A Memoir of James De Veaux, of
Charleston, S.C.
Member of the National Academy of
Design, New-York
Robert W. Gibbes
New Introduction by Alexander Moore
James De Veaux (1812–1844) was a promising young South Carolina-born artist who
began his career painting portraits up and down the East Coast and throughout his
native state. First published by Robert W. Gibbes in 1846, A Memoir of James De Veaux,
of Charleston, S.C. is a biography and selected edition of the artist’s letters and diary
entries. It is also the first work published in South Carolina devoted solely to the state’s
visual arts. Although De Veaux’s life and career were tragically brief, he produced a
considerable body of work, mostly portraits, and availed himself of the best possible
art training of his era.
A Memoir of James De Veaux, of Charleston, S.C. recounts the artist’s experiences in the
European art world, including its academies, private collections, and the fine art collections of its most famous palaces and churches. De Veaux’s paintings and writings that
Gibbes published in A Memoir offer insight into the artistic culture of antebellum South
Carolina and of the links of the small state to Americans abroad.
Gibbes edited these materials and tied them together with a biography of De Veaux
that surveyed his education, early career, and success as a portrait painter.
This Southern Classics edition is augmented with a scholarly introduction, textual
notes and index by Alexander Moore, including biographical and art history information. He also traces the network of De Veaux’s friends and patrons, who supported the
young artist’s career. With particular attention to De Veaux and Gibbes, Moore examines the destruction wrought by the Civil War on the artistic, scientific, and literary
culture of South Carolina.
Southern Classics • Mark M. Smith and Peggy G. Hargis, series editors
September 2012, 344 pages, 1 illus.
Method of payment:
_____ Check or money order (payable to USC Press in United States dollars)
Robert W. Gibbes (1809–1866) was a
naturalist, physician, book and newspaper publisher, and patron of the arts.
He was a science professor at South
Carolina College, twice mayor of Columbia, and South Carolina’s surgeon
general during the Civil War.
Alexander Moore is a historian of colonial South Carolina, a documentary
editor, and an acquisitions editor at the
University of South Carolina Press. He
is the author, editor, or coeditor of
several works on Southern history,
including Selected Letters of Anna
Heyward Taylor: South Carolina Artist
and World Traveler.
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