[Rarebooks] FS: The Mad American Artist who knew Poe (1845)

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

[Osborn, Laughton]  HANDBOOK OF YOUNG ARTISTS AND AMATUERS IN OIL 
PAINTING...BY AN AMERICAN ARTIST.  New York; Wiley and Putnam:1845.

The first edition of this popular 19th century artist's manual, which was 
based on the French art manuals of Bouvier, Merimee and de Montabert.

Laughton Osborn [1809-1878] was an amateur painter and professional (though 
usually anonymous) author, whose work is now largely forgotten. He is seen 
most vividly today through the eyes of Edgar Alan Poe, who knew him as an 
entertaining, sometimes virulent author, and a poetic contributor to 
several of Poe's magazines.

Poe included a vivid sketch of Osborn in his 1850 essay "The Literati", 
where he related that he had read and been amused by several of Osborn's 
anonymous literary works, the most notable of which had been "The 
Confessions of a Poet, by Himself". "Confessions" had been widely 
criticized by literary critics as obscene.

"It is not precisely the work to place in the hands of a lady," Poe admits, 
while judging it "quite remarkable For artistic unity and perfection [with] 
sentiments audacious and suggestive at least, if not at all times tenable."

Violent criticism of the "Confessions" from one New York newspaper editor 
brought forth a stinging satirical rebuke from Osborn titled "The Vision of 
Rubeta, an Epic of the Island of Manhattan". This satire, Poe notes-

      "was not only bitter but personal in
      the last degree. It was, moreover, very
      censurably indecent - filthy is, perhaps,
      the more appropriate word".

Still, Poe declares, it was the best satire written to the time in America, 
which was, he admits, not saying all that much, as it was also just about 
the only satire written up to that time in America. Osborn had once 
complained in a private letter to Poe that he had absolutely no friends, 
and Poe muses that he was-

      "undoubtedly one of "Nature's own noblemen,
      full of generosity, courage, honor -
      chivalrous in every respect, but, unhappily,
      carrying his ideas of chivalry, or rather
      of independence, to the point of Quixotism,
      if not of absolute insanity," and that Osborn
      had "few equals at downright invective."

Odd then, that he had no friends...

America's own foul-mouthed Quixote was also a playwright, specializing in 
pseudo-historical tragedies and comedies, and an amateur painter, from 
which hobby came his interest in the French works he translated to produce 
this "Handbook of Young Artists". In this book Osborn discusses materials 
and implements, coloring, finishing, the technique of painting drapery, 
painting landscapes, and finally varnishing, cleaning, repairing and 
lining. The book is a source of much useful information on 19th century 
techniques and materials, and is also of interest as an example of an 
influential 19th century American art manual. It was re-issued a number of 
times in the 1850s and 60s.

Poe summed up Osborn as-

      "a poet, painter and musician (who has)
      absolutely succeeded as each. His scholarship
      is extensive. In the French and Italian
      languages, he is [quite] at home, and in
      everything he is thorough and accurate."

Osborn's "Treatise on Oil Painting," Poe concludes, was "highly spoken of 
by those well qualified to judge."

Well, it would have been, wouldn't it? Who would have wanted to cross pens, 
or paintbrushes, with Laughton Osborn?

Hardcover. 5"x8", xxxiii + 398 pages, plus 7 page catalog of Wiley and 
Putnam books at the rear. Original cloth, covers with some soil and wear, 
contents with some spotting and a bit shaken. Not a wonderful copy, but 
nice to have in the original covers. $300

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