Since today is Mother’s Day, I thought I’d choose a work of art that featured at least a woman, though I can’t be sure she is a mother, though I think I’m safe in saying she has one, at least. Today’s work is an illustration presumably once used as part of an advertisement for a brewery. Its title is German Barmaid, which may have been merely descriptive since that’s the name written in pencil on the original lithograph.
Click on the image above for a larger, more detailed view.
The chromolithograph was done by Louis Prang & Co. from Boston around 1890. It’s part of a collection in the Boston Public Library, which thoughtfully they’ve put a number of their prints up on Flickr.
Some consider Prang to be the “Father of the Christmas Card,” such as this account from Suite 101 and this one from the Emotions Greeting Card Museum. He also co-founded the Dixon Ticonderoga Company, the ones that make the yellow pencils we all used in grade school.
If you want to learn more about the printer, Louis Prang, Wikipedia has a small summary. Also the Winterthur Library purports to have a number of Prang’s works but you have to travel to Delaware to see them. You can see some of his bird prints at The Art of the Print.
That image was used by Stroh for their “Stroh Extra” beer and was reprinted in the “Beer Poster Book” (1977) by brewery historian Will Anderson. All of Will’s books are great sources of brewery information and can usually be found easily on the used book seller sites (and the “BeerBooks” website, as well). This one and his famed, “Breweries of Brooklyn”, however, go for big bucks.
Jess, yeah I’ve got a couple of Anderson’s books and they are fun time capsules, but not the poster book.