Heavenly Secrets: About Swedenborg and American Art October 14, 2008

Bailey Van Hook, Ph.D. , professor of art history, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and author of Angels of Art: Women and Art in American Society, 1876-1918 (1997)

Although Emmanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist and mystic, founded no church, he had an immense influence on the spiritual life of England and America in the 19 th century. Among his American followers were neoclassical sculptor Hiram Powers, landscape painter George Inness and illustrators Howard Pyle and Jessie Willcox Smith. Each tried to convey the reality of the spiritual world and the process of spiritual growth described in Swedenborg's writings.

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