A multipart series about American portraiture. Continue reading
Tag Archives: 19th Century
Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener
Although quite tempted to do some editing, I refrained from doing so because of the antique nature of the language and the placement of punctuation possibly appropriate for the age. Things were not as standardized as our current obsessive times. The only changes I have made were to replace words such as “any thing” with … Continue reading
Sargent’s The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit
I start fresh. I look at this picture as if the first time in seeing. Although difficult to do so, the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit has been pondered and subjected to voracious scrutiny and detailed psychoanalysis. Not infrequently this picture has been proclaimed the greatest produced by an American and, upon examination, hardly presents many … Continue reading
Notes on Neo-Classicism and Art of the 18th Century
The famous Cardinal Albani commissioned Anton Raphael Mengs to paint the Parnassus Ceiling for the Villa Albani in Rome. The Villa Albani, not particularly suited as a permanent residence or for hosting guests, was a showcase for Cardinal Albani’s rich and extensive collection of classical antiquities. Albani dealt in buying and selling ancient objects from Rome and Greece, and along … Continue reading
