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Image: book cover of "America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting"

America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting
Yuriko Jackall et al.

In 1815, Joseph Bonaparte, elder brother of Napoleon, arrived in America, bringing his vast and exquisite collection of 18th-century French paintings. These works caused a sensation when they were placed on public view, and a new American taste for 18th-century French painting was born. America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting tells the stories of 68 French paintings that represent some of the best and most unusual examples of this type of art that American museums have to offer. Highlighting smaller museum collections across the country and less well-known paintings, the catalog considers America’s very real fascination with France in the 18th century — a staunch ally in the revolutionary wars, a cultural and intellectual model for Franklin, Jefferson, and other Americans abroad — but also the way in which the cultural ideal of 18th-century France has continued to endure in the American imagination.

304 pages | 160 illustrations | 10 × 12.5 inches

Image: book cover of "Dwan Gallery: Los Angeles to New York, 1959 –1971"

Dwan Gallery: Los Angeles to New York, 1959–1971
James Meyer et al.

Virginia Dwan, founder of leading avant-garde galleries in Los Angeles and New York, was a force in a nation made mobile by commercial airlines and the interstate highway system. While the Los Angeles gallery featured abstract expressionism, neo-Dada, and pop, the New York gallery broke ground with brilliant presentations of minimalism, conceptual art, and land art. She supported vanguards from Yves Klein and Edward Kienholz to Carl Andre and Robert Morris, who challenged the limits of art’s role as object and commodity, and later Robert Smithson, Walter De Maria, and Michael Heizer, whose earthworks were sited completely outside the gallery in remote locations of the American West. Told through the perspectives of an astute scholar of modern art, the gallerist herself, and a meticulous researcher, this volume reveals the storied history of the Dwan Gallery.

408 pages | 418 illustrations | 9.5 × 11 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2017)

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Image: book cover of "Stuart Davis: In Full Swing"

Stuart Davis: In Full Swing
Harry Cooper and Barbara Haskell

Stuart Davis brought a distinctively American flavor to international modernism. In blurring the distinctions between text and image, high and low culture, and abstraction and figuration, his work continues to challenge and influence contemporary art. This catalog presents an exciting but lesser-known artist to a new generation in order to secure his rightful place in the modern canon. Stuart Davis: In Full Swing focuses on Davis's brilliant sequence of breakthroughs that began in 1921 and ended only in 1964 with his death. With approximately 100 works, the catalog highlights Davis’s unique ability to assimilate the imagery of popular culture, the aesthetics of advertising, the lessons of cubism, and the sounds and rhythms of jazz—his great musical passion—into works that hum with intelligence and energy. In addition to essays by cocurators Barbara Haskell and Harry Cooper, this catalog features a detailed chronology of Davis’s life and works, drawing upon new primary documents, including numerous photographs and excerpts from his writings.

288 pages | 185 illustrations | 9.5 × 11 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2017)

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Image: book cover of "East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography"

East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography
Diane Waggoner et al.

Pictures of the American West have up to now dominated the canon of 19th-century American landscape photography. Although many photographers worked in the eastern United States, their pictures have received little scholarly attention with the exception of Civil War images. East of the Mississippi: Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Photography is the first book to focus on this vivid chapter. In approximately 175 photographs in a rich variety of media by both esteemed and little-known photographers and several paintings ranging from 1840 to 1900, this book’s sections consider the earliest daguerreotypes and paper prints of eastern sites like Niagara Falls and the White Mountains; the close ties between many painters and photographers, such as the Bierstadt and Moran brothers; altered landscapes from before, during, and after the Civil War; and photographers who forged new ideas concerning the preservation of the American wilderness.

288 pages | 222 illustrations | 9.5 x 11 inches

Image: book cover of "Photography Reinvented: The Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker"

Photography Reinvented: The Collection of Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker
Sarah Greenough et al.

Photography Reinvented assembles the works of critically acclaimed artists who, through innovative and visionary experimentation, have changed the course of contemporary photography. From the seemingly objective, straightforward style and large-scale, colored prints of Düsseldorf school photographers such as Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth to seminal works by artists like Cindy Sherman and Hiroshi Sugimoto, Photography Reinvented traces the art form’s aesthetic, technical, and philosophical progress during a period of substantial change. While some of the artists in this volume explore photography’s nature as a medium that repurposes imagery from mass culture and a wide array of sources, others reassess iconic works of art and architecture. In an age when photography can no longer claim its main purpose as day-to-day documentation, Photography Reinvented examines the medium’s redefinition, repurposing, and reimaging and reveals the relevance of the past in our present lives.

