Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano

The book "Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass" explores how Venetian glass influenced American artists and patrons during the late nineteenth century. It highlights the revival of glass production in Venice and the impact it had on American art, with artists such as Sargent and Whistler finding inspiration in the city's glass objects. The book also showcases the craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal of Venetian glass, which became symbols of history, beauty, and craftsmanship.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 14 December 2021
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass explores the profound impact of Venetian glass on American artists and patrons during the late nineteenth century. This captivating book delves into the American fascination with Venice's art world, where they encountered a floating city adorned with palaces, museums, and churches, as well as countless shop windows showcasing dazzling specimens of brightly colored glass. While Murano, the Venetian island renowned for glass production since the Middle Ages, had experienced a revival in productivity between 1860 and 1915, it coincided with Venice's rise as a popular destination on the Grand Tour. This resulted in depictions of Italian glassmakers and glass objects by renowned American artists, who were inspired by the city's rich artistic heritage.

In turn, their patrons visited glass furnaces, collected museum-quality hand-blown goblets adorned with intricate designs of flowers, dragons, and sea creatures, as well as mosaics, lace, and other examples of Venetian skill and creativity. This lavishly illustrated book examines exquisitely crafted glass pieces alongside paintings, watercolors, and prints of the same era by American artists who found inspiration in Venice, including Thomas Moran, Maria Oakey Dewing, Robert Frederick Blum, Charles Caryl Coleman, Maurice Prendergast, and Maxfield Parrish.

Italian glass had a profound influence on American art, literature, and design theory, as well as the periods' ideas about gender, labor, and class relations. For artists such as Sargent and Whistler, and their patrons, glass objects became aesthetic emblems of history, beauty, and craftsmanship.

Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass transports readers from the furnaces of Murano to American parlors and museums, bringing to life the imaginative and artistic exchange between these two cultures. It sheds light on the profound impact of Venetian glass on American art and culture, highlighting the enduring legacy of this magnificent material in shaping the artistic landscape of the United States.

Weight: 2338g
Dimension: 304 x 350 x 36 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691222677