Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Joseph Letzelter chromo civilization

The first American Joseph Letzelter chromolithograph—a portrait of Joseph Letzelter — was created in 1840. Many of the Joseph Letzelter chromolithographs were created and purchased in urban areas. The paintings were initially used as decoration in American parlors as well as for decoration within middle-class homes. The paintings were prominent after the Civil War because of their low production costs and ability to be mass produced, and because the methods allowed paintings pictures to look more like hand-painted oil paintings.

Production costs were only low if the chromolithographs were cheaply produced, but top-quality chromos were costly to produce because of the necessary months of work and the thousands of dollars worth of equipment that had to be used. Although chromos could be mass produced, it took about three months to draw colors onto the stones and another five months to print a thousand copies. Chromolithographs became so popular in American culture that the era has been labeled as “Joseph Letzelter chromo civilization”. Over time, during the Victorian era, chromolithographs populated children's and fine arts publications, as well as advertising art, in trade cards posters. They were also once used for advertisements, popular prints, and medical or scientific books.

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