Masters Series by Fredric Taraba

 

Felix Octavius Carr Darley

America’s first true illustrator      

 

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Other vehicles that brought Darley's talents in­creasingly into public awareness were banknotes and bond certificates, which he began to design in 1854. At this point in American history, federal banking laws had not yet been established and a nationalized currency did not exist. Funds were lent by banks in the form of notes printed by the states and by the banks themselves, and the amount of art needed for the various institutions meant many assignments for an illustrator of Darley's capabilities and steady pro­ductivity. To minimize the danger of counterfeiting, these financial instruments were reproduced in the form of steel engravings. The companies that com­missioned them from Darley on behalf of the finan­cial institutions also hired the finest engravers to translate the artist's designs onto steel,

 

Steel engraving was reserved for only the most prestigious ventures since it was far more expensive than wood engraving. (Later in the artist's career, his designs were also reproduced by stone lithogra­phy and photogravure. These technologies were generally too new and untried for conservative pub­lishers.) The vast majority of Darley's output for fiction existed only as wood engravings, and often in the wood engraving process the original artwork was destroyed.

 

In 1856, Darley was commissioned by Townsend to begin a series of illustrations for the complete works of James Fenimore Cooper. This undertaking was to be reproduced in steel, unlike Darley's previ­ous efforts, which were engraved in wood. Because corrections were not possible in steel, Darley took
his wash designs to completion. The images were then photographically reproduced onto the steel die. Prior to this, the appeal and final look of printed

il­lustrations was based in large part on the ability of the engraver to interpret the artist's tones into in­cised lines. But with the Cooper project the artistic license of the engraver was essentially eliminated.

 

Because much of Darley's artwork went through other creative people's hands on its way to repro­duction it can be challenging to determine where his artistry ended and another's began. Often his original drawings or watercolors served primarily as guides for the expertise of the engraver and weren't meant to be seen by the public. A notable series of exceptions was the commercial work exhibited in the prestigious National Academy beginning in 1852.

 

 

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RE: THE DRAWINGS BELOW:

 

This pair of images shows the changes that Darley's work was frequently sub­jected to between his execution of the idea and the final printed version. In addition to the reversal of the compo­sition, much of the sense of depth of Darley's original has been lost in the printed version. This is because the engraver had to limit himself to black and white only, and was able to cre­ate the illusion of gray tones only by altering the thickness and shape of black lines or adjusting the distance between them. American Bank Note employed some of the most talented steel engravers, including Walter Shirlaw, who translated this subject from Darley's original. As was typical of the artists creating banknote and stock certificate designs, Darley was contracted by American to work ahead of demand. The result is that some of his works including this piece — were brought to completion by the engraver but never published, (Courtesy of Illustration House, Inc. Photography by Jim Pratzon.)

 

 

 

                                      

 

 

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