Rediscovering Vinland - Yale University Library

Mid-Victorian Illustration
www.dmvi.cf.ac.uk/
The Database of Mid-Victorian
Illustration, which was funded
in 2004 to digitize and index a
sampling from the 1860s heyday
of wood-engraved illustration, is
now online.
A team at Cardiff University
has overseen the reproduction,
description, and subject tagging of
almost 900 such illustrations from
a selection of major illustrated publications, taking 1862 as the
sample year.
Visit the PRS website at www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org
www.illuminated-books.com/
The Illuminated Books Project is a private non-profit,
collaborative effort of three individuals, Alfredo Malchiodi,
Anita Malchiodi and Carlos Alonso Cabezas. They share a
vision to make available, in high-resolution, many illuminated
and illustrated books from their private collections.
These books are mainly from the Victorian period and
include works from the Arts and Crafts Movement and
private presses, extending from 1800s to the 1920s.
In the selection of books exhibited, particular emphasis is
given to the illustration, illumination and book design over
the literary content.
The aim of the project was to digitize and mount on a publicly
accessible website a cross section of illustrations from different
literary texts and by a range of artists and engravers. The year
1862 was chosen because it saw the emergence and growth of
major illustrated periodicals, including the Cornhill Magazine
and Good Words, and allowed for the inclusion of familiar
illustrated works like Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market,
illustrated by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, alongside
those that are less well known.
English Heritage’s Viewfinder Picture Archive
Of course, these pictures only represent a fraction of the range
of images that appeared in books and periodicals in the period,
but the database gives a sense of the richness of the material
and the place of illustration in Victorian visual culture.
www.helenallingham.com/
Devoted to the appreciation of the life and works of one of
the finest watercolour artists of Victorian times.
Paul Goldman, familiar to the Pre-Raphaelite Society as an
expert on 19th century book illustration, served as project
advisor.
http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk/
ViewFinder presents a selection of historic and more
recent photographs from the National Monuments Record’s
important collections, dating from the 1840s to the present
day. All the photographs are presented seamlessly on
ViewFinder, allowing users to search across the whole
archive at once.
The Helen Allingham Society
Poemhunter
www.poemhunter.com
This database, which originates from France, contains
168,207 poems from 16,474 poets.
“To see him has always been a pleasure; his voice has always been a sweet sound in my
ears. Behind his back I have never heard him praised without joining the eulogist;
I have never heard a word spoken against him without opposing the censurer.
These words, should he ever see them, will come to him from the grave, and will tell him
of my regard—as one living man never tells another.”
— Anthony Trollope on John Everett Millais
In the Studios of Paris: William Bouguereau and his American Students
Frick Art and Historical Center ■ Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ■ July 7, 2007 - October 14, 2007
This exhibition, the first to examine Bouguereau’s role as an influential teacher, features paintings, drawings, and prints by
Bouguereau and some of his most prominent American students, including: Cecilia Beaux, Minerva Chapman, Eanger Irving
Couse, Elizabeth Gardner, Robert Henri, Anna Klumpke, and others. A fully-illustrated color catalogue will accompany the
exhibition.
Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts ■ Richmond, Virginia ■ July 11, 2007 - September 30, 2007
This major exhibition, spanning approximately 100 years from the emergence of watercolor painting in the mid-18th century
to its high point in the late-19th century, investigates a historically important technique - a medium that was for a time greatly
underappreciated. Through his patronage, Paul Mellon helped initiate a reassessment of this demanding technique.
