Online journals

A big thank you to Will at art and weird literature blog A Journey Round My Skull for his kind post about Adventures in the Print Trade, which has resulted in a huge increase in readers. Yesterday 753 people visited this blog, as opposed to 320 a week ago. So welcome to all my readers, new and old. I appreciate your comments, additions, and corrections.

Albert Haueisen (German, 1872-1954)
Kirchgang 
Woodcut, 1904

I began blogging in October 2007, as a means�as it says on the masthead�of sharing my excitement and discoveries in the world of prints. Unless otherwise stated, all the images I post are from original prints that are physically in my possession�the fruits of an obsessive collecting instinct that has led me to become a part-time print dealer, over at my website Idbury Prints.

Joan Galle (Flemish, 1600-1676) after Marten de Vos (Flemish, 1532-1603)
Has ducunt choreas...
Engraving, re-strike 1869

Despite its title (a nod to Dylan Thomas�s Adventures in the Skin Trade), this blog is not about the commercial side of the print world, but about the pleasure of discovery. Because I don�t have an art history background, each new print I acquire sends me on a fresh adventure. Researching the artists and their work is something I find endlessly stimulating.

Georg Jahn (German, 1869-1941)
M�dchenkopf
Engraving, 1904

I began with the idea of confining myself to French prints 1870-1970. �from Impressionism to Pop Art�. But just as categories such as Impressionism and Pop Art have proved porous and unstable, so too I have found myself extending the range of prints I acquire and write about; the images in this post are just a few recent acquisitions. The rate of posting can be sporadic, but I try to make each post accurate, informative, and interesting.

Raoul Dufy (French, 1877-1953)
Le Dauphin
Woodcut, 1911

�Blog� must be about the ugliest word in the English language, but blogging as a phenomenon fascinates me. In the right hands, the blog is developing into a new art form, and one that is surprisingly resistant to being converted into existing forms, such as the book.

Lucien Pissarro (French/British, 1863-1944)
Little May
Woodcut, c.1890

Anyway, as a nod of thanks to supporters of this blog such as Will at A Journey Round My Skull and PK at the mighty Bibliodyssey (the first person ever to link to me), here�s a list of six of my favourite blogs:

Stefan Filipkiewicz (Polish, 1879-1944)
Dorfkirche
Woodcut, 1908

Clive�s Art and the Aesthete may be the only blog out there by someone even more obsessed with prints and printmakers than I am.

Richard Lux (German, 1877-1939)
Strasse in Stein a. d. Donau
Etching, 1914

Jane Librizzi has been a friend of this blog from the start. She sheds the highly-sensitive light of her Blue Lantern onto a wide range of forgotten and overlooked artists.

Norman Janes (English, 1892-1980)
Coke Ovens
Wood engraving, 1935

Philip Wilkinson�s fascinating English Buildings inspired me to start this blog. It�s not just about architecture, but history and landscape, and the quirky details that bring all three of these subjects to life.

Andreas Gering (German, 1874-1956)
Krieg
Lithograph, 1916

What can I say about Roxana�s Floating Bridge of Dreams, except that it lives up to its beautiful title? Roxana has the uncanny ability to seemingly photograph spacetime, or to strip away everything from an image but the fading pulse of an emotion.

Joseph Crawhall (English, 1821-1896)
I'll not resolve one thing or other, until I've first consulted Mother
Woodcut, 1889

Spitalfields Life by the gentle author is my latest discovery�an utterly addictive daily slice of East End cultural and social history, and its vibrant contemporary life.

Ludwig Michalek (Austrian, 1859-1942)
Bildnis des Schriftsellers Karl M. Kuzmany
Etching, 1912

And last but not least, of all the literature blogs I have come across, I think the best is Wuthering Expectations, from that inspired title through to the daft challenges that Amateur Reader sets himself and his readers.

Popular posts from this blog

A Vision of the End: Simon Segal's Apocalypse

Image
The Book of Revelation (L'Apocalypse selon Saint Jean) is almost too rich in imagery for artistic interpretation, which hasn't stopped artists from trying! One very satisfying version is that published in 1969 by Simon S�gal. This project about the end of the world was undertaken at the end of S�gal's life. He was born into a Jewish family in Bialystok, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire, so it is a moot point whether S�gal should be regarded as having Polish or Russian origin) in 1898. After WWI, S�gal emigrated to Berlin, moving to France in 1926 and becoming a naturalized French citizen in 1949. L'Apocalypse: The Lamb The expressionist art of Simon S�gal was influenced by that of Chaim Soutine, Georges Rouault, and Marc Chagall, and echoes of all three can be seen in S�gal's lithographs for L'Apocalypse. I very much admire these vibrantly colourful works, with their vivid depictions of St John's phantasmagorical vision of the end of the world. L'
Read more

Fantastic vision of the Machine Age

Image
T he painter, printmaker, sculptor and ceramicist Gio Colucci (sometimes known in France as G�o Colucci) was born in Florence (one source says Cairo) in 1892, and died in Paris in 1974. He studied architecture at the �cole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, after which he went to Egypt to practice as an architect in Cairo. It was in Cairo that he gradually moved over from architecture to fine art. His older brother was the writer and publisher Guido Colucci, born in Naples; Guido and Gio collaborated on a number of books to which Guido furnished the texts and Gio the illustrations. Gio Colucci, Bonheur du monde I Etching, 1929 From copy 74/105 Printed by Paul Haasen on Arches wove paper As a printmaker, Gio Colucci produced both etchings and wood engravings. From 1921 he showed his etchings at the Salon de la Soci�t� Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and also showed work at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Surind�pendants alongside Gleizes, Herbin, Delaunay, and others.  Gio Colucci, Bonheur du
Read more

Rodin's last mistress? Jeanne Bardey

Image
A comment from Emeline on my last post, about the profound unacknowledged contribution of his pupil, assistant, and mistress Camille Claudel to Rodin's work, reminded me that I have a number of etchings and drypoints by another of Rodin's pupils and mistresses, Jeanne Bardey. Like most of the women in Rodin's life - his longterm partner Rose Beuret, Camille Claudel, Gwen John - Jeanne Bardey got a raw deal from her relationship with him. She was born in Lyon 1869. She was therefore 5 years younger than Camille Claudel, and seven years older than Gwen John [N.B. This information appears to be wrong; her correct dates are 1872-1954; see the next post]. Rodin made a will in her favour, which was anulled when, after his fourth stroke, and when it has been argued he was incapable of informed assent, he was persuaded to sign a deed of gift willing all his estate to the French State. There's a whole book about this controversy, which I haven't seen, Jeanne Bardey et Rodin:
Read more