DREAMS AND SHADOWS
Thomas H. Hotchkiss in Nineteenth-Century Italy

Barbara Novak, catalogue by Tracie Felker. New York: New York Historical Society, 1992.

Soft cover, 8.5” x 11”, 138 pages, color and black & white illustrations.

Condition: Fine/New. A brand new, unread copy. No remainder mark. Gift quality. This book is fresh out of the publisher’s carton. Better condition that you will find in a bookstore because it has never been handled.

Thomas Hotchkiss (1835-1869), one of the most poetic nineteenth- century American landscapists, appeared on the New York art scene in the late 18505 as a member of the Hudson River School, becoming close friends with Asher B. Durand. ln 1860, Hotchkiss moved to Italy, where he spent the remaining nine years of his short life. His paintings and watercolors of the Italian landscape and ancient monuments evoke dreams of permanence and timelessness, shadowed by the reality of his own impending death from tuberculosis. This “romantic” tale touches on many of the myths about the nineteenth-century American experience in Italy Although much admired by his fellow artists, Hotchkiss has remained a mysterious figure, whose excellence has been unrecognized to date, partly due to his short life and the relatively small number of his works that are known. Dreams and Shadows places Hotchkiss in his artistic milieu and brings to public attention an extraordinary landscape painter of great delicacy and sensitivity.

From Library Journal:

Hotchkiss (1833-69), an American painter and intimate of Asher B. Durand and Elihu Vedder, is the quintessential delicate artist who dies, underappreciated, at a young age. The title refers not only to his romantic landscapes but also to his sketchy career. This catalog accompanies an exhibition that opens this fall at the National Academy of Design. Novak, a premier art historian of the Hudson River School, provides a provocative essay on Hotchkiss as the fragile, poetic artist fixated on capturing evocative images of the ancient past. Felker, the exhibition curator, provides an insightful catalog of works arranged by subject matter. Appendixes include an exhibition checklist, a chronology of the artist's life, and transcriptions of selected manuscript material. Recommended for academically oriented art history collections.