Featured Publisher's History (D to G)

Delpech, Paris: Of the early lithographic printers and publishers, the names of Delpech and Charles Motte stand foremost. Delpech'sParis establishment was both a lithographic studio and a print selling gallery. During the 1820's, it became a major centre for both artists and patrons -- much like Rudolph Ackermann's London studio was at the same time. Lithographs bearing Delpech's mark were a constant in the initial Salon exhibitions.

Lithography was not invented in France, but it was the French who first recognized the vast potential of this new medium as a fine art form. Led by such masters as Delacroix, Gericault, Boilly, Vernet and Charlet, a host of great artists were bringing the lithograph to the forefront between 1810 and 1835. Such was the high regard in France for this new form of art that the Restoration Salons began holding annual exhibitions in lithography as early as 1817.

Dobson: Published by Thomas Dobson in Philadelphia in 1794, his Encyclopaedia was one of the first American illustrated sets of volumes of its kind. The engraved plates dealt mainly with science, natural history and the useful arts of the day. Among other factors, these are very valuable engravings because the names of the artists appearing on most of these plates take us back to the incunabula of original American printmaking.

Robert Scot was born in England and moved to Philadelphia in 1783 where he engraved portraits and scientific plates. He was appointed engraver to the United States mint in 1793. James Trenchard (born Salem Country, N.J., 1749) came to Philadelphia in 1777. He established the Columbian Magazine there in 1787 and provided many of the important early topographical engravings for this publication. James Thackara (Philadelphia, 1767 - 1848) was apprenticed to James Trenchard. From 1791 to 1797, he established in engraving partnership with Vallance. John Vallance (Scotland, 1770 - Philadelphia, 1823) came to America in 1791 and engraved portraits and encyclopaedia plates and was a founder of the Association of Artists in America (1794). He is also known to have engraved a number of very early American bank notes.

Gazette des Beaux-Arts: The revival of etching as a major form of creative art took place in France in the mid nineteenth century. Sparked by the Paris etchings of Charles Meryon, French artists elevated etching from a reproductive skill to a form of art as vital as painting and sculpture. Such an outburst of artistic etching had not been seen since the days of Rembrandt and other seventeenth century Dutch master etchers.

At the vanguard of this wave was the Paris publication, Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Beginning with its initial issue in 1859, the Gazette regularly commissioned the greatest etchers of the day to supply original graphic works of art for publication. Nineteenth century editions included original etchings by Daubigny, Goya, Meryon, Whistler, Seymour Haden, Lieberman, Besnard and others. From the beginning of the twentieth century to 1930 (the year the Gazette ceased publication), such great artists as Friant, Beurdeley, Louis Jou, Georges Gobo and John Sloan were commissioned for their etchings. Some of the finest original graphic art from these years thus was published by the Gazette des Beaux-Arts.

George Barrie: From 1893 to 1895 the Philadelphia printer and publisher, George Barrie, was at work upon a large and lavish series of original etchings and chromolithographs detailing exhibits of the fine art from participating countries at the World's Columbian Exposition. The original prints, such as this fine example, were printed on either China or Japon papers and were limited to an edition of only two hundred s. Barrie hired some of the finest etchers of the time (the majority being either French or American) to work on the series.

Today these original etchings and lithographs are collected not only for their important 1890's style but for their superb technical accomplishments. s from these limited editions are as finely printed as one can find.