Rare Book: Venus & Apollo in Painting & Sculpture, WJ Stillman 1897, 101 of 555. Born in 1828 to a strict Seventh-Day Baptist family, he was brought up in Schenectady, New York, attended Union College and then studied landscape painting with Frederick Edwin Church. He formed The Adirondack Club with figures as Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet James Russell Lowell and the natural scientist Louis Agassiz. After meeting one of the leaders of the 1848 Hungarian revolution, Stillman became embroiled in its aftermath and in 1851 went to Hungary as a spy to recover the Hungarian crown jewels. Then, in 1855, with John Durand, he founded one of the first American art magazines. But resigned as editor eighteen months later. He travelled around Switzerland with John Ruskin. He became the American consul in Rome and later the American consul in Crete. He wrote extensively about art and criticism, producing a body of essays in a highly didactic, impassioned style. At the same time he worked as a journalist for. The Times, The Century, The Nation. As well as photographic journals. The Autobiography of a Journalist. Suggests that this was the role with which he identified most strongly. After his wife commited suicide in 1869, he married his second wife in 1871, Marie Spartali, a Pre-Raphaelite painter. He continued to write about history and art until his death. One of the later products of the American Enlightenment, he lived a life that intersected with many strands of American and European culture. Stillman can indeed be called the last amateur. He died in 1901 at his home in Deepdeene, Frimly Green, England and was buried in. He is shown as W. Stillman on the Rossetti fountain memorial in Chelsea Embankment, London. Stillman’s biographer, Stephen Dyson, has identified twelve books and a total of 250 published writings by him, nearly half of which were essays about art. This book is a rare example of his work and was only published as a limited edition of 555 copies. Published in London by Bliss, Sands & Co. This is a limited edition of. 555 copies, this example is certified as No. 101 of 555 copies. The text is printed on laid paper. Text of this work has been printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co at the Ballantyne Press, London and Edinburgh’. Photogravure plates have been engraved and printed by Lemercier & Co. Each artist has his own biographical notice and a note of text for each plate. This impressively large book has a hardcover binding with red gilt embossed cloth covers and a gilt embossed decoration and lettering on the vellum spine. The red silk page marker is still in the book, but unattached. It has some bumping to the tips with soiling and wear to the covers and spine. Where the red cloth meets the velum to the front top, there is some fraying to the fabric where it has lifted slightly. It has 170 pages and 41 illustrated pages, the top page edges have a gilt, the others are deckle edged or untrimmed. 1 sheet, with the coloured frontispiece plate’Birth of Venus’ and 31 copperplate plates for painting and 9 for sculpture, each image protected by tissue. The interior pages are somewhat stained in places, but mostly in good condition. Contents: Preface, Introduction, Paintings – Italian School – Giovanni Bellini, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Andrea Mantegna, Alessandro Filipepi (Sandro Botticelli), Piero Di Lorenzo (Piero Di Cosimo), Titian, Barbarelli, Palma, Garafolo, Francia Bigio, Raphael, Correggio, Carrucci, Giulio Romano, Bronzino, Tintoretto, Cagliari, Guido Reni, Albano, Romanelli; Flemish School – Peter Paul Rubens; Spanish School – Diego Rodriguez De Silva Y Velazquez; French School – Nicolas Poussin, Robert Le Fevre; Dutch-Italian School – Lambert Sustris; English School – Sir Edward Burne-Jones. The book measures approx. 45.5cm by 33cm by 6cm and weighs (unpackaged) 5.130kg. A superb and rare book. Please see pictures for more details. Recycled packaging is used as much as possible. I will pack and weigh the items together and get the best possible price that I can, sometimes weight or value might dictate that I send multiple parcels to get a better value for you.