120 pages | 71 illustrations | 10 x 12 inches

Image: book cover of "Hubert Robert"

Hubert Robert
Margaret Morgan Grasselli and Yuriko Jackall

Hubert Robert (1733 – 1808) was regarded during his lifetime as one of France’s most prominent artists, earning the nickname “Robert of the Ruins.” At the core of his success was his brilliance as a master of the architectural capriccio — an imaginary composition in which monuments from different locales were artfully brought together. His work was greatly influenced by the years that he spent in Italy, particularly Rome, recording its cultural heritage and forging close relationships with artists like Panini and Piranesi. A gifted painter of architecture and landscape, Robert was also a talented and prolific draftsman, a skilled printmaker, an interior decorator, a garden designer, and a keeper of the king’s paintings. Presenting an impressive selection of his works, five essays, and a biographical chronology, this volume richly illuminates Robert’s lasting contributions to French culture.

296 pages | 140 illustrations | 10.5 x 12.5 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2017)

Image: book cover of "Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art"

Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art
Judith Brodie, Amy Johnston, and Michael J. Lewis

Three Centuries of American Prints from the National Gallery of Art offers a comprehensive view of American art through masterful prints from the colonial period to the present, from Paul Revere to Martin Puryear. Major movements in American print history are highlighted in the selection of approximately 140 works by 95 artists. These movements extend from the colonial period and the Revolution to early landscapes of the New World; from the etching revival inspired by the prints of James McNeill Whistler to gritty urban views of New York by the Ashcan artists; from the lighthearted satire of the American regionalists to government-sponsored art of the Depression era; from the influx of European modernism around the Armory Show to postwar, hard-edge abstraction; from the rise of pop art and the American graphic workshops in the 1960s and 1970s to prints of the 21st century.

304 pages | 235 illustrations | 9.625 x 11.5 inches

Image: book cover of "Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye"

Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter's Eye
Mary Morton and George T. M. Shackelford et al.

Although Gustave Caillebotte (1848–1894) was among the most critically noted artists at the height of the impressionist movement in the late 1870s and early 1880s, his work was virtually ignored for almost a century. Caillebotte’s considerable wealth freed him from the need to sell his paintings, and most of them remained in family hands until the mid-20th century.

Today the precise nature of Caillebotte’s contribution to avant-garde painterly practice in the later 19th century remains elusive, and a satisfying interpretation of his achievement has yet to be offered. This exhibition presents a tightly edited group of some 50 paintings by Caillebotte, dating mostly from 1875 to 1882 when the painter was fully engaged with the impressionist movement.

240 pages | 150 illustrations | 9.5 x 12 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2016)

Image: book cover of "Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History Volume II: Art in Context"

Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History
Volume II: Art in Context

Edited by Daphne Barbour and E. Melanie Gifford

Volume two of this biennial journal from the National Gallery of Art presents the latest conservation research on works in its collection. Facture, named for “the manner in which things are made,” addresses issues from conservation treatment and technical art history to scientific research.

The second volume focuses largely on great works from the Renaissance and the 20th century, including sculpture, paintings, and watercolor. Articles present research addressing art history, archival study, and technical analysis. With the publication of this biennial journal, the Gallery extends a tradition of fostering dialogue among art historians, scientists, and conservators working in the international community.

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Image: book cover of "Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael"

Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael
James Clifton, Liesbeth Helmus, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. et al.

Joachim Wtewael (c. 1566–1638) was an outstanding mannerist artist who began his career in Utrecht under the tutelage of his father, a glass painter. He traveled extensively in Italy and France, studying especially works by the School of Fontainebleau. His paintings are endlessly fascinating and compelling, as shown in the complex and densely peopled biblical and mythological narratives that he composed throughout his life. He could with equal ease depict the lyrical realm of the Dutch golden age or the spiritual intensity of shepherds adoring the Christ child.  

In this first exhibition and catalog devoted to the artist, curators from the National Gallery of Art and the Centraal Museum, working in conjunction with the foremost authority on the artist, selected approximately 35 paintings that represent the artist’s most intriguing and accomplished works. The catalog includes essays on Wtewael’s life and times and entries on each of the works.

248 pages | 170 illustrations | 9.5 x 11 inches

Image: book cover of "The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund"

The Memory of Time: Contemporary Photographs at the National Gallery of Art, Acquired with the Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund
Sarah Greenough et al.

In the decades since 1990 the concepts of time and memory have made a strong return in the work of many photographers who seek not simply to reflect the world, but to illuminate how photography constructs our understanding of it. The Memory of Time explores the work of 26 contemporary artists from across the world — Sophie Calle, Moyra Davey, Idris Khan, Sally Mann, Susan Meiselas, Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Carrie Mae Weems among them — who investigate the richness and complexity of photography’s  relationship to time, memory, and history. These 76 works create powerful visual histories of our relationship with the land, ourselves, and each other.

