| Title: |
Mercury 'Ideal Head' (The Hawthorne Portfolio: A Wonder Book) |
| Artist: |
Church, Frederick Stuart (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1842 - New York, 1924) |
| Date: |
1884 |
| Medium: |
Original Miniature Etching |
| Publisher: |
The Riverside Press, Cambridge |
| Edition: |
Limited Edition of One Hundred and twenty-five impressions,
Numbered 4/125 |
| Source: |
The Hawthorne Portfolio (Set of 24 India Proofs) Illustrating The New Riverside Edition |
| Note: |
Frederick Stuart Church: A major nineteenth
century painter and etcher of figurative and fantasy scenes, Frederick Stuart Church
first served as a soldier in the Civil War. He fought in many campaigns
and served under General Sherman in his march to the sea. After the conclusion
of the war, Frederick Church studied art at the Chicago Academy of Design, the National
Academy of Design and at the Art Students League, New York. Frederick Stuart Church began
his career as an illustrator for Harper's and received his first
commissions for painting in 1875. After that point F. S. Church dedicated himself
to both painting and etching. In the latter category he enjoyed much success
and some of his etchings were commissioned by the influential Paris publisher,
L'Art. |
| |
In many respects Frederick Stuart Church's art of the 1880's serves as a precursor
to the American Art Nouveau movement of the 1890's. His fantasy scenes (particularly
those dealing with women, children and animals) exhibit the graceful imagery
and long, flowing lines that were to become dominant elements of Art Nouveau. |
| |
F. S. Church was a full member of the American Water Color
Society, the New York Etching Club, and the Society of Illustrators. He
was elected a full Academician of the National Academy in 1885. Examples
of Church's fine art are found in many important collections, such as the
National Museum of American Illustration, Denver Art Museum, the University
of Michigan Museum of Art, Brandywine River Museum, the Detroit Institute
of Arts, the Newark Museum, Museum of New Mexico, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington. |
| |
The Hawthorne Portfolio: In 1883 the Riverside
Press, Cambridge, published its twelve volume set of the collected writings
of the American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). The publisher commissioned
such contemporary American etchers as Robert Blum, Walter Shirlaw, Frederick Stuart Church,
Ross Turner, Frederick Dielman and R. S. Gifford to contribute twenty-four
original etchings to the publication. These were printed on laid paper with
narrow margins. |
| |
A year later (1884) this publisher re-issued the etchings
without the text in a limited edition of one hundred and twenty five sets.
These limited edition etchings were printed upon fine India paper with large
margins and mounted onto individual sheets of white, wove paper. Entitled,
The Hawthorne Portfolio, these finely printed etchings were published
unbound within a folding case. |
| |
Frederick Church contributed four etchings to The Hawthorne
Portfolio. These are entitled, The Snow Image, The Puritan
Girl, Pandora, and Mercury. Mercury was
commissioned by the publishers to serve as an illustrative etching for Hawthorne's
re-telling of the classic Greek and Roman myths for children, entitled,
A Wonder Book. For some unknown reason the publisher's decided
to entitle this clearly recognizable portrayal of the Roman God, 'Ideal
Head'. |
| |
Nathaniel Hawthorne (Salem, Massachusetts, 1804 - Plymouth New Hampshire, 1864): One of the greatest fiction authors, in American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne was a master of short stories and novels. His literary masterpieces were published both in book form and journals, periodicals, magazines, and annuals, many of which appeared anonymously in literary sources such as the New England Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's Monthly, The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, and the Salem Gazette, Blackwood's Magazine, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, and many others. This selection of Hawthorne's published tales and novels is not a complete list, but it does include the majority of his most famous works. It begins with Hawthorne's first published novel, Fanshawe (1828), a romance issued by Marsh & Capen published anonymously at his own expense three years after graduating from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Main. That novel was followed by such memorable works as, The Hollow of the Three Hills and An Old Woman's tale, both published in the Salem Gazette (1830). The Gentle Boy, and My Kinsman, Major Molineux, first appeared, along with other tales in the Token and Atlantic Souvenir (1832). In 1834, the New-England Magazine published The Story Teller I and II, and a year later (1835), that same magazine published Young Goodman Brown, a tale of witchcraft, later released in Hawthorne's collection of tales entitled, Moses from an Old Manse (1846). In 1836, Nathaniel Hawthorne moved to Boston to work as the editor of The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge, but is only there for a few months as the magazine filed for bankruptcy, and that same year, The Maypole of Merry Mount and The Wedding-Knell were published in the Token. Then in 1837, Hawthorne's first of three collections of short stores was published under the title, Twice-Told Tales; it included eighteen previously published works, republished in 1842 with additional material, and again in 1851 in the final collection of tales (published during Hawthorn's lifetime), under the title, The Snow Image and Other Twice Told Tales. Published simultaneously in London (dated, 1851) and in Boston (dated, 1852), this new edition included the first book, the 1842 expanded edition, his most recent stories, as well as other uncollected works such as, My Kinsman, Major Molineux, The Man of Adamant, Ethan Brand, The Snow-Image: A Childish Miracle, The Great Stone Face, and others. From 1838 to 1841, Hawthorne published various other works such as the Time's Portraiture, Being the Carrier's Address to the The Salem Gazette (1838), The Sister Years, and The Gentle Boy (1839) and in 1841, he wrote, Grandfather's Chair, a History of Youth, a historical account of New England's past continued in his next volumes, Famous Old People, and the Liberty Tree; the three works formed the whole history of Grandfather's Chair. |
