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(b Portland, ME, March 4, 1832; d New York, March 26, 1920).

American painter, interior designer and writer. Colman grew up in New York, where his father, Samuel Colman, ran a successful publishing business. The family bookstore on Broadway, a popular meeting place for artists, offered Colman early introductions to such Hudson River school painters as Asher B(rown) Durand, with whom he is said to have studied briefly around 1850. Having won early recognition for his paintings of popular Hudson River school locations (see Storm King on the Hudson), he was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design in New York in 1854. Most of Colman’s landscapes of the 1850s, for example Meadows and Wildflowers at Conway (1856; Poughkeepsie, NY, Vassar Coll., Frances Lehman Loeb A. Cent.), reveal the influence of the Hudson River school. An avid traveller, he embarked on his first European tour in 1860, visiting France, Italy, Switzerland and the more exotic locales of southern Spain and Morocco. His reputation was secured in the 1860s by his numerous paintings of romantic Spanish sites, notably the large ...

(b Leicester, 1797; d Oxford, Oct 29, 1872).

English publisher and patron. He was one of the earliest patrons of the Pre-Raphaelites, and his bequest of their works to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, is notable among collections formed in the 19th century in that it remains largely intact. (Unless otherwise stated, all works mentioned are in the Ashmolean.) In 1838 Combe became Superintendent of the Clarendon Press at Oxford University, a post he held until his death. Under his management, the Press, hitherto run at a loss, became a source of revenue; Combe’s own substantial share in the profitable business of printing Bibles and prayer books enabled him to acquire a considerable personal fortune. He was a genial, hospitable man of strong religious convictions, a friend and ardent supporter of the Tractarians; John Henry Newman officiated at his marriage in 1840. Combe and his wife Martha (1806–93) were active in many forms of charitable work, and Combe, who edited ...

(b Amsterdam, 1522; d Gouda, Oct 29, 1590).

Dutch printmaker, poet, writer, theologian and philosopher. His work as a printmaker began in Haarlem in 1547, when he made a woodcut for a lottery poster after a design of Maarten van Heemskerck. From then until 1559 Coornhert worked as Heemskerck’s principal engraver. Initially he etched his plates, but during the 1550s he turned to engraving. He was possibly also responsible for the woodcuts after Heemskerck and the publication of Heemskerck’s early prints. In addition, he engraved designs by Willem Thibaut (1524–97) in 1556–7, Lambert Lombard in 1556 and Frans Floris in 1554–7. During this period Philip Galle was his pupil. In 1560 Coornhert temporarily stopped his engraving activities, set up a print publishing house, became a clerk and devoted himself to his literary work. In 1567 he was arrested for political reasons but managed to escape to Cologne in 1568. During his exile, which lasted until 1576...

(b New York, Jan 24, 1919; d Key West, FL, May 7, 1996).

American dealer, patron, and painter. Born into a newspaper-publishing family, he responded to his upper-class establishment upbringing by seeking out ambivalence in art and life. Copley established the Copley Galleries in Los Angeles in 1948 with John Ployardt as partner and showed Magritte, Max Ernst, Roberto Matta, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy, and Joseph Cornell, as well as younger local artists. He regularly purchased a work from each show and built up his collection. Self-taught as a painter, in 1951 he closed the gallery to paint and moved to Paris, where he bought directly from the Surrealists. He returned to the USA in 1963, living and working in Roxbury, CT. He regularly exhibited at the Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, and elsewhere in the USA and Europe. He used Magritte’s method of ‘assembling images’ in his own narrative figurative paintings. As in some Surrealist works, eroticism is the guiding force in brightly coloured and witty paintings. He compared ...

[Cornelio]

(b Hoorn, nr Alkmaar, 1533; d Rome, before April 22, 1578).

