PAINTING THE DARK SIDE: ART AND THE GOTHIC IMAGINATION IN NINETEETH-CENTURYAMERICA by Sarah BurnsReview by: Kraig A. BinkowskiArt Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 23, No. 2(Fall 2004), p. 54Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27949329 .

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peripeteia), incorporating background plot, presenting the emotive

instant, and foreshadowing future events. The worth of narrative

painting was judged on its intellectual content as well as its form.

Literary theorists and erudite art purchasers demanded historical

accuracy and conformity to poetic sources. To communicate with a learned viewer, the artist who departed from traditional visual models was required to be learned and to know history.

Thus the core of this study deals with Rembrandt's knowl

edge of history and history texts. In the central chapters, Golahny analyzes individual works for nuances of presentation, suggest ing the artist's reliance on specific editions of a narrative.

Working from two directions, she variously theorizes how books in Rembrandt's library shaped his painting or speculates that extant paintings evidenced knowledge of specific books. In the end she drafts a revised inventory, tentatively identifying unnamed volumes, and goes beyond that to derive a reading list

accounting for Rembrandt's knowledge in later life as he contin ued to create visual narratives.

Both of these books are clearly written and well illustrated, with extensive footnoting and bibliographies. Although intend ed for scholarly audiences, straightforward presentations make them accessible for undergraduates.

Linda Duychak University of Wisconsin, Madison

High Anxiety PAINTING THE DARK SIDE: ART AND THE GOTHIC IMAGINATION IN NINETEETH-CENTURY AMERICA / Sarah Burns.?Berkeley, CA, The University of California Press, March 2004.?362 p.: ill.?ISBN 0-520-23821-4 (cl., alk. paper): $39.95.

aYou might come away from

reading Sarah Burns's latest book thinking that she delights in the melancholia of life and insists on seeing phantoms in the shadows behind each door and under every bed. This may be true; however, Burns's argu ments regarding a strong undercurrent of menacing goth ic content in nineteenth century

American art are quite persua sive. To Burns, "gothic" American images are brought

forth by fears and anxieties felt by many nineteenth century Americans, including the horrors of slavery and fears of emanci

pation, the carnage of civil war, the unchecked growth of urban

decay, poverty, corruption, illness, and the dehumanizing effects of industrialization. Furthermore, this gothic American imagery can be found in works by well known artists as well as those con sidered on the fringes of American painting. Burns plumbs the

images of a young, optimistic America for evidence of unease, tension, and outright fear roiling just below the surface. She looks at paintings that are familiar and have become part of how art historians interpret the "American Scene," but she also illu minates lesser known artists who are usually overlooked in any discussion of an American canon. Thomas Cole, Thomas Eakins,

Albert Pinkham Ryder and Elihu Vedder are examined along

side "outsiders" such as John Quidor, David Gilmore Blythe, and William Rimmer.

With chapter headings as menacing as their contents

("Gloom and Doom," "Deepest Dark," "Mental Monsters,"

"Dirty Pictures"), Burns puts each artist under a microscope, delving deeply into their lives, experiences, and even their psy che for the reasons behind the dark imagery. Vedder's possible flirtation with hashish, Eakins's contact with Civil War casual

ties, and Ryder's squalid and decaying living conditions are all offered as pieces of the puzzle to explain the menacing aspects of their pictures.

A scant fifteen images by nine artists form the backbone of Burns's gothic argument. However, in each chapter the author

deftly and liberally mixes ideas of current scholarship with his torical criticism or praise. Throughout, Burns weaves portraits of the artists into the context of contemporary fiction writing (Poe,

Irving, Stevenson), historical events, and the tools of popular culture (serial and newspaper illustrations and articles). What

emerges is a rich tapestry of history, literature, criticism, and psy chology that helps to explain some of the "whys" associated with each artist's gothic imagery.

Sarah Burns is the Ruth N. Halls Professor of Fine Arts at Indiana University and the author of several books that re-exam ine American art of the nineteenth century in a new light. In this current work as well as in her critically acclaimed previous book,

Inventing the Modern Artist: Art and Culture in Gilded Age America

(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996), Burns utilizes a rich contextual analysis to illustrate her thesis. John Davis iden tifies Burns as a leader in social and contextual scholarship in American art history in his important essay "The End of the American Century: Current Scholarship on the Art of the United States" {Art Bulletin 85, no. 3 (2003): 544-80).

The book is pleasingly designed with a section of full-color

plates and an abundance of black-and-white comparison figures. Extensive endnotes and a full index complement the academic

appeal of the work. Although this book is quite scholarly and

likely to inspire further research in the area, Burns's writing is accessible enough, and the subject matter of such a nature, that the book would be of interest to a broader audience of readers.

Burns expertly intertwines the strains of gothic imagery and art of nineteenth century America with the fears and anxieties of a

country torn apart by war and racial strife, facing the specters of

growing urban slums, mass industrialization, unchecked immi

gration, and natural disasters. Highly recommended for academic and museum libraries as well as for larger public libraries.

Kraig A. Binkowski Delaware Art Museum

54 Art Documentation ? Volume 23, Number 2 ? 2004

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