American Beauty Personified As The Nine Muses
Boston: A.A. Childs & Co., 1869. First edition. Hardcover. 14 leaves. 19 x 15 cm. 10 mounted albumen photographs of paintings. Printed by Rand, Avery & Frye. Published to accompany the exhibition of paintings of the "Nine Muses" in 1869 in New York by Italian painter Joseph Fagnani, who used American models to stress the American, over the European, ideal of beauty. The paintings depicted in the book are now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each sitter identified by pasted-in newsprint captions, likely from a previous owner. This is an early exemplar of a photographically illustrated book. Reportedly one of 50 copies. In 1849 he had emigrated to the United States, worked in Washington (DC). There he painted portraits of Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and President Fillmore. Fagnani settled permanently in New York City around 1865 and left for one year in 1866, when he painted a portrait of Samuel F.B. Morse in Washington, D.C. White silk moire endpapers, free front one chipped at fore-edges. OCLC: 2660607. Orig. purple cloth decorated and lettered in gilt. Very good. Item #23742
Price: $1,995.00