American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765-1915 (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications),   ISBN:9780300155082

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

Customer Rating: 

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 William 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 life works 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!