Frederic Crowninshield: A Renaissance Man in the Gilded Age

Abstract

Frederic Crowninshield: A Renaissance Man in the Gilded Age. Gertrude De G. Wilmers and Julie L. Sloan. Amherst, MA, and Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010. 352 pages. $39.95 (hardcover).In 1860, historian Jacob Burckhardt popularized the term "Renaissance" to describe the late Middle Ages period in Italy during which the greatest artists of Western Civilization flourished. In the years following Burckhardt's novel historiography, American artists trained in France and Italy, like Massachusetts-born Frederic Crowninshield, ushered in a renaissance of their own in the United States. In a fashion similar to its predecessor, artistic creativity, innovative techniques, and money generated from commercial expansion fueled the American version. The heir to old wealth, Crowninshield deplored the crass materialism of the nouveau riche robber barons who funded much of the art produced in the late nineteenth century, but he also believed that his work would inspire both his wealthy patrons and the common workingman with an appreciation of the more surreal and beautiful things in life that could not be assigned a cash value.This attractive and lavishly illustrated volume is divided into two parts. The first section traces Crowninshield's biography from his birth into one of Boston's wealthiest established commercial families in 1845 through to his death in Italy in 1918. It is impossible to separate his life story from his art. His patrimony afforded him the opportunity to pursue his career independent of financial concerns, and it provided him many commissions through his impressive social connections. His greatest influence on other artists came through his seven-year stint as an instructor at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, where he instituted an original curriculum that included summer sessions, a course on murals (the first such class in the United States), and readings in the literary classics because he believed artists had to have a solid cultural foundation. He further broadcast his vision of art through his one book, Mural Painting (1886), and in magazine articles.The second and larger section is a detailed critical examination of Crowninshield's art. The chapters are arranged by genre: stained glass, mural designs, and painting. Running three times longer than the next longest, the chapter on stained glass reflects what the authors considered to be their subject's most important artistic contribution. Julie Sloan is an expert on stained glass with several publications to her credit, and is clearly in her element discussing this topic. The authors argue that the most innovative and original work of the American renaissance was done in this field. Even though Crowninshield was overshadowed by contemporaries Louis Comfort Tiffany and John LaFarge, Crowninshield produced important works of his own-some of which can still be seen throughout New England. …