(Pictured above is H. Daumier, On the Train, An Agreeable Neighbor, 1862 lithograph; and below is P.Gauguin,Women, Animals, and Foliage,1898, woodcut detail; both from the collection of the Arthur Ross Foundation.)

            Executed over a seventy-five year period, the prints in the exhibition reveal a multiplicity of thematic and stylistic concerns associated with Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, and Symbolism.  While best known for their painting, each artist  contributed greatly to the development of printmaking as an independent medium, though only Daumier was formally trained as a printmaker.  They brought to their investigations of etching and lithography an innovative spirit and directness characteristic of their paintings. While some, like Corot, primarily regarded printmaking as a means of disseminating their art, others, including Manet and Pissarro, viewed it as an opportunity to translate their visual ideas and formal concepts into the different language of printmaking materials and techniques.   The printed image is historically associated with textual illustration, in which it was traditionally regarded as low brow. Delacroix and Manet particularly sought to challenge this status.  As a result, each had a profound effect on illustration in the twentieth century and established models for the relationship of word and image that endures to the present day.

            On loan from the Arthur Ross Foundation, the exhibition inventory includes an etching and a lithograph by Corot; two rare etchings and a lithographic self-portrait by Cezanne; five lithographs by Daumier; twenty-one lithographs, including the 18 published in 1828 as illustrations to Goethe's Faust; seven etchings and two lithographs by Manet, as well as his five lithographic illustrations for Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven; two etchings, including the very rare Portrait of Cezanne, and two lithographs by Pissarro; and one etching and two woodcuts by Gauguin.

            The exhibition is being curated by Professor Emerita Diane Kelder. In addition, there will be a later, but accompanying, exhibition of etchings by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo in The Graduate Center Exhibition Hallway from October 29 to November 20, with an opening reception on October 28.  Twenty-five portraits, also from the Arthur Ross Foundation, will be featured.

            The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of The City University of New York.  The only consortium of its kind in the nation, The school draws its faculty of more than 1,600 members mainly from the CUNY senior colleges and cultural and scientific institutions throughout New York City.According to the most recent National Research Council report, more than a third of The Graduate Center's rated Ph.D. programs rank among the nation's top 20 at public and private institutions.  Further information on The Graduate Center's programs and activities can be found on its website at: www.gc.cuny.edu.