Art and the Higher Life: Painting and Evolutionary Thought in Late Nineteenth-Century America - Rilegato

Pyne, Kathleen

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0292765711 ISBN 13: 9780292765719

Casa editrice: Univ of Texas Pr, 1996

Riassunto

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, many Americans were deeply troubled by the theories of Charles Darwin, which contradicted both traditional Christian teachings and the general view of human supremacy over nature, and by an influx of foreign immigrants, who challenged the supremacy of the old Anglo-Saxon elite. In response, many people drew comfort from the theories of British philosopher Herbert Spencer, who held that human society inevitably develops towards higher and more spiritual forms.
In this illuminating study, Kathleen Pyne explores how Spencer's theories came to influence a generation of American artists. She shows how the painters of the 1880s and 1890s, particularly John La Farge, James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Dewing and the Boston school, and the impressionist painters of the Ten, developed a kind of art that was dedicated to social refinement and spiritual ideals and to defending the embattled position of the Anglo-Saxon elite of which they were members.
Linking visual culture to the problematic conditions of American life, the book thus offers a radically new interpretation of the most important trends in late nineteenth-century American painting. It will be of interest to a wide interdisciplinary audience in American intellectual, social, and art history.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Kathleen Pyne teaches American and British art history at the University of Notre Dame.

Product Description:

Book by Pyne Kathleen

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Univ of Texas Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0292765711
• ISBN 13: 9780292765719
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 416