November Issue 1999
A Feast For the Eyes is Food For the Soul
- "In Pursuit of Refinement, Charlestonians Abroad, 1740-1860"
A Book Review
by Lese Corrigan
"In Pursuit of Refinement, Charlestonians Abroad, 1740-1860" is a fine collection of essays and catalogue of the exhibition held at the Gibbes Museum of Art during April, May and June of this year. The book explores and presents the documentation of collecting done by Charlestonians while traveling in Europe between 1740 and 1860. It details the beginnings of Charleston as a cultural center. From the moment the new frontier issues were conquered and subsistence was not the necessary focus, Charlestonians began refining their lives by a pursuit of the arts during their travels. The majority of these travels were to England, which had not lost its appeal as the mother country despite the War of Independence. This natural tendency to look "homeward" for guidance in polishing one's taste and immediate surroundings set the new Americans on the first leg of the European journeys that became known as the Grand Tours.
This book is a studious labor of love created as a joint venture between the Carolina Art Association (Gibbes Museum of Art) and the Historic Charleston Foundation, with Angela D. Mack, curator of collections at the Gibbes, project director. Mack spent two years researching paintings in Europe and the United States that are Charleston related. Years earlier Anna Wells Rutledge and Helen McCormack began the exploration of Charleston's art connection to European sources. Mauri McGinnis, a professor of art history at the University of Virginia, Thomas Savage, Robert Leath, both formerly of the Historic Charleston Foundation, and Susan Ricci Stebbins, a Boston-based scholar, wrote essays. A host of other contributors brought a great deal of information to the catalogue.
The writers indicate that Charlestonians of this period were traveling and buying artwork and other collectables out of a need for showmanship more than a desire to seek polish, cultivation, development, improvement that is refinement. What is any different in collectors today who purchase the latest art fad and that which they heard of through friends or is the latest thing in Europe? These collectors create a market not of connoisseurs but targets for the "pretty." Were the Charlestonians not going beyond the pretty by seeking a variety of portraitists to create their likenesses and by learning from established collectors, dealers, artists and antiquarians in Europe?
What Joseph Allen Smith did in his fine collecting and his donations to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts was to deepen his knowledge and then provide substance for Americans to study art without going on the Grand Tour. His assemblage constituted perhaps the first and finest collection in America. Although this assists in making a place for his name in history, it was a good and noble effort to the benefit of all. His years of work continue to benefit many. John Ashe Alston's patronage of local artists sets a precedent for today's collectors. And what of William Aiken, Jr's decision to install an art gallery in his home? Charles Izard Manigault's collection of family portraiture was believed to be the finest collection in America of portraits. John Izard Middleton made "the first contribution by an American to the knowledge of classical antiquity." Middleton, a Charlestonian of extreme talent as shown in his drawings and watercolors, was a well traveled gentleman who was also skilled at archeology, writing, collecting and architecture. He was well received in the intellectual art circles of Europe and left us with his book Grecian Remains and numerous drawings and watercolors. He was described by Madame de Staël as a young man who had something noble in his soul. These are not examples of individuals whose exploration of the arts through collecting was done for showmanship; but rather, these are Charlestonians who sought art truly for cultivation and improvement.
These citizens of Charleston were also concerned that others develop. The Charleston Museum was founded in 1773 and discussion began in 1784 about The South Carolina Academy of Fine Arts, which was not formed until 1822 and existed until the 1830s as a venue to artists. The Carolina Arts Association began in the 1850s and is the existing organization today that many people think of as the Gibbes Museum of Art. Its purpose was as a "picture gallery" for "modern city life." These organizations were created to fill perceived gaps in supporting "the refinement of knowledge."
Wassily Kandinsky in his Concerning the
Spiritual in Art spoke of "the duty of the artist,"
which is "to send light into the darkness of men's hearts"
and "to harmonize the whole." Although Kandinsky is
writing in 1911 and discussing abstract art, his observations
-philosophical and psychological- are very telling as to the understanding
of man's "pursuit of refinement." In the eighteenth
century there were, "English writings that asserted moral
virtues were gained by collecting the right pictures."
Often the higher nature of mankind is expressed in and sought
in an art form. Music is considered the purist form of expression
whereas painting, sculpture, architecture, furniture making, silversmithing,
and pottery have some artistic limitations due to their materials.
Often painting and sculpture are considered art with the other
arenas, due to their utilitarian nature relegated to a different
category. "In Pursuit of Refinement, Charlestonians Abroad,
1740-1860" presents 140 objects collected by Charlestonians.
They are of a broad range and cover many other areas by depiction
in paintings (such as music). Leisurely perusal of this book will
provide the reader with a history of Charleston's early cultural
development and a view of the lives of the citizens of Charleston
who reached out into the world for knowledge. Moreover, it also
conveys a sense of the interconnectedness of the families, Charlestonians'
consumerism, and exploration and validation of Charleston's rightful
place in the history of American art.
When individuals realize that seeking cultivation and improvement is a noble pursuit, not an acquisition of objects, more souls will be fed by the feast that art is to the eyes. This publication, which belongs in every Charleston household as well as that of each American art historian, perhaps will remind Charleston of her responsibility to her community to continue to seek refinement and bring to light wondrous creations for the future generations to view and from which to learn - creations that are now found at home not abroad.
There is a student/teacher resource booklet developed to go along with this catalogue which is a beautiful, expansive, impressive educational tool. If You Took the Grand Tour: Traveling to Europe in the 1800s was created by Bill Smyth, of the Charleston County School District, Susan Earhart, school program coordinator for the Gibbes Museum of Art, Joyce Baker, tour coordinator, education assistant at the Gibbes and Amy Watson Smith, curator of education for the Gibbes. There is a resource guide to World Wide Web sites to further students understanding of the travel. This wonderful booklet is presented in question and answer format with illustrations, historical documents and letters that indicate the lifestyle of the Lowcountry in the 1800s.
"In Pursuit of Refinement: Charlestonians Abroad, 1740-1860" is a 352 page book available from the Gibbes Museum Gift Shop in hardback for $75 or soft back for $29.95 It was published in 1999 by the University of South Carolina Press and produced by the Gibbes Museum of Art and the Historic Charleston Foundation. The educational resource booklet is also at the Gibbes Gift Shop for $17.95
Lese Corrigan is a native Charlestonian who is an artist, educator, writer and consultant in the visual arts' field.
Mailing Address: Carolina Arts, P.O. Drawer
427, Bonneau, SC 29431
Telephone, Answering Machine and FAX: 843/825-3408
E-Mail: carolinart@aol.com
Subscriptions are available for $18 a year.
Carolina Arts
is published monthly by Shoestring
Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc.
Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts
from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts
Online, Copyright© 2000 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved
by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use
without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina
Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.