Marjorie Cameron (American, 1922–1995)
Notebook of Cameron, 1957


Cameron's sketchbook consists of abstract compositions in ink and wash; figure and architectural studies in ink, ballpoint pen, and wash; poems; and letters. 2012.M.42

François-Maurice Honoré (French, d. 1833)
Honoré Porcelain Sample Catalog, ca. 1800–20


This extremely rare 50-page manuscript from the Parisian porcelain producer Honoré contains 74 hand-colored illustrations of products made in the Empire style popular from around 1800 to 1820. Annotations on the available sizes and prices of the porcelain are included. 2012.M.40

Leo Steinberg (American, b. Russia, 1920–2011)
Leo Steinberg Research Papers, 1920–2011 (bulk 1950–1993)


A major addition that completes the Getty Research Institute's Steinberg Archive, this collection reflects the unusually broad scope of his artistic interests—from Michelangelo to American pop artists—in addition to his address of methodological questions relevant to art history as a discipline. 930046

Félix Bracquemond (French, 1833–1914)
L'arc-en-ciel (The rainbow), 1893


Against a backdrop of distant Parisian factories, this idyllic depiction of a nude woman stepping into the Seine River under a rainbow presents a commentary on the effects of industrialization on nature. 2012.PR.24

Jean-Jacques de Boissieu (French, 1736–1810)
Twenty-three etchings, 1763–1803


This career-spanning collection of etchings by de Boissieu consists mainly of landscapes heavily influenced by the Dutch Golden Age and includes several sheets of the artist's highly skilled studies of human and animal heads.
2012.PR.105** to 2012.PR.127**
Gift of Dr. Richard A. Simms

Martin Engelbrecht (German, 1684–1756)
Perspectivische Vorstellung einer Freimaurer Loge (Perspective idea of a Masonic lodge), ca. 1700s


This mid-18th-century perspective theater is composed of six hand-colored cutaway and card-backed engravings that depict the interior of a Masonic lodge and its members. 2012.PR.16

James Ensor (Belgian, 1860–1949)
Le roi peste (King plague), 1895
Le vidangeur (The scavenger), 1896
La vengeance de Hop-Frog (The vengeance of Hop-Frog), 1898


These hand-colored etchings are important and rare examples of Ensor's work from the 1890s, when his notoriously outlandish aesthetic reached its apex. Two of the three prints take inspiration from stories by Edgar Allen Poe, and each print contains one or more hallmarks of Ensor's visual vocabulary, such as skeletons, masks, or massive throngs, while also demonstrating his recurring themes of corruption, wretchedness, violence, and dissolution. 2012.PR.98, 2012.PR.99, and 2012.PR.100
Gift of Dr. Richard A. Simms

James Gillray (British, 1756–1815)
Siege de la colonne de Pompée: Science in the Pillory, 1799


In this large print by Britain's leading caricaturist, Napoleon and his team of "savants" tremble atop Diocletian's column, barely hanging on to their books, scrolls, globes, and artistic and scientific tools. The print lampoons French Enlightenment culture in light of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and his decision to bring civilian figures like surveyors, artists, antiquarians, and other learned figures along with his army. 2012.PR.22

Costumes français du 17e siècle (17th-century French costumes), 1688–89


This album of 23 engraved fashion plates was possibly assembled by Jean-Nicolas Beaupré (d. 1869), a magistrate and antiquary from Nancy. It features the work of five printmakers and printers—Nicolas Arnoult, Claude-Auguste Berey, Henri and Nicolas Bonnart, Franz Ertinger, and the draftsman Jean Dieu de Saint-Jean—who were active in Paris during the reign of Louis XIV. 2012.PR.39

Max Liebermann (German, 1847–1935)
Prints, lithographs, and etchings, 1883–1922


This collection of nine works spans a large portion of Liebermann's career. The earliest prints, from the 1880s and 1890s, depict scenes of country life reminiscent of Jean-François Millet. The later prints, made during the First World War and under the Weimar Republic, include particularly exquisite portraits of prominent men such as the Imperial Chancellor and Richard Strauss. 2012.PR.23
Anonymous gift in memory of Siegbert and Toni Marzynski

Jean Mariette (French, 1660–1742) after Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (French, 1636–1699)
Arrangements of flowers in baskets and vases, ca. 1700s


These four prints from a series of five present graceful arrangements of flowers after compositions by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer, France's premier painter of flowers during the age of Louis XIV. The prints were engraved and published by Jean Mariette, one of the most prolific and respected publishers of the period. 2012.PR.41

Giovanni Pietro Possenti (Italian, 1618–1659)
Vulcan's forge with Mars and Venus, n.d.


