Art

Panorama of the Army of the Cumberland

The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.

Resource Type: Prints

A Sea Port

Line engraving from original painting by Claude Lorrain, also called Claude Gellée, once in the Gallery at Houghton. Now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Alternate title: Morning in the Harbor. Print removed from George P. Marsh's copy of The Houghton Gallery, vol.
Description
Line engraving from original painting by Claude Lorrain, also called Claude Gellée, once in the Gallery at Houghton. Now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Alternate title: Morning in the Harbor. Print removed from George P. Marsh's copy of The Houghton Gallery, vol. 1. Notation on mounting sheet in pencil by S. R. Koehler: "A Sea Port. Claude le Lorrain. Canot. Taken out for framing, Mar. 17, '94." SI Secretary's Library stamp embossed below image.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1775
original artist
Lorrain, Claude
delineator
Farington, Joseph
engraver
Canot, Pierre Charles
publisher
Boydell, John
ID Number
1978.0534.02.40
catalog number
1978.0534.02.40
accession number
1978.0534

A Rustic Genji (Inaka Genji)

Japanese wood block print. Landscape with two kimono-clad female figures in foreground; men engaged in agricultural activities in background with waterwheel. Left-hand print in a triptych with GA 03213 and GA 03215.
Description
Japanese wood block print. Landscape with two kimono-clad female figures in foreground; men engaged in agricultural activities in background with waterwheel. Left-hand print in a triptych with GA 03213 and GA 03215. 24 separate impressions were required to complete the image from 14 printing surfaces on eight blocks, of which this is the 9th progressive proof, adding turquoise to landscape and costume details.
Location
Currently not on view
maker
Morikawa, Kokichiro
ID Number
GA.03216.09
catalog number
03216.09
accession number
22582

The Stoning of St. Stephen

Engraving after painting formerly attributed to Eustache Le Sueur once in the Salon at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, attributed provisionally to Thomas Gousse. Print removed from George P.
Description
Engraving after painting formerly attributed to Eustache Le Sueur once in the Salon at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, England. Now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, attributed provisionally to Thomas Gousse. Print removed from George P. Marsh’s copy of The Houghton Gallery, vol. 2.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1773
maker
A. B. & W. Transit Company
artist attribution
Le Sueur, Eustache
publisher
Boydell, John
engraver
Aliamet, Francois Germain
ID Number
1978.0534.03.40
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.03.40

Herb Vegetable Sauce

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1968-1970
author
Waters, Alice
ID Number
2016.0085.11
accession number
2016.0085
catalog number
2016.0085.11

A Rustic Genji (Inaka Genji)

Japanese wood block print depicting a landscape scene. Single kimono-clad female figure in foreground; several men and a horse working in fields in background. Center print in a triptych with GA 03213 and GA 03216.
Description
Japanese wood block print depicting a landscape scene. Single kimono-clad female figure in foreground; several men and a horse working in fields in background. Center print in a triptych with GA 03213 and GA 03216. 25 separate impressions were required to complete the image from 10 printing surfaces on six blocks, GA 03214.01-.06, of which this is the 13th progressive proof, adding more yellow to the kimono.
Location
Currently not on view
engraver
Morikawa, Kokichiro
designer
Kuniteru, Utagawa
printer
Nakamura, Tsurusaburo
ID Number
GA.03215.13
catalog number
03215.13
accession number
22582

Joh. Leonhardus Stoeberlein

Engraving by Wolfgang Philip Kilian of Johhan Leonhardus Stoeberlein (1636-1696), an apothecary in Nuremberg. He was the son of Wolfgang Stoeberlein.Currently not on view
Description
Engraving by Wolfgang Philip Kilian of Johhan Leonhardus Stoeberlein (1636-1696), an apothecary in Nuremberg. He was the son of Wolfgang Stoeberlein.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1700
depicted
Stoeberlein, Johhan Leonhardus
ID Number
1991.0664.0058
accession number
1991.0664
catalog number
M-06204
collector/donor number
SAP 897

Saint Theodore

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
nineteenth century
original artist
Muller, Andreas
publisher
Verein zur Verbreitung religioser Bilder in Dusseldorf
graphic artist
Stang, Rudolf
ID Number
GA.14233.31
accession number
94830
catalog number
14233.31

The steer

Etching on laid paper, trimmed. The outline of the animal is pricked, perhaps for tracing or transfer.Currently not on view
Description
Etching on laid paper, trimmed. The outline of the animal is pricked, perhaps for tracing or transfer.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
17th century
original artist
Roos, Johann Heinrich
ID Number
1978.0534.16
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.16

Antique Scene

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.15700
catalog number
15700
accession number
94830

Homme se roulant a terre

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
c. 1874
original artist
Fortuny y Carbo, Mariano
ID Number
GA.16774
catalog number
16774
accession number
119780

Independence Hall

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861
maker
Neagle, John B.
ID Number
2014.0250.55
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.55

The Cook

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1864
graphic artist
Combe, Charles
publisher
Cadart & Luquet
printer
Delatre
ID Number
GA.14670.02
catalog number
14670.02
accession number
94830

William Ripperda

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1648
original artist
Hulle, Anselmus Van
graphic artist
Borrekens, Mattheus
ID Number
GA.15148
catalog number
15148
accession number
94830

