Boston - January 28, 2005

A Perfect World

Vintage Art Sketches

Why does the life you imagine in your head always seem so perfect? It’s a universe filled with good hair days, clean undies, and plenty of lucky heads-up pennies found on the street.

Whether or not such a picture-perfect life exists is debatable, but vintage art sketches from Eugene Galleries provide a somewhat tangible glimpse of it. Hand-drawn, pencil-and-ink scenes depict a dreamy Boston. A couple strolling through the Common, birds chirping overhead. A view of a gas-lantern’d and red-shuttered Acorn Street in Beacon Hill.

Images that are fleeting in more ways than one. The gallery has a limited supply of the series, which was sketched by an unknown artist in the ’50s and published in hardbound books. Stock gets replenished every few months when vintage book dealers drop by.

Can’t get your hands on one of the wistful renderings? Don’t get too hung up about it.

Just close your eyes and picture it.

Eugene Galleries, 76 Charles Street, between Pinckney and Mt. Vernon Streets, Beacon Hill (617-227-3062).

  Artsy