Venus and Mars are shown flying off toward the heavens in this print, while Vulcan sits on the ground amid his laborers. The depiction of Vulcan and his wife Venus, in the context of her affairs with Mars, refers to the traditions of the transformative powers of alchemy. 2012.PR.27

Carl August Richter (German, 1770–1848)
Umsicht auf der Kuppel der Frauenkirche in Dresden (Panorama from the Dome of the Frauenkirche in Dresden), 1824


This hand-colored print features a dramatic panorama of Dresden and the surrounding countryside from an unusual point of view—the top of the city's domed Frauenkirche. 2012.PR.17**

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (German, 1781–1841)
Schinkel's Möbel-Entwürfe, 1835–37


These prints comprise a complete first-edition portfolio from the German architect and designer Karl Friedrich Schinkel, illustrating the most important pieces of furniture that he created after returning from his trip to France and England in 1826. 2012.PR.45

Jean Jacques Boissard (French, 1528–1602), author, and Theodor de Bry (1528–1598), engraver
Parnassus Biceps, 1627


Noted engraver Theodor de Bry offers invaluable insight into Baroque representations of classical antiquity in his depictions of the metaphorical inhabitants of the heights of Mt. Parnassus, such as three of the nine Muses—Calliope, Clio, and Terpsichore—and the most renowned poets of classical antiquity, including Catullus, Hesiod, Homer, Pindar, Sappho, and Vergil. 2997-954

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German, 1749–1832)
Zur Farbenlehre (On the teaching of color) (Tübingen, 1810)
Erklärung der zu Goethe's Farbenlehre gehörigen Tafeln (Explanation of the accompanying plates to Goethe's 'On the Teaching of Color') (Tübingen, 1810)
Anzeige und Ubersicht des Goethischen Werkes zur Farbenlehre (Prospectus and overview of Goethe's work 'On the Teaching of Color') (Tübingen, 1810)


A first edition, first issue of Goethe's scientific work On the Teaching of Color is accompanied by Prospectus and Overview of Goethe's Work 'On the Teaching of Color' as well as the highly sought atlas volume Explanation of the Accompanying Plates to Goethe's 'On the Teaching of Color,' which illustrates Goethe's color theories. This copy of the atlas also contains Goethe's personally supervised hand-written corrections to plates VII, XIV, and XV, indicating that it is the earliest issue. 2986-674

Frieder Heinze (German, b. 1950) and Olaf Wegewitz (German, b. 1949)
Unaulutu=Steinchen im Sand: Ein Malerbuch (Pebbles in the sand: An artist's book), 1986

This complex and ambitious artist's book was published by two East German artists as an homage to the vanished cultures of Mesoamerica. Inspired by notebooks kept by the anthropologist Fritz Krause while exploring central Brazil from 1908 to 1909, the book includes 26 reproductions of Krause's turn-of-the-century watercolors after drawings by the Karaja Indians, whose word unaulutu, means "pebbles in the sand." 2998-635

Althanasius Kircher (1602–1680)
Romani Collegii Societatis Jesu Musaeum Celeberrimum (Most Renowned Museum of the Jesuit College at Rome) (London, 1678), bound with Althanasius Kircher (1602–1680) and Johann Stephan Kestler (fl. 1675), Physiologia Kircheriana Experimentalis (Kircher's Experiments in the Study of Nature) (London, 1680)


This volume details the museum of the Jesuit College at Rome, which was established and curated by the Jesuit polymath Althanasius Kircher. Often considered the first public museum in the West, it displayed the most extensive scientific and ethnographical collection in 17th-century Europe. 2983-889

Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge (German, 1794–1867)
Der Bildungstrieb der Stoffe: Veranschaulicht in selbstständig gewachsenen Bildern (Matter's urge to form patterns, visualized in self-grown pictures) (Oranienburg, 1855)


This first edition of Matter's Urge to Form Patterns, Visualized in Self-Grown Pictures used the chemistry of color-printing to illustrate the natural tendency of matter to form predictably organized patterns. Runge's invention of chemical chromatograms (from Greek for "color-writing") used dyes to map the "natural capillary tendencies" of chemical compounds. 2990-556