North Netherlandish engraver and draughtsman, active in Flanders and Italy. His first documented works are a series of engravings issued by the Antwerp publisher Hieronymous Cock, beginning c. 1553. Cort may have been an apprentice within Cock’s establishment, as none of these prints was inscribed with his name until after the plates had passed out of Cock’s hands. A letter of 1567 to Titian from the Netherlandish writer and painter Domenicus Lampsonius (1532–99) describes Cock as Cort’s master. By 1560 Cort had developed a bold and strongly modelled sculptural style of engraving, influenced in part by the Italian Giorgio Ghisi, who worked for Cock between 1550 and 1555. Cort was particularly successful in reproducing the Italianate figure compositions of Frans Floris, after whom he engraved more than 50 prints, notably the Liberal Arts (seven prints; 1565) and the Labours of Hercules (ten prints; 1565). He also reproduced compositions by ...

[Juan de(s)]

(b Paris, 1592; d c. 1641).

French engraver, active in Spain. He worked first for publishing companies in Paris, executing portraits of Mary Sidney and Philip Sidney for the French translation of Philip Sidney’s Arcadia of the Countess of Pembroke (Paris, 1624). Courbes worked in Spain between 1620 and 1640, mainly in Madrid but also for clients in other parts of the country. He engraved numerous portraits, including that of Lope de Vega (1562–1635), for whose work he produced many title pages and illustrations. He also portrayed Luis Góngora (1561–1627), Henry III of Castille (d 1406), Philip IV and nine members of the Hurtado de Mendoza family for Historia de Cuenca (Madrid, 1629). He engraved a large number of frontispieces with portraits and plates for books, among which his allegories, executed in collaboration with Melchor Prieto (d 1648) for his Psalmodia Eucharistica (Madrid, 1622), are outstanding....

(b Arles, c. 1622; d Paris, c. 1675–80).

French engraver. He travelled to Italy and was a friend of the print-publisher François Langlois de Chartres and the painter Claude Vignon. Basically a reproductive engraver, his line engraving showed strength and precision. Although he reproduced the works of some Italian artists, such as Annibale Carracci (the Virgin Suckling the Child...

(b Kingston upon Hull, 1770; d London, 12 or March 14, 1812).

English publisher and engraver. He studied in London under Francesco Bartolozzi and engraved a number of book illustrations but was best known as a publisher, issuing the designs by William Blake for Robert Blair’s poem The Grave (London, 1743). In 1805 Cromek commissioned Blake to draw and engrave the designs, but Blake felt betrayed when Cromek engaged Luigi Schiavonetti instead because he saw that Blake’s style of engraving would not please the public (for further discussion see Blake, William). Blake was further annoyed when Cromek commissioned Thomas Stothard to paint the Canterbury Pilgrims (1806; London, Tate; for illustration see Stothard, Thomas), an idea that Blake thought had been stolen from him; in 1809 Blake published a very successful singly issued print of it. Bentley has shown that although Cromek had considerable understanding and sympathy for Blake his treatment of him helped to increase the artist’s isolation....

English music, book and fine art printers and publishers . In 1863 the Rev. John Curwen (1816–80), a congregational minister, established the Curwen Press in Plaistow, London with the aim of promulgating the Tonic Sol-fa method of teaching music. Under John Curwen, and after his death under his son John Spencer Curwen (1847–1916), the Curwen Press printed sheet music and texts on music education. By 1908 John Curwen’s grandson Harold Curwen (1885–?1965) had joined the firm and encouraged them to broaden their production to include high-quality limited edition books. Harold also created a lithography studio so that artists could produce book illustrations. In 1920 Oliver Simon (d 1956) joined the press as a typographer, later becoming a renowned book designer. His brother Herbert joined shortly after and together they held the posts of chairman and managing director respectively through the 1940s and 1950s. In ...

(fl Milan, 1430–6).

