Lure of Italy, The: American Artists and The Italian Experience, 1760 - 1914 by: Stebbins, Theodore E. Et al.
Hardcover. Boston, Massachusetts, Harry N. Abrams, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 470 pages. Brown cloth cover, color illustrated dust jacket, 113 color and 206 illustrations. Still in original shrink wrap; book in excellent condition. American artists have been inspired by Italy since the 1760s, when Benjamin West, the first American painter to travel there, was drawn to the ancient Roman ruins and magnificent Renaissance architecture, statuary, and frescoes. This intriguing, superbly illustrated book is the first to explore the fascination Italy held for the American artist from West's time to the eve of World War I.The unique sense of the past found in Italy, where tangible evidence exists of a continual civilization from antiquity to the present, lured countless American artists to its cities, towns, and countryside. Painters from West and Copley in the eighteenth century to Cole, Inness, Whistler, Sargent, and Prendergast in the nineteenth century were inspired to create many of their finest works in Italy, as were American sculptors such as Hiram Powers and Harriet Hosmer and writers from Washington Irving to Henry James.This in-depth study includes 319 illustrations, of which 113 are reproduced in full color, many of works that have not previously been published. Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., John Moors Cabot Curator of American Paintings at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Professor of Art History at Boston University, provides a broad overview of the American perception of Italy and the unique role that Italy played in the formation of American art.