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E-book William Rimmer : Champion of Imagination in American Art

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Penilaian

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William Rimmer (1816–1879) was a major and highly influential American artist, who, fairly consistently, managed to be misunderstood. Since his death, assessments of him have varied widely. He has been labeled both a neoclassicist and a precursor of the rebellious French sculptor, Auguste Rodin.1 Yet the content of Rimmer’s sculpture is very different from both. Just as concerning, many of his paintings and drawings have been misinterpreted, and his unsigned work confused with that of others. This book is an attempt to reconstruct his artistic identity and to provide a long-overdue reconsideration of his place in history. To begin with, Rimmer had a much more creative mind than has been assumed. At his death in 1879, he was typically praised as a man of “original genius.”2 In the context of flattering obituaries, this might not seem so unusual. But posthumously he gave new life to this estimation when he won a contest that acknowledged his fertile imagination. In 1880, a national journal of arts and literature, out of Buffalo, asked its readers to name which two American artists, alive or dead, were “pre-eminent in imaginative power.”3 Given Rimmer’s relative obscurity as a man of “reserved habits,” the result must have been a surprise.4 He shared the honor with Elihu Vedder — a still living, European-trained artist who was primarily a painter and book illustrator. They both were innovative in subject matter, but Rimmer differed in also being unusually original in sculptural form.With an uncommon breadth of talent, Rimmer split his creative energy as an artist. He worked in both two and three dimensions as well as taught art. During his career, he had to overcome the drawbacks of being not only self-taught — except for some lessons from his father — but also hindered by a late start so that he was not even recognized as a professional until the age of forty-five. It was then that he became a sculptor and necessarily only part-time.5 He produced few saleable works over a twenty-year career and supported himself by teaching. When he did exhibit — which was rare — his contributions tended to sacrifice public appeal by being inaccessible in meaning. Not only was his iconography esoteric, but he also earned a reputation for a curious reticence by not offering explanations.6 In short, he rarely created artworks for the purpose of earning public favor or even selling them. According to a now-destroyed diary, he typically practiced as an artist “to gratify” his family or “in gratitude” for a friend.7As for Rimmer’s posthumous fame, it was boosted by several means. In addition to having admirers who remembered him, he had published a drawing book that was said to be the only volume on human anatomy that had “any true artistic character.”8 A memorial exhibition was arranged at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (where he had taught), in 1880 and a biography by the sculptor Truman H. Bartlett followed in 1882.9 For their preservation, between 1905 and 1907, bronze casts were produced from his best known sculptures which Rimmer had modeled in clay and cast in plaster: Falling Gladiator, Dying Centaur, and Fighting Lions. In 1913, four of his drawings appeared in New York’s much-publicized International Exhibition of Modern Art, also called the “Armory Show,” in a section devoted to the finest American art.10 Also in the twentieth-century, he was repeatedly rediscovered through small, one-man exhibitions in 1916, 1946 and 1985.11 His stubborn independence, extensive influence through teaching, and avant-garde ideas are why he is worthy of close consideration. Beyond this, there is the undeniable quality of his surviving work.Rimmer had been born in Liverpool, England, on February 20, 1816, and brought at age nine to Boston, Massachusetts. His father, Thomas Rimmer, possessed the advantages of a well-educated man, purportedly because he had a connection with the French throne, but actually because he grew up in a prosperous English family, about whom nothing else is known. He became a timber merchant and married an Irish woman, Mary Burroughs, in Liverpool.12 In 1818, he arrived in New Brunswick, Canada, at the recorded age of twenty-three (suggesting that Thomas had been born in 1795) and sent for his wife and child to follow.13 They first lived in Nova Scotia and, in 1819, moved to Aroostook County, Maine. Strangely, Thomas found his chances for advancement repeatedly thwarted, so he worked first as a common laborer and by 1824 as a boot maker.14 He relocated with his family to Boston in 1826, and together he and his wife had seven children.

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Ketersediaan

Informasi Detail

Judul Seri

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No. Panggil

701 EVA w

Penerbit

London : Open Book Publishers., 2022

Deskripsi Fisik

252 hlm

Bahasa

English

ISBN/ISSN

9781800647589

Klasifikasi

701

Tipe Isi

text

Tipe Media

computer

Tipe Pembawa

online resource

Edisi

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Subjek

Philosophy and Theory of Arts

Info Detail Spesifik

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Pernyataan Tanggungjawab

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Versi lain/terkait

Lampiran Berkas

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