172 pages | 130 illustrations | 9.625 x 10.75 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2016)

Image: book cover of "Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns"

Drawing in Silver and Gold: Leonardo to Jasper Johns
Stacey Sell and Hugo Chapman et al.

From the Middle Ages to the present, master draftsmen including Leonardo, Dürer, Raphael, and Rembrandt have used metalpoint to create some of the most beautiful and technically accomplished drawings in the history of art. Drawing in Silver and Gold examines the history of metalpoint from the 14th century to the present day, incorporating new scientific analysis, revealing patterns of use, and offering a striking demonstration of the medium’s range and versatility. The exquisite reproductions highlighting examples of this technique will appeal to a wide range of audiences.

224 pages | 130 illustrations | 9.5 x 11.5 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2016), AIGA 50 (2015)

Image: book cover of "Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1854 – 1860"

Captain Linnaeus Tripe: Photographer of India and Burma, 1854 – 1860
Roger Taylor and Crispin Branfoot

Captain Linnaeus Tripe (1822–1902) occupies a special place in the history of 19th-century British photography, not just for his memorable name but for the outstanding body of work he produced in India and Burma between 1854 and 1862 while an officer in the army of the East India Company. His large-format photographs were among the first to document sacred sites of great cultural, architectural, and archaeological importance in areas generally inaccessible to Western travelers. Tripe is also exceptional for his artful retouching of negatives to enhance precisely composed images with clouds and other atmospheric effects.

208 pages | 100 illustrations | 11.5 x 11 inches

Image: book cover of "Degas/Cassatt"

Degas/Cassatt
Kimberly A. Jones et al.

Although Edgar Degas's influence upon Mary Cassatt has long been acknowledged, the extent to which Cassatt shaped Degas's artistic production and prepared the way for his warm reception by American audiences is fully examined for the first time. With a focus on the critical period from the late 1870s through the mid-1880s when Degas and Cassatt were most closely allied, this catalog brings together some 70 works in a variety of media to examine the artistic dialogue that developed between these two celebrated impressionists. Groundbreaking technical analysis provides new insight into the intersections within their art in terms of media, methods, and subject matter.

176 pages | 145 illustrations | 9.5 x 10.5 inches

Image: book cover of "Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In"

Andrew Wyeth: Looking Out, Looking In
Nancy K. Anderson and Charles Brock

One of Andrew Wyeth’s most important paintings, Wind from the Sea (1947), is also the artist’s first full realization of the window as a recurring subject in his art. Wyeth returned to windows again and again during the next six decades, producing more than 300 remarkable works that explore the formal and conceptual aspects of looking both in and out of windows. Spare, elegant, and abstract, these non-figural paintings are free of the narrative element inevitably associated with his well-known compositions. This richly illustrated book presents a select group of Wyeth’s tempera paintings—many of them never before published or on public view—along with two essays that explore Wyeth’s fascination with windows.

224 pages | 150 illustrations | 9.5 x 11.5 inches

Image: book cover of "Andrew Wyeth: A Spoken Self-Portrait"

Andrew Wyeth: A Spoken Self-Portrait
Richard Meryman

Richard Meryman began an enduring friendship with Andrew Wyeth while writing for Life magazine in 1964. Over four decades, he recorded some 600 hours of conversations with Wyeth as well as his family, friends, and neighbors in Pennsylvania and Maine — ​including Christina Olson, subject of Christina’s World. This book offers a taste of those recordings, skillfully crafted by Meryman into five monologues on key themes in Wyeth’s work. We hear Wyeth speak vividly of people and places that triggered memories and emotions to which he gave powerful expression in his art. He shares personal experiences and talks about artists who inspired him and why, revealing profound understanding of these influences. This fascinating book includes reproductions of many works of art discussed by Wyeth in his own words as well as previously unpublished photographs of the artist’s studio taken since his death in 2009.

132 pages | 101 color images | 4.5 x 9.75 inches

Image: book cover of "Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris"

Charles Marville: Photographer of Paris
Sarah Kennel et al.

One of the most talented photographers of the nineteenth century, Charles Marville photographed city scenes throughout France and Germany in the 1850s, explored landscape and portraiture, and became known as the official photographer of Paris during its transition years under Baron Haussmann. His best-known photographs record Paris before and after its medieval streets gave way to the broad boulevards we associate with the City of Light. Yet Marville has long been an enigma. Among many new insights revealed in this meticulously researched monograph is that he was born Charles-François Bossu in 1813 and adopted his pseudonym as a young illustrator in the 1830s. This first comprehensive examination of Marville’s life and career delivers the much-awaited recognition his work deserves.