Registered Charity: 1095111
The Pre-Raphaelite Society
Newsletter of the United States
The Illuminated Books Project
All material for publication in the PRSUS Newsletter
should be addressed to the Editor:
Tim McGee
1209 Palm Avenue
San Mateo, California 94402 USA
[email protected]
For general inquiries and membership
information please contact the Secretary:
Barry C. Johnson
37 Larchmere Drive
Hall Green
Birmingham, B28 8JB, England
Number 17
Summer 2007
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’s American Cousins
Royal W. Leith
did membership exceed 27. The
Association itself was short-lived. It
During the 1850s several
met for the last time in March 1864,
factors contributed to the birth of a Preadmitting Henry Roderick Newman
Raphaelite movement in the United
to its ranks just before formally
States late in that decade. Among the
disbanding. Moore and Newman,
most important were: the enormous
however, remained practicing Prepopularity of John Ruskin’s writings;
Raphaelites for the remainder of
an exhibition of several hundred
their long lives, and through their
pieces of British art, including several
influence they cultivated a younger
important Pre-Raphaelite paintings
generation of artists, centering
that visited New York, Philadelphia,
mainly around Harvard University,
and Boston in 1857-8; and the nearly
in the ideas of John Ruskin and
simultaneous arrival in America of a
the practice of Pre-Raphaelitism.
young English artist named Thomas
American and English PreCharles Farrer, who had actually
Raphaelitism differed greatly from
learned to draw from Ruskin himself.
each other. Whereas the English PreFarrer eventually became
Raphaelites mostly adhered to the
the leader of the American
tradition of large oil paintings with
counterparts to the English Prefigurative subjects, mainly historical,
Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group
mythological, religious or literary, in
that called itself The Association for
contrast, the Americans took to heart
the Advancement of Truth in Art.
Ruskin’s exhortation to “go to nature,”
The Association consisted of eight
adapting Pre-Raphaelitism to the
founding members when it came into
being at a meeting in Farrer’s New Henry Roderick Newman, View of Florence from the East American landscape tradition dating
1888, 14 x 7 7/8 inches Private collection
back to the 1830s. Indeed, Moore was
York studio on January 27, 1863. Only
friendly with the son of Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson
two members of the group were actual artists, Farrer and
River School, and used his painting studio in Catskill,
Charles Herbert Moore, and at no time during its existence
Continued
Rediscovering Vinland
on the south and east sides (fig.
1). Carved capitals and decorative
scrollwork accentuate the façade.
Adrienne Leigh Sharpe
The iconography on the exterior
and Sarah Kuchta
ranges from Celtic, Nordic, and
In the 1880s, Newport,
Runic symbols to other, more
Rhode Island was a bustling port
common medieval motifs, abstract
city, marked by droves of seasonal
geometric patterns, and vegetal
visitors and the Gilded Age élite
and animal forms. Leaves, vines,
who decided to build summer
flowers, and grape clusters appear
“cottages” on the water. In 1882,
at intervals, and cover a portion
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe — at
of each façade. In addition, a
that time, the single richest woman
figurehead of a Viking ship
in America — commissioned
appears at the northeast corner
Peabody and Stearns to build her Fig. 1 Vinland, Newport, Rhode Island
of the roof.
dream cottage there. Peabody
Vi n l a n d o r i g i n a l l y
and Stearns, a renowned architectural firm from Boston,
featured an interior decorative scheme by the British design
Massachusetts, had recently designed the Breakers (1877firm of Morris & Company. Lavish details such as Morris &
78) for her cousin, Pierre Lorillard. A close neighbor to the
Company’s recognizable stained glass windows, portières,
Breakers, Vinland would also be located along the Cliff
embroideries, and carpets combined to create a Nordic
Walk.
theme.
Vinland is an excellent example of Peabody and
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe became interested in
Stearns’s 1880s design work. The mansion was initially
Icelandic history after viewing the legendary Old Stone
built as a long, low structure in the Romanesque Revival
Mill in Newport, supposedly built by Vikings during their
style, complete with turrets, bay windows, and porticoes
Continued
PRB’s American Cousins
Rediscovering Vinland
Continued
New York during the 1860s. Unlike the Hudson River painters,
however, the American Pre-Raphaelites preferred watercolor over
oil paint. Most notably, they used a minute, painstakingly detailed
technique that greatly limited the size and number of their works.
