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Daily Art Moment: Edward Penfield

Image description: Harper’s June 1895, Edward Penfield, color lithograph, 18 ¾ x 12 13/16 inches. A portrait-oriented poster showing a male figure dressed in a black graduation cap and gown, holding a book while smoking a pipe under the tomato red words: “Harper’s June”. “Harper’s” is stretched across the top of the print and the word “June” sits under it to the left on the pale tan background. The figure is shown from the knee up at right. He is turned to the left, has peach-colored skin and yellow, short hair under his mortar board. He smokes a small brown pipe and holds up an orange book as if reading. A white shirt, black tie and blue vest are seen under the robe. He holds a tan rectangular object in his left hand by his side. The lower left holds five large rose blossoms on long, pale green stems with leaves. One flower overlaps the figure’s black gown. The artist’s signature appears in orange at left of the roses.
Edward Penfield (American, 1866–1925), Harper's June, 1895. Color lithograph. Gift of Daniel Bergsvik and Donald Hastler, 2020.42.31

Congratulations to the Class of 2021! This charming poster, advertising the June edition of Harper’s Magazine, gives a nod to the graduates of 1895. Artist Edward Penfield is credited with inventing the American publishing poster, a boom that thrived in the 1890s. Each month, Penfield created a lithograph to promote the magazine. He drew on…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera, Los Frutos del Trabajo (The Fruits of Labor), 1932, lithograph on cream wove paper, 16 7/16 in x 11 13/16 inches. Vertical rectangular print rendered in soft gradations of grays of 8 figures seated in a circle turned to a figure in the upper right corner and receiving apples from a central figure. The scene is intimate, tightly cropped, and facial expressions are serene. The central figure is youthful with short hair, head at three-quarter view looking to their right, hand outstretched having given an apple to a seated figure in profile at left. The left hand holds a cloth taut holding a bounty of apples. Three young figures seated behind peek out, obscured by the taller figures. An older mustachioed figure with collared shirt in top right has eyes cast down at a book spread open by his thumb. Four figures in the foreground with backs turned to the viewer face the apple giver and reader. The diminutive small figure at bottom center has long dark hair center-parted and braided, the ends of the braids are joined in a knot. At bottom right, an older figure wearing a jacket with epaulettes has left hand rested on another youth’s shoulder. In the foreground, a bound book’s cover bears a cursive D and 32.

Today we celebrate Mexican-American civil rights leader, Cesar Estrada Chavez, a former migrant worker who co-founded the UFW (United Farm Workers) with fellow activist, Dolores Huerta, which fought for unionization for laborers. Chavez, influenced by the non-violent tactics of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., used strikes, boycotts, and picketing to achieve equity for these…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Jacques Callot

The Temptation of St Anthony, Jacques Callot, etching, plate: 12 1/8 x 18 inches, sheet: 13 13/16 x 18 inches. A landscape-oriented print depicting a hellish scene filled winged demons and monsters amid architectural rubble. The upper center of the black on cream colored paper print is dominated by a large, winged creature with clawed hands, horns and a gaping mouth out of which spews more fire breathing demons. The creature’s wings are spread in flight as are its well-muscled limbs. More demons cling to the larger one which clutches sheaves of fire in its claws at left and has a serpent wrapped around its limb at right. Below this demon is a frenetic scene of smaller demons and monsters who swarm and torture. The print’s edge at left shows a rocky outcropping in the foreground on which monsters cling. The background shows the ruins of a large stone structure and beyond that is a house in flames. In the middle ground at left, demons and monsters parade lead by four-legged beasts and a bony carcass. The middle foreground holds another beast this time with two hind legs and large wheels for front legs being driven by a fury demon while it breathes fire and rolls over another demon. The print’s edge at left shows more rock outcroppings, each festooned with demons. Beyond this is an architectural façade of a series of arches that tower above a smaller stone arch. It is in front of this arch that St Anthony stands, in long robes and halo, being pushed, pulled and tortured by an assortment of demons. Jeering demons hang off the stone arch above him. To the left of the Saint, a winged beast being ridden by a demon, spews fire at him. The entire scene is alive with demons flying in the sky, climbing rocks and ruins and torturing one another. The etching features heavy crosshatching to achieve light and dark effects. A thin border of cream encompasses the top and sides of the print with a thicker border along the bottom. This border contains a large center crest flanked by writing in Latin.

For many artists, printmaking is the ideal medium in which to explore the mysterious, the unseen, and the unknowable. Demons and monsters hold a special appeal, as seen in this recent acquisition, an etching by Jaques Callot. This sheet depicts the legend of St. Anthony, an early Christian abbot who retreated to the Egyptian desert…  Read more