The Shepherd's Offering

Engraving, stipple and roulette, within octagonal border; after painting attributed to Guido Reni.
Description
Engraving, stipple and roulette, within octagonal border; after painting attributed to Guido Reni. As explained in the text below the image, this print was made from a version of the painting in the collection of the Rt Revd Thomas Newton, Lord Bishop of Bristol, because the Reni painting in the Houghton Collection had been sent to Russia before a preparatory drawing could be made. Print removed from George P. Marsh’s copy of The Houghton Gallery, vol. 2. Marsh probably wrote the numeral 48 in pencil in the lower right corner. SI Secretary's library stamp embossed at lower left below image.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1783
originator (author or composer, etc.)
Reni, Guido
original artist
Reni, Guido
delineator
Boydell, Josiah
publisher
Boydell, John
engraver
Michel, Jean Baptiste
ID Number
1978.0534.03.50
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.03.50

Holiday

Beatrice Wood (1883-1998) was an acclaimed artist, bestknown for her work with ceramics and her role in founding the Dada Movement.
Description (Brief)
Beatrice Wood (1883-1998) was an acclaimed artist, best
known for her work with ceramics and her role in founding the Dada Movement. While working in the Los Angeles art scene during the 1930s, she was introduced to master printer Lynton Kistler, who persuaded her to take up printmaking and gifted her a set of lithographic plates. Her prints were simple and satirical, sometimes incorporating a subtle dark humor. Her lithograph “Holiday,” was printed in 1932.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
about 1940
September 1920
date made
1932
printer
Kistler, Lynton R.
ID Number
1978.0650.0979
accession number
1978.0650
catalog number
1978.0650.0979

Independence Hall

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1861
maker
Neagle, John B.
ID Number
2014.0250.54
accession number
2014.0250
catalog number
2014.0250.54

The Green Calash

"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap.
Description
"The Green Calash" is a soft ground color etching and aquatint by Ellen Day Hale (1855–1940), produced in 1925 after her 1904 painting. The print is a three-quarter-view portrait of a young woman seated with her hands resting together in her lap. She is wearing a large green bonnet or hood called a calash because of its resemblance to the folding top of an 18th-century carriage known as a calash.
"The Green Calash" was shown at the Smithsonian as part of a print exhibition in November 1936. Other exhibitors were Gabrielle DeVeaux Clements, Margaret Hoyt, and Lesley Jackson. Clements and Hale experimented extensively with color printmaking throughout their careers. They were especially inspired by French artist René Ligeron's 1924 treatise on color intaglio, which Hale translated into English for the Smithsonian exhibition. Clements wrote to curator R.P. Tolman that she and Hale had "been working on an interesting line of experiments in printing etchings in color" and that they had "lately gained better control of the medium, and greater simplicity."
The 1936 exhibition came near the end of Hale's and Clements's careers. By that time they had been producing prints for more than sixty years. Their work was included in the first exhibition of etchings exclusively by women at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1887. Curator Sylvester R. Koehler included more than 400 etchings by twenty-five artists in a very successful exhibition titled Women Etchers of America. In 1888 the Union League Club in New York exhibited the same works, plus about 100 more by eleven additional women. A traveling exhibition celebrating the centennial of these two ground-breaking shows, American Women of the Etching Revival, was organized by the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988. The NMAH lent works by Hale, Clements, and other women printmakers, and the Museum showed the exhibition in Washington in 1989.
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1925
ID Number
GA.17165
catalog number
17165
accession number
142035

Nandina domestica

Japanese wood block print. Second in a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica. Designed by Tsubaki Chinzan, engraved by Kotaro Kido, and printed by Iwakichi Yamamoto.Currently not on view
Description
Japanese wood block print. Second in a series of progressive proofs of a stylized group of leaves and berries from the shrub Nandina domestica. Designed by Tsubaki Chinzan, engraved by Kotaro Kido, and printed by Iwakichi Yamamoto.
Location
Currently not on view
engraver
Kido, Kotaro
ID Number
GA.03217.02
catalog number
03217.02
accession number
22582

North African Boy in a Turban

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1800s
graphic artist
Constant, Benjamin
ID Number
GA.14667.01
catalog number
14667.01
accession number
94830

Le Vestibule

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1864
publisher
Cadart, A.
graphic artist
Lalanne, Maxime
maker
Bacot, Edmond
ID Number
GA.14596
catalog number
14596
accession number
94830

Man in an arbor (after)

Etching, trimmed inside plate mark. Reversed copy by unknown artist after Rembrandt. Signed in plate "Rembrent f 1643." NHD 208, copy d, probably British, 18th century. For original print dated 1642, see Hind 194, Bartsch 257, Biorklund-Barnard 42-A.Currently not on view
Description
Etching, trimmed inside plate mark. Reversed copy by unknown artist after Rembrandt. Signed in plate "Rembrent f 1643." NHD 208, copy d, probably British, 18th century. For original print dated 1642, see Hind 194, Bartsch 257, Biorklund-Barnard 42-A.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1643
original artist
Rembrandt van Rijn
ID Number
1978.0534.36
accession number
1978.0534
catalog number
1978.0534.36

Portrait of James Hamilton, 3rd Earl of Arran

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca. 1707
after 1707
original artist
Werff, Adriaen van der
graphic artist
Gunst, Pieter Stevens van
ID Number
GA.15165
catalog number
15165
accession number
94830

Shoeshine boy

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1897/8
graphic artist
Ferris, Stephen James
ID Number
GA.14413.02
accession number
94830
catalog number
14413.02

Group of figures

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1833
graphic artist
unknown
ID Number
GA.14233.02
accession number
94830
catalog number
14233.02

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