Queen City Girl - Augustus L. Jansson c. 1900s

The composition functions as a rigorous technical stress test disguised as a whimsical advertisement.

While the subject matter is playful, the visual logic is purely structural; the work is built on a series of difficult registration challenges, from the concentric circles of the headwear to the high-density checkerboard pattern of the golf bag. Intellectual humility is found in recognizing the invisible labor of the 1903 pressman, who had to ensure that these saturated reds and delicate lavenders met at a perfectly sharp "kiss" without overlap or bleeding. The "Girl" is not merely a character but a specimen of what was then the absolute frontier of color reproduction technology, proving that industrial ink could achieve the clarity of fine art.

Each work is produced as a hand-numbered limited edition of 50, printed on heavyweight matte paper and finished with a UV protective coating for long-term stability.

The piece is mounted in a white or black frame with an acid-free white mat and arrives ready to hang. Multiple sizes are offered as format options within the same edition.

Every work includes an IkonHaus Certificate of Authenticity.

The Queen City Girl series (1903–1907) represents a seminal moment in American graphic history where industrial utility and high-modernist aesthetics intersected.

Created by Augustus L. Jansson for the Queen City Printing Ink Company, these works were commissioned specifically for The Inland Printer, the premier trade journal for the nineteenth-century printing industry. Unlike consumer-facing posters, these were "printer’s prints," designed to demonstrate the chemical stability and mechanical precision of proprietary inks to a discerning audience of master lithographers. Jansson’s "poster style" serves as a structural bridge, moving away from the fluid, organic ornamentation of the Victorian era toward the hard-edged geometric discipline that would eventually define Art Deco.

In a large-format physical environment, the work commands attention through its uncompromising chromatic stability.

The bold, flat color planes do not recede or soften with distance; instead, they maintain a persistent graphic authority that grounds a room. Upon closer inspection, the viewer moves past the initial iconic silhouette to discover the rhythmic balance of the linework—a testament to a time when commercial documentation was executed with the same reverence as a museum piece. It is a meditative work for a space that values order and the quiet intelligence of historical design, offering a constant reminder of the enduring relationship between human intent and mechanical precision.

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Queen City Girl - Augustus L. Jansson c. 1900s

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