EXHIBIT: Introduction | On Drawing | On Printing
by Jessica Duffin Wolfe
White, Gleeson, Alexander Millar, and H. Orrinsmith, Eds. Practical Designing: A Handbook on the Preparation of Working Drawings. London: George Bell, 1893. 19 cm x 13 cm x 2 cm. Hayter, Charles. An Introduction to Perspective, Practical Geometry, Drawing and Painting: A New and Perfect Explanation of the Mixture of Colours. Sixth edition. ed. London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1845. 28 x 19.5 x 2.5 cm. Viollet-le-Duc, Eugène-Emmanuel. Histoire d'Un Dessinateur: Comment on Apprend a Dessiner. Paris: J. Hetzel, 1879. 24 cm x 16 cm x 3.5 cm. Bolton, Hannah. Drawing from Objects: Being an Abstract of Lessons on Linear Drawing Given at the Home and Colonial Training Schools: Chiefly Designed for Teachers. London: Groombridge, 1850. 22 cm x 14.5 cm x 2 cm. Audsley, George Ashdown. Guide to the Art of Illuminating on Vellum and Paper. Fifth edition. London: George Rowney, 1911. 20.5 cm x 13.5 cm x 1 cm. Howard, Frank. Imitative Art: Or, the Means of Representing the Pictorial Appearances of Objects, as Governed by Aerial and Linear Perspective. London: Darton and Clark, 1840. 19.5 cm x 12.5 cm x 1.5 cm. Bickham, George. The Young Clerks Assistant, Or, Penmanship Made Easy, Instructive and Entertaining: Being a Compleat Pocket Copy-Book Curiously Engrav'd for the Practice of Youth in the Art of Writing. London: Richard Ware, 1733. 20 cm x 13 cm x 1.7 cm. Harding, James Duffield. Lessons on Art. Second edition. London: Winsor and Newton, 1854. 28 x 19.5 x 2.5 cm. Anon. and Philip H. Delamotte. Willie's First Drawing Lessons: Simple Lines of Nature by a Lady; Illustrated with Numerous Engravings by Philip H. Delamotte. London: Thomas Nelson, 1857. 18.5 cm x 14 cm x 1 cm. Hine, Henry George, Ed. The Book of Fun: Or, Laugh and Learn for Boys and Girls. Second Series. London: James Gilbert, 1843. 17.7 cm x 12 cm x 2 cm. Foster, Vere. Vere Foster's Drawing Copy-Books: Adopted by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland. London: Marcus Ward, 1869. 16.5 cm x 21 cm x 0.2 cm.
To explore this exhibit, hover over and click on the images and text.
ON DRAWING
Until Talbot’s 1839 invention of photography, the hand-drawn, hand-carved, or hand-etched line was an element of every reproduced image. This effect only later began to seem like a layer of visual interference. The books in this case use their illustrations to display the practice of drawing by hand—as craft, art, design, scientific method, textual decoration, writing aid, as taught to children—and as the origin of print illustration.

Next case: On Printing