American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) [Hardcover]

H. Barbara Weinberg (Editor, Contributor), Carrie Rebora Barratt (Editor, Contributor), Margaret C. Conrads (Contributor), E. Bruce Robertson (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 27, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0300155085 | ISBN-13: 978-0300155082 | Edition: 1

This beautiful volume explores American paintings of people engaged in the tasks and pleasures of everyday life between the colonial era and World War I. These works reflect key historical and cultural developments, including the growth of industrialization, urbanization, and immigration; changing gender roles; and the shifting location and meaning of the frontier.

 

Focusing on leading artists, from John Singleton Copley to John Sloan, the authors address narrative content in colonial and early national portraits; genre scenes of the Jacksonian period; images from the Civil War era; and works by American Impressionists and realists in the decades before and after 1900. Like the exhibition it accompanies, the book reflects transformations in artists’ aspirations and viewers’ expectations as America evolved from isolated British outpost to leading independent participant in international affairs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The catalogue is beautifully produced and will be a valuable resource.”--Choice
 

(Choice )

About the Author

H. Barbara Weinberg is Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Carrie Rebora Barratt is Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture and Manager of The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Margaret C. Conrads is Samuel Sosland Curator of American Art, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Bruce Robertson is Professor of Art History, University of California, Santa Barbara, and Consulting Curator, Department of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 222 pages
• Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art; 1 edition (October 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300155085
• ISBN-13: 978-0300155082
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #352,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Survey of American Genre Painting, October 24, 2009

By 

Elliot Silvera - See all my reviews
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This review is from: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (Hardcover)

This beautifully illustrated book was published in conjunction of a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I bought the catalogue after seeing the exhibit and I fell in love with the paintings. The over 170 reproductions in the book depicit everyday subjects such as family life, children playing, people at work, and city life. Some of the most well known works illustrated include John Singleton Copley's "Watson and the Shark", George Caleb Bingham's "Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, Thomas Eakins' "Max Schmidt in a Single Skull", Winslow Homer's "Snap the Whip", and George Bellows' "Club Night". The text gives great explanations of all the paintings as well as important historical information. The book is divided into four time periods like the exhibit. The first section describe works that were made from 1765 to the 1830s which are mainly genre portrait paintings by artists such as Matthew Pratt and Charles Willson Peale. The second section have works which were painted from 1830 to the eve of the Civil War. Highlights in this section include rural life paintings by William Sidney Mount, frontier life paintings by Bingham, domestic scenes by Lilly Martin Spencer, and a major painting by Eastman Johnson depicting slaves entitled, "Negro Life in the South." The third section has masterpieces of the Civil War period including several by Homer. The last one deals with paintings made from the 1870s until the eve of World War I. This section shows American Impressionist works by Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and William Merritt Chase and ends with ashcan school paintings by artists such as John Sloan and Bellows. The book also has illustrations by European artists like Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet to show how European and American painters depicit genre subjects differently. If you want a book filled with great American painting by famous as well as several not so well known artists, buy it. You'll treasure them forever!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rich History of American Art, July 2, 2010

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (Hardcover)

AMERICAN STORIES: PAINTINGS OF EVERYDAY LIFE, 1765 - 1915 is a catalogue that accompanied a sensitive and very popular exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum in Los Angeles, California. For those who were unable to see this well-curated exhibition this catalogue is a rich portfolio of the treasures shared. Many of the works in this show are well known to the public from the exposure they have received in art history books, but the joy of seeing these familiar paintings grouped with images not previously known adds greatly to the appreciation of the quality of art that this country has and continues to produce.

There are four writers who each take a period of history and discuss and illustrate it with works in the exhibition. Carrie Rebora Barrett's contribution is 'Inventing American Stories, 1765 - 1830, emphasizing the works of John Singleton Copley from his famous portraits to his created allegories such as 'Watson and the Shark' and Charles Willson Peale's impressive 'The Exhumation of the Mastadon'. The next section is written by Bruce Robertson - 'Stories for the Public, 1830 - 1860' - and deals with Yankee idealism and the joys of the works of George Caleb Bingham, William Sidney Mount, Christian Friedich Mayr among others who depicted life in America from all stances. 'Stories of War and Reconciliation, 1860 - 1877' by Margaret C. Conrads features paintings of wars here and abroad, conflicts with the American Indian, the wagon trains West movement, and the wondrous paintings of Winslow Homer, Thomas Eakins and William Merritt Chase.

The final chapter of this well illustrate book is titled 'Cosmopolitan and Candid Stories, 1877 - 1915, and it is this section that many art lovers will treasure most. The works of Mary Cassatt, many more by Thomas Eakins, the sea images of Homer, and works by Thomas Anshutz, John George Brown, Frederic Remington, George Bellows and a contingency of little known but superb painters of the American life.

The book is well designed and constructed and scrupulously documented. This is a fine example of how a museum catalogue can become a gold standard of art history books. It is a fine achievement. Grady Harp, July 10

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fine Catalog of a Wonderful Show, February 9, 2010

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T. G. Weaver - See all my reviews
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This review is from: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) (Hardcover)

This is an unusually interesting and useful catalog from a very fine show at the Met. The illustrations are first rate as well.