The Metropolitan Museum of Art began acquiring American drawings in 1880 and has since amassed a spectacular collection of more than 1,400 works in watercolor, pastel, ink, graphite, chalk, and charcoal. This beautifully produced catalogue, the first volume in a series devoted to the museum’s rich holdings, presents works by artists born before 1835, including such great American artists as John Singleton Copley, Thomas Cole, George Inness, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. In his introduction, Kevin J. Avery describes the acquisitions history of American drawings at the Metropolitan from 1880 to the present day. Marjorie Shelley writes on the materials and techniques used by American draftsmen from the eighteenth century until about 1875. The catalogue section of the book features 106 of the Museum’s choicest drawings and watercolors, discussed in detail and reproduced in color. A checklist follows of the museum’s complete collection of early works on paper, with black-and-white illustrations of 430 additional works and brief artist biographies.

American Drawings and Watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born Before 1835

Arts & Photography

Avery, Kevin J.

History & Criticism

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hudson River School Visions: The Landscapes of Sanford R. Gifford

<div> Sanford Gifford (1823-1880), a leading Hudson River School landscape painter and a founder of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, was so esteemed by the New York art world that, at his untimely death, the Museum mounted a show of his work--the first monographic exhibition accorded any artist--and published a Memorial Catalogue that, for nearly a century, remained the principal source on his oeuvre. Gifford's art, which was inspired by the work of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, and by that of J. M. W. Turner, and was enriched by his travels in Europe (from 1855 to 1857, and from 1868 to 1869), came to be called "air painting," for he made the ambient light of each scene--color saturated and atmospherically potent--the key to its expression. His approach to painting and his unique style gave rise to a highly distinctive body of work, of enchanting and mesmerizing effect. While Gifford himself compiled a "List of Chief Pictures" late in his career, a significant part of his extant oeuvre consists of small-scale studies, preparatory works in oil, and original drawings, most of which are in annotated sketchbooks and document the progression from on-site record to idealized vision achieved in his major pictures. The four essays that open the catalogue--which accompanies the first exhibition of Gifford's work since 1970--examine the artist's place in the Hudson River School (Franklin Kelly), his numerous Catskill Mountain subjects (Kevin J. Avery), his experiences and perceptions as a traveler both at home and abroad (Heidi Applegate), and the variety of his patrons (Eleanor Jones Harvey). Following are entries by Avery and Kelly that discuss in detail the seventy paintings by the artist in the exhibition; each is shown in color and many are supplemented by comparative illustrations of related works by Gifford, his Hudson River School mentors and colleagues, and those painters, in addition to Cole and Turner, who exerted some influence on his art--among them Frederic Edwin Church and John F. Kensett. [This book was originally published in 2003 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.] </div>

Kelly, Franklin

Conway, Claire A.

American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's commitment to American art goes back to its origins, when one of the main reasons for creating the Museum was to provide the city and the nation with an institution that would attract and instruct American artists, as well as acquire their works. Leaders in the New York art world of the 1860s and 1870s were principally landscape painters, many of whom were instrumental in founding the Metropolitan. Among them were John F. Kensett and Frederic E. Church, both prominently represented in this exhibition and publication, and both on the roster of the Museum's first Board of Trustees, elected on 31 January 1870. Kensett served on the influential Executive Committee until his death three years later; the memorial display in 1874 of thirty-eight of his paintings—referred to as the Last Summer's Work—along with three pictures by Thomas Cole, was the first special exhibition mounted at the Metropolitan. Worthington Whittredge and Sanford Gifford, who are also represented in the exhibition and catalogue, were among those deeply involved in the early life of this institution. In 1881, when the Museum organized its first monographic retrospective, it was of Gifford's work. Issued concurrently was A Memorial Catalogue of the Paintings of Sanford Robinson Gifford, N. A., the first of a long line of scholarly books and catalogues published by the Metropolitan.American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School is a large undertaking of the Metropolitan's Departments of American Art, and is an integral part of its program to exhibit and explain the best art of our country. Previous to 1987, the Museum mounted major retrospectives of the work of Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, George Bellows, and Winslow Homer, among others. This exhibition and its accompanying book were conceived as a presentation of the art of the Hudson River School and a summary of the most up-to-date scholarship on the School itself. The organizers and authors brought together a number of the finest and most historically important pictures of the School, thereby offering a broad and even-handed survey of thought and critical comment on the artists and their works. Because of the tremendous surge of interest in the Hudson River School (traceable in large part to Paintings of the Hudson River School, the Museum's small but pioneering exhibition held in 1917; to The Hudson River School and the Early American Landscape Tradition, the exhibition organized by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1945; and to the publication in 1949 of M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815–1865 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and the consequent recognition of it as the first pivotal art movement in this nation's history, the time was propitious to present to specialists and the general public alike these indisputable masterpieces. [This book was originally published in 1987 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.]

Burke, Doreen Bolger

Howat, John K.

