NEWPORT, R.I. – James L. Yarnall, associate professor of art history and architecture at Salve Regina University, will present a lecture at Yale University Art Gallery in conjunction with an exhibit there on 19th century American artist John La Farge.
Yarnall’s lecture, “John La Farge and the Travelogue” will be given on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at 4 p.m. as part of a series of programs associated with the exhibit, “John La Farge’s Second Paradise: Voyages in the South Seas, 1890-1891” on display Oct. 19 through Jan. 2 at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, Conn. His talk is free and open to the public.
For more information, contact the Yale University Art Gallery 203-432-0600 or email artgalleryinfo@yale.edu
One of John La Farge’s primary objectives in touring the South Seas in 1890 and 1891 was to create an illustrated travelogue by combining his watercolors and travel journals. For inspiration, he turned to recent travelogue conventions established by the famous artists Turner, Delacroix, and Fromentin.
In 1895, La Farge mounted Records of Travel, a large exhibition of his travel pictures. This exhibit was actually a sort of travelogue, with nearly two hundred displayed paintings serving as illustrations to texts that La Farge provided in an accompanying catalogue. In 1901 and 1904, La Farge also produced four illustrated travel articles on the South Seas that he later expanded into a large tome, Reminiscences of the South Seas.
Since 2003, Yarnall has been editor of publications for the Newport Historical Society, including its journal, Newport History. He has been a leading authority on La Farge for more than three decades.
His publications on the artist include dozens of scholarly articles and four monographs. He has just completed “John La Farge, A Biographical and Critical Study,” the first biography of the artist in a hundred years. It will be published in 2011 by Ashgate Press.