10 Facts from Betty Goerke's Choris Lecture

If you were unable to join us last night at the Betty Goerke lecture Louis Choris: Views of Native Life at Mission Dolores and San Francisco Presidio in 1816 then you missed out, so we would like to share 10 fun facts from the lecture:

1. Choris is one of three people to have documented the native people of the Bay Area. Not only did he produce the most images of native life, but they are also the most accurate.
2. Clam shell necklaces were the original Mission Dolores"bling". Wearing one indicated status and wealth.
3. How one wore their hair communicated to others many things, including gender (men wore top knots, ponytails at the crown of the head) or marital status (widows and widowers cut their hair short and wore it down).
4. Poison oak was used in many native traditions. One of which involved a young woman's grandmother carving a pattern into her face and rubbing poison oak into the wounds, tattooing her. This signaled to others that she had achieved marriageable age.
5. How did the natives deal with poison oak? Possibly by rubbing either dirt or banana slug mucus on the irritated area. Maybe both (dirt to absorb the oil of the poison oak and the slug slime to act as an anesthetic.)
6. Choris was not only a talented artist, but a musician as well. Thanks to his documentation, songs which were described as "melancholy" still survive today.
7. While Choris was very talented, when he tried his hand at lithography he just wasn't very good at it. The Didot printing firm produced Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde, Choris supervised the process.
8. Betty Goerke makes a strong case that Marin county is named after Chief Marin.
9. Betty has met "Ötzi the Iceman" and explained that his tattoos were in locations where he likely suffered from arthritis. 
10. Betty Goerke was this year's Milley award recipient for literary arts.

Louis Choris: Views of Native Life at Mission Dolores and San Francisco Presidio in 1816

Louis Choris (1795 - 1828)
From Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde...
Danse des habitans de Californie a la Mission de St. Francisco
Paris: 1822
Hand-colored Lithograph

Arader Galleries & Betty Goerke
 Louis Choris: Views of Native Life at Mission Dolores and San Francisco Presidio in 1816

Please join Arader Galleries & Betty Goerke for a very special lecture at Arader Galleries on Louis Choris: Views of Native Life at Mission Dolores and San Francisco Presidio in 1816

Thursday, October 25, 2012

from 6 - 9 pm

434 Jackson Street

There will be a book signing by Goerke following the lecture of her book: Chief Marin: Leader, Rebel, and Legend.

Betty Goerke has been teaching anthropology and archaeology at the College of Marin for over thirty years. She has conducted archaeological fieldwork in California, Colorado, Greece, Holland, Kenya, and India. She has authored books and articles and has produced several videotapes, including Archaeology: Questioning the Past.

Arader Galleries currently has on exhibition over 40 genuine prints from Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde, illustrated by Louis Choris. The lectures will take place at our beautiful building at 434 Jackson Street surrounded by these prints, all of which can be purchased at the gallery.

This lecture is free to attend. Please RSVP by calling the gallery at (415) 788-5115, availability is limited!

We will look forward to seeing you!

The Arader Galleries Team

Coronelli's Celestial Maps

 Vincenzo Coronelli, a Franciscan monk born in 1650, is synonymous with 17^th century cartography. He was a renowned theologian, geographer, cartogropher, and cosmographer throughout his life and still today. Over his lifetime, Coronelli contributed 140 separate works of cartography and cosmography. Coronelli completed his first map at the age of sixteen. In 1678, Coronelli was commissioned to construct a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for the Duke of Parma. The Duke was so pleased with his five feet wide globes that he appointed Coronelli as his theologian. Three years later he was commissioned to create a set of globes for King Louis XIV. These are some of his most impressive works. The massive globes weighed about 2 tons each and represented the most up-to-date French knowledge of exploration based on accounts from Rene-Robert Cavelier and Sieur de La Salle. His reputation continued to grow over the years and in 1699, he was appointed Father General of the Franciscan Order. In 1705 he returned to his hometown of Venice where he published Atlante Veneto and founded the first geographical society called Accedemia Cosmografica degli Argonauti.

