Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
This colored print is of a nude woman in knee deep water within a cave. The mouth of the cave and sky is visible behind her. Loose flowing fabric is attached to one arm. Fringed cloth held in both hands billows behind her shoulders. Gold bracelets are on either arm. The graphic artist and publisher are unknown.
This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of a brown hare with mottled markings crouched among low grasses.
This hand-colored lithograph was produced for “Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America,” the Imperial folio edition, published between 1845 and 1848. The work was a field study of North American mammals. It included 150 stone lithographs produced in three volumes of 50 prints per volume. The lithographs were based on watercolor drawings by John James Audubon and after 1846, son John Woodhouse Audubon, who completed the series due to the elder Audubon’s failing eyesight and declining health. Another son, Victor Gifford Audubon, assisted with the drawings backgrounds. The lithographs were printed on non-watermarked heavy white paper and coloring was applied by hand before the prints were bound. Reverend John Bachman was a naturalist of note, as well as John James Audubon’s friend and father of both daughter-in-laws, so he provided the accompanying letterpress narrative. It made the production truly a family affair. The slightly later Octavo edition contained 155 prints of smaller size.
This unbound lithographic plate depicts a hand-colored image of two brown marmots crouched before foliage.
Black and white comic print of a woman with a boil on her neck, sitting on a rock looking at a bull frog in a pond. This is one of over 100 in a series of comic parodies of popular songs.
Colored memorial print of two children and a dog beside a gravestone which is inscribed "Sacred to the memory of an affectionate mother" and followed by a verse. A weeping willow tree is behind the gravestone and a spire of a church is in the distant background.
Black and white print of a man and woman {Mr and Mrs Turkey}, dressed in Turkish garb, walking along the streets of Gotham {New York}. The man is carrying a child. The child and woman are smoking.
Black and white print; outdoor scene of passengers from a train visiting settlers in a small frontier settlement. The train is visible in the left background. The image is contained within a rectangular cartouche, and a different initial is depicted in each corner.
Colored print; full length portrait of Davy Crockett holding a rifle and waving his cap. He is standing outside and is surrounded by three dogs. An ominous sky lurks in the background.
Black and white comic print of a frowning thin, young woman walks down a hill in the moonlight. This is one of over 100 in a series of comic parodies of popular songs.
Black and white print of a woman riding a horse sidesaddle with a string of fowl haanging by their feet off the saddle. She's about to ford a stream. In the background is a small bridge with two men and a house in the background.
Colored print of a man in riding habit on horseback jumping a small stream. A fox and foxhounds can be seen in the right background. Two verses of a poem appear in the bottom margin on either side of the title.