William Rimmer

Dorinda Evans has tackled a daunting subject. William Rimmer didn’t explain his artworks to the puzzled critics; he mostly refused to offer them for exhibition or sale; he often chose subjects from his personal spiritualism that defy interpretation. No wonder he has remained a mystery to art historians, despite his reputation as one of America’s most inspired teachers. Dr. Evans' holistic approach to his life and art offers us our first clear view of this misunderstood but highly influential artist. Through extensive reading of period sources and clever sleuthing to find consistent threads in his art and life, she elevates Rimmer once again to the American art pantheon.

Ever since his own lifetime, William Rimmer has proved to be a hard nut to crack, but Evans has, indisputably, pried him open wider than any of her predecessors managed to do, however meticulous their scholarship. One of this book’s most significant contributions is the revelation of Swedenborg’s writings as a major source of Rimmer’s inspiration. The author’s careful and erudite reconstitution of the ways in which the eighteenth-century sage’s visionary ideas corresponded with Rimmer’s is a tour de force that, along with the documented impact of Spiritualism, sets the artist firmly into the times in which he lived and worked while always keeping his essential and eccentric individuality in play.