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Now available: highlights from the collection of The Morgan Library & Museum

Paul Cézanne. Still Life with Pears and Apples, Covered Blue Jar, and a Bottle of Wine. 19th century. Watercolor on wove paper. Image and data provided by The Morgan Library and Museum.

The Morgan Library & Museum (The Morgan) has contributed approximately 200 images from its permanent collection to the Artstor Digital Library. The selection provides a range of highlights from The Morgan’s European drawings collection from the Renaissance to the 20th century, featuring celebrated works from Albrecht Dürer through Francisco Goya and Paul Cézanne.

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Now available: the New-York Historical Society: Museum & Library

William Davis Hassler. Mr. Sowerby on his horse on the Speedway near High Bridge, New York City, undated (ca. 1905-1911). Washington Bridge visible.|William D. Hassler photograph collection, approximately 1910-1921. William Davis Hassler. Image and data from New-York Historical Society: Museum & Library.

The New-York Historical Society (New-York Historical) is contributing more than 21,000 images from its museum and library collections to the Artstor Digital Library. The selection encompasses many aspects of the combined resources of the New-York Historical, including highlights across the diverse collecting areas—American paintings, sculpture, prints and drawings, decorative arts and artifacts, and historical photographs.

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Around the web: Alec Baldwin’s fake painting, art by political prisoners, and why do people touch art?

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  Victor Hugo, Vianden Seen through a Spider Web, 1871. Image and original data provided by Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource, N.Y.; artres.com

  Unauthorized touching makes some museums a multi-sensory experience–but why do museum-goers do it?

• A team of archeologists from the University of Cincinnati recently discovered an intricately carved sealstone that “will change the way that prehistoric art is viewed.”
• The National Gallery in London will be exhibiting a survey of black & white paintings exploring why artists from the 14th through 20th centuries have chosen to create monochrome works.
• Research shows that while people can recognize corporate logos, they are terrible at recreating them as drawings.

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A brief history of Majolica

George Jones. “Punch” Bowl. 1870-1880. Image and original data provided by Majolica International Society.

“Majolica” is the word used to denote the brightly colored, low-fired earthenware commercially introduced by the Minton Company at the 1851 London Exhibition of All Nations. This was in accordance with Herbert Minton’s long-held desire to capture the market of the newly emergent Middle Class. Majolica, a Victorian phenomenon, was a huge success at the Crystal Palace and soon became a worldwide fad, with factories on three continents and Australia to satisfy the buying craze it had inspired. Deborah English, Librarian, The Marilyn Karmason Majolica Reference Library of the Majolica International Society (MIS), has provided a history of the wares to celebrate the addition of the MIS collection to the Artstor Digital Library.

Staffordshire potters first developed lead glazes of green and brown in the 18th Century, but it was not until Herbert Minton of Stoke-on-Trent brought the French chemist Leon Arnoux to England, that more vibrant colors began to appear. This was possible, thanks to Mr. Arnoux’s previous work with the sumptuous porcelain glazes of Sèvres. Mr. Arnoux also persuaded several prominent French sculptors to join him at Minton, including A.E. Carrier-Belleuse, Paul Comolera, and Pierre Emile Jeannest. They joined the already formidable staff that Mr. Minton had built, including Alfred Lord Stevens, Baron Carlo Marochetti, John Bell, A.W.N. Pugin, and others. Mr. Minton formally introduced his new ware at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851, even though English potters and English-born potters in the USA had been working on the formulas for some time. Arnoux’s saturated colors were the radical boost the new material needed. It soon happened that an astonishing number of forms evolved, sometimes in bizarre combinations.

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Now available: Alka Patel Archive: Afghanistan and Iran, art and architecture

Herat Jami Masjid: West Iwan. 1200-1498. Ghurid; Timurid, Herāt, Herāt (province). Image and original data provided by Alka Patel Archive. © 2011 Alka Patel.

Alka Patel and the University of California, Irvine have contributed approximately 5,000 images of the art and architecture of historic Islamic sites in Afghanistan and Iran to the Artstor Digital Library.  

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The party of the century: Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball

Elliott Erwitt. USA; NYC; Candice Bergen dancing at the Truman Capote B&W Ball at the Plaza Hotel. 1966. ©Elliott Erwitt / Magnum Photos

Truman Capote’s fame transcended his literary status; he was famous for being, well, famous half a century before reality television and social media stars even existed. Also a uniquely gifted writer, Capote sought fame through publicity stunts, television appearances, and his friendships with both the social and Hollywood elite of the mid-twentieth century. Capote nurtured a persona based on being entertaining, rapier-witted, and eager to spread a rumor–attributes that would later haunt him.

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Now Available: Restoration of Cultural Monuments in Oaxaca, Mexico

Santo Domingo de Guzmán, interior. 1572-1666 (original construction). Zapotec and Mixtec, Oaxaca de Juárez, México. Photograph by José María Bilbao Rodríguez. Visual Resources Collection, University of Texas at Austin, School of Architecture

The School of Architecture Visual Resources Collection at The University of Texas has contributed more than 900 images to the Artstor Digital Library documenting two restoration projects of Mexican architectural landmarks in Oaxaca: the Templo y Exconvento de Santo Domingo de Guzmán and Teposcolula Open Chapel—elaborate reconstruction initiatives that both began in the mid-1990s.

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Now available: additional images from Ralph Lieberman: Architectural Photography

Vicino Orsini, patron|Pirro Ligorio, landscape architect. Bomarzi, Italy. Hell’s Mouth. c. 1552-1580. Image: © Ralph Lieberman.

The widely published art historian and photographer Ralph Lieberman has contributed more than 2,300 additional architectural photographs to the Artstor Digital Library, bringing our total from this collection to more than 8,000.

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Now available: Misun Ahn: Contemporary Architecture, Japan, and South Korea

Kisho Kurokawa. National Art Center Tokyo 国立新美術館 Kokuritsu Shin-Bijutsukan. Image and original data provided by Misun Ahn: Contemporary Architecture, Japan and South Korea.

Architect Misun Ahn has contributed approximately 800 images of Japanese and South Korean contemporary architecture to the Artstor Digital Library.

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Now available: 5,850 photographs from the Minor White Archive (Princeton University Art Museum)

Minor White. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco. August 24, 1951. Gelatin silver print. The Minor White Archive, Princeton University Art Museum, bequest of Minor White. © Trustees of Princeton University

The Princeton University Art Museum has contributed approximately 5,850 images by the seminal American modernist photographer Minor White to the Artstor Digital Library. This contribution represents a substantial selection from the Minor White Archive which first went to Princeton as a gift of the artist in 1976.

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