The paper money we handle every day depicts familiar portraits of presidentsand statesmen, but how many people know that a woman's portrait was once a standardlikeness on federal currency? Or that a notorious showgirl's portrait was engraved forbond coupons? Or that a portrait of one of Queen Victoria's daughters was turned into"Young America" for use on stock certificates? The exhibition Images of Value: TheArtwork Behind U.S. Security Engraving 1830s-1980s, on public view at the GrolierClub from February 22 to April 29, 2017, presents a rare look behind the images thatappeared on bank notes and securities produced in the United States for over 150 years.

For the first time visitors can see a remarkable range of original wash drawingsand paintings, period photographs and prints used to engrave the images on documentsof value for the United States and countries ranging from Argentina to China to Spain,along with the documents on which the resulting engravings appeared. The exhibition isprimarily from the holdings of Mark D. Tomasko, a private collector, scholar, andresearcher who documents the engravers, artists, designers, and bank note firms.

Much news has been made in recent months about portraits of women coming toU.S. federal paper money, but in reality it's a case of women coming back to federalpaper money. Martha Washington's portrait was a constant presence on US SilverCertificates from 1886 to the turn-of-the-century, and possible sources for the image usedare on display along with the Silver Certificates on which she appeared.

Before the Civil War banks were chartered by the states, and most local banksissued their own bank notes. This created a large demand for quality paper money andgave rise to a thriving group of bank note engraving firms, effectively making the U.S. theworld leader in security engraving by the late 1850s.

Exquisite miniature drawings by Asher B. Durand, George W. Hatch, HenryInman, and Thomas Birch illustrate the era when artwork needed to be drawn in a verysmall size to be engraved. Photography later liberated the artwork from the miniaturesize (the art could be photo-reduced to the size to be engraved). The result was thegolden age of wash drawings, 1850s-1870s, with marvelous allegorical and genredrawings by American artists including the outstanding F. O. C. Darley, whose drawingsof the American scene set a high standard. Featured in the exhibition are Darley'sdrawings of Union Civil War soldiers, and some of his genre subjects. Other noted artistsshown for this era include James D. Smillie and Walter Shirlaw.

American and European prints of the mid- and late-nineteenth century includeseveral remarkable mid-century French chromolithographs of female heads, an artengraving of one of Queen Victoria's daughters (turned into a security engraving entitled"Young America"!), a large theater poster, and a large print of Rosa Bonheur's Horse Fair(one of the largest paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at 8' x 16'). Horse Fairbecame an engraving 1 1⁄2" x 3 1⁄2" and was used on documents as diverse as an 1870sBolivian bank note and an 1880s New York City street railway bond.

By the twentieth century photographs became more commonly used as theartwork source for bank note picture engravings. On view are photographs of Chinesesubjects turned into engravings on bank notes for China but produced by American banknote firms. Other period photos used for engravings include a large panorama of LowerManhattan in 1904 and a portrait of Evelyn Nesbit, the "girl in the red velvet swing" whobecame a decorative engraving for coupon bonds.

Alonzo E. Foringer, a muralist who had worked for Edwin Blashfield, is a star ofthe show, with his large oil paintings of allegorical females produced from the 1910s tothe 1940s. The finest picture engravers created the best allegorical engravings of thetwentieth century from Foringer's work, a marriage of engraving and art that has neverbeen equaled. Known today primarily for a World War I Red Cross poster, Foringer's realachievement is his bank note art, which graced the stocks and bonds of hundreds of U.S.companies and at least 50 bank notes of foreign banks and governments.

Robert Lavin followed Foringer and became the second greatest securityengraving artist of the twentieth century, working in the 1960s-1980s. His allegoricalpaintings, and paintings of working people (perhaps best described as "CapitalistRealism"), became the leading picture engravings for stocks and bonds in the latertwentieth century. Some examples of other artists' work of the 1950s and 1960s are alsoshown in the exhibition.

CATALOGUE:
The exhibition Images of Value: the Artwork Behind U.S. Security Engraving 1830s-1980s, sponsored by the Grolier Club's Committee on Prints, Drawings, andPhotographs, is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with a preface by William H. Gerdts.

PUBLIC EVENTS:
Free Lunchtime Exhibition Tours led by curator Mark Tomasko: February 22, March 1, 8,15, 22, and 29, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm.

Illustrated Talk by the curator followed by a Panel Discussion on the Artwork Behind U.S.Security Engraving: Tuesday, March 7, 2017, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm.

ABOUT THE GROLIER CLUB:
Founded in 1884, the Grolier Club of New York is America's oldest and largest society forbibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts. Named for Jean Grolier, the Renaissancecollector renowned for sharing his library with friends, the Grolier Club's objective is to foster thestudy, collecting, and appreciation of books and works on paper.

VISITING THE GROLIER CLUB:
47 E. 60th Street,
New York, NY 10022
212-838-6690

Hours: Monday-Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM
Admission: Open to the public free of charge
www.grolierclub.org

Mark Tomasko adds:

IMAGES OF VALUE: THE ARTWORK BEHIND US SECURITY ENGRAVING · 1830s-1980s.
Tomasko, Mark D.
New York, NY: The Grolier Club, 2017.
8.5 x 11 inches
Paperback with flaps
174 pages
ISBN: 9781605830674
Price: $40.00

For more information, or to order, see:
IMAGES OF VALUE: THE ARTWORK BEHIND US SECURITY ENGRAVING · 1830s-1980s. - See more at: https://www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/129450/mark-d-tomasko/images-of-value-the-artwork-behind-us-security-engraving-1830s-1980s#sthash.TZ89Cpmj.dpuf(www.oakknoll.com/pages/books/129450/mark-d-tomasko/images-of-value-the-artwork-behind-us-security-engraving-1830s-1980s)