PhonoArt

A Virtual Museum of Phonograph Art
 

 

 

  
PhonoArt is a virtual museum of phonograph related art found in museums and other collections. The Phonographia logo at the top left returns you to the previous menu. The FP on the right goes to Friends of the Phonograph.

 

 

Arrangement with Phonograph, Mask and Shell

Artist: Jan Matulka, circa 1930

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Description: This gramophone is a spring-powered disc player (note crank on right-hand side) with an internal horn and open grill. This model is typical of table top 78 rpm record players of the 1910's and 1920's.

 

  

Interior with Phonograph (Interieur Au Phonograph)

Artist: Henri Matisse, 1924

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: Private collection.

Description: This interior scene is from the Matisse period where he featured colorful assortments of fabrics and textiles.The wallcoverings, drapes, rug and tablecover provide a rich setting for the open horn phonograph partially cut-off in the picture. The record player is a disc machine and appears to be a wooden horn model.

 

 

  

His Master's Voice

Artist: Francis Barraud, 1898

Media: Oil on canvas, 36" x 28"

Location: Unknown

Description: Barraud's terrier named Nipper listening to the Victor Talking Machine. Painted 3 years after Nipper's death, this painting, originally sold to the Gramophone Company, became the trademark of the Victor Talking Machine Company. Edison had an opportunity to purchase this image (with an Edison machine displayed instead of a Gramophone) but declined. For more Nipper related art click the image or TOUCH HERE.

 

 

  

The Phonograph

Artist: Massani, circa 1905

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: Unknown

Description: Edison used this painting (in this case as an advertising postcard) in literally hundreds of thousands of Edison Phonograph advertisements.Massani's painting was titled "The Phonograph" but it is often called "The Old Couple.

 

  

Unknown TItle

Artist: Charles Wysocki, circa 1980

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: Unknown

This turn-of-the-century domestic scene depicts a contented cat and dog listening to a phonograph while the woman of the house does the ironing.

 

 

Phonographes

Artist: LUCIEN BOUCHER, 1925

Media: Lithograph

Location: Private collection, No. 357

Description: Original lithograph from Boucher's series illustrating Paris shopfronts. They were gathered together as the album Boutiques in 1925 for prose poems by Mac Orlan. Printed and published in a total of 520 copies by Marcel Seheur, all on Arches paper. Sheet size: 225 x 185 mm ; Image size: 105 x 105 mm

 

  

Moscow Cafe 1916

Artist: Boris Mihajlovic Kustodiev, 1916

Media: Oil

Location: © Bridgeman Art Library / Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

 

 

Dog School

Artist: Arthur Thiele, c.1925

Media: Unknown

Location: Image from postcard
 
 

Gramophone

Artist: Alexander Calder

Media: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Description: Alexander Calder's signature is written inside the sylistic spiraling grooves of a record (see closeup to the right of the poster)

 

 
 

Cat and Gramophone

Artist: Unknownr

Media: Oil

Location: Unknown

Description: This Nipper style scene features a cat (instead of the Victor "Nipper" terrier) listening to a gramophone.

 

  

15-string Phonoharp

Artist: Walter Kitundu

Media: Wood-constructed turntable

Location: Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco, CA 2007

Description: This wood-constructed turntable relies on earthquakes for power. Displayed in the "Beats Per Minute" exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art.

 

 

  

The Lovers

Artist: Unknown

Media: Oil

Location: Unknown

Description: : Romance is a common theme for the phonograph in its "mood music" role. This painting features wine, woman and song

 

 

  

Yeah Yeah Girls

Artist: Kerry Beary, 2005

Media: Acrylic on canvas, 20"x20"

Location: Private collection
 

 

 

  

Another Smash

Artist: Kerry Beary, 2006

Media: Acrylic on canvas, 12"x12"

Location: Private collection

 

  

Boomerang

Artist: Kerry Beary, 2006

Media: Acrylic on canvas, 12"x12"

Location: Private collection, Limited Edition 200

Description from the artist: My inspiration comes from a myriad of things. I collect mid-century, Danish modern, 50's and 60's art, furniture, accessories, and fabrics. My husband and I purchased a modern home in sub-tropical Louisiana, built in 1953, and have been filling it with all things retro, vintage, Tiki, and fabulous! My paintings contain elements from my home, especially the lamps, patterns, and furnishings. My models are a blast from the past: photographs of my mother, who was a 50's and 60's fashion hair and makeup diva, advertisements, and of course the glamour of Hollywood and all those wonderful television shows! Leave it to Beaver, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie and so on. The clothes, the hair, the accessories, the decor; these old things are new again and here to stay. We have been collecting and acquiring these items for many years from many places: New York City, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Southern California, and right here in the Deep South!

