American Wood Engraving

In the late nineteenth century, wood-engraving was the principle medium of illustration employed by publishers. From this beginning, print collector Bill Brandt goes on to recount the story of the Society of American Wood-Engravers. He reveals the medium's intricacies, the controversies sparked between traditional wood-engravers and America's New School, and the international acclaim rightly bestowed on these innovative American artists. The lost art of interpretive wood-engraving comes to life in Brandt's detailed account. Using tools the size of dental instruments, the movements talented and resourceful men and women engraved award-winning works of art - both interpretations of famous masterpieces and striking original works. The fifty prints reproduced on these pages, scanned from Brandt's extensive collection with most produced at full size, highlight the astonishing skill and painstaking craftsmanship required of a wood-engraving artist of the golden age. The author profiles many leading personalities on the American wood-engraving scene, including Alexander Anderson, William J. Linton, Anna Botsford Comstock, General Rush C. Hawkins, Timothy Cole, and Elbridge Kingsley, whose revolutionary direct-from-nature wood-engravings were created in rural New England from his horse-drawn sketching car. Includes over eighty illustrations.Brandt tells how the Society of American Wood-Engravers burned brightly for almost twenty years, and then faded away in the early days of photoreproductions. Readers, glimpsing the warm glow of a remarkable era, will take pride in this little-known period of American art history.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This book is a beautiful collection of wood engravings from some of the leading artists of the day. The Society of American Wood Engravers showcases the best of their work, covering a range of subjects and styles. This book will be a treasured addition to any art lover's collection. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.