This map displays the most complete knowledge of the celestial world in the late 17th century.This hand-colored copper engraving was completed in Venice circa 1690.It represents the major celestial and astrological theories circulating at the end of the century. Taking center stage is a large celestial planisphere displaying the rotations of the planets and signs of the zodiac calendar. This is surrounded by five illustrated wind heads and five planetary diagrams. This composition is bordered by 28 smaller diagrams including solar and lunar eclipses, terrestrial maps, and astrological maps.If you would like to learn more about this piece, please contact Arader Galleries.

Basso-Relivo Techniques in the 18th Century

Reliefs employ a sculptural technique to make an image appear as if it were raised above the background. In other words, the image is relieved from the medium. Basso-relievo is a technique invented and popularized by an 18th century Irish artist named Samuel Dixon. A copper plate was used to emboss particular areas of the paper which was then painted over with watercolors and gouache. The end result lends a 3-dimensional effect to the subject and embellishes specific elements. Around 1748, the artist published his first collection of twelve paintings featuring the basso-relievo technique. His paintings featured mostly flowers and exotic birds though his works were not based on personal research but rather sketches from George Edwards' Natural History of Uncommon Birds, published in 1743. Dixon went on to complete three sets of twelve paintings featuring the basso-relievo technique.

An English artist by the name of Isaac Spackman was inspired by Dixon's work and published his own set of basso-relievo paintings in the late 18th century. Spackman followed Dixon's technique extremely closely and drew his inspiration from Edwards' Natural History of Uncommon Birds.

William Hayes followed the method put forth by Dixon but used his own personal sketches to create his basso-relievo paintings. He drew from his two published books; A Natural History of British Birds and Rare and Curious Birds in the Menagerie at Osterly Park, Middlesex. Hayes' paintings not only featured the puffed paper effect but glass eyes as well. The combination of the two give his paintings a strong 3-dimensional look.

Each of these artists produced very few basso-relievo works making these pieces extremely unusual and treasured. All of the paintings are in their original frames. The glass eyes used in Hayes' pieces are also original making these pieces extra special. If you have any other inquiries about these 18th century paintings, please contact Arader Galleries.

Early 19th Century Sofas in the UK and the US

In 1811, King George the III of England was deemed unfit to rule and was replaced by his son who became the Prince Regent. Upon George III’s death in 1820, the Prince Regent was coronated as King George IV. The period directly preceding and following the Prince regent's rule has been dubbed the Regency Period. The Regency Period marked the peak of neoclassical design in home décor. Antique furniture from Greece, Rome, and Egypt were used as inspiration and very closely imitated. Ornate carvings, intricate gilding, and flora and fauna design elements were very popular. Anything reminiscent of the idealized Classical period was coveted.

This particular sofa features sleek and slender qualities while clearly displaying a taste for Neoclassical design. The feet splay outwards elegantly and the legs feature spiral fluting, picked out in water-gilding on an ebonized ground. The flowerhead design on the seat apron is also executed through gilding, a prominent motif of the Regency period.

The United States was undergoing its own fascination with the great ancient empires during this time as well. Early 19th century American furniture design was heavily influenced by the resurgence of opulent tastes in Europe. This mahogany couch exhibits characteristic splayed legs and lion paw feet.The mahogany is detailed with intricate fern carvings and cornucopiae design heavily influenced by Grecian models. This couch was recently reupholstered with a fabric that would have been very common in American homes.

Reliving the luxurious lifestyles of long-gone ancient civilizations led to changes in lifestyle, aesthetic preferences, and home decor in societies superseding country, culture, and continent.Here at Arader Galleries, these two couches are exemplary of the taste level in both England and the US throughout the Regency Period. Along with these two pieces, Arader is home to many extraordinary pieces of antique furniture. To learn more about the home decor pieces we have, please contact Arader Galleries.