The Association’s influence stretched beyond its brief
14-month existence. Its monthly journal, called The New Path,
continued for two years. Furthermore, during the 1860s, the
American Pre-Raphaelites steadily gained power and prestige,
reaching their zenith in 1867. Founding Association member Peter
Bonnett Wight completed the new National Academy of Design
building in 1865 and Yale’s new fine arts home, Street Hall, in 1866,
both designed according to Ruskin’s Gothic Revival architectural
principles; American Pre-Raphaelites were instrumental in the
creation of the American Society of Painters in Watercolor in
1866, which represented an important step in the elevation of
watercolor, the Pre-Raphaelite medium, to a status equal to oil;
former Association members Clarence Cook and Russell Sturgis
were art critics for the New York Tribune and The Nation, powerful
positions from which they acted as advocates for the American
Pre-Raphaelites; and finally, at the first exhibition of the American
Society of Painters in Watercolor, 40 American Pre-Raphaelite
works were shown, and, later that year,
an exhibition celebrating the opening of
Street Hall featured 69 Pre-Raphaelite
works, a quarter of all pictures shown.
Nonetheless, the movement
never really caught on with the public
or with many artists outside the small
core of former Association members.
Newman wrote about “a gentleman
from Chicago [who] called…with some
New York ladies…. The gentleman
wanted me to do some work for him, but
after looking over my studies concluded
that I was too Pre-Raphaelite… I find
that Pre-Raphs are not fashionable
here. ‘They are so ultra.’” Artists were
reluctant to invest the considerable time
required to produce Pre-Raphaelite work. Moore wrote that it took
him about three to four hours to finish a section the size of his
thumb-tip. Newman said, much later, after many years of practice,
that he spent an hour on each square inch of his watercolors.
Thus, by the end of the decade, the American PreRaphaelite movement ended. T.C. Farrer, who had led the
movement, returned to England in 1869, first to visit, then
permanently in 1871, and though he continued to paint, he
completely abandoned the Pre-Raphaelite style. So, to varying
degrees, did other artists affiliated with the movement,
including Farrer ’s brother Henry, the eminent academician
William Trost Richards, and Richards’s protégé Fidelia Bridges.
In 1985 the Brooklyn Museum organized the superb
exhibition “The New Path: Ruskin and the American PreRaphaelites.” This exhibition resurrected the almost forgotten
story of the American Pre-Raphaelite movement. The story the
exhibition told ended in the late 1860s. But that story had a
sequel, documented by the Fogg Museum’s recently concluded
exhibition “The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles
Herbert Moore, and Their Circle.” Readers interested in
learning more about the American Pre-Raphaelites are directed
to the superb catalogues that accompanied both exhibitions.
Royal W. Leith is an independent art historian who teaches at the Buckingham
Browne & Nichols School in Cambridge, MA. He is the author of a book and
several articles about Henry Roderick Newman.
The Victorian House
Judith Flanders
HarperPerennial;
New Ed edition
An incisive and
irresistible portrait of
Victorian domestic life.
The book itself is itself
laid out like a house,
following the story of
daily life from room to
room. Through a collage
of diaries, letters, advice
books, magazines and
paintings, Flanders
shows how social
history is built up out
of tiny domestic details, through which we can
understand the desires, motivations and thoughts
of the age. The houses are familiar, but the lives
are not. The Victorian House will change all that.
The Last Ruskinians
Harvard University Art Museum
2007
The catalogue accompanying the Last
Ruskinians exhibition examines Ruskin’s
significant influence on taste, collecting,
and art instruction, with special emphasis
on the role of his close friend and
emissary in America, Charles Eliot Norton.
The 104-page catalogue contains 57 color
and 24 black-and-white illustrations.
Continued
New England settlement. It was this Viking heritage that inspired the name
of Lorillard Wolfe’s estate, “Vinland.” Also fascinated with Icelandic stories,
William Morris traveled to Iceland, learned the Icelandic language, and
translated many sagas. For Morris, Iceland represented both escape and
isolation and romance and happiness. Utilizing such contrasting themes
added an air of mystique to the Vinland home, showcasing the imaginative
nature of both Lorillard Wolfe and Morris.
Above all, the highlight of this interior was the stained glass window
provided by Morris & Company for the first-floor landing at Vinland.
