Brilliant and controversial, art critic Sadakichi Hartmann wrote copiously about American and European art and the shaping of American culture during the decades from 1890 to 1910. Jane Weaver has recovered and assembled over fifty of Hartmann's critical writings from influential, though often obscure, turn-of-the-century journals. These reviews and theoretical essays not only provide some of the earliest known criticism of important artists and photographers of the period, but also make Hartmann's fundamental—and uniquely American—definition of modernism available to students of art and cultural history. A most useful adjunct to the text is a complete bibliography of Hartmann's writings on art, as well as an annotated checklist of all the artists treated by Hartmann in this book. Sadakichi Hartmann (1867-1944), half German, half Japanese, learned the American cast of mind and heart as a beloved young disciple of the aged Walt Whitman. Reflecting the poet's zealous vision, Hartmann's piercing commentaries on the art centers of Boston and New York offer unparalleled documentation of the years before and after 1900.

Sadakichi Hartmann was born on the artificial island of Dejima, Nagasaki, to a Japanese mother, who died soon after childbirth, and a German father. He was raised in Germany and came to Philadelphia in 1882. Two years after arriving, at the age of seventeen, he paid his first visit to Walt Whitman, now sixty-five years old, who was living modestly just across the Delaware River, in Camden. Fascinated by the poet’s life and work, Sadakichi would visit Whitman several times over the course of six years, to talk about literature and to question the poet about contemporary authors and books. Sadakichi went on to publish Whitman’s opinions first in the New York Herald, in 1880, arousing the indignation of many and making him unpopular with the admirers of the poet, and later, in 1885, in Conversations with Walt Whitman.

Sadakichi Hartmann was born in Japan in 1867, the second son of Prussian businessman Carl Hartmann and a young prostitute, Osada. Upon her death shortly after Sadakichi’s birth, both boys were sent to Hamburg, Germany to live and be educated, as promised by Hartmann Senior to their mother on her deathbed. With this act of kindness, their father completely washed his hands of any further obligation to the boys. He ignored them completely as he continued his profession traveling the world over as a business rep for various corporations. Their father’s rare appearances, and gelid distance toward them when he was present, affected Sadakichi depressingly, he having a satiating need of a father’s acceptance and affection. Although Sadakichi found the Hartmanns in general were a cold lot, it was in particular his father’s endearment he sought. Possibly too, he may have felt a streak of guilt over his mother’s death. As his father’s Teutonic demeanor grew, Sadakichi’s growing rebelliousness became intolerable, and at fourteen he was disowned and shipped to a Hartmann brother in Philadelphia. From here on, the youth drivingly self-educated himself thoroughly, in time becoming widely and respectfully known in the world of art, literature and entertainment. His retentive memory was an amazing asset which fascinated many of his colleagues. And of course his aim at intentionally driving himself to succeed at anything he touched was to win his father’s respect and acceptance. But it was a draining, thankless, heart-crushing journey.

"From 1898 until shortly after World War I, Hartmann rampaged through the photographic world, first as Alfred Stieglitz's iconoclastic hatchetman of the Photo-Secession movement, later as an unruly rebel sniping away at his mentor under the pseudonym of Caliban. One of the most prolific photographic critics of all time, Hartmann discovered many of our greatest photographers, championed photography as an art form, and sparked endless controversies about the medium." -- page [2] of cover.

A dazzling novel of one of America’s most celebrated photographers, Dorothea Lange, exploring the wild years in San Francisco that awakened her career-defining grit, compassion, and daring. “Jasmin Darznik expertly delivers an intriguing glimpse into the woman behind those unforgettable photographs of the Great Depression, and their impact on humanity.”—Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things In this novel of the glittering and gritty Jazz Age, a young aspiring photographer named Dorothea Lange arrives in San Francisco in 1918. As a newcomer—and naïve one at that—Dorothea is grateful for the fast friendship of Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, who introduces Dorothea to Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the artist whose iconic Depression-era “Migrant Mother” photograph broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation. A vivid and absorbing portrait of the past, The Bohemians captures a cast of unforgettable characters, including Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams, and D. H. Lawrence. But moreover, it shows how the gift of friendship and the possibility of self-invention persist against the ferocious pull of history.

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