The Frick Art & Historical Center presents Three Centuries of Printmaking, an exhibition on view June 16–September 2, 2012.
Thomas Shotter Boys (English, 1803–1874), Rue Notre Dame, Paris (from Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen). Chromolithograph. Frick Art & Historical Center
Built around the Frick’s permanent collection of 18th-century mezzotints and 19th-century chromolithographs, and complemented by a traveling exhibition The Prints of Jacques Callot, these three exhibitions span over 200 years and provide a look at three different centuries, yet all the works demonstrate the importance of the printmaker in recording, publishing and disseminating a distinct view of the world.
The Prints of Jacques Callot is composed of 35 etchings made by 17th-century master Jacques Callot (1592–1635) who revolutionized printmaking.
One of the first artists to gain fame exclusively through prints, Callot made more than 1,400 prints during his relatively short career. His work reflect the mannerist elegance of the late Renaissance moving into the theatricality of the Baroque.
Marked by keen wit, incisive observations, and social criticism, his prints have been hugely influential on succeeding generations of artists, including Goya, whose Disasters of War is indebted to Callot’s series of prints Miseries of War. This traveling exhibition on loan from the Reading Public Museum features a selection of Callot’s prints depicting landscapes, noble ladies, beggars, theater scenes, religious images, military, and war scenes.
The Prints of Jacques Callot will be presented in conjunction with two complementary exhibitions assembled from the Frick’s permanent collection of 18th-century mezzotints and 19th-century prints. A selection of fine 18th-century English mezzotints purchased by Henry Clay Frick in the early 20th century will be combined with English portraiture in the collection for a fascinating and gossipy look at who-was-who in 18th-century England.
The Frick’s complete folio Picturesque Architecture in Paris, Ghent, Antwerp, Rouen, and Drawn from Nature on Stone by Thomas Shotter Boys will be exhibited together for the first time in 20 years. These 29 chromolithographs by Thomas Shotter Boys (1803-1874) are technically brilliant, full of charming detail, and give a glimpse into the sights tourists of the early 19th century would have admired whether traveling, or leafing through Boys’ groundbreaking publication.
Together these three exhibitions span more than 200 years and provide a look at three different centuries as observed by artists working in different forms and for different purposes, yet all illustrating the importance of the printmaker in observing, recording, publishing, and disseminating a distinct view of the world.
The Prints of Jacques Callot is organized by The Reading Public Museum, Reading, Pennsylvania.
Frick Art & Historical Center
7227 Reynolds Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
412-371-0600
www.thefrickpittsburgh.org