It's fascinating --- not only to discover a new (for me) star of painting --- but to read Swanson's essay which is biographical as well as critical (i.e. he's full of comments about what Godward does well and what he does poorly).
This critical commentary is wonderful (because I agree with it) and because it's so different from official scholarship which is not allowed to be critical (and indeed, official art historians would do it poorly anyway).
Vern seems to be a painter himself -- is that so ?
His essay is a model for a better kind of art scholarship - one that is displays the scholarship of an historian and the art knowledge of an artist or collector -- while doing the most important job that art essays can do: introduce an excellent, neglected artist to the public.
If fame is the only real form of immortality --- then every artist should daily pray that a Vern Swanson will eventually discover him.
[ Click on the links to read Vern's landmark biographies of John William Godward and Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. - Editor ]
