LESSONS ON ART, SELECTED AND DRAWN BY G.W. HOLMES.

Holmes, G.W.: [Harding, James Duffield]:

Verlag: Philadelphia: Jas. B. Smith & Co., [ca. 1850].

Beschreibung

The first American edition, apparently unrecorded, of James Duffield Harding's Lessons on Art, first published in London in 1849, adapted and abridged by George W. Holmes, illustrated with twenty-eight leaves of plates drawn by Holmes and printed by the Scottish-born Philadelphia lithographer Thomas Sinclair. George W. Holmes (ca. 1812 1895) was an Irish-born landscape painter who taught drawing and painting out of his home in Philadelphia. Among his students were some of the leading American artists of the second half of the 19th century, including Thomas Eakins, John McClure Hamilton, James B. Sword, and Harrington Fitzgerald. Holmes was the subject of several photographic portraits by Eakins as well as one of the subjects depicted in Eakins' painting titled The Chess Players. As Holmes explains in the preface to this American edition, "The following condensed copy of Harding's 'Lessons on Art' was at first prepared and intended for the exclusive use of the subscriber's pupils, as he had long needed a really Progressive Drawing-book, and was actually engaged in composing one at the time these Lessons were published. The present work, however, so completely supplied the desideratum, that the subscriber concluded to postpone the further execution of his own plan, and to copy for his classes the Lessons of Mr. Harding. It was therefore not intended at first to publish them, but several friends of extensive experience in teaching.having suggested that the work would be generally useful and acceptable, it is no offered to the public upon terms that will bring it within the reach of all, and at the same time not interfere with the sale of the original edition, the high price of which prevents it from being used as a text-book by scholars." Holmes notes that the work "will be completed in four parts, at twenty-five cents each." Following Holmes' preface are extracts from Harding's preface to the original edition. James Duffield Harding (1797 1863) was a British landscape painter, lithographer, and author of a number of drawing books. "As a boy in London, Harding had shyly approached an artist in Greenwich Park and been rudely rebuffed, and this had made him vow that, should he succeed as an artist, he would teach everybody. Through his numerous drawing books, as well as a successful practice as a drawing-master, he fulfilled his pledge" (DNB). Harding in the preface here expresses his conviction that "Art can be acquired to as useful a degree as language, by all possessing average intelligence." The plates at rear depict a variety of three-dimensional shapes, objects, and structures, including wooden barrels, pitchers, a wooden wash tub, a table, chairs, a sofa, stone steps, a passageway, a shed, a castle, a church, and a grain silo. This American edition of Lessons on Art is apparently unrecorded. We find no copies at auction and no records in OCLC. Not in Schimmelman or Drepperd. First edition, apparently unrecorded, of this American adaptation of a British drawing manual, here in its original publisher's binding, by a noted Phildelphia art instructor. DNB (online). Oblong octavo. Publisher's quarter brown cloth and printed paper boards, publisher's ads to rear board. Binding lightly rubbed, soiled, and stained, small chip to cloth at rear joint. Text lightly tanned, dampstain to lower edge of text and plates, some occasional foxing. Very good.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 68863

Bibliografische Details

• Titel: LESSONS ON ART, SELECTED AND DRAWN BY G.W. HOLMES.
• Verlag: Philadelphia: Jas. B. Smith & Co., [ca. 1850].