"Under the Apple Tree", Figurative Chromolithograph After George Niles, 188/250 by Louis Prang

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Original chromolithograph by Louis Prang (German/American, 1823-1909) of L. Prang & Co. (American, founded 1860), after "Under the Apple Tree" … Read more Original chromolithograph by Louis Prang (German/American, 1823-1909) of L. Prang & Co. (American, founded 1860), after "Under the Apple Tree" by George E. Niles (American, 1837-1898). This late 19th century figurative chromolithograph depicts a small boy in a country setting and period dress under an apple tree, reaching into a barrel with a basket of apples spilling into the grass. A German style chromolithograph, this limited edition 188/250 print was created with heavy, oil-based inks which were applied in several layers to impart a texture similar to an original oil painting.

Signed and dated in the plate "G.E. Niles 1867". Tag on verso with "Prang's American Chromos - Under the Apple Tree, after Niles - Chromolithographed and published by L. Prang & Co. ...Boston". Displayed in a rustic giltwood beveled frame. Image size: 9"H x 7.25"W.


Louis Prang was a foremost lithographer and publisher in New York City from the mid to the end of the 19th Century. Born in Breslau, Germany to a father who was a calico printer, he was an apprentice to his father during his teen-age years and then spent five years as a journeyman, learning printing and dyeing and living in Austria, France and England. However, Prang's liberal political vliews caused him to be deported by the Prussian government during the Revolution of 1848, and fled via Bohemia and Switzerland to get to America.
In 1850, Prang went to Boston, having stopped briefly in New York City, and became a publisher and taught himself wood engraving. In 1856, he turned to lithography in partnership with Julius Mayer. In 1860, he founded Louis Prang and Co., which was his own company and the first stiff competition to Currier and Ives.
A primary reason for this competition was Prang's active imagination and energetic pursuit of his business. During the Civil War, he published maps and battle plans so that people at home could follow military movements. He also created printed card portraits of Union soldiers, sheet music, and copies of Winslow Homer's Campaign Sketches. He invented the Christmas card, which he first marketed in 1875, and also the first business card. He also produced copies of works by European artists, living and deceased. At the time, skeptics asserted that the American public would never pay the six dollars Prang charged for them, but Prang persisted and, largely through his efforts, popular knowledge grew of European masterpieces.
In addition, he published drawing books for school use, and these became very influential in the methods of teaching beginning art and in developing art education methods in the United States.
His most lasting contribution has been the stirring of widespread art appreciation by making available to the public chromolithographs of paintings by then famous living artists including Carducius Ream, Martin Johnson Heade, George Cochran Lambdin, and Lilly Martin Spencer.
Louis Prang died in 1909 in Los Angeles, California.

Source:
Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Artists
Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art See less