Alphons Stübel (German, 1835–1904) and Wilhelm Reiss (German, 1838–1908)
The Necropolis of Ancon in Peru (Berlin, 1880–87)


This profusely illustrated archaeological and ethnographic study in three volumes depicts the findings from excavations carried out under the supervision of the explorer-geologists Stübel and Reiss during a several-month stay in 1875. One hundred forty-one plates, including chromolithographs by Wilhelm Greve, illustrate the costumes and richly colored textile fabrics preserved with the mummies, as well as the details of the clay, metal, and other objects associated with the worship of the dead in Peru. 2992-584

Melchior Lorck (Danish, 1526–1588)
Die Türkenzeitung (News of the Turks) (Hamburg, 1683–84)


An extremely rare series of 114 broadsides, News of the Turks is illustrated with woodcuts by Lorck, who traveled in Turkey from 1555 to 1559. These "newspaper" bifolia provided an informed glimpse of the Ottoman architecture and culture in Istanbul, expanding knowledge about Europe's then-formidable opponent. 2983-890

Gordon Wagner (American, 1915–1987)
Memories of the Future (Los Angeles, 1972)


This large-format edition by the Los Angeles assemblage artist Gordon Wagner has a unique cover with layers of scrolling and star-shaped sequins and features 19 lithographs and 12 letterpress poems. 2992-058

John Burke (British, 1843–1900) and Simon Norfolk (British, b. 1963)
Burke + Norfolk: Photographs from the War in Afghanistan, 2010–2011


This editioned portfolio of Afghan scenes features 64 original chromogenic prints by contemporary photographer Simon Norfolk and 40 reproductions of 19th-century albumen photographs created by John Burke between 1878 and 1880. By juxtaposing Norfolk's prints with reproductions of prints produced in Burke's photographic studio in India during British rule, the portfolio establishes a referential history on war and colonialism as played out in Afghanistan today. 2012.R.16

André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (French, 1819–1889)
French spoils from the Summer Palaces, Beijing, ca. 1861


Featuring five scholars' rocks, three jade screens, a sculpture of the Buddha, and a variety of ceramic vessels, Disdéri's image of spoils from the 1860 sack of the Yihe Yuan and Yuan Ming Yuan Summer Palaces records the Chinese luxury objects that captured the European imagination in the late-19th century. 2012.R.11

Robert Heinecken (American, 1931–2006)
Robert Heinecken Production Materials for Recto/Verso, 1986–90


The archive includes two copies of the portfolio Recto/Verso and the correspondence between Heinecken, his printer Victor Landweber, and the 12 writers who contributed texts to Recto/Verso. Greatly enhanced by the donation of the unique maquette for Recto/Verso, printed by Heinecken himself, the archive provides a rare glimpse into Heinecken's working method and allows for a comparison between the early and late work of one of the 20th century's seminal photographers. 2012.M.38

Luigi Pesce (Italian, 1818–1891)
Album fotografico della Persia (The Rawlinson Album), 1860


Containing the earliest documented photographs of Persepolis and Tehran, this album of 42 images is a rare document on the history and culture of Persia. A gift from Pesce, an amateur photographer, to Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, the departing British envoy to the court of the Shah of Persia, the album contains several photographs of the ruins of Darius the Great's Persepolis. 2012.R.18

Louis Vignes (French, 1831–1896)
Vues de Phénicie, de Judée, des pays de Moab et de Petra, 1864


Bound in blue morocco, this album contains 58 original albumen prints by the photographer Louis Vignes, who joined the 1864 geological and archaeological exploratory mission sponsored by the duc de Luynes in the Holy Land. Charles Nègre later published these photographs as photogravures in Voyage d'exploration à la mer Morte, à Petra, et sur la rive gauche du Jourdain (Paris, 1871–75) by Honoré Théodoric Paul Joseph D'Albert, duc de Luynes. 2012.R.14

Carol Westwood (American, b. 1942)
Carol Westwood Photographs Documenting Southern California Life, 1980–2002


These 95 photographs from the archive of Carol Westwood, a professional photographer with a long-standing career documenting Southern California movie culture and the local scene, includes portraits of people who lived in the Los Angeles area in the 1980s and early 1990s as well as evocative views of Southern California mountains, deserts, and beaches. 2012.R.12
Gift of Carol Westwood