina A. William Sharp: Accomplished Lithographer. In Art & Commerce: American Prints of the Nineteenth Century, 50-75. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1978. Pierce, Sally. The Railroad in the Pasture: Industrial Development and the New England Landscape. In Aspects of American Printmaking, edited by James F. OGorman, 53-80. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1988. Sheluk, Judy Penz. An American Lithographic Legacy Currier and Ives Continue to Charm 21st Century Collectors, Antiques and Collecting Magazine, 112, no. 9 (2007) Vogt, William. Introduction and Transcript to Birds of America, by John James Audubon, v-x. New York: Macmillian Company, 1941.

W. Roberts Cliffs of Green River, wood engraving, after Thomas Moran, 6 x 9 , from Picturesque America

Thomas Moran, The Lower Yellowstone Range, 1874. Watercolor, 14x19 in. Division of Graphic Arts, National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution.

Louis Prang. The Lower Yellowstone Range, 1875. Chromolithograph after a watercolor of 1874 by Thomas Moran, 14x19 in. Included in a folio by F.V. Hayden: The Yellowstone National Park (Boston: L. Prang and Co., 1876). Division on Graphic Arts, National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution.

Thomas Doney, The Jolly Flat Boat Men, Mezzotint engraving after painting by George Caleb Bingham. Offered 1846-47. 24x19, New York Historical Society.

American Frontier Life, Currier and Ives, American, after Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, American, b. England, chromolithograph, 1862

Aaron, May Todd, Osage Dance, woodcut, unknown date or size

Ernest Blumenschein, Superstition, oil, 1921, accessed: http://artroots.com/art2/blumenschein.jpg