“Bold Designing Fellows On Sale May 1

Victoria Mansion is excited to announce the arrival of former trustee and long-time curator Arlene Palmer’s new scholarly publication Bold, Designing Fellows: Italian Decorative and Scenic Artists in Nineteenth-Century America. This beautifully illustrated volume explores nineteenth-century Italianate wall and ceiling paintings and the Italian immigrant artists who introduced this type of decoration into American interiors. The book will be available when Victoria Mansion’s Carriage House Gift Shop reopens on May 1.

The book prominently features Giuseppe Guidicini, the Bolognese artist responsible for many of the country’s grandest nineteenth-century theaters and opera houses. Victoria Mansion represents the artist’s last complete program of architectural decoration to have survived intact to the present day.

According to Timothy Brosnihan, Victoria Mansion’s Executive Director, “Through Arlene’s meticulous scholarship, we now understand Guidicini’s work at Victoria Mansion to be a rare surviving example of a broad tradition of Italianate interior decoration that enjoyed sweeping popularity across the United States in the decades surrounding the Civil War.”

Brosnihan continued, “Guidicini’s paintings are known for their vibrant colors and masterful execution of the tromp l’oeil technique which gives the illusion of three-dimensional sculptures and moldings on flat surfaces.”

The 368-page hardcover book is published by D. Giles Limited, a British firm well known for its high-quality museum publications.  Ms. Palmer is also set to embark on a speaking tour to promote the book which was publicly unveiled at Victoria Mansion’s recent Annual Meeting.

Victoria Mansion gratefully acknowledges support from the Richard C. von Hess Foundation and The Decorative Arts Trust. Additional funding for the project was provided by the late Charlotte F. Brown and former Board President Wilmont M. Schwind.