Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass

"Experience the spectacle of Venice and its rich history as a glassmaking capital through Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano. This exhibition catalogue is the first comprehensive examination of the American Grand Tour to Venice in the late nineteenth century, revealing the glass furnaces and their new creative boom as a vibrant facet of the city's allure. This gorgeously illustrated catalogue features paintings and prints by John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, Frank Duveneck, Thomas Moran, William Merritt Chase, Maurice Prendergast, Maxfield Parrish, Louise Cox, and Ellen Day Hale alongside rarely seen Venetian glass mosaic portraits and glass cups, vases, and urns by the leading Murano glassmakers. Reuniting these exquisitely crafted objects with paintings, etchings, and drawings from the same milieu, this catalogue recovers and explains their past significance. Five new essays from experts in the history of American art and of Venetian glass provide the first combined survey of fine and decorative arts from the Venetian Grand Tour, offering a unique and valuable contribution to the fields of American Art and nineteenth-century cultural history. Ultimately, this project demonstrates the lasting impact of the nineteenth-century Venetian glass revival on American art, literature, and education, as well as period concepts of gender and social class."--