Los Angeles herald., 1905-02-19
LOUIS PRANG IS
VISITING COAST
INVENTOR OF CHROM0S STILL
AT WORK
Famous LIthoerapher Revolutions
lied Art in America-Says His
Success Is Due to Hard
Work

Louis PranS, the great bOSton hClo-
grapher, who revolutionized art In
America, is spending the winter in Los
Angeles. Although 75 years old, Mr
Prang has still the vigor and ideals
that have made him famous. He is
president of the Prang Educational
company his own creation, whose es-
thetic methods of art are taught to
over 100000 of school children under
its direction. He is the only layman
who is an honorary member of the
Parker institute of Boston, being hon
orary vice president.
The keynote of this mans great sue
cess in his chosen profession is the
same old keynote whis has rune
through history wherever success has
been obtained-work! hard work!
Whatever success I have achieved, -
he says, sis altogether due to hard
work and a constant endeavor to i'm
prove on what I have already done"
But behind this ability to work there
is much more. There is a broad and
comprehensive intelligence, sympa-
thetic nature and a remarkable sort of
intuitiveness.
There is one word in the English lam
guage which he invented or coined
the word "chromo." The chrome of
forty years ago which Prang issued to
a world that was starving for a bit of
color decoration in the home was a
revelation at the time, and many of
them are treasured today in the old
homes throughout the country as heir
looms, which will ere long be sought
after by collectors as art treasures.
Chromos at First Crude
These crude chrOmos issued after the
Civil War are the first step
toward that perfection of lithographic
reproduction in colors which in the
course of another quarter of a century
became the wonder of the art world
and resulted in revolutionizing even
the simplest kind of advertisements,
so that today the ordinary poster and
business card is work of art which
would astonish the business man of
fifty years ago.
Mr. Prang was born in Breslau,
Prussia, in 1924. His father owned a
calico printing establishment and there
young Prang learned the fundamental
principles of dyeing, designing, engrav-
ing, color mixing and printing, besides
perfecting himself in chemistry, all of
which was useful in after life in his
career as a photographer and expert in
everything pertaining to color work
The turning point in his life came with
the revolutionary movement which
swept over Germany in 1S4S. Louis
Prang, Carl Schurz, Karl Heinzen-all
advocates and sympathizers of the rev.
olution-had to flee for safety to the
United States.
Mr.. Prang came to America with a
capital consisting of a sound body and
a clear brain. But the United States
had very little use for designers. en-
gravers or color printers in those days.
and as result Louis Prang had rather
hard time of IT for number Of years.
First, Prang began to study the
thing people call "public taste" and
he ended by putting artistic life into it.
He persevered until public taste" be-
came artistic temperament" and the
public demanded the best in color work
and in pictures.
Published Cards
Mr.. Prang began first the publication
of little cards with simple flowers on
them. They caught on" During the
Civil War he published war pictures
and they Caught on" He published
the old chromos in five or six colors-
bits of scenery and domestic life, things
northumberland they struck home.
They served to arouse the first gIim-
merings of color consciousness in pub
lie taste.
In all other countries the growth of
art has been from above downward