The Thundershower
H. Lyman Saÿen was a Philadelphia-born pioneer know for the design of x-ray tubes who also distinguished himself as an abstract artist.
Soon after graduating from Central Manual Training School in 1891, he went to work for James W. Queen & Company, a large manufacturer of scientific equipment. At the age of 18 he designed a large induction coil that was cited at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. In 1897 he received a patent for a self-regulating x-ray tube. This tube was the first of its kind to solve the problem of an unstable output caused by a drop in tube gas pressure.
At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, he volunteered for military service and was assigned to Fort McPherson, Georgia where he was put in charge of the medical x-ray laboratory. After contracting typhoid fever he was discharged from the army in 1898 and returned to Philadelphia where he resumed his work with James W. Queen & Company.
The following year he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Thomas Anshutz. In 1903 he married Jeannette Hope, also a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was awarded a commission for the design of four lunettes to be hung in the United States Capitol. These lunettes, titled Rule of Tyranny, Rule of Justice, Primitive Agriculture, and Good Government were installed in Room H-143 between 1904 and 1905.
In 1906, Saÿen and his wife moved to Paris. She had been hired to report on French fashions for The North American, a newspaper owned by Thomas Wanamaker; Saÿen was to contribute art for the printing of catalogs and posters for the Wanamaker's department stores owned by Rodman Wanamaker. Soon after arriving in Paris, the couple met Leo Stein at Le Dôme Café, a restaurant known at the time as a gathering place for Anglo-American intellectuals. They lived on the Boulevard Raspail, across from the photo studio of Edward Steichen, and soon developed friendships with many important figures in the art world including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The couple also became frequent members of Gertrude Stein's Saturday night salon. In fact, Saÿen is mentioned by name three times in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. One example that acknowledges his technical skill:
... gas had just been put in and an ingenious American painter named Saÿen, to divert his mind from the birth of his first child, was arranging some mechanical contrivance that would light the high fixtures by themselves.
• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 5.57 oz/y² (189 g/m²)
• Giclée printing quality
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%
H. Lyman Saÿen was a Philadelphia-born pioneer know for the design of x-ray tubes who also distinguished himself as an abstract artist.
Soon after graduating from Central Manual Training School in 1891, he went to work for James W. Queen & Company, a large manufacturer of scientific equipment. At the age of 18 he designed a large induction coil that was cited at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. In 1897 he received a patent for a self-regulating x-ray tube. This tube was the first of its kind to solve the problem of an unstable output caused by a drop in tube gas pressure.
At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, he volunteered for military service and was assigned to Fort McPherson, Georgia where he was put in charge of the medical x-ray laboratory. After contracting typhoid fever he was discharged from the army in 1898 and returned to Philadelphia where he resumed his work with James W. Queen & Company.
The following year he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Thomas Anshutz. In 1903 he married Jeannette Hope, also a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was awarded a commission for the design of four lunettes to be hung in the United States Capitol. These lunettes, titled Rule of Tyranny, Rule of Justice, Primitive Agriculture, and Good Government were installed in Room H-143 between 1904 and 1905.
In 1906, Saÿen and his wife moved to Paris. She had been hired to report on French fashions for The North American, a newspaper owned by Thomas Wanamaker; Saÿen was to contribute art for the printing of catalogs and posters for the Wanamaker's department stores owned by Rodman Wanamaker. Soon after arriving in Paris, the couple met Leo Stein at Le Dôme Café, a restaurant known at the time as a gathering place for Anglo-American intellectuals. They lived on the Boulevard Raspail, across from the photo studio of Edward Steichen, and soon developed friendships with many important figures in the art world including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The couple also became frequent members of Gertrude Stein's Saturday night salon. In fact, Saÿen is mentioned by name three times in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. One example that acknowledges his technical skill:
... gas had just been put in and an ingenious American painter named Saÿen, to divert his mind from the birth of his first child, was arranging some mechanical contrivance that would light the high fixtures by themselves.
• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 5.57 oz/y² (189 g/m²)
• Giclée printing quality
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%
H. Lyman Saÿen was a Philadelphia-born pioneer know for the design of x-ray tubes who also distinguished himself as an abstract artist.
Soon after graduating from Central Manual Training School in 1891, he went to work for James W. Queen & Company, a large manufacturer of scientific equipment. At the age of 18 he designed a large induction coil that was cited at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. In 1897 he received a patent for a self-regulating x-ray tube. This tube was the first of its kind to solve the problem of an unstable output caused by a drop in tube gas pressure.
At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, he volunteered for military service and was assigned to Fort McPherson, Georgia where he was put in charge of the medical x-ray laboratory. After contracting typhoid fever he was discharged from the army in 1898 and returned to Philadelphia where he resumed his work with James W. Queen & Company.
The following year he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he studied under Thomas Anshutz. In 1903 he married Jeannette Hope, also a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was awarded a commission for the design of four lunettes to be hung in the United States Capitol. These lunettes, titled Rule of Tyranny, Rule of Justice, Primitive Agriculture, and Good Government were installed in Room H-143 between 1904 and 1905.
In 1906, Saÿen and his wife moved to Paris. She had been hired to report on French fashions for The North American, a newspaper owned by Thomas Wanamaker; Saÿen was to contribute art for the printing of catalogs and posters for the Wanamaker's department stores owned by Rodman Wanamaker. Soon after arriving in Paris, the couple met Leo Stein at Le Dôme Café, a restaurant known at the time as a gathering place for Anglo-American intellectuals. They lived on the Boulevard Raspail, across from the photo studio of Edward Steichen, and soon developed friendships with many important figures in the art world including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. The couple also became frequent members of Gertrude Stein's Saturday night salon. In fact, Saÿen is mentioned by name three times in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. One example that acknowledges his technical skill:
... gas had just been put in and an ingenious American painter named Saÿen, to divert his mind from the birth of his first child, was arranging some mechanical contrivance that would light the high fixtures by themselves.
• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 5.57 oz/y² (189 g/m²)
• Giclée printing quality
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%