Studying Art Abroad and How to Do it Cheaply.
SCARCE
(Alcott) Nieriker, May Alcott. Studying Art Abroad, and How to Do it Cheaply. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1879.
16mo.; brown cloth covered boards; chipped at the top and bottom of the binding; small water stain to front and rear cover.
First edition of a rare art study guide written by Louisa May Alcott’s sister, May Alcott Nieriker. Based on Nieriker’s personal experiences studying art in Europe, the book is a “how-to” guide for female art students – Nieriker describes the ideal reader of her book as “a lady, and poor, like so many of the profession, wishing to make the most of all opportunities, and the little bag of gold last as long as possible.” In chapters titled En Route, London, Clothes, Shops, Addresses, Paris and Rome, she sets out to describe “the actual cost of living, instruction, or rent of studio abroad,” providing lists of instructors, boarding houses, and supply stores, referencing John Sargent, Mary Cassatt, and others. Nieriker writes with humor and a zest for adventure; for instance, she advises her readers that although visitors to Shakespeare’s home in Stratford are not normally allowed to draw sketches, “money has been known to make the guardian temporarily blind to such an innovation of the rules,” and likewise urges her readers to visit the “disreputable” Seven Dials district of London, noting that the “poverty, vice, and misery” one sees there is “most startlingly interesting.”
The inspiration for the character Amy March in Little Women, Abigail May Alcott (1840-1879) showed a penchant for art at a very young age. She painted decorative figures all around Orchard House and sold some of her early work to contribute to the family’s paltry income. At a Boston design school, she studied under William Morris Hunt and William Rimmer. Her formal introduction into the art world came in 1868, when she was asked by sister Louisa to illustrate Little Women. Though May’s somewhat rudimentary drawings were not critically well received, the financial success of the book enabled her to travel to Europe to continue her studies. In 1877, her work was exhibited in the Paris Salon and she married Ernest Nieriker, a man fifteen years her junior. In addition to Studying Art Abroad, May published Concord Sketches in 1869, another collaboration with Louisa. May died of meningitis in 1879 after giving birth to daughter, Lulu. According to her wishes, Lulu was raised by Louisa in Concord, and Louisa’s book, Lulu’s Library, is a three-volume series of fables dedicated to her niece.
A rare and unique work, Studying Art Abroad is recognized as contributing to a “national heritage in the art world,” for “add[ing] to an understanding of a past milieu and giv[ing] insight into values of the times as it is described from the unique perspective of a nineteenth century female artist.” OCLC locates only one other copy, at Stanford University Library.
(Corcoran, Debra A. “Another Dimension of Women's Education: May Alcott's Guide to Studying Art Abroad,” American Educational History Journal 31.2 (2004): 144-148.)
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