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The Alhambra

Author Washington Irving American
1892
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 454
A leading New York late nineteenth century book-cover designer, Morse studied at the Woman’s Art School of the Cooper Union, then under John La Farge before working for Louis C. Tiffany as a painter and designer of stained glass. In 1887 she began to concentrate on book-covers, fufilling eighty-three commissions for New York commercial publishers by 1905. Putnam's companion gift books, "The Alhambra" and "The Conquest of Granada," both for works written by Washington Irving, are two of Morse's most elaborate designs. Each volume is bound in white plain-weave cloth and stamped in colors and gold, with the ornament recalling "Moresque Ornament from the Alhambra," no. 3, plate XLI in Owen Jones's famous "Grammar of Ornament." An example of this cover was shown at the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, in 1893.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Alhambra
  • Artist: Alice Cordelia Morse (American, Ohio 1863–1961)
  • Author: Washington Irving (American, New York 1783–1859 Sunnyside, New York)
  • Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
  • Date: 1892
  • Medium: Cream cloth covered boards with gold, green and blue decoration
  • Dimensions: 8 15/16 × 14 3/16 in. (22.7 × 36 cm)
    Other: 8 15/16 x 6 in. (22.7 x 15.3 cm)
    Other: 8 15/16 × 8 3/16 in. (22.7 × 20.8 cm)
  • Classification: Bindings
  • Credit Line: Museum Accession, 1956 transferred from the Library
  • Object Number: 56.522.56
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada, Alice Cordelia Morse American, Cream cloth covered boards with gold decoration
Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada
Designer Alice Cordelia Morse
Author Washington Irving
Publisher G. P. Putnam, New York
1893
Powder Horn, Horn (cow), lead, American
Powder Horn
American
18th century
Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabita (Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars) of al-Sufi, `Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi Iranian, Ink and gold on paper; leather binding
Kitab suwar al-kawakib al-thabita (Book of the Images of the Fixed Stars) of al-Sufi
Author `Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi
late 15th century
Seth's Brother's Wife: A Study of Life in the Greater New York, Alice Cordelia Morse American, Gold cloth over boards with brown and gold decoration
Seth's Brother's Wife: A Study of Life in the Greater New York
Designer Alice Cordelia Morse
Author Harold Frederic
Publisher Charles Scribner's Sons
1887
Easy Chair, Walnut, ash, American
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