The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of American paintings is outstanding and includes many famous works. This volume, one of a series of three, documents an important collection of some 315 paintings by nearly 120 artists dating from the early eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century. The museum's collection of eighteenth-century portraits and history paintings includes work by important artists such as John Smibert, Joseph Blackburn, John Singleton Copley, Benjamin West, Charles Willson Peale, Gilbert Stuart, and John Trumbull. Romantic and neoclassical paintings by John Vanderlyn, Washington Allston, Thomas Sully, and Samuel F. B. Morse represent the shifting taste of artists and art patrons at the turn of the nineteenth century. The founders of the Hudson River school, Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand, along with the country's first successful genre painters, William Sidney Mount and George Caleb Bingham, are also included in this catalogue.

The paintings are arranged chronologically by the dates of the artists. A biography of each artist is included, along with bibliographical references. Every painting is illustrated and thoroughly discussed. There are references, an exhibition history, and provenance. Related works—preliminary drawings and studies, or copies, prints, and replicas—are also listed and often illustrated. The introduction provides a condensed history of American painting of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Included is a discussion of portraiture, the major art form in this country until around 1825, when ambitious artists sought to challenge themselves by painting historical scenes, landscapes, and genre pictures. The birth of America's first art academies and galleries, along with the burgeoning of art criticism, made this period a time of great progress and change in the arts. Volume I consists of paintings by artists born by 1815. Volume II includes paintings by artists born between 1816 and 1845, and Volume III has paintings by artists born between 1846 and 1865. While these books will be essential resources for scholars in the field, they will also be of value to anyone interested in American art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of American paintings is outstanding and includes many famous works. This volume, the second in a series of three, documents an impressive collection of some 285 paintings dating from the late 1830s to the first decade of the twentieth century. The second generation of the Hudson River school is superbly represented by the landscapes of Albert Bierstadt, Frederic E. Church, Jasper F. Cropsey, John F. Kensett, Sanford R. Gifford, and Worthington Whittredge. Most notable, perhaps, is the Museum's important collection of realist paintings by Eastman Johnson, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Eakins. These include such renowned works as Corn Husking at Nantucket, Snap the Whip, The Gulf Stream, and Max Schmitt in a Single Scull. James McNeill Whistler and Mary Cassatt are equally well represented by a choice group of paintings that show the beginnings of the Aesthetic movement on the one hand and impressionism on the other.

The paintings are arranged chronologically by the dates of the artists. A biography of each artist is included, along with bibliographical references. Every painting is illustrated and thoroughly discussed. There are references, an exhibition history, and provenance. Related works—preliminary drawings and studies, or copies, prints, and replicas—are also listed and often illustrated. The principal author, Natalie Spassky, has written an extensive introduction in which she discusses the prevailing historical styles and the major influences on American painting in the years represented. She also describes the various art organizations and publications that were active during this period. Included too is a discussion of the American collectors and artists who were responsible for the encouragement of American art in the Museum's formative years. Because of the wide scope of the collection, the catalogue provides, in effect, a history of American painting in the nineteenth century.

Volume I of this catalogue will consist of paintings by artists born before 1816, Volume II includes paintings by artists born between 1816 and 1845, and Volume III (already published) has paintings by artists born between 1846 and 1865. While these books will be essential resources for scholars in the field, they will also be of value to anyone interested in American art.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of American paintings is an outstanding one and includes many famous works. This volume offers an impressive survey of the late nineteenth century segment of the collection. Most notable, perhaps, are the Museum's extensive holdings of paintings by John Singer Sargent, including his celebrated Madame X. Represented too are some of the best trompe l'oeil works by William Michael Harnett, John F. Peto, and John Haberle; important impressionist paintings by J. Alden Weir, Theodore Robinson, and Childe Hassam; as well as fine examples of the academic style. These paintings represent the work of American artists from the post Civil War era through the early twentieth century. Covering the entire period are some 247 works by such painters as Albert Pinkham Ryder, Ralph Blakelock, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Dewing, Cecilia Beaux, Maurice Prendergast, Frederic Remington, and Arthur B. Davies. The paintings are thoroughly discussedand each one is reproduced. They are arranged chronologically by the dates of the artists. Artists' biographies are included, as well as exhibition histories, provenance, and bibliographic references. Related works—preliminary drawings and studies, or copies, prints, and replicas—are listed and often also illustrated.

The author, Doreen Bolger Burke, has provided an introduction in which she discusses the formation of the collection, the artists and collectors who were involved in the museum's activities in the late nineteenth century, the major influences on American painting in those years, and the historical styles represented. Because of the wide scope of the collection the catalogue provides, in effect, a history of American painting in the late nineteenth century. Volume III is the first catalogue to be published in a new three-volume series, of which Volume I includes paintings by artists born before 1815 and Volume II consists of paintings by artists born from 1816 through 1845. While the book will serve as a major research tool for scholars, it will also be of value to anyone interested in American art.