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Evil Empires II: British Images , 48 political drawings, Berlin 1943
The works of Thuringian graphic artist A. Paul Weber were strongly influenced by the visionary imaginations of Alfred Kubin. In his main work, the graphic cycle “British images”, published in 1941, influences from Gustave Doré´s “London Pilgrimage” can be traced, as well as of those of other French illustrators such as Théophile Steinlen, Charles Léandre […]
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The Translation of the Arch-Imperator , (H. Durand-Brager: Sainte-Hélène, 1844 / C. N. Lemercier: Translation du corps de Napoleon, ca.1842)
Special Artist Henri Durand-Brager had made a name for himself with an opulent documentation of the return of the remains of Napoleon I from foreign, British occupied soil to his homeland. Brager´s expedition report Sainte-Hélène was published in an impressive folio format in 1844. What is remarkable, is that the cycle completely disregards the actual […]
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Infinite Spaces. On William James Linton´s Vignette Art
Lintoniana VIII Infinite Spaces. On William James Linton’s Vignette Art “With the separation of draftsman and engraver began the decline of engraving as an art (…) began a system of special employment; and having to depend on draftsmen, engravers ceased to draw, ceased to rely on themselves. Wanting the wider power, the enevitable course was […]
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Rebellious Landscapes – William James Linton´s art of graphic Macchia.
Lintoniana VI What had laid the foundations for Linton’s reputation as a leading proponent of artistic xylography in the 19th century was the extraordinary intensity of his landscape depictions and the graphic freedom that he allowed himself to this end. The apex of his decade-long landscape work was marked in the mid 1860s by the […]
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On the Cadaver of the Father of Supranationality. – A further reading of Linton´s “Cetewayo and Dean Stanley” Conversation
Lintoniana V “Never did corpse of hero on the battle-field, (…) exite such emotions as the stern simplicity of that hour, in which the principle of utility triumphed over the imagination and the heart.“ (The Monthly Repository, 1832) What did Linton actually mean when, at the end of his conversation piece Cetewayo and Dean Stanley, […]
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Me too in Verdun # 3 – On the Views and Drawings of the War Traveller Goethe.
3) Verdun revisited In the circles of specialists in German studies, the political Goethe is regarded as “difficult”. His ambitions in this regard are often treated as fringe problem zones that can be neglected within the monumental, aesthetic whole comprised of creative writing and natural science, which one is accustomed to admiring him for. What […]
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Burning Cetewayo´s house and other incidents of the British Zulu-War
– encounter with a Zulu – punitive expedition – death of the Prince Imperial – Special Artists setting fire on a Kraal – the corpse of the Prince Imperial- Queen Victoria´s return from the Highlands in mourning – in search of King Cetewayo – the pursuit of Cetewayo – Cetewayo´s treasures – ambassadors from King […]
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Daumier and the Franco – Prussian “Dance of Death”
Daumier´s late cartoons on the Franco-Prussian war are counted among his best. They were inspired by Alfred Rethel´s famous wood-cut cycle “Dance of Death” and of course by Goya´s visionary etchings. The future relationsships between the newly founded German Reich and its neighbour provoked series of imaginative adaptions by some influential graphic artists like Henri […]
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Social Credit & Direct Democracy – William James Linton: “The English Republic”. London / Brantwood, 1850-55
Lintoniana I “We are Utopians, theorists, dreamers, enthusiasts, fanatics, madmen, in a word, we are republicans.” W.J. Linton, 1850 In December 1850, almost two years after the revolutionary hopes of a democratic change had been buried Europe-wide under a mantle of resignation and depression, radical artisan William James Linton began to proclaim his forceful vision […]
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Thomas Nast: «Dead Men´s Clothes Soon Wear Out»
This drawing by Thomas Nast, in the MePri-Collection, is a very precise preliminary study for one of his best-known political cartoons. The wood engraving made from this 18 x 22.5 cm sketch filled a large-format double page spread in “Harpers Weekly”, the most widely circulated American illustrated magazine of the time, on 10 September 1870. […]