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Image features a bookmark or stevengraph with a portrait medallion of Abraham Lincoln surmounted by an eagle perched on a shield flag that holds a banner in its beak that reads "E Pluribus Unum." Inscription at top reads: "Assassinated at Washington 14 April 1865," and just below another inscription: "I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by. And if it be the pleasure of Almighty God. To die by. (A Lincoln). Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Lincoln Bookmark
This post was originally published on July 26, 2018. Stevengraphs are small woven pictures that depict famous buildings, historical events, iconic scenes, and prominent public figures such as members of royal families, politicians and athletes. They were produced by Thomas Stevens (English, 1828–1888), a Coventry weaver who customized the jacquard loom to produce small detailed...
Image features a drawing, a self-portrait of the artist, collar open, holding a book in his right hand. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Ye Ghost
  An influential painter, writer, and teacher, Kenyon Cox was perhaps best known for his murals that decorate state capitols and courthouses across the United States. The collection at Cooper Hewitt includes hundreds of his drawings, including six sketchbooks from his time as an art student—first in Ohio and then traveling to Paris—offering valuable insights...
Image features a portrait of a woman peeling an apple, seen frontally, with a veil covering her hair. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Care for an Apple?
Daniel Huntington towered over the New York art world in the nineteenth century, serving as president of the National Academy of Design and the Century Association.  He began as a landscape painter working in the style of the Hudson River School, but soon expanded his repertoire to include history painting, portraiture, and literary subjects.  Cooper...
Images features a portrait of Sir Anthony van Dyck. Only his head is worked up, looking over a lightly outlined shoulder. The rest of the page is blank.
Meet Sir Anthony
Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), knighted by King Charles I of England, was a Flemish painter renowned for his portraits of members of the British Court. Trained in Antwerp by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Van Dyck, like his teacher, experimented with making prints.[1] In the late 1520s or early 1530s, Van Dyck began an extensive...
Image features drawing showing an ornamental frame surrounding a central blank oval. In the foreground, a putto holds a book and globe, and nearby lie an anchor, axe, baton and Sir Walter Raleigh's head. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Sharp Medicine
In the mid-eighteenth century, the British historian Thomas Birch (1705 – 1766) published a series of short biographies of famous figures from his nation’s past. Accompanying each of the 108 biographies was an engraved portrait of the subject, whose likeness was presented within an elaborate decorative setting.[1] These ornamental frames were designed by Hubert-François Bourguignon...
This image features a portrait of a female figure with red hair wearing a black dress. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
An Ode to Melancholy
The identity of the sitter for this composition remains unknown. However, subtle details of the subject’s facial expression accentuate a sense of introspection and melancholy. Distinct contours of the jaw and cheek bones, lips, nose, and eyes were first drawn in graphite. Soft tones of cream and white paint (of varying consistencies and amounts) developed...
Woven in off-white with the dyed image of a face in grey/pink. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
Warp Face
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. Trude Guermonprez began experimenting with what she called “textile graphics” around 1970; she described this evolution in her work as moving toward: “More [of] an awareness of our ties with the universe…I sense a quieting of passions...
Facial Features
At first glance, this design drawing for the tapestry Our Mountains by Trude Guermonprez (American, b. Germany, 1910–1976) may appear to be a simple mountain landscape. A closer look reveals that the cool blue-green peaks and valleys are actually formed by three reclining faces in profile. In the background, the face of Guermonprez’s husband John...
Calendar for 1792, featurings six portrait vignettes on the top row
Guillo-TIME: Measuring Time in 1792 France
This print is a French calendar for the first six months of the year 1792. The days of each month are lined up in a column, with the top of the column featuring a roundel with a portrait. To the right of the numerical dates are respective saints as per the Catholic calendar.  The six...