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150 Years
of Print Collecting at the Smithsonian
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The Ferris Collection
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Helena Leonora de Sieveri
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Three heads of women, one asleep
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A Negress of Hedjah
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Souvenir of Italy
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Méditation
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An Apple Orchard, Easthampton
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Stephen James Ferris (1835-1915), a Philadelphia portrait painter and etcher, collected
over two thousand European and American prints. They were given to the
Smithsonian by the family of his son, artist J. L. G. Ferris, between 1927 and 1932.
Stephen Ferris especially admired the work of painters Jean-Léon Gérôme (for whom
his son was named) and Mariano Fortuny and acquired their prints.
His collection includes many 19th-century French and American etchings. Among the
hundreds of original and reproductive prints dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries
are works by Flameng, Houbraken, Jacquemart, and Rembrandt. Reflecting Ferris's
interest in portraiture, the collection, like those of Cranch and Schoff, is strongest in
figure studies and portrait subjects. Stephen Ferris married Elizabeth Moran, the sister
of artists Edward, John, Peter, and Thomas Moran, and the Ferris collection includes
works by Moran family members in addition to the etched work of both Ferrises,
father and son.
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