Description
Book SynopsisA critical translation of René Brimo's 1938 French study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century patronage and art collecting in the United States.
Trade Review“Kenneth Haltman’s edition makes the book available in English and also provides a rich biographical and intellectual context for Brimo’s work, a most timely contribution to an emerging discipline of art market studies.”
—Julie Codell Journal of the History of Collections
“The judicious reader will find much to admire and much of scholarly value in Kenneth Haltman’s translation of René Brimo’s The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting. Brimo’s encyclopedic knowledge of his subject results in a host of penetrating observations about artists, critics, collectors, dealers, and institutions. Haltman’s introduction is a research tour de force that brings to light an extraordinary if mainly forgotten scholar and his opus magnum, hitherto virtually unknown to students of American art and history.”
—Alan Wallach,Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History and Professor of American Studies Emeritus, The College of William and Mary
“Brimo’s book is a remarkable, groundbreaking investigation of America’s evolving artistic tastes, a compendium of collectors—individual and institutional—and the cultural backdrops for their interests, an early history of museums in America, and a comprehensive overview of the literature of American art up to his time. Haltman’s translation makes this significant scholarly achievement more widely available and, thanks to his judicious editorial interventions, more reliable. His introduction brings to light—and to life—an intriguing personality.”
—Carol Troyen caa.reviews
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Making Sense of an Unusual Contribution to Art History 1
Notes 67
Kenneth Haltman
The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting 85
René Brimo
Preface 87
Introduction 89
Book 1:
Early Developments: From the Colonial Period to the
Philadelphia Centennial
Part 1: Colonial America
Looking Backward 96
Part 2: Science or Sentiment
[Historical Introduction, 1776–1840] 107
1 Encyclopedic Spirit 111
2 The Search for a National Style 121
Part 3: The Critical Era
[Historical Introduction, 1840–1876] 131
1 TheTaste for Anecdote and Realism 135
2 The Discovery of History 151
Book 2:
The Triumph of Quality: Major Collections from the Philadelphia Centennial to the Great War
[Historical Introduction, 1876–1919] 166
1 Eclecticism 171
2 The Notion of the “Old Master” 195
3 The Vogue for Archaeology and “Pre-History” 226
4 Staying in Touch with the Contemporary Scene 255
5 The Modern Art Museum 272
Conclusion 294
Notes 301
Bibliography 344
Index
