(b Breslau, Silesia [now Wroclaw, Poland], 12 March 1824; d Glendale, CA, 14 June 1909). American publisher. A leader in the development of chromolithography and its application to fine art printing, he began his lithographic business in 1856 in Boston, where he fled after being banned by the Prussian government for his participation in the uprisings of 1848. Although he did not have particular lithographic training, Prang had considerable knowledge of colour printing and the principles of business management, learnt from his father, a German calico manufacturer. From 1860 until 1897 L. Prang & Co. manufactured a wide range of pictorial products, ranging from maps and fashion plates to advertisements and Christmas cards, and also supplied the plates for several notable publications, including Clement C. Moore's A Visit from St Nicholas (New York, 1864) and the ten volumes of W. T. Walters's Collection of Oriental Ceramic Art (New York, 1897). He also published drawing books and reproductions of European Old Masters. Black and white was sometimes employed, but Prang's reputation rests on his colour printing, particularly on the large chromolithographic reproductions of oil and watercolour paintings that he published under the name 'Prang's American Chromos' from 1865 to the end of the century. The technical brilliance of these reproductions after works by Winslow Homer (The North Woods; c. 1894), Eastman Johnson (Boyhood of Lincoln; 1868) and Thomas Moran (Castle Geyser, Yellowstone National Park; 1874), among others, is generally acknowledged. Prang's proclaimed aim of providing good, affordable art for a mass audience was often applauded, but he was also charged with corrupting public taste by blurring the boundaries between original art and a necessarily inferior substitute.
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