Paintings & Prints
Current Articles:

Lee Miller: Photographer and So Much More
One hundred years ago, in 1907, Elizabeth Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. Lee Miller died in Sussex, England, 70 years later. She would have deserved a place in twentieth-century cultur...
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Jacob Maentel (1763-1863): Portrait of a Hatter, 15” x 12”, 1825-30. Courtesy of Pook & Pook. This unusual oversized Pennsylvania watercolor and ink on paper portrait of hatter John Mays of Schaefferstown, Lebanon County, was purchased at Pook & Pook’s May 13, 2006 Auction by David Wheatcroft for a record price (for a single figure Maentel at auction) of $469,000. Wheatcroft told us, “This portrait of John Mays is an exceptional display of Mantel’s compositional prowess. The shelves of top hats are both a direct reference is Mr. Mays’ livelihood as well as an engaging visual background. The hats are robustly drawn and each is distinctive with subtle movement, accomplished by tonal changes thoughout. The Hatter stands poised, handsome and ready for business. It’s folk art at its most compelling.” Large full-length watercolor portraits by Jacob Maentel always bring a premium, and this one had the added benefit of being an occupational study. The only other known large occupational Maentel resides at the American Folk Art Museum. That portrait depicts Dr. Christian Bucher, also of Schaefferstown. For many years, Bucher was thought to be an apothecary or a pharmacist. According to the AFAM, recent research has identified Dr. Bucher as a physician. Modest Folk: Watercolor Portraits on Paper
“Buy the best you can afford and what makes your heart goes crazy. Remember, if it isn’t good now – it won’t get any better 10 years from now.”
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Past Articles:

Great Starter: Map of Boston
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This is a small section of a nine-fold map of Boston that Don Cresswell brought to the Ellis Show. “It’s rare, and it’s wonderful,” he told me. The map, printed in 1829, was based on “an actual sur...
Chris Lane: Hand-Colored Engraving
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William Birch’s prints of Philadelphia, issued in 1800, are the first series of views of any American city. They give us a unique visual record of Philadelphia at a time when it was the most impor...
Chris Lane: Aquatint
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I love this splendid view of early Philadelphia prosperity. It shows a particularly abundant “harvest” of livestock on the way to market. We are told that it took 100 carts to transport 86,731 poun...
Show Stopper: James Infante
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“I just have a real emotional connection with her – her serenity, it’s in her expression, in those cool curves of the applied strips – and there’s a touch of whimsy in her, too.” James Infante left...