John La Farge: Essays

La Farge, now nearly forgotten, was at one time considered among the most progressive 19th century American artists. His oil landscapes and watercolorsdirect studies from naturedecisively influenced Winslow Homer. His innovations in opalescent glass revitalized the art of stained glass with undreamt-of pictorial effects. An interior design for Trinity Church in Boston, with its floating Byzantine spaces, created a sensation. Muralist, book illustrator, art critic, travel writer, decoratorLa Farge combined all these roles. Yet most of his paintings look academic and stilted by modern standards, and his far-flung trips to the South Seas and Japan yielded only tame travel scenes. Combining nearly 200 illustrations with essays by scholars, this catalogue of a traveling exhibit includes photographs of his interiors for the Vanderbilt house in New York, civic buildings and churches. (June)