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Thomas Nast (1840-1902),
perhaps the most important American political cartoonist of all
time, is best known for his invention and development of popular
symbols like the Republican Elephant, Democratic Donkey, a fat,
jolly Santa Claus and a lean, goatee-wearing Uncle Sam. |
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Nast’s most important
forum was Harper’s Weekly, the leading
illustrated American periodical of the last half of the
nineteenth century. HarpWeek has identified the 2200-plus
cartoons that Nast drew for Harper’s Weekly—the
first in 1859, the last in 1896, and the rest mainly between
1862 and 1886. They were instrumental in winning four
presidential elections—for Abraham Lincoln in 1864, for
Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 and 1872, and for Grover Cleveland in
1884. |
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Almost unknown is the
influence that Nast’s cartoons had on two major European
artists—Edgar Degas and Vincent van Gogh. Albert I. Boime,
Professor of Art History at UCLA, has studied and published
extensively on both impressionists, as well as on Nast and his
influence on each of them. |
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HarpWeek commissioned an
article by Professor Boime entitled "The Interactivity
of Thomas Nast and High Art." An extract from the
article comprises the core of the illustrated discussion of the
fertile artistic relationship between Thomas Nast and Edgar
Degas. Another selection from the essay details the even more
profound affect of Nast upon the style and content of some of
Vincent van Gogh’s illustrations and paintings. |
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