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In 1842, Nathaniel Hawthorne married the painter and illustrator, Sophia Peabody, and they took residence at the Old Manse located in Concord, Massachusetts (1842-1845).During his residency
at the Old Manse, he enjoyed his most productive period publishing many short stories, such tales as The Birth-Mark (1843), and The Hall of Fantasy,(1843), appeared in the Pioneer Magazine. Other works were also published in the United States Magazine and Democratic Review; these include, Buds and Bird Voices (1843), A Select Party (1844), Rappaccini's Daughter (1844). Several of the tales from this period were later included in one of his finest collections of tales which he aptly titled, Mosses from an Old Manse. At the end of 1845, Hawthorne moved back to Salem, Massachusetts where he held the position of Surveyor of the Port of Salem (1846-1849). During his stay in Salem, Hawthorne authored, The Custom House, an introduction to one of his most famous works, The Scarlet letter, a novel set in a village in Puritan New England (1850). The Great Stone Face, published in The National Era, and The Snow Image, which appeared in The International Magazine were both published in 1850. Hawthorne then rented a small cottage in Stockbridge, just outside Lenox, Massachusetts (1850/1851), where he devoted himself to writing, The House of the Seven Gables, a romance novel set in 19th century Salem, Massachusetts (1851). In the winter of 1851, Hawthorne and his family moved to West Newton, Mass. near Boston where he completed, The Blithedale Romance, a story partly based upon Hawthorne's disenchantment with the utopian community (an experiment in communal living where Hawthorne spent some time just before got married) at Brook Farm near Boston (1852). Soon after (1852), Nathaniel Hawthorne purchased their first home, The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts previously known as Hillside and owned by Mr. and Mrs. Amos Bronson Alcott, parents of Abigail May, Anna, Elizabeth and Louisa May Alcott, the famous author of Little Women and other works. Hawthorne enjoyed his new home and dedicated himself to writing such works as, A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, a children's book based on Greek mythology (1852), and the Life of Franklin Pierce (1852), a campaign biography for his lifelong friend, Franklin Pierce, who was elected as the 14th President of the United States (1853-1857). About a year later, Hawthorne published his next children's book, Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys: Being a Second Wonder-Book, which was also a series of mythological tales retold (1853), and no less than ten days later, his appointment to the consulate at Liverpool by President Pierce was confirmed. |
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Hawthorne then moved to England where he served as an American Consul to Britain from (1853-1857). During that time, he wrote a manuscript dedicated to Mrs. J. P. Heywood, entitled, The Ghost of Doctor Harris (1856), A Rill from the Town Pump (1857), and his English notebooks, later published in series form as travel articles in The Atlantic Monthly, then published under the title, Our Old Home, after which they were edited and published posthumously by Hawthorn's wife, Sophia Hawthorne. After his term at the British consulate ended, the Hawthorne's took an extended holiday traveling through Europe, and eventually took up residence in Italy, and about two years later they returned to England where Hawthorne completed the Italian romance which was first published in London under the title, Transformation: or, The Romance of Monte Beni (1860), then in America under his original title, The Marble Faun; or, The Romance of Monte Beni (1860). That same year, they returned to the United States and took up permanent residence at the Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts, where Hawthorne continued writing such works as, Pilgrimage to Old Boston (1862), Our Old Home (1863), A London Suburb (1863), and his last, but unfinished literary creation was, Pansie, a Fragment; sometimes called Little Pansie (1864). As mentioned earlier, some of Hawthorne's unfinished works were published posthumously; they include, Passages from his Note-Books (1866), also reprinted in book form as Passages From The American Note-Books, a description of his 1838 summer tour in western Massachusetts (1868), A Passage From Hawthorne's, English Note-Books, edited by Sophia Hawthorne appeared in the Atlantic Monthly (July, 1867), followed by five impressions issued between (1870-1874). The French and Italian Note-Books, passages from his journals while traveling with his family in France, Italy and parts of Switzerland appeared in Scribner's Monthly, (October, 1871). Septimius Felton appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, & in Scribner's Monthly; and again in Septimius, a Romance, edited by Una Hawthorne (1872). Also published posthumously were The Dolliver Romance (1876), and Dr. Grimshaw's Secret: A Romance which was originally a fragment from the second version of the English romance written while living in England in 1860, first published in 1883 with preface and notes by his son, Julian Hawthorne. This original This original F. S. Church etching entitled, Mercury hails from The Hawthorne Portfolio published by the 'The Riverside Press' in 1884 in the limited edition of one hundred and twenty-five impressions, numbered 4/125. It was commissioned by the publishers to serve as an illustrative etching for Hawthorne's re-telling of the classic Greek and Roman myths for children, entitled, A Wonder Book. |
| Size: |
2 1/8 X 2 1/2 (Sizes in inches are approximate, height
preceding width of plate-mark or image.) |
| |
Matted with 100% Archival Materials |
| Condition: |
Printed upon fine almost tissue thin, India paper and with large, full margins as published by the 'The Riverside Press' for the Hawthorne Portfolio in 1884 in the limited edition of 125 impressions. Both titled and signed by the artist in the plate to the upper and lower left corners. A splendidly printed, India Proof impression and in excellent condition throughout. Mercury represents a prime, original example of the influential nineteenth century fantasy art of Frederick Stuart Church. |
| Price: |
Sold - The price is no longer available. |
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