280 pages | 169 illustrations | 9.5 x 11 inches

Image: book cover of "Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History Volume 1: Renaissance Masterworks"

Facture: Conservation, Science, Art History
Volume 1: Renaissance Masterworks

Edited by Daphne Barbour and E. Melanie Gifford

The National Gallery of Art introduces a new biennial journal presenting the latest conservation research on works in its collection. Facture, named for “the manner in which things are made,” addresses issues from conservation treatment and technical art history to scientific research. Presenting peer-reviewed scholarly articles, Facture is addressed equally to colleagues in conservation, the sciences, and art history.

The inaugural volume focuses on great works of the Renaissance, including sculpture, paintings, textiles, and drawings. Articles present detailed research and technical analysis (from microscopic and spectroscopic studies to novel imaging methods), seeking to foster a productive multi-disciplinary dialogue.

200 pages | 193 color images | 8 x 11.125 inches

Image: book cover of "Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art"

Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art
Mary Morton

Among the most beloved paintings at the National Gallery of Art are the intimately scaled French impressionist and post-impressionist works collected by Paul Mellon and Ailsa Mellon Bruce. These are pictures the donors bought and lived with in their homes before giving them to the nation, and they inspired gifts of similar works from other generous collectors. The broad appeal of the Gallery’s small French paintings stems from their sense of intimacy — they were made for personal enjoyment and depict quiet interiors, lush landscapes, family groups, people reading, sailing, and visiting the beach. This volume presents some sixty-five luminous works along with an essay high­lighting for the first time Ailsa Mellon Bruce’s role in the formation of the Gallery’s collection.

168 pages | 87 color images | 10.25 x 12.25 inches

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Image: book cover of "An Eye for Art: Focusing on Great Artists and Their Work"

An Eye for Art: Focusing on Great Artists and Their Work
Presented by the National Gallery of Art

Introduce children ages seven and up to more than fifty great artists and their work in this lively family-oriented resource compiled from the National Gallery of Art’s popular quarterly NGAkids. Educators, homeschoolers, and families alike will find their creativity sparked by this beautiful gathering of art and information from the nation’s stellar collection.

180 pages | 9 x 11 inches

Image: book cover of "Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Shaw Memorial"

Tell It with Pride: The 54th Massachusetts Regiment and Augustus Saint-Gaudens' Shaw Memorial
Sarah Greenough et al.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ magisterial Shaw Memorial (1900) honors Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first regiments of African American soldiers formed during the Civil War (and portrayed in the 1989 film Glory). Although the soldiers’ heads are based on anonymous models, the men and women associated with the 54th are made known here through vintage photographs, letters, and the first Medal of Honor earned by an African American soldier. The Shaw Memorial and works by Lewis Hine, Richard Benson, Carrie Mae Weems, William Earle Williams, and Ed Hamilton embody the legacy of the 54th Massachusetts. And a roster of some 1,600 soldiers from the 54th specifies personal data when known, including rank and fate at the Battle of Fort Wagner.

228 pages | 137 color images | 9.5 x 11 inches

Awards: AIGA 50 (2013), W. E. Fischelis Award from the Victorian Society in America (2014)

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Image: book cover of "Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina"

Albrecht Dürer: Master Drawings, Watercolors, and Prints from the Albertina
Andrew Robison et al.

Just as Leonardo da Vinci is to Renaissance Italy, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) is the reigning genius of the Northern European Renaissance. Dürer created paintings and portraits and wrote theoretical treatises on many subjects, yet his greatest and most influential works were his drawings, watercolors, engravings, and woodcuts. The Albertina in Vienna houses the preeminent collection of Dürer’s finished drawings and watercolors, many of them masterpieces acquired by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II. This volume includes more than 80 watercolors and drawings from the Albertina, among them The Great Piece of Turf and Praying Hands, as well as related engravings and woodcuts. Dürer’s refined precision, exquisite craftsmanship, and life and work are discussed in the context of the Albertina’s magnificent collection.

368 pages | 215 color images | 9.5 x 12 inches

Awards: AIGA 50 (2013), AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2014)

Image: book cover of "Yes, No, Maybe: Artists Working at Crown Point Press"

Yes, No, Maybe: Artists Working at Crown Point Press
Judith Brodie and Adam Greenhalgh

Featuring 125 working proofs and edition prints produced between 1972 and 2010 at Crown Point Press in San Francisco, one of the most influential printmaking studios of the last half century, Yes, No, Maybe goes beyond celebrating the flash of inspiration and the role of the imagination to examine the artistic process as a sequence of decisions. Among the 25 artists represented are those with long ties to Crown Point Press — Richard Diebenkorn, John Cage, Chuck Close, and Sol LeWitt — ​as well as those whose association is more recent, such as Mamma Andersson, Julie Mehretu, and Jockum Nordström.