Designed by Burne-Jones in conjunction with Morris, the window was
originally composed of nine lights or panes; three rows of three lights each
(fig. 2). In the top portion, the Sun and
the Moon flank the middle window,
the centerpiece of which is a Viking
ship complete with roaring figurehead
“a toss” on the sea (fig. 3). The central
portion of the window presents the
Norse gods Thor, Odin, and Frey as
seated figures placed centrally with
their respective castles nestled into
rocky landscapes behind them.
The lower portion of the window
features three full-length figures,
Thorfinn, his wife Gudridr, and ‘Leif the
Lucky’ or Leif Erikson, renowned for
Fig. 3
their travels and exploration of North
America. The men are dressed in full suits of armor and their helmets bear
a strong similarity to those that appear in the early work of Burne-Jones.
Viewers today can only piece together the original artistic vision for
Vinland through archives and scrapbooks, as the house was deconstructed
Fig. 2
and many of the furnishings redistributed. Archival records can be found at
the Newport Historical Society, the Headquarters of the Preservation Society of Newport County, Salve Regina University’s
McKillop Library, and the Delaware Art Museum. Recently, new information regarding the Vinland windows has come to
light; it seems that five of the windows were offered for sale at an auction in 1993, and are currently housed in a private
collection. Further study of these windows will undoubtedly contribute to our understanding of Morris & Company’s legacy
in the United States.
Adrienne Leigh Sharpe recently completed her MA at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture in NYC,
focusing on Victorian art and architecture. She is a member of the Victorian Society in America and a governing board member of the William Morris
Society in the United States.
Performing the Victorian
Sharon Aronofsky Weltman
In works as celebrated
as Modern Painters and
obscure as Love’s Meinie,
Ruskin uses his voracious
attendance at the theater to
illustrate points about social
justice, aesthetic practice,
and epistemology.
In addition to Ruskin on
theater, Performing the
Victorian interprets recent
theater portraying Ruskin
(The Invention of Love,
The Countess, the opera
Modern Painters) as
merely a Victorian prude
or pedophile against which contemporary culture
defines itself. These theatrical depictions may
be compared to concurrent plays about Ruskin’s
friend and student Oscar Wilde (Gross Indecency:
The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, The Judas Kiss).
Sarah Kuchta is a second-year MA student at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT, studying art therapy.
The American Collections
Among the many amazing collections at Princeton University Library is the Henry Virtue
Tebbs collection of Pre-Raphaelite photographs. Henry Virtue Tebbs (1846-??) was a
close friend and admirer of Rossetti, and many letters to him and his wife Emily are
recorded among Rossetti’s correspondence. He bought works by Rossetti, promoted
his work, and after his death wrote the preface to the 1883 exhibition of Rossetti at the
Burlington Fine Arts Club. His intimacy with the artist was such that he was among a very
few to be present at the disinterment of Rossetti’s wife, Elizabeth Siddal, in 1869 when he
wished to rescue the manuscript volume of poems which he had buried with her.
The collection consists of mounted photographs of drawings and paintings by Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, his wife Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, and a few other members of the
Pre-Raphaelite circle, put together for or by Henry Virtue Tebbs. Many of the mounts
have been inscribed by Rossetti himself—most importantly, the photographic portfolio
of his late wife’s drawings, but also a good number of the “detached” photographs. One
is inscribed by Rossetti to Tebbs’s wife Emily, and the letter which accompanied the gift
is printed by Dr. William Fredeman. In addition, many of the mounts are inscribed in
pencil with Tebbs’s name, sometimes with reference to other collectors of the time such
as Charles Fairfax Murray. It is perhaps no coincidence that a number of the originals of
these photographs were owned at one point by Fairfax Murray himself. A photograph of a
well-bearded man also in this collection (item 76) may be of Tebbs. The present collection
was purchased by Princeton in 2005.
Study of Elizabeth Siddal by
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (photograph)
Princeton University Library
Manuscripts Division
One Washington Road
Princeton, New Jersey
08544 USA
www.princeton.edu/~rbsc