at long last blanche

Little is known regarding the writer/artist Blanche McManus, except that she was born on Talladega Plantation, in East Feliciania Parish, Louisiana, in 1870, studied in London and Paris, and returned to the U.S. in 1893 when she established a studio in Chicago. By 1895, she was authoring and illustrating a series of children's books, including The True Mother Goose (1895), The Voyage of the Mayflower (1897) and How the Dutch came to Manhattan (1897). In those same years, she was producing illustrations for other authors books, often working on three or four books at one time.

Around 1900, she travelled with writer/husband, Francis Miltoun (Milburg Francisco Mansfield), throughout Europe and North Africa.

Their collaboration led to a series of travel books, fully illustrated by McManus....The couple is probably best known for a series of illustrated travel books which incorporated the newly invented automobile within a typical travelog of the period.

Blanche McManus' sketches and water colors of the people they met and views of archi- tectural/natural scenes adds an interesting element to the books.

McManus published her first work at the age of 25. and by 30 had illustrated 15 books, 6 of which she authored also.1

(here are her alice in wonderland illustrations.)

and one more wonderful image.

who will remember their names?

[One] series by Hiroshige which we will describe is one entitled Kokon Joruri Tsukushi, "Ancient and Modern Dramas Illustrated" ; full size, upright. The number in a complete set is not known, but fourteen plates are here recorded, the largest number hitherto mentioned in any publication, as far as the writer is aware.

The title of the series is on a narrow yellow panel in the top right-hand corner, and the sub-title of the illustration on a red panel in the opposite corner, on each plate. Publisher, Sanoki ; below Hiroshige's signature is a red chrysan- themum seal, a device which has not hitherto been noted on any Hiroshige print; and two censors' seals, which place the date of the series about 1846, during the Prohibi- tion period. Very rare.

1. Sub-title : Katsuragawa Renri-no-Shigarami (the name of the drama), which concerns two lovers, Choyemon, a man forty years old, and O Han, aged fourteen, who, despairing of obtaining their parents' permission to marry, resolve to commit suicide together.

Choyemon is here shown carrying his youthful love on his back, to die together in the waters of the Katsura River, a full moon the only witness of their tragic end. One of the best plates in the series of those known.

The subject of shinju, or double suicide, was first drama- tized in 1703 by the playwright Chikamatsu Monzayemon, in a play called Sonezaki Shinju. Such dramas were called Shinju-mono, and became exceedingly popular, owing to the beautiful language in which Monzayemon described these tragedies, both with the public and other contemporary dramatists, and it is said their influence was such that the numbers of cases of double suicide increased to an alarming extent.

('captains courageous,' and nursery rhyme illustration, by blanche mcmanus; more from her tomorrow. sinbad illustration from edmund dulac. illustration from 'kling klang gloria' -- a book of childrens' songs -- by heinrich lefler.)

blanche can wait

it all began because i found a poster by blanche mcmanus in one of my books, and so i had to explore. there will be way more another day (maybe tomorrow), but in the meantime, perhaps you can see why this poster of hers provoked today's post. (i already had the ohara koson, which is also inspiring.)

katsu- shika hoku- sai did his manga in 1821, and jules- auguste habert-dys gave us this gorgeous illustration, inspired by the japanese work, some 80 years later.

hiroshige's birds flew cross the moon some time around 1800, and h. charles tomlinson's birds had to wait 100 years before they could gather up this girl's palm of crumbs.



and the same time frame occurred before the book's flock was set free (unknown designer); they waited 100 years after hiroshige's work.

nakamura hochu worked even earlier, circa 1700, but hoytema, dutch, was painting birds 150 years before he was born.

(for more birds, check out some of our earlier posts here, and here, and here. and be sure not to miss the charming post here.)

one more reminder of what went not so long before

from hiroshige commest all things

the more i study the visual arts of this period the more i am astonished i am at the breadth of influence of hiroshige (whose work was, perhaps, the first stuff available).






the latest thing i've found, here, are some of dulac's illustrations for hawthorn's tanglewood tales. (though i'll admit that i think i could eventually find them all if every hiroshige print were online.)









we saw czeschka's inspired interpretation of hiroshige's eagle, and now we see dulac's bow as well.









we also saw czeschka's modelling of a boat after hiroshige's method of portraying them, and here we have dulac's too.

•

aha! i have identified one of the images in the background of one of the pere tanguy portraits. i will assume that van gogh did with these what he did with the others -- he traced the prints themselves, then made a grid and transferred them this way. just below that is the same kiesai eisen image we saw here.




and of course, hiroshige did the original.














just as a side note: i guess that another way to do it is the way miro did with his friend ricart: he pasted it on! (have yet to identify that one, though.)

(p.s. doesn't that 'eye' on this boat resemble the one on dulac's boat?)

the flowering of japan in van gogh's heart

For two centuries, Japan discouraged trade with the rest of the world. In the 1850s, however, the country finally bowed to outside pressure and opened its ports to foreign vessels and Western commercial interests. Japanese prints, lacquerware, and porcelains flooded into Europe, creating a craze for furniture and crafts of Japanese design.

European artists were eager to abandon the staid conventions of academic art, and they freely imitated the bold, pure color, assertive outlines, and cropped compositions of Japanese prints. Japanese art created an indelible impression on Van Gogh.

He, like many of his colleagues, avidly collected woodblock prints: "We like Japanese painting, we are influenced by it-all Impressionists have that in common."1










The nineteenth-century woodblock print by Keisai Eisen depicting a high-ranking courtesan (oiran) was reproduced in reverse on the cover of Paris Illustré, in a special edition entitled "Le Japon" (May 1886).








When Van Gogh saw the magazine, he made a tracing of the cover incorporating a grid that he later transferred in enlarged form to canvas. 2

[this is the same method he used when making the other above copies]







and this is van gogh's friend whom he called pere tanguy. he was an art supply dealer.
i would love to find the originals for all of the prints shown behind him (in both versions), as well as in the few additional prints in which he featured them, but so far no luck.




(previous coverage here)

singing the unsung

just a few of the books at pbo unattributed to any designer

at long last armstrong

so much is evoked by the book designs of margaret armstrong that it is inconceivable that there would ever be any style of design that would be unnatural to her hands.

here in this small selection, the pure, simple japonisme is obvious, including the imagery of poppies, dragonflies, and lotus.

but also obvious are the design forays into arts & crafts, an off-shoot of japonisme with its own particular character. the van dyke books take on this flavor.

in any case, the exuberance, the thrill with 'the line' and with ornament, the pleasure with the natural world, all make this woman--this designer's offerings still a gift today.

resources
binding collection
american book designer
publishers' bindings online
unseen hands
flower bindings
beauty for commerce
handsome books (plus do a search for her name)