The Art Life of William Rimmer


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Excerpt from The Art Life of William Rimmer: Sculptor, Painter, and Physician York as the director of the School of Design for Women at the Cooper Institute. Of his origin nothing whatever was learned, either by his friends or the public; and outside of his family - circle little was known of his life or his strug gles, even by his immediate friends. His plaster statue of the falling gladiator, ' when in 1861 it was first shown at his house in East Milton, and soon after in Boston, was pronounced a remarkable work, and its author a modern Michael Angelo. But neither this work, nor the st. Stephen, which was produced a year earlier, gained at that time the place in public esteem which they merited; and, after a temporary suc cess, both sank into undeserved obscurity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.




Art & Anatomy


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Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass


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Murano Glass and its Collectors in Aesthetic America / Melody Barnett Deusner -- Venetian Mosaics and Glass in the United States, 1860-1917 / Sheldon Barr -- "Where Have Titian's Beauties Gone?" : Sargent and Whistler on the Streets of Venice / Stephanie Mayer Heydt -- Interweaving Worlds : Antique and Revival Lace in Italy and in the United States, 1872-1927 / Diana Jocelyn Greenwold -- Sparks of Genius : American Art and the Appeal of Modern Venetian Glass / Crawford Alexander Mann III -- Biographies / Brittany Emens Strupp, Crawford Alexander Mann III.




William Rimmer


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William Rimmer (1816–1879) is arguably the first modernist American sculptor, although his inventive originality has not been fully acknowledged. Rimmer cultivated an art of ideas and personal expression whilst supporting himself as a physician and, later, as a teacher of art anatomy at the Cooper Union School of Design for Women in New York. Unlike his contemporaries, he advocated the creation of sculpture drawn entirely from the artist’s imagination, as opposed to antique archetypes or live models. In this way, he sought to reframe excellence in American art as something that must be found within, rather than derived from Europe. In this new monograph, the meaning of Rimmer’s works is for the first time considered from a combination of perspectives, such as close visual analysis (including X-ray and infrared), historical documentation, and social context. These are enriched with discussion of the artist’s own bipolar disorder, deeply-held spiritualism, and views on gender equality—considering women just as talented as men, he used naked male models in all-female classes long before his contemporaries, and produced an allegorical sculpture of fighting lions that criticized the tyranny of men over women. This book will be of great interest to academics, students, art museums, collectors, dealers, art historians, and members of the public with an affinity for Rimmer’s work. It will also appeal to those with a broader interest in American culture.




A Studio of Her Own


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By Erica E. Hirshler.




Little Woman in Blue


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May Alcott spends her days sewing blue shirts for Union soldiers, but she dreams of painting a masterpiece—which many say is impossible for a woman—and of finding love, too. When she reads her sister’s wildly popular novel, Little Women, she is stung by Louisa’s portrayal of her as “Amy,” the youngest of four sisters who trades her desire to succeed as an artist for the joys of hearth and home. Determined to prove her talent, May makes plans to move far from Massachusetts and make a life for herself with room for both watercolors and a wedding dress. Can she succeed? And if she does, what price will she have to pay? Based on May Alcott’s letters and diaries, as well as memoirs written by her neighbors, Little Woman in Blue puts May at the center of the story she might have told about sisterhood and rivalry in an extraordinary family.




Painting the Dark Side


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American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A catalogue of works by artists born before 1865


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Volume One: This volume catalogues the distinguished and comprehensive collection of approximately 400 works of American sculpture by artists born before 1865. This publication includes an introduction on the history of the collection's formation, particularly in the context of the Museum's early years of acquisitions, and discusses the outstanding personalities involved. --Metropolitan Museum of Art website.




The Unknown Night


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“The best book yet written about this neglected and fascinating American painter” who anticipated abstract expressionism by more than fifty years (Gail Levin, The New York Times Book Review). At the dawn of the 20th century, Ralph Blakelock’s brooding, hallucinogenic paintings were a striking departure from the prevailing American tradition—and as sought after as the works of Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent. In 1916, the record-breaking sale of Blakelock’s Brook by Moonlight made him famous. Yet at the time of his triumph, the troubled painter had spent fifteen years in a psychiatric hospital while his family lived in poverty. Released from the asylum, Blakelock fell into the dubious care of an eccentric adventuress, Beatrice Van Rensselaer Adams, who kept him a virtual prisoner while siphoning off the profits of his success, until his mysterious death. In this acclaimed biography, Glyn Vincent offers the first complete chronicle of Blakelock’s life. Vividly portraying New York in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the narrative begins with his childhood in Greenwich Village and the years he spent peddling his canvases door-to-door and playing piano in vaudeville theaters. Vincent also delves into Blakelock’s journeys among the Sioux and Uinta Native Americans; his mental illness; and the way his exploration of mysticism informed his radical shift away from the Hudson River School of art.