Herbert James Draper: A Life Study

Being an appreciation of a poorly remembered neo-Romantic painter who was one of the last practitioners of classical studio painting, and who continued to work in the genre until he could no longer sell that type of art, turned to rather banal portraiture to keep the pot boiling, and died soon thereafter in1920. Draper's art is reminiscent of his mentor Frederic Leighton, as well as his rival Edward Poynter, and stands up as well as anybody could hope to to those two immortals. The subjects he favored were from the classics and folklore, with a heavy emphasis on water nymphs. As for the book's presentation, the format has the plates in front with the text in back, which necessitates a good deal of flipping back and forth. The author's show more comments are very well-chosen, insightful, and relevant, with the exception of an odd obsession with identifying models, not the most interesting or edifying addition to the reader's understanding of an artist, in my humble opinion. Toll's elegy for Draper's sad last years, his critical eclipse throughout most of the twentieth century, and his rediscovery in the 1990's is a touching account which could be echoed for any of the great English Victorian romantic painters. show less