Snapshots of the Past

[Gentleman reading] – Antique Wall Art

[Gentleman reading], [between ca. 1880 and ca. 1890] — historic drawing
[Gentleman reading], [between ca. 1880 and ca. 1890]. Historic drawing from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Few images capture their era like this historic drawing of [Gentleman reading]. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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[Gentleman reading]

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A gentleman sits absorbed in his reading, with a spittoon placed close at hand, a detail that marks the drawing as a small domestic or public-room scene rather than a portrait. Spittoons were a common fixture in American hotels, offices, and parlors through the late 1800s, and their presence here signals the everyday habits of the period. The drawing is an India ink study over pencil on bristol board, the kind of small vignette that periodicals of the 1880s used to illustrate short pieces of text. Its signature, F. Graetz, lower left, identifies the artist, and the sheet is now held in the Caroline and Erwin Swann collection of caricature and cartoon at the Library of Congress.

Created / published[between ca. 1880 and ca. 1890]
Medium1 drawing : India ink over pencil on bristol board ; 11.8 x 11.2 cm. (sheet)
GenreDrawings American 1870-1900.Periodical illustrations American 1870-1900.
NotesNo copyright information found with item. Signed, lower left: F. Graetz. Title devised. Bequest and gift; Caroline and Erwin Swann; 1974; (DLC/PP-1974:232.284) Forms part of: Caroline and Erwin Swann collection of caricature and cartoon (Library of Congress).
SubjectsReading--1870-1900. Spittoons--1870-1900.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,460 × 1,536 px · prints to 5 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-156830

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