{"id":6050,"date":"2015-05-11T15:43:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T19:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/?p=6050"},"modified":"2015-10-31T10:45:24","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T14:45:24","slug":"chromolithography-and-the-mystery-of-henri-and-anita-leroy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theleemsmachine.com\/bean\/blog\/2015\/05\/11\/chromolithography-and-the-mystery-of-henri-and-anita-leroy\/","title":{"rendered":"Chromolithography and the mystery of Henri and Anita LeRoy"},"content":{"rendered":"

It all started with a print called “Spirited Horses”\u00a0 \"diningroomwall\"on my dining room wall.\u00a0 I had inherited it from my grandmother.\u00a0 I remember sleeplessly looking up at it on the wall of her den during ‘nap time.’\u00a0 A notation on the bottom says it was copyright in 1900 by Jos. Hoover & Sons.\u00a0 The signature reads ‘LeRoy’ with a circular flourish around it.<\/p>\n

Then I saw the same picture in a magazine spread of an interior designer’s home and I was so captured by coincidence that I found out all I could on the artist and wrote a short post on my blog:\u00a0 Vintage Prints and Small Worlds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At that point in time, I found that the print was attributed to a Henri LeRoy (1851-), still life painter in France.\u00a0 I have since found that the true artistry of Spirited Horses is much more convoluted.<\/p>\n

A dealer on an auction site had a 1904 edition of Spirited Horses<\/a> that lists it as a no. 2 in a series of images.\u00a0 While researching his find, he found from a discussion list (no longer active) that Spirited Horses no. 2 was part of 4 companion images.\u00a0 No. 4 in this series apparently shows the horses dead.\u00a0 These images were attributed to Anita LeRoy, signing simply as LeRoy.\u00a0 On yet another auction site, a dealer with a 1908 edition of Spirited Horses #2<\/a>, spots it in the movie A Christmas Story<\/em> in the scene where the leg lamp breaks.<\/p>\n

I hate to say it, but all my researching didn’t turn up any definitive answer on whether Henri or Anita was the author Spirited Horses, or the many other prints that came out of Jos. Hoover & Sons printing with signatures like:<\/p>\n

\"LeroySignature\"\"LeroySignature2\" \"leroysignature3\"<\/center>On the contrary, I wonder if there may be another answer and another artist for the prints out of Jos. Hoover & Sons, separate from Henri LeRoy (1851-) and Anita Pemberton (nee LeRoy).\u00a0 The only person who may really know the answer is the printmaker himself:\u00a0 Joseph Hoover.\u00a0 The Philadelphia Print Shop Ltd<\/a>., and the related Antique Prints Blog <\/a>describe Joseph Hoover as the maker of elaborate wooden frames who later began producing prints under other publishers of the day including James F. Queen.\u00a0\u00a0 The Library Company of Philadelphia<\/a> adds that Joseph Hoover, of Swiss-German heritage, was born in Baltimore in 1830 and became one of the most prolific chromolithographers of late 19th century parlor prints after he opened his own shop.\u00a0 By 1893 his business was booming and he was working closely with his son, trained lithographer Henry Leander Hoover (b. Sept. 1866).<\/p>\n

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What I did find in all my research was a relatively robust collection of Jos. Hoover & Sons LeRoy prints, as well as a small collection of Anita LeRoy Pemberton work and also some images from Henri LeRoy (1851-) for comparison.\u00a0 Let’s start with ‘Spirited Horses.’<\/p>\n

\"spiritedhorsesinstorm\"\"WildHorses2small\"<\/center>The first, an edition of the print I inherited from my grandmother:\u00a0 “Spirited Horses.”\u00a0 I am only guessing that the second was part of the same series; it is titled ‘Wild Horses.’\u00a0\u00a0 Not attributed to LeRoy, this Jos. Hoover & Son print was also titled ‘Spirited Horses:’<\/p>\n

\"alsospiritedhorses\"<\/center>While researching the chromolithographic business world of the late 19th century I stumbled upon this image by Louis Prang Co., another and perhaps more popular print maker from the West coast, called ‘Horses in a Storm<\/a>.’\u00a0 It struck me for it’s visual similarity to Jos. Hoover & Sons ‘Wild Horses’ above.\u00a0 It is dated on or before 1897, predating any of the Jos. Hoover & Sons editions of ‘Spirited Horses’ that I could find.<\/p>\n

\"PrangCoHorses-in-a-storm\"<\/center>The rest of the LeRoy catalog at Jos. Hoover & Sons was mostly still life involving fruits and flowers.\u00a0 Images of the prints come and go from search engines as auctions at a variety of sites open and close.\u00a0 I’ve collected a handful, but I suspect it is no where near exhaustive:<\/p>\n


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