Poe and the Aesthetics of Visual Art

The main thesis of this beautifully produced volume is that Poe consistently sought and valued beauty as the goal of art, and insofar as the visual arts corroborated that direction, they were useful to him. In Barbara Cantalupo’s words, “The explicit references to paintings and painters … in many of Poe’s stories and sketches enhance thematic concerns or help produce a preconceived effect” [1]. In five well-organized chapters, this thesis is explored and supported with thoughtful elegance. The first chapter, “Poe’s Exposure to Art Exhibited in Philadelphia and Manhattan, 1838–1845,” establishes the range of art accessible to Poe. The second chapter, “Artists and Artworks in Poe’s Short Stories and Sketches,” provides a chronological overview of Poe’s references to visual artists, paintings, and sculptures from 1838 through 1849. The third chapter, “Poe’s Homely Interiors,” “examines the ways Poe’s well-known strategy of manipulating the merest detail can reveal undercurrent meanings, thematic resonances, nuanced complications of plot, and/or satirical responses to cultural norms” [4]. In the fourth chapter, “Poe’s Visual Tricks,” the act of seeing comes under consideration as an important element in several of Poe’s short stories. The fifth chapter, “Poe’s Art Criticism,” traces Poe’s direct responses to illustrations and exhibited art in his book reviews and contributions to magazines. Finally, an appendix lists Poe’s references to artists, paintings, drawings, and sculptures.

The cities of Philadelphia and New York, as Cantalupo observes, offered Poe significant venues for viewing art. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) was established in 1809 as both exhibition space and art school, and although it suffered a disastrous fire in June 1845, its collections of plaster casts and European and American paintings up to that point would have been familiar to Poe. In New York, the National Academy of Design was founded in 1825, and the American Art-Union, a subscription-based organization, functioned from 1839 to 1851. In the new nation, the only other comparable institutions were the Boston Athenaeum, established in 1807, and the Wadsworth Atheneum, founded in 1842 in Hartford.

Poe resided in New York in 1837, in Philadelphia from 1838 to 1844, and again in New York until his death. In both cities, he lived near the centers of activity of publishers, artists, and galleries, the exception being Fordham. Even his house on Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia, seemingly somewhat removed, was a brisk walk to such an area to the west (around Arch and Sansom near 16^th Street). As Cantalupo points out, Poe’s early New York address on Amity Street was in the neighborhood of artists, and even if Poe is not documented to have met many of them, their paths may well have crossed. Poe’s contacts were conduits to the visual arts. Among these were his friends John Sartain and Robert Sully; additionally, he knew John and Henry Inman, Clarkson Stanfield, John Gadsby Chapman, Joshua Shaw, and the exhibitors at the National Academy of Design, including Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and William Sidney Mount. Charles Briggs, editor of the Broadway Journal and a more consistent art critic than Poe, was among those with whom, at least for a time, Poe would have discussed New York’s art on display. For viewing the exhibitions during specific hours, the social context seemed essential in bringing gallery-goers together.

Generally, the works by American artists on public view included landscapes, genre scenes, and portraits, and these pieces far outnumbered works by living or past European artists. However, it appears that Poe paid close attention to the European examples. Of the thirty-seven artists he mentioned, only five are American [47]. The Europeans he discussed include a mix of those in the established canon of painting and sculpture, along with contemporary illustrators; the Americans he mentioned are landscape and portrait painters.

Poe’s references to past European artists are supported by American publications on art beginning around 1830; two that compile work...