Yarnall to discuss “cyber-sabbatical” study of John La Farge

Dr. James Yarnall, professor and chairman of the Department of Art and a leading expert on 19th century artist John La Farge, will present “How I Spent My Cyber-Sabbatical With 4,617 Drawings by John La Farge” at 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 2 in the DiStefano Lecture Hall.

The Yale University Art Gallery owns 94 sketchbooks containing more than 4,500 drawings by La Farge, and cataloging these drawings became a 2013 sabbatical project for Yarnall.

Anticipating public online access to the sketchbooks, Yale photographed each page with a high-resolution digital camera in 2012. This permitted a digitally based cyber-sabbatical that exploited Yarnall’s massive scholarship files housed in Newport. This presentation illustrates the project and includes examination of some of the sketchbooks on Yale’s website.

In 2012, Yarnall’s book, “John La Farge, A Biographical and Critical Study,” was published by Ashgate Publishing Ltd. It is the first biography in a century of the American painter, illustrator, muralist, stained-glass artist and writer. Yarnall is also the author of “Newport Through Its Architecture: A History of Styles from Postmedieval to Postmodern.”

Yarnall has a B.A. in French language and literature from Stonehill College and an M.A. and doctorate in art history from the University of Chicago.