Italian painter and illuminator. He was one of a large family of painters and illuminators working in Milan in the 15th century. He appears frequently in the registers of the building works of the city’s cathedral and as a creditor of the influential Borromeo family. First recorded in 1430 as the painter of two altarpieces for the cathedral, he is mentioned again in 1433 and 1444 for the gilding of sculpture and in 1442, 1446 and 1448 for further paintings. None of these works survives.

In 1445 and 1446 Giovanni was paid by Vitaliano Borromeo for the illumination of family imprese. However, Cipriani has suggested that these payments were for a group of decorated diplomas (Milan, Trivulziana) granted to the Borromeo family in 1445, and on this basis says that the designs may be by the much better-known Master of the Vitae Imperatorum. A miniature of Filippo Maria Visconti in Galessio da Correggio’s ...

[Danckerts]

Dutch family of architects and artists. Cornelis Danckerts (1536–95) was the city mason of Amsterdam. His son, Cornelis Danckerts de Rij (i) (b Amsterdam 1561; d 1634) possibly received from him his early training in the building trade. Judging from the addition of ‘de Rij’ (surveyor or clerk of works) to his name, he must have been a well-respected land surveyor or building inspector, and on his father’s death he succeeded to his post. The Municipal Works Department at that time consisted of Hendrick de Keyser I (City Architect), Hendrick Jacobsz. Staets (c. 1588–1631; City Carpenter) and Cornelis Danckerts de Rij (i) (City Mason and Land Surveyor). Danckerts worked closely with de Keyser and probably executed his designs for the Zuiderkerk (1603), the Exchange (1608–11) and the Westerkerk (1620). The tower of the Westerkerk (h. 85 m), which was completed in ...

(b Paris, c. 1604; d Laluque, Landes, March 29, 1678).

French painter, engraver and print publisher. Although it was as a painter that he was received (reçu) in 1663 by the Académie Royale, it is as an engraver that he is now remembered. His earliest known print is dated 1630, and he later made many plates, particularly reproductive engravings after his contemporaries Jacques Blanchard and Claude Vignon. He was one of Simon Vouet’s best interpreters, and Vouet himself commissioned from him at least 11 plates after his own paintings. Daret’s most important projects were the engraving of plates for and the publication of M. de Gomberville’s La Doctrine des moeurs (Paris, 1646) and the monumental collection of over 100 portraits in the Tableaux historiques où sont gravez les illustres français et estrangiers (Paris, 1652). His translation of Vasari’s life of Raphael, Abrégé de la vie de Raphael Sansio d’Urbin (Paris, 1651), is celebrated as the first monograph on an artist published in France....

(b Abbeville, May 18, 1703; d Paris, April 23, 1763).

French printmaker and print publisher. He was a pupil of Robert Hecquet and came to specialize in engraved portraits. In 1735 he met the portrait painter Hyacinthe Rigaud and quickly became his favourite engraver, producing his best work after Rigaud’s portraits. His Comtesse de Caylus and Hyacinthe Rigaud were so admired that he was approved (agréé) and admitted (reçu) by the Académie Royale on the same day, 2 June 1742. He was appointed Graveur du Roi in 1743 and c. 1757 became a member of the academy of Augsburg. From 1753 he engraved many paintings for the Galerie de Dresde, including Quos Ego and the Artist’s Children after Rubens. Between 1748 and 1755 he gradually gave up portraits, to devote himself to mythological and genre scenes, mainly after François Boucher but also after Joseph Vernet, David Teniers the younger, Adam Frans van der Meulen and Jean-François de Troy. Around ...

(b Philadelphia, Dec 7, 1892; d New York, June 24, 1964).

American painter and printmaker (see fig.). He was born into an artistic family: his parents studied with Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and his father was the art editor at the Philadelphia Press, a newspaper that included among its employees the Robert Henri circle of artist–reporters. Davis studied art under Henri in New York between 1909 and 1912. His earliest works, which chronicle urban life in the streets, saloons and theatres, are painted with the dark palette and thickly applied brushstrokes typical of the Ashcan school style inspired by Henri. Davis also published illustrations in the left-wing magazine The Masses between 1913 and 1916, and in The Liberator, which succeeded it in the 1920s.

