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| "The selection of drawings and letters of John Douglas Woodward that Sue Rainey has put together gives us a wonderfully detailed picture of the experience of making an on-the-spot description of Palestine and the Holy Land during the 1870s. As someone who makes paintings in the very civilized countryside of Virginia today, I am impressed by the quality and quantity of the work he did under difficult and often dangerous conditions. The drawings are highly skilled and wonderfully detailed, giving a sense of the texture, light, and physical presence of his subjects. The letters give us the day-by-day progress of his assignment of describing the places of the Holy Land, so familiar to protestant America from their understanding of the Bible, as they really looked. His letters are full of anecdote, opinion, and lively description. He is a wonderful storyteller. I am reminded of Theophil Gautier's description of his travels in Spain thirty years earlier, with a bit of Mark Twain's bemused skepticism thrown in. Woodward's objectivity as an artist vis à vis his received understanding of biblical subjects set up a very engaging tension in this narrative. The drawings are a remarkable record of a landscape that has been of paramount importance to the Western world over the centuries, and the letters are a very entertaining testament to the skill, determination, and courage of J. D. Woodward." —Richard Crozier, painter and Professor of Studio Art Emeritus, University of Virginia "Picturesque Palestine is one of the most important and comprehensive volumes devoted to the Holy Land published during the nineteenth century. It is incredibly inventive in its design and its integration of image and text. What better inspiration for Sue Rainey's timely project, bringing the words and the original works of art by John David Woodward into a new dialogue and contextual discussion? I have seen the works on paper at Shrine Mont, and I visited Rainey's exhibition at the University of Virginia in 1997. This is a superb visual archive that has survived almost miraculously. It definitely deserves a wide public appreciation." "The artwork and travel narratives of painter John Douglas Woodward are vivid visual and verbal depictions that bring to life the lands of the Bible. Little changed over the centuries, and, scarcely available to Americans during the nineteenth century, Woodward's paintings and observations even today evoke the light, space, color, and living details of many New Testament scenes. Woodward's images and words will provide satisfaction, joy, and enlightenment to anyone interested in American art, the Middle East, and the life and times of the New Testament."
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