[Rarebooks] FS: 1845 American Artist's Handbook

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

"Handbook of Young Artists and Amateurs in Oil Painting...by an American
Artist"

By Laughton Osborn.

Published in New York by 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.
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.

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 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". Poe characterizes him 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.  $300.00

A Picture =>
<http://www.joslinhall.com/images/th-29169-cover.jpg>

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