|
|
Hugh HowardThe Painter's Chair
Hugh HowardThe Painter's ChairGeorge Washington and the Making of American ArtHARD COVER
UPC: 9781596912441Release Date: 2/3/2009
An eloquent new look at the beginnings of the American republic—through the portraits of its first icon, George Washington, and the painters who defined him. “I am so hackneyed to the touches of the painters pencil, that I am now altogether at their beck…no dray moves more readily to the Thill, than I do to the Painters Chair.”—George Washington, May 16, 1785 When George Washington was born, the New World had virtually no artists. Over the course of his life and career, a cultural transformation would occur. Virtually everyone regarded Washington as America’s indispensable man, and the early painters and sculptors were no exception. Hugh Howard brings to life the founding fathers of American painting, and the elusive Washington himself, through the history of their portraits. We meet Charles Willson Peale, the comrade-in-arms; John Trumbull, the aristocrat; Benjamin West, the mentor; and Gilbert Stuart, the brilliant wastrel and most gifted painter of his day. Howard’s narrative traces Washington’s interaction with these and other artists, while offering a fresh and intimate portrait of the first president. The Painter’s Chair is an engaging narrative of how America’s first painters toiled to create an art worthy of the new republic, and of the hero whom they turned into an icon. “[A] lively narrative…A novel, ingeniously executed approach to the inspiring man whose dollar-bill likeness is arguably the most reproduced painted image in history.”—Kirkus Reviews “Intricate and engaging…Howard’s story is…not only about the birth of American painting, but—through the creation of its first, most long-lasting, and most transcendent human icon—about the invention of America itself.”—The American Scholar ""Patron of the arts is not the first association one makes with George Washington, but Howard elegantly makes the case that the founder of the nation also helped establish America’s art. Though architecture, not painting, was Washington’s preferred art, America’s first prominent artists painted him: Charles Willson Peale, John Trumbull, Benjamin West and Gilbert Stuart, the most distinguished American painter of the period. Washington, who Howard argues was “easier to see and admire than to understand,” is subtly revealed in a narrative that is precisely paced and elegantly composed.""—Publishers Weekly ""In the delightful The Painter's Chair: George Washington and the Making of American Art, Hugh Howard develops the idea of Washington as a patron of the arts and examines how art and the painting of portraits developed in the United States.""—Book Page “Hugh Howard's highly original work offers a completely new perspective on the Father of our Country, examining his life through the eyes of six of the 28 artists for whom he sat, showing how his increasing fame accelerated the development of American painting, and offering insight into how history and myth are made by images…History is a story, a myth that we are told and that we tell one another, that defines our existence as a people and a nation. What Hugh Howard so deftly tells in this important book is how the arts of painting and sculpture came to take an increasingly central part in our understanding of the first decades of the United States. He also alters our understanding of that amazing man, George Washington”—Dallas Morning News |
||||||||||||
|
Connect With Us
|
