An online project under the direction of the CAPE ANN MUSEUM
Drawing Manuals
Information on nineteenth-century drawing manuals can be found in Elliot Bostwick Davis's exhibition essay about Lane and drawing books, as well as in:
Janice Shimmelman, American Imprints on Art Through 1865: Books and Pamphlets on Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Aesthetics, Art Criticism, and Instruction (Boston: G. K. Hall and Co., 1990).
Peter C. Marzio, The Art Crusade. An Analysis of American Drawing Manuals, 1820–1860 (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1976).
The Craft of American Drawing: Early Eighteenth- to Late Nineteenth-Century, by Marjorie Shelley. Article published in American Drawings and Watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Volume I, A Catalogue of Works by Artists born before 1835, by Kevin J. Avery Yale University Press, New Haven and London. 2002
Bibliography of 19th- Century American and British Drawing Manuals Compiled by Moyna Stanton:
1) Graphics; Manual of Drawing and Writing, For The Use Of Schools and Families. By Rembrandt Peale. “Try.” J.P. Peaslee, New York. 1835. Price 50 cents.
2) The illustrated London Drawing-Book. Containing I. Pencil-Sketching. II. Figure and Object Drawing. IIIPerspective and Isometrical Drawing. IV. Engraving on Metal and Wood. With About Three Hundred Illustrative Drawings and Diagrams. Edited and arranged by Robert Scott Burn, M.S.A. second Edition. London: Ingram, Cooke, And Co. 1852/3(?).
3) Easy Lessons in Landscape, with Instructions for the Lead Pencil and Crayon. By F.N. Otis , A. M. Fourth Edition. New York: D. Appleton &Company, 200 Broadway. 1853.
4) The American Drawing-Book: A Manual for the Amateur, and Basis of Study for the Professional Artist: Especially Adapted To The Use Of Public And Private Schools, As Well As Home Instruction. By J. G. Chapman, N. A. “Anyone who can learn to write can learn to draw.” New York: J. S. Redfield, Clinton Hall. 1847
Chapman’s American Drawing Book No II Elementary [Chapter 3,4] Chapman, J.G. (John Gadsby), 1808 – 1889 New York, J.S., Redfield, 1847
5) The Oxford Drawing Book: Containing Progressive Information in Sketching drawing, and colouring landscape scenery, animals, and the human figure : with a new method of practical perspective / by Nathaniel Whittock. To which is added lessons in flower drawing, a series of plates / by James Andrews. New York : R. B. Collins, 1852.
6) Introduction to Linear Drawing…Fowle , William B. 1828
7) Elementary Art, or, The Use of the lead Pencil Advocated and Explained. James Duffield Harding, London, 1834.
8) A New Drawing Book of American Scenery, Containing Thirty-four Views from Nature, with Introductions for Beginners in Landscape. By Benjamin H. Coe, Teacher of Drawing.
New York: Saxton & Miles, 205 Broadway
Philaldelphia: John W. Moore, 138 Chestnut St. 1844
Lessons on Trees, J. D. Harding.
Four-page letter
Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive, Gloucester, Mass.
"[The painting] is offered you for $150 on as long time and in as many notes at 3% interest as you choose. . . I believe this to be the only important painting of Gloucester Harbor that Lane never duplicated. . . .Returning from a Gloucester visit while I was still under the roof there, father brought a print of Lane's first Gloucester view, bought of the artist at his Tremont Temple studio in Boston. An extra dollar had been paid for coloring it. For a few years it was a home delight.. . .I had been a few years in Gloucester when Lane began to come, for part of the time a while, if I remember rightly. He painted in his brother's house, "up in town" it then was. I recall visits there to see his pictures. But it was long after, that I could claim more than a simple speaking acquaintance. The Stacys were very kind, aiding him as time went on in selling paintings by lot. I invested in a view of Gloucester from Rocky Neck, thus put on sale at the old reading room, irreverently called "Wisdom Hall." And they bought direct of him to some extent, before other residents. Lane was much my senior and yet we gradually drifted together. Our earliest approach to friendship was after his abode began in Elm Street as an occupant of the old Prentiss [sic-corrected Stacy] house, moved there from Pleasant. I was a frequenter of this studio to a considerable extent, yet little compared with my intimacy at the next and last in the new stone house on the hill. Lane's art books and magazines were always at my service and a great inspiration and delight—notably the London Art Journal to which he long subscribed. I have here a little story to tell you. A Castine man came to Gloucester on business that brought the passing of $60 through my hands at 2 1/2 % commission. I bought with the $1.50 thus earned Ruskin's Modern Painters, my first purchase of an artbook. I dare say no other copy was then owned in town. . . .Lane was frequently in Boston, his sales agent being Balch who was at the head of his guild in those days. So in my Boston visits – I was led to Balch's fairly often – the resort of many artists and the depot of their works. Thus through, Lane in various ways I was long in touch with the art world, not only of New England but of New York and Philadelphia. I knew of most picture exhibits and saw many. The coming of the Dusseldorf Gallery to Boston was an event to fix itself in one's memory for all time. What talks of all these things Lane and I had in his studio and by my fireside!
For a long series of years I knew nearly every painting he made. I was with him on several trips to the Maine coast where he did much sketching, and sometimes was was [sic] his chooser of spots and bearer of materials when he sketched in the home neighborhood. Thus there are many paintings whose growth I saw both from brush and pencil. For his physical infirmity prevented his becoming an out-door colorist."
