On the Nightstand

Florence Fuller  -  Inseparables
from the catalog to the exhibit The Edwardians:  Secrets and Desires

Each night I risk my life by falling asleep with a towering stack of books close to my head.  I have done my best to find other places to keep my current art books of interest, but my cases are all full, and until I can find space for more shelves, I will continue my game of library Jenga™ here on the nightstand.  At least the stack is not quite so high as the last time I commented on the books featured in my bedtime reading.  Here are 10 of those books:

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1).  Maxfield Parrish by Coy Ludwig

I think this was the first art book I had purchased for myself, and I bought it during the first week of classes my freshman year of college.  It must have been part of a warehouse find;  it was one of a large stack of brand-new, 16 year-old books in the bookshop.  When I picked it up, and leafed through the book, I had no idea who Parrish was, but there was something familiar about his work, and I loved having such images at hand.

At the time I found this book, it was the best available on Parrish.  Since then, Alma Gilbert, an avid Parrish collector, has released several books on the artist which have better reproductions than does Ludwig's book from 1973.  I do not know of another book on Parrish, however, that covers the artist's methods better than Ludwig's, and for that, it is invaluable.

A few years after purchasing the book, I learned that I was living only two blocks from Coy Ludwig.  I called him up to discuss Parrish, but he said he remembered little from so many years ago, and besides, no one was still interested in Parrish.  He was surprised I had even found a copy of the book.  I wonder how surprised he was when it was reprinted a few years later.

Maxfield Parrish  -  Garden of Allah

After I was graduated, my family inherited my grandmother's piano from a cousin who no longer had space for it.  We were also given a picture which had hung over the piano for decades, but which had been misplaced sometime in the '70s and had only recently resurfaced.  It was Maxfield Parrish's Garden of Allah, a 1918 promotional print from Crane's Chocolates.  Finally, it made sense why the artwork seemed so familiar, and why the book had struck such an immediate chord with me when I found it on the shelf.

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2).  Max Ginsburg Retrospective

All monographs should be this good.  The paintings are of course beautiful, and the images are large and plentiful and nearly all in color.  Released to coincide with Ginsburg's retrospective shows at the Salmagundi Club and at The Butler Institute of American Art, the book features work from 1956 through 2010, including examples from his illustration career.

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3).  The Man with the Easel of Horn: The Life and Works of Émile Friant - A NOVEL
by Norman Beaupré

Norman Beaupré became fascinated with the French artist Émile Friant after seeing the artist's painting La Douleur in the film Il y a longtemps que je t'aime (2008).  Set in the historically accurate France of the late 1800s, the book is a fictionalized account of Friant's life based on the author's subsequent research.  THERE ARE NO IMAGES IN THIS BOOK.

The author's inspiration:  Émile Friant's La Douleur (1898)

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4).  Émile Friant by Henri Claude

THIS IS THE BOOK THAT HAS THE IMAGES.  Claude's book is the definitive work on Friant, and it contains beautiful images, many of which are not available online.  The text is in French.

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5).  L'École de Nancy: Peinture et Art nouveau by Jean-Paul Midant

Also written in French, this book features works by Émile Friant, Victor Prouvé, Albert Besnard, Eugène Carrière, Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret, Camille Martin, Jules-Alexis Muenier, Jean-François Raffaëlli, Auguste Rodin, and Henri Royer.  This is a catalog to an exhibit organized by le musée des Beaux-Arts in 1999.

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6). The Life in the Studio by Nancy Hale

In this book, Nancy Hale, the daughter of artists Philip Hale and Lilian Westcott Hale, shares her memories of growing up in her parents' studios.

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7).  Art on the Line: The Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House 1780-1836
edited by Dr. David H. Solkin

An art history book which examines the importance of Somerset House, where London's Royal Academy of Arts held its annual exhibit for 57 years (1780-1836).  This yearly event, and the space in which the art was shown, shaped British art during this period in more ways than one.

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8).  Masters of American Illustration: 41 Illustrators and How They Worked by Fred Taraba

Coy Ludwig's book on Maxfield Parrish was not my only source for learning painting techniques while in college;  my other source was the bi-monthly magazine Step-by-Step Graphics, which covered everything from choosing the right font for print ads to the methods of contemporary illustrators.  Near the end of the magazine's run, as more and more articles focussed on digital work, a new feature was added to the back of each issue which instead dealt with the traditional techniques of the earlier generations of illustrators.  This regular column, called "Methods of the Masters," was a great source of information and inspiration, and quickly became my favorite part of the magazine.

Though several writers contributed installments of "Methods of the Masters," Fred Taraba was responsible for the lion's share, providing articles on 41 different artists.  This book is a compilation of Taraba's articles, revised, and with better reproductions than first appeared in Step-by Step Graphics.

Click here to see more samples from the book.

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9). George W. Lambert Retrospective: Heroes & Icons by Anne Gray

George Washington Lambert, the "Australian Sargent," is recognized as one of his country's finest figurative painters, and its greatest wartime artist.  This is the catalog which accompanied the 2007 exhibit of the artist's work held at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

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10).  The Edwardians: Secrets and Desires by Anne Gray

Also from the National Gallery of Australia, this catalog accompanied a show by the same name which ran in 2004 in both Canberra and Adelaide.  It featured works by John Singer Sargent, George Lambert, Rupert Bunny, George Clausen, William Orpen, James McNeill Whistler, Stanhope Forbes, John Lavery, Alfred Munnings, Henry Scott Tuke, and many more.  

The website for the exhibition is still online.  Visit it here to see images from the show.