 

 
  

Le Gramophone

Artist: Lucien Philippe Moretti, 1922-2000

Media: Limited Edition Lithograph, 26" x 21"

Location: Private collection, 29 of 125

Description: The art of Lucien P. Moretti combines the keen observations of a dedicated people-watcher and the talents of a gifted draftsman. Moretti was never without his drawing pad, always capturing interesting characters and faces. His sensitivity to the complexities of the human being enabled him to capture a variety of emotions. As a result, his oils and lithographs are populated with a concentration of activity and people, some intense and lively while others are melancholy or wistfully gazing into space causing the viewer to feel and experience similar emotions. There is a new discovery at each viewing of these charming and complex works.

 

 

  

Dreams of Long Ago

Artist: Norman Rockwell

Media: Artists proof, 1927

Location: Private collection

Description: A man, apparently in his attic and standing next to a Victor record player, looks in a mirror and sees the reflection of the famous Norman Rockwell cowboy painting, "Dreams of Long Ago,." featured on the August 13, 1927 cover of the Saturday Evening Post Cover.

 

 

 

  

A Funny Story

Artist: Unknown, 1911

Published by "Chatterbox"

Media: Print, 7 1/4 x 5 1/2

 
 

 

Saluting the Grammy's

Artist: Fazzini, c 2002

Media: 3-D Serigraph, 15"x 17.5", limited edition

Location: Private collection

 

 

  

Birds and Gramophone

Artist: Schlomo Schwartz

Media: Mixed media, watercolor, chalk and gouache, 19 1/2" x 27"

Location: Private collection

Description: Shlomo Schwartz was born in Bukovina, 1934, imigrated to Israel in 1948. He studied art with Aharon Avni, and continued studies at the Avni Institute of Art and Sculpture under the direction of Moshe Mokadi, his persomal instructors were Marcel Janco, Stematzky, Streichman and others.

 

 

 

  

Coqui Music

Artist: Kaitlin Choi Vuksanic, 2006

Media: Gouache, 2/5" x 3.5"

Location: Private collection

 

 

 

  

Unknown title

Artist: F. Hardy

Media: Illustration on paper

Location: Private collection

Description: This illustration by F. Hardy is from the French magazine La Vie Parisienne. The 1929 image depicts a sultry smoking lady playing a record on the gramophone.

 

 

 
  

 

Listening to the Gramophone

Antique car and Gramophone

Ex Libris

Artist: V. Jakstas

Media: Mixed media, watercolor, chalk and gouache, 19 1/2" x 27"

Location: Private collection

Description: Ex Libris Bookplates, 8.0 x 6.0 cm

 

 

 

  

 

What is the Phonograph?

Artist: Unknown

Media: Woodcut engraving

Location: Private collection

Description: Wood engraving from FRANK LESLIE’S BOYS AND GIRLS WEEKLY Illustrated Journal (New York), dated June 15, 1878. Featured in this issue is the article “WHAT IS THE PHONOGRAPH?” containing the wood engraving (left): “PROFESSOR EDISON EXHIBITING THE PHONOGRAPH TO VISITORS, AT HIS LABORATORY, MENLO PARK” (7” X 9 1/2”).

The article reads, “The simple piece of mechanism known as the phonograph, invented by the now celebrated American, Thomas A. Edison, of Menlo Park, N.J., must be regards as one of the most astonishing triumphs of the human mind over matter...In mechanism the phonograph is simplicity itself. It consists of a cylinder of brass, mounted on a horizontal axis, supported by two bearers, and revolved either by hand, clock-work or steam power...The groove between the threads of the cylinder surface are intended to govern the trace of the needle or point attached to the vibrator when passing over the revolving surface. The vibrator is a small annular frame of wood, over the orifice of which is placed a thin plate of tin type...”.

 

 

 

  

Hi-Fi

Artist: Julia Gilmore, c. 2000

Media: Oil on canvas, 24" x 30"

Location: Private collection

 

 

 

 

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Sonora The Aristocrat of Phonographs
Artist: Hilma Lehmann, July 30, 1922
Media: Sketch, watercolor

Location: Private collection

Description: This sketch was for a Sonora Advertisement for a Trolley Car Sign. Living room scene with the caption "The Friend you need at your fireside for cheerful Winter Evenings." Sonora's trademark was a bell with the slogan "Clear as a Bell."

 

 

 

The Gramophone
Artist: J. H. Dowd, circa 1930
Media: Black and white print from book

Location: Private collection

Description: J.H.Dowd is said to capture simply and beautifully the characteristic actions and ever changing moods of children, as illustrated in this print.