Tropical Renaissance: North American Artists Exploring Latin America, 1839-1879

Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Hardcover. VG/VG. light shelfwear & light sunning to board edges. creasing to spine ends. light foxing to upper block edges.. Green cloth, gilt letters on spine, pictorial dust jacket; protective plastic cover. 235 pp. 8 color, 100 bw plates. "In the period from 1839 to 1879, at least thirty artist-travelers made long arduous treks through Central and South America. Among them were both the famous and lesser known -- Frederic Church, Titian Peale, Norton Bush, James M. Whistler, and Martin Heade. For the most part their journeys were decisive factors int heir artistic careers, constituting a major formative influence or a turning point and providing the subjects that played substantial roles in their oeuvres." (dj)
Chapter titles include [Latin America: Myth and Reality]: Myths and Mind Sets: Historical Preconceptions Attracting Travelers to Latin America; Art in The Context of United States-Latin America Relations From The Vantage Point of 1859. [Science and The Search For Origins]: Cataclysm and Creation: Church and The Question of Terrestrial Origins; "The Indians, Where From": The Archaeological Quest; The Organic World: Agassiz, Heade and Darwin's Challenge. [Romanticism and The Exotic South]: Louis Mignot and The Romance of The Tropics; The Syncretism of South and East: James Whistler in Chile. Appendix 1 lists biographies and itineraries of Artist-Travelers. Select Bibliography, index. A wonderful reference.