Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

The brilliant but uneven work of John La Farge set him apart from allof the other artists of his time, making him the most curious, contradictory,and transitional figure of nineteenth-century American art. As a separatebut parallel (and sometimes preceding) development, La Farge’s workindependently exhibited most of the progressive features of contemporaryFrench art during the same periods: all the main features of impressionism(but realized in a different way), the post-impressionist love of the primitiveand exotic, a decorative flattening tendency, a desire for new forms andideas, and a wish to reevaluate phenomenologically the basic nature of sensationand expression. He collected Japanese prints before Whistler, paintedoutdoor landscapes before the first impressionist exhibition, and paintedin Tahiti a year before Gauguin. He created a new, atmospheric approachto wood engraving, a new mood of imaginative fantasy in illustration, andan original, psychologically aware type of art criticism. He introduced neweffects in American painting derived from Japanese art: asymmetrical composition,use of large areas of empty space, and flattened forms and colors.At the same time with surprising eagerness, he revived Renaissance stylepainting and decoration with its old-fashioned idealistic and allegoricalFigure 7. Thomas Eakins, Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, 1871, oil on canvas,Metropoli-tan Museum of Art, New York110