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Cover of Shooting Pictures

Shooting Pictures is a portfolio of twelve chromolithographic prints by the American illustrator and painter A. B. Frost depicting various hunting scenes. First published by Scribner & Sons in 1895, the portfolio was originally issued by subscription, and limited to 2500 copies. The prints are therefore among Frost's rarest.

A. B: Frost had achieved recognition as a comic illustrator with the publication of Out of the Hurly Burly (London, 1874) by Max Adeler (the pseudonym of C. H. Clarke). Shortly thereafter he joined the staff of Harper and Brothers, New York, where, along with such artists as Edwin Austin Abbey and Howard Pyle (1853–1911), he contributed pen-and-ink and wash illustrations to the books and journals published by the firm.

During the last quarter of the 19th century, a period often characterized as the "golden age of American illustration", Frost’s humorous, homely subjects and comic caricatures appeared regularly in American magazines such as The Century Illustrated and Collier’s as well as those of the Harper group. Best remembered are his illustrations for Joel Chandler Harris’s stories, particularly Uncle Remus: His Songs and his Sayings (London, 1895).

Though hampered by colour-blindness, Frost’s study of painting, begun in 1882 under Thomas Eakins and resumed in the late 1890s with William Merritt Chase, resulted in a series of sporting and shooting scenes painted in the 1890s, which achieved wide popularity through lithographic reproduction: Scribner’s published a portfolio of twelve (1903), and four others were issued posthumously by the Derrydale Press (1933–4).

A.B. Frost. "Hunting the Deer." From A.C. Gould's Sport, or Fishing and Shooting. Boston: Bradlee Whidden, 1889. 18 x 11 3/4. Chromolithograph. Framed. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, interest in American sporting watercolorists grew tremendously and so A.C. Gould issued a fine portfolio containing chromolithographs after watercolors by the leading American artists, including A.B. Frost. This is one of the rarest of the Frost images

Shortly after the appearance of the Gould portfolio, a similar portfolio, Shooting Pictures, was issued by Scribner & Sons. It consisted of twelve chromolithographs after Frost. Originally sold by subscription, each of the six parts included two prints and two text sheets. Also included were three pen and ink illustrations of shooting incidents, executed by Frost. The original subscription was limited to 2500 copies, but due to its size and cumbersomeness, many of the portfolios were broken up, the prints often being framed for display. The use of the lighter, French-style of chromolithography enabled the prints to capture the warmth and richness of the original watercolors.

Prints by A.B. Frost. From Shooting Pictures. New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1895. All approximately 13 x 20. Chromolithographs by Armstrong & Co, Boston. Very good condition. Bennett: American Color Plate Books, 44.

Shortly after the appearance of the Gould portfolio, a similar portfolio, Shooting Pictures, was issued by Scribner & Sons. It consisted of twelve chromolithographs after Frost. Originally sold by subscription, each of the six parts included two prints and two text sheets. Also included were three pen and ink illustrations of shooting incidents, executed by Frost. The original subscription was limited to 2500 copies, but due to its size and cumbersomeness, many of the portfolios were broken up, the prints often being framed for display. The use of the lighter, French-style of chromolithography enabled the prints to capture the warmth and richness of the original watercolors.

Note that the Frost prints from this series were issued on thick backing boards. Some of the following prints have been removed from this backing board.

Prints by A.B. Frost. From The Day's Shooting. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903. Chromolithographs by the Grignard Litho. Co. Ca. 15 1/2 x 10 1/2. In the early twentieth century, Charles Scribner's Sons (successor to Scribner & Sons) issued another portfolio of chromolithographs after other Frost images. This portfolio consisted of six chromolithographs that formed pairs, illustrating the very human sporting situations of success and failure.

Armstrong & Co, Boston

Prints

• 
  "Autumn Grouse Shooting"
• 
  "Autumn Woodcock Shooting"
• 
  "Bay Snipe"
• 
  "Duck shooting From a Blind"
• 
  "Ducks from a Battery"
• 
  "English Snipe"
• 
  "Prairie Chickens"
• 
  "Quail Shooting"
• 
  "Quail-A Dead Stand"
• 
  "Rabbit Shooting"
• 
  "Rail Shooting"
• 
  "Summer Woodcock"

Reference

Bibliography

• Palumbo, Anne Cannon (2011). "Frost, A. B.". In Joan Marter (ed.). The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195335798.

[[Category:1895 in art [[Category:Hunting in popular culture