PDF Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting; 1825-1875; With a New Preface by Barbara Novak in Arts-Photography

Description

In this richly illustrated volume; featuring more than fifty black-and-white illustrations and a beautiful eight-page color insert; Barbara Novak describes how for fifty extraordinary years; American society drew from the idea of Nature its most cherished ideals. Between 1825 and 1875; all kinds of Americans--artists; writers; scientists; as well as everyday citizens--believed that God in Nature could resolve human contradictions; and that nature itself confirmed the American destiny. Using diaries and letters of the artists as well as quotes from literary texts; journals; and periodicals; Novak illuminates the range of ideas projected onto the American landscape by painters such as Thomas Cole; Albert Bierstadt; Frederic Edwin Church; Asher B. Durand; Fitz H. Lane; and Martin J. Heade; and writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson; Henry David Thoreau; and Frederich Wilhelm von Schelling. Now with a new preface; this spectacular volume captures a vast cultural panorama. It beautifully demonstrates how the idea of nature served; not only as a vehicle for artistic creation; but as its ideal form. "An impressive achievement." --Barbara Rose; The New York Times Book Review "An admirable blend of ambition; elan; and hard research. Not just an art book; it bears on some of the deepest fantasies of American culture as a whole." --Robert Hughes; Time Magazine