Gentilz: Artist of the Old Southwest (ELMA DILL RUSSELL SPENCER FOUNDATION SERIES) - Softcover

Kendall, Dorothy S.; Perry, Carmen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0292727305 ISBN 13: 9780292727304

Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr, 1985

Synopsis

University of Texas Press (Number Six, The Elma Dill Russell Spencer Foundation Series) [Published date: 1974]. Soft cover, 127 pp. Reprint. [Excerpt from Intro] Theodore Gentilz (1820-1906), a middle-class Parisian trained in the disciplined draftsmanship of the French academic tradition, played a significant role in the French colonization of the wilderness beyond San Antonio. Painter, draftsman, and engineer, he was engaged in 1843 by Henri Castro, the French entrepreneur, to serve as surveyor, artist, and promotional agent for Castro's projected colony in Texas. In the ensuing years, Gentilz carried his painting gear and surveying instruments on trails from the western reaches of El Paso del Norte to the Gulf Coast and deep into Mexico. In his personal life and later teaching career, Gent remained within the closed French circle, but, in his choice of subject matter, focused his artistic vision on the indigenous cultures of the Southwest, whose long and rich history was yet to be recognized. Nomadic Indians, Mexican ranchers and villagers, street scenes, Spanish missions, and other historic buildings captured his attention. He produced a succession of remarkable paintings and drawings illuminating events, characters, customs, urban and rural landscapes, architectural and sculptural detail, flora and fauna-all within his chosen world. Supplemented by the descriptive memoirs of his close friend Auguste Fretelliere and fragments from his own early journals, these appealing genre works comprise Gentilz's testimony to the richness of our multiethnic heritage.

About this edition

• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0292727305
• ISBN 13: 9780292727304
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1