Guernsey's Auction, September 8, 2012

The recent Roger Tory Peterson and John James Audubon auction, as featured in the NY Times, conducted by Guernsey’s at Arader Galleries on Madison Ave., in New York this last Saturday, was an unmitigated success, and surely heralds a welcome return to a lively auction scene not often seen since the end of 2008.

Old friends and new packed the second floor at the Arader Galleries flagship store, which saw furious bidding for more than 400 lots of original gouache, watercolour and pencil drawings of birds that illustrate Peterson’s iconic Field Guides. With more than 90% sold by lot, Peterson’s place as the best known and best loved illustrator of birds in modern times is secured. “It is impossible to overestimate the role that Roger Tory Peterson played in 20th-century wildlife art and photography. Like the legendary John James Audubon before him, Peterson’s pioneering approach to the art of nature changed how everyday Americans interacted with the world around them, in particular with birds. The detailed paintings Peterson produced depicted birds in a realistic and easily recognisable way and in their natural habitat. That art, translated into his Field Guides to Birds, made modern bird-watching easily do-able by a regular person...” (Guernsey’s sale catalogue).

Audubon’s magnificent hand-coloured aquatints from the double elephant folio edition of  “The Birds of America” (1827-1838), the single most important work on North American ornithology, were more than 80% sold by lot. Many, many lots by both artists achieved well over their high estimates; but by far and away the star of the auction was plate 431, Audubon’s life-size, vibrantly coloured American Flamingo at more than $125,000 inclusive. Other notable prices were achieved for Audubon’s Common American Swann at $97,600, and his Trumpeter Swann at $76,250.

Arader Galleries retains a comprehensive gallery of works of art by both Audubon and Roger Tory Peterson, and we welcome all visitors at our galleries in New York, Philadelphia, Houston and San Francisco, or to our website www.aradersf.com.

The End of the Edo Period: Growing Curiosity in Japan

For roughly 250 years Japan was subject to one ruling family. The Tokugawa family was known for imposing rigid social orders and strict isolationism from foreign contact and trade. The little contact they had with Europeans from 1603-1868 came from Dejima, a small man-made island in Nagasaki's harbor. This island was home to the Dutch East India Company. Any other Europeans that docked in a Japanese port during the Edo period would be put to death without a trial. The complete isolationism nurtured a boom in Japanese culture. Art, entertainment, and fashion became points of interest among urban populations. Around the early 1800's European intrusions were on the rise. To understand these new "barbarians", Rangaku (Dutch studies) became important to the Japanese in understanding and defeating the foreign enemies. Growing interest in the west only increased after a peasant uprising in 1830 forced the Japanese to acknowledge the growing issues within their country. As more citizens looked to the West for answers, Japanese officials tightened their anti-foreigner policy once again. This only caused more unrest amongst the people and invited in more westerners trying to establish trade relations.

This map completed in 1850 is a prime example of the increasing interest the Japanese were developing in the West. This world map displays a fusion of the artistic culture that had blossomed in the Edo period and the desire to understand how the rest of the world functioned and interacted with each other. Instead of focusing solely on Japan's towns and provinces, the mapmaker indicates the value of trading internationally while stylistically holding on to Japanese traditions. Many maps made in this era disregard geographical accuracy, believing that this was inevitable. In comparison to European made maps from nearly a century prior, the level of accuracy is years advanced.

 Japan began reluctantly opening its borders to American traders. This hurt Japan's economy but opened up the country to Western culture. By 1859, western texts and literature were being translated by the government and western military schools led by the Dutch were allowed. Japan ushered in a new era in 1868 when the final Tokugawa resigned and all Japanese borders were opened. Maps from this point on take on a very distinctly European look and cartographers begin paying close attention to the accuracy of their pieces.

This map from 1850 is a rare piece representing a time in which Japan was on the brink of a major cultural change. It retains the Edo period's style and execution while acknowledging Japan's place in the booming world trade markets.

In addition to this historical map, Arader Galleries also offers a selection of Japanese works from this era on a variety of subjects including: whaling, botanicals, livestock, and commerce. For more information, please contact Arader Galleries.