The Age of Innocence

13 color ill.. Artist's book (12 paintings by Elizabeth Peyton). The title of this small volume by Elizabeth Peyton The Age of Innocence is taken from the early 20th century novel of the same name by Edith Wharton. It describes the claustrophobic, repressed, hypocritical atmosphere of New York society in the 1870's. In the novel passion is shown as the force that would make that highly ritualized world implode.