The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting / / René Brimo; ed. by Kenneth Haltman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Penn State University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: Brimo, René,
• MitwirkendeR: Brimo, René,; Haltman, Kenneth,
• HerausgeberIn: Haltman, Kenneth,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2016]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (424 p.) :; 43 illustrations

The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting is a new critical translation of René Brimo’s classic study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century patronage and art collecting in the United States. Originally published in French in 1938, Brimo’s foundational text is a detailed examination of collecting in America from colonial times to the end of World War I, when American collectors came to dominate the European art market. This work helped shape the then-fledgling field of American art history by explaining larger cultural transformations as manifested in the collecting habits of American elites. It remains the most substantive account of the history of collecting in the United States.In his introduction, Kenneth Haltman provides a biographical study of the author and his social and intellectual milieu in France and the United States. He also explores how Brimo’s work formed a turning point and initiated a new area of academic study: the history of art collecting.Making accessible a text that has until now only been available in French, Haltman’s elegant translation of The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting sheds new critical light on the essential work of this extraordinary but overlooked scholar.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Making Sense of an Unusual Contribution to Art History -- Notes -- Th e Evolution of Taste in American Collecting -- Preface -- Introduction -- Book 1: Early Developments: From the Colonial Period to the Philadelphia Centennial -- Book 2: The Triumph of Quality: Major Collections from the Philadelphia Centennial to the Great War -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index