240 pages | 125 color images | 8.625 x 10.25 inches

Awards: AIGA 50 (2013)

Image: book cover of "Shock of the News"

Shock of the News
Judith Brodie et al.

Taking its title from Robert Hughes’s popular BBC television series The Shock of the New (1980), this absorbing volume examines the many manifestations of the “newspaper phenomenon” from 1909 to 2009, a century during which major and lesser-known artists engaged in a vibrant relationship with the printed news. The catalog includes works by Picasso, Braque, Man Ray, and a wide range of contemporary artists from Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns to Laurie Anderson and Robert Gober. Accompanying essays remind us of the newspaper’s historical legacy, its cultural importance, and its continuing artistic role.

168 pages | 102 color images, 30 black and white images | 9.5 x 11.25 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2013)

Image: book cover of "Imperial Augsburg: Renaissance Prints and Drawings, 1475–1540"

Imperial Augsburg: Renaissance Prints and Drawings, 1475–1540
Gregory Jecmen and Freyda Spira

Augsburg enjoyed a golden age in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, fostering numerous artists such as Hans Burgkmair, Erhard Ratdolt, Daniel Hopfer, Jörg Breu, and Hans Weiditz. Focusing on the drawings, prints, and illustrated books they created as well as the innovative printing techniques they used, this volume—the first of its kind in English—serves as an introduction to the city of Augsburg during this period. Encompassing imperial propaganda, notably, for Maximilian I, humanist subjects, and devotional works, this distinctive body of work also celebrates artistic virtuosity and invention.

120 pages | 48 color images | 6.5 x 10 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2013)

Image: book cover of "Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastels from Delacroix to Signac"

Color, Line, Light: French Drawings, Watercolors, and Pastels from Delacroix to Signac
Margaret Morgan Grasselli et al.

In his introduction to this book, Richard Brettell calls the nineteenth century in France “the paper century,” a period of extraordinary richness, experimentation, and inventiveness. Color, Line, Light addresses how French artists both initiated and responded to numerous shifts in tastes and style over the course of the century. Much has been written about the major movements and individual artists of the period, whereas this book considers the broad span of French draftsmanship from romanticism to neo-impressionism. The drawings, pastels, and watercolors present a rich diversity of subjects, styles, and techniques, alongside a comprehensive introduction and analysis of key artistic movements.

180 pages | 150 color images | 9.5 x 11.25 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2013)

Image: book cover of "George Bellows"

George Bellows
Charles Brock et al.

Published in conjunction with a major retrospective exhibition, this landmark volume is a rigorous analysis of the short life and career of American painter George Bellows (1882–1925) from his meteoric rise in New York City in the early 20th century to the largely unexplored period preceding his death. Abundant, detailed illustrations from every phase of the artist’s work accompany a series of thematic essays by leading art and social historians. In the aggregate they offer a rigorous and comprehensive view of Bellows’ artistic achievements in all mediums and a fresh consideration of his standing in relationship to artists such as Hopper, Picasso, and Manet as well as to his unique place in the history of both American and Western art.

"This new volume is surely the most important Bellows publication to date . . . [It] will open up one of the greatest American artists of the 20th century to a whole new generation. Never before has a book provided so many of the artist's creative achievements." —Ex Libris, American Fine Art

348 pages | 270 color images | 11.25 x 9.6 inches

Image: book cover of "The McCrindle Gift: A Distinguished Collection of Drawings and Watercolors"

The McCrindle Gift: A Distinguished Collection of Drawings and Watercolors
Margaret Morgan Grasselli et al.

The late Joseph F. McCrindle’s recent gift to the National Gallery of Art comprises a rich selection of 71 drawings, encompassing a broad range of works by European and American artists from five centuries. This beautifully illustrated volume features works on paper by old master Italian, Netherlandish, French, and British artists, including Parmigianino, Marten van Heemskerck, Hubert Robert, and Thomas Rowlandson. Among the works by American artists are watercolors by William Stanley Haseltine and John Singer Sargent. New scholarship on individual works, a fully illustrated checklist of other works in the McCrindle Collection at the National Gallery of Art, and a biographical account of their enlightened collector complete this handsome edition.

208 pages | 355 color images | 8.6 x 11.6 inches

Awards: AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal (2013)