Chapter two considers all Rimmer’s known portraits, which included two of his wife, and dated from 1841 to the early 1860s. He tended to experiment and appears to have been especially interested in effects of light and shadow that are suggestive of an immaterial identity. Indeed, he incorporated an identifiable musical score in his portrait of Eliza Kent as a means of conveying a sense of her non-physical self. As a trained physician, he included a frank acknowledgment of illness such as depression or deformity in some of his pictures. He lived through the Civil War, and his quick sketch from life or memory of an African American soldier, joining Abolitionist Robert Shaw in the famous march of the 54th Regiment from Boston, is related to allegorical war pictures. In other work, including sculpture, it is possible to see the effect of his bipolar illness.
Rimmer, who did not always agree with Swedenborg, became a Spiritualist who tried to contact the dead through séances and had his own visions and his own visits to celestial spheres. Possibly manic depression played a role in these otherworldly experiences. Some of his pictures are clearly linked to apparitions that he mentioned experiencing. His largest surviving painting, which is mistitled English Hunting Scene, is a spring-time landscape with his daughters and a spiritual guide at the right, observing different overlapping scenes from the Middle Ages with a modern, railroad bridge in the distance. The daughters are observing ghosts who re-enact what they did in that space in the past. Some did not inhabit the space at the same time so they do not interact. This juxtaposition of different times occurs in two experimental drawings by Rimmer as well, suggestive of the passage of time. A number of his works reflect his otherworldly visions which might include angels or demons or imaginary beings such as those shown in Shooting Stars. The Hunting Scene also contains serfs or different social classes of ghosts related to the artist's empathy for the working poor. The picture pertains to teaching through seeing and Rimmer's inspirational role as an art instructor.
A chapter is devoted to this painting not only because of its quality but also the fact that its subject matter has long been in public dispute. Part of the problem is that Rimmer has been misunderstood as more secular and more oriented toward contemporary subject matter than he actually was. He painted from himself and from his own feelings, which were often concerned with the moral and spiritual. Much of his work is so personal as to be quite enigmatic in meaning, but this picture, showing a man fleeing his conscience, can be understood through his writings ("Stephen and Phillip," a fictitious narrative), patterns in his work, his illness, and a drawing by him with a subject re-identified as a man and his conscience. Flight and Pursuit is related to similar allegorical works on moral themes, such as Dying Centaur.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.