CRITICAL SHIFT
CRITICAL
SHIFT
Rereading Jarves, Cook, Stillman,
and the Narratives of
Nineteenth-Century American Art
Karen L. Georgi
THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
UNIVERSITY PARK, PENNSYLVANIA
A version of chapter 1 was previously published as Karen L. Georgi, “James Jackson Jarves’s Art Criticism: Aesthetic Classification and Historiographical Consequences,” Journal of American Studies 42, no. 2 (2008): 215–35. Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press.
Reprinted with permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Georgi, Karen, 1966–
Critical shift : rereading Jarves, Cook, Stillman, and the narratives of nineteenth-century American art / Karen Georgi.
p. cm.
Summary: “A reassessment of the writings of the mid-nineteenth-century American art critics James Jackson Jarves (1818–1888), Clarence Cook (1828–1900), and William J. Stillman (1828–1901), and their role in the historiography of American art”—Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-271-06066-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Art criticism—United States—History—19th century.
2. Jarves, James Jackson, 1818–1888—Criticism and interpretation.
3. Cook, Clarence, 1828–1900—Criticism and interpretation.
4. Stillman, William James, 1828–1901—Criticism and interpretation.
5. Art, American—Historiography.
I. Title.
N7485.U6G46 2013
701'.180973—dc23
2013003234
Copyright © 2013 The Pennsylvania State University
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press,
University Park, PA 16802-1003
The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses.
It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. Publications on uncoated stock satisfy the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
This book is printed on paper that contains 30% post-consumer waste.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Rereading James Jackson Jarves’s Art-Idea
2 Clarence Cook and Jarves: Fact, Feeling, and the Discourse of Truthfulness in Art
3 A Further Look at Clarence Cook and the “Revolution” in Art
4 William J. Stillman’s Ruskinian Criticism: Metaphor and Essential Meaning
5 Art Discourse After Ruskin: Time and History in Art
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851
2 Emanuel Leutze, The Storming of the Teocalli by Cortez and His Troops, 1848
3 Thomas Charles Farrer, Mount Holyoke and the Connecticut River, 1865
4 John La Farge, October, Hillside, Noonday, Glen Cove, Long Island, 1860
5 Elihu Vedder, Questioner of the Sphinx, 1863
6 John La Farge, Paradise Valley, 1866–68
7 Elihu Vedder, Cumaean Sibyl, 1876
8 Frederick A. Bridgman, Funeral of a Mummy, 1876–77
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to acknowledge most gratefully Berklee College of Music for a yearlong leave of absence in which to concentrate on this book before my allotted sabbatical year arrived. In particular, I thank former department chair Charles Combs and former division dean Lawrence McClellan, who very kindly facilitated this leave, lending personal as well as institutional encouragement to the endeavor. In Rome, I owe many thanks to Cristina Giorcelli, director of the doctoral program in American studies at the Università degli Studi di Roma, Roma Tre; to Sara Antonelli, university researcher at Roma Tre; to John Cabot University for faculty development funds; and to the librarians of the Centro Studi Americani, particularly to Annalisa Capristo and Silvia Cellitti. In the latter stages of this project, Leo Mazow and Jochen Wierich attentively read and commented on the manuscript, giving me pertinent advice for improving it. I thank them for their participation and thoughtful readings. For the actual publication of the book, I am certainly indebted to Eleanor Goodman, executive editor at the Pennsylvania State University Press, who steered the manuscript (and its author) through the long process with a steady hand and much good will. My sincere thanks also to the wonderfully efficient, helpful, and friendly members of the editorial and production departments: Patty Mitchell, production coordinator; Jennifer Norton, assistant director and design and production manager; Charlee Redman, editorial assistant; Laura Reed-Morrisson, managing editor; and Julie Schoelles, manuscript editor. It is a pleasure to have the chance here to thank my teachers Alan Draper, the late Betsy Rezelman,