Rodriguez Roque, Oswaldo

Voorsanger, Catherine Hoover

A beautiful overview of fascinating paintings of the classical world and the Holy Land by a beloved American artist Frederic Church (1826–1900), one of the leading painters of 19th-century America and the Hudson River School, also journeyed around the globe to find fresh inspiration for his highly detailed compositions. Among Church’s lesser-known masterpieces are his paintings of the Middle East, Italy, and Greece, produced in the late 1860s through late 1870s, which explore themes of human history and achievement. Taking a closer look at this geographical and thematic shift in Church’s practice, this handsome book brings together the artist’s major paintings of Athens, Rome, Jerusalem, and the surrounding region. The essays concentrate on a set of six major paintings of architectural and archaeological marvels; one essay also spotlights Olana, Church’s home in New York State, which reflects the influence of Middle Eastern design. This impressive volume stands apart in its new approach to the artist’s work and its quest to determine why and how this quintessentially American figure was drawn to scenery and themes from the other side of the globe.

Frederic Church: A Painter's Pilgrimage

Carr, Gerald L.

Myers, Kenneth John

Volait, Mercedes

Detroit Institute of Arts

"The wide variety of selections from Frederic Edwin Church's collection of his own paintings shows the master in all phases of his career, in sketches and finished paintings, depicting the breadth of his subjects and the high technical skills that established him as an eminent and influential artist in his own time. As works he held on to or reacquired and kept in his house during his lifetime, they embody the heart of his artistic vision and convey a deeply personal slant. As pictures he hung and lived with at Olana, they tell the larger story of that extraordinary place and are as illuminating when seen in context as on their own."―from the Introduction
Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900) traveled the world, captured its beauty in countless paintings, and brought it home to live at Olana, his castle on the Hudson. The name was inspired by a reference Church found to a fortress or a treasury-storehouse in ancient Persia. This extraordinary selection of Church's paintings from his collection at Olana puts the most cherished of his treasures on full display in a volume that includes eighty color plates.
Church's paintings, among the most acclaimed examples of art of the Hudson River School, are found in museums and private collections around the globe. However, Church kept some of his art close by during his lifetime. The rich collection that remains at Olana includes about seven hundred pieces, including notebooks, drawings, and oils, both sketches and completed canvases. They cover the full range of Church's career chronologically and thematically. The highlights from his personal collection are found in the touring exhibition that accompanies this book. 
The introduction by John Wilmerding and a substantial essay by Kevin J. Avery place the work into the context of Church's life and travels and examine Church's influences and the public reception of his art. Throughout Treasures from Olana, they discuss how profoundly Church's hilltop home and the surrounding landscape inspired and informed his work. His paintings, in turn, illuminate Olana more than a century after his death. 
The Olana Partnership, Hudson, N.Y., and New York State's Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Albany, N.Y., organized Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church.

Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church

Cornell University Press

American Drawings and Watercolors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Sanford Robinson Gifford was a leading Hudson River School artist. His love of nature first surfaced as a youth growing up in Hudson, New York, and, together with his admiration for the works of Thomas Cole, inspired him to become a landscape painter. Influenced as well by J.M.W. Turner and by trips to Europe in the 1850s, Gifford's art was termed "air painting", for he made the ambient light of each scene - colour-saturated and atmospherically enriched - the key to its expression. Gifford was a founder of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time of his death, he was so esteemed by the New York art world that the Museum mounted an exhibition of his work - its first accorded an American artist - and published a Memorial Catalogue that for nearly a century remained the principal source on the artist. This volume features essays examining Gifford's position in the Hudson River School, his Catskill and Adirondack subjects, his patrons, and his adventures as a traveller both at home and

Metropolitan Museum Of Art (new York, N.y.)

Gifford, Sanford Robinson

Themes

Sanford Robinson Gifford was a leading Hudson River School artist. His love of nature first surfaced as a youth growing up in Hudson, New York, and, together with his admiration for the works of Thomas Cole, inspired him to become a landscape painter. Influenced as well by J.M.W. Turner and by trips to Europe in the 1850s, Gifford's art was termed "air painting", for he made the ambient light of each scene - colour-saturated and atmospherically enriched - the key to its expression. Gifford was a founder of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. At the time of his death, he was so esteemed by the New York art world that the Museum mounted an exhibition of his work - its first accorded an American artist - and published a Memorial Catalogue that for nearly a century remained the principal source on the artist. This volume features essays examining Gifford's position in the Hudson River School, his Catskill and Adirondack subjects, his patrons, and his adventures as a traveller both at home and abroad. More than 70 of the artist's best-known sketches and paintings are discussed and reproduced in colour.

The Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress is an extraordinary 8-foot by 800-foot painting that was created in 1851 and thought lost for a full century. Rediscovered in 1996 and fully restored in 2012, it illustrates John Bunyan’s iconic book The Pilgrim’s Progress―first published in 1678 and in print continuously since then―a heart-stopping allegory of trial and faith in which the hero, Christian, battles giants, monsters, tricksters, and his own weaknesses to reach the Celestial City. Moving panoramas were a mid-nineteenth-century precursor to the motion picture, massive canvases that were scrolled across a stage and accompanied by a lecturer and music. One of only a handful that survive today, the Moving Panorama of Pilgrim’s Progress was one of the most popular and important moving panoramas of its day, with designs by rising luminaries of the Hudson River School of American landscape painting: Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Cropsey, Daniel Huntington, and others. Scholars and fans of theater and film, panoramas, American art, religious studies, literature, and The Pilgrim’s Progress itself will value this beautifully illustrated volume.

The Painters' Panorama: Narrative, Art, and Faith in the Moving Panorama of Pilgrim's Progress

Routhier, Jessica Skwire

Hardiman, Thomas

University Press of New England

Church's Great Picture the Heart of the Andes

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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