With his contribution of five watercolours Davis was one of the youngest exhibitors at the Armory Show, the international exhibition of modern art that opened in New York in 1913...

Medieval treatise and the most important source on the techniques of manuscript illumination (see Manual, manuscript). The manuscript (Naples, Bib. N., MS. XII.E.27) has no title or signature and was entitled De arte illuminandi by its first editor, Demetrio Salazaro. Containing recipes for the making, preparation and mixing of pigments and colorants, it is a simple and well-organized manual, clearly composed for teaching the illuminator’s craft. It describes consecutively the colours, gold, the temperas and various applications. Unlike most other medieval technical sources, De arte illuminandi is not a compilation of earlier treatises. The manuscript was probably written in southern Italy and dates from the end of the 14th century. No other copies of this text are known.

[Pisan]

(b Venice, c. 1364; d Poissy, nr Paris, ?c. 1430).

Italian writer and publisher, active in France.

At the age of four Christine went with her father, Tommaso di Benvenuto da Pizzano (whose name reflects the origin of his family in the small town of Pizzano in the foothills of Bologna), to Paris, where he served as physician and astrologer to Charles V. In 1379 Christine married a French nobleman, Etienne Castel, who became a royal notary and secretary. She bore him three children before his death in 1389. Since her father had also died between 1384 and 1389, Christine was forced to support both herself and her family. Many women in her situation might have taken religious vows or remarried, but Christine determined to earn her living through her skills as a writer.

Initially she wrote love poetry, which she gathered together at the end of the 1390s in a volume called Cent balades. Although she continued occasionally to write love poetry, such as the ...

(b Veracruz, Mar 13, 1880; d Stamford, CT, Jan 10, 1961).

Mexican illustrator, writer, gallery owner, and publisher, active in the USA. He was the son of a wealthy Mexican lawyer and publisher. De Zayas started his career as an artist by providing drawings for his father’s newspaper in Veracruz. In 1906 he moved on to Mexico City’s leading newspaper, El Diario, but a year later, after the ascension of the dictator Porfirio Diaz, whom the newspaper had opposed, he fled to the USA. There he landed a position making caricatures for the New York Evening World. Shortly after his arrival in the USA, he came into contact with Alfred Stieglitz, who staged solo shows of De Zayas’s caricatures at his gallery Gallery 291 in 1909 and 1910, both of which proved to be huge popular successes.

In 1910 De Zayas traveled to Paris, where he stayed almost a year, scouting out adventurous forms of modern art for Stieglitz, notably the cubist work of Picasso and African sculpture. On his return, equipped with knowledge of European modern art and inspired by the work of the French modernist ...

(b Paris, 1822; d Paris, July 26, 1907).

French printmaker. From the age of 12 he worked for the same jobbing printer, but c. 1840–41 he was employed by two well-known printmakers, Charles Jacque and Louis Marvy (1815–50), to handle their presses. Jacque and Marvy taught him how to paint and draw, and his experience with them turned him into an artist’s printer. He then set up his own studio. In 1848 he completed his first series of etchings, mainly landscape scenes. Although Delâtre was versatile in the various forms of etching, he is best known for the excellence and sensitivity of his work as a printer. He developed the ‘mobile etching’ technique, a way of painting ink on to the plate so that up to 40 unique impressions could be made from the same plate, rather than a uniformly wiped edition. This skill served the Impressionists and influenced the practice of monotype in such artists as Ludovic Lepic and Degas. It also inspired fierce debate on the question of printer intrusion. He quickly established a considerable reputation and soon became the only printer to whom the majority of talented etchers would entrust their work. His print shop became a meeting place for such etchers as Charles-François Daubigny and James McNeill Whistler. The cult of Japonisme is said to have begun there through the ...