Carl Little

The Paintings of Maine is a relatively small (8" x 9") publication of 128 pages, landscape in format. The text, which following the introduction is divided into five chapters, provides a few basic facts about the artists, but has little if anything beyond the obvious to say about their work. The book concludes with a List of Artists and a very short Selected Bibliography. There is no index to the text.

The real attraction of the book however is the pictures; reproduced entirely in full colour, and almost all of them filling the page, the larger ones coming in at 7" x 8", the landscape format of the book being taken full advantage of so that many of the images are as large as one finds in much bigger books. The quality of printing is very good, although the layout does feel a little cramped, mainly due to the text. There are about 112 artists represented, all but a very few by just the one picture; with familiar names such as George Bellows, Frederic Church, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, and the Wyeths alongside the less familiar. With paintings covering the period from around 1830 to 2005, not surprisingly there is a wide range of approach evident, from the extreme realist work of Alan Magee to the almost abstract of William Kienbusch, and much between.

It is an attractive little book if only for the range and amount of work shown; the text however might have been better omitted, it adds little to the work, and while text and associated pictures run roughly together, with no reference in the text as to where the pictures are, and no index to the text itself, the book can be somewhat frustrating.… (plus d'informations)

Following the same formula as other books in this series edited by Arnold Skolnick, a full page picture image of a painting occasionally accompanied by literary quote, this provides an interesting collection. There is an introductory text by Carl Little which looks at the beauty of New England as seen through the eyes of the artists.

The list if artists illustrated spanning around 180 years includes: Robert Salmon, Rockwell Kent, Stuart Davis, Lewis Bryden, Gabor Peterdi, Charles Octavius Cole, Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Edward Hill, Stephen Hannock, Eastman Johnson, John Fredric Kennett, Winslow Homer, John Sloan, John Henry Twachtman, Maurice Prendergast, Childe Hassam, William Wallace Gilchrist, , George Bellows, the Wyeths, Peter Blume, Oscar Bluemner, Stefan Hirsch, Edward Hopper, William J Glackens, Thomas Hart Benton, Leon Kroll, Marguerite Zorach, Marsden Hartley, Milton Avery, Maxfield Parrish, Beverly Hallam, Neil Welliver, Wolf Kahn, and many more; in total over 100 pictures all in full colour, mostly reproduced full page.… (plus d'informations)