Sense, Sensibility and Sensation: the Marvelous Miniatures and Perfect Pastels of Laura Coombs Hills

Book excerpt: Innovative and yet traditional, Laura Coombs Hills (1859-1952) was renowned for both her miniatures on ivory and, later, her pastels of flowers. “Queen of Miniature Painters”, “...a veritable John Singer Sargent of miniature painting” and “Dean of Flower Pastels” were merely some of the many accolades ascribed to this New England artist. However, Hills’ accomplishments and contributions to America’s art historical culture entailed so much more. Sense, Sensibility and Sensation: The Marvelous Miniatures and Perfect Pastels of Laura Coombs Hills, America’s Lyrical Impressionist was conceived and written as an atypical art history book to better explore Hills’ many contributions to American culture, with a view toward a broader understanding of Hill’s ethos. Beyond the presentation of her unique, biographical history as an independent, woman-entrepreneur, this book explores Hill’s role in perpetuating a sense of individualism associated more closely with the concepts of home, hearth, and honor of the nineteenth century than the psychological anomie associated with the Modernism of the twentieth, - her own time. In addition, on the pages of this book will be found relevant discussions regarding Hills’ ties to Sense, Sensibility and Sensation, that is, to the idea of individualism associated with nineteenth century miniatures and Walt Whitman’s celebration of America; the notion of beauty associated with Contemplative Romanticism espoused by Edmund Burke; the sentiments of the “Romance poets” (Lord Byron and Percy B. Shelley); as well as the nineteenth century color theories of Michel Chevreul favored by the Impressionists. Moreover, notions of “democratic empiricism”, “aesthetic lyricism”, and Hills’ passion for “symphonic colors” – are all contributory factors which help to identity Laura Coombs Hills as what I have termed “America’s Lyrical Impressionist”.