American Paintings: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Showcasing one of the nation’s finest collections of American art, this remarkable two-volume set features 267 exceptional paintings reproduced in full color and illuminated with never-before-published research findings. Works span American history from the colonial period through the close of World War II and are by many of the nation’s best-known artists, including Mary Cassatt, Thomas Cole, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Pre-1900 subject strengths reside in portraiture with canvases by John Singleton Copley, John Singer Sargent, and Henry Ossawa Tanner; still lifes by John Peto and Severin Roesin; and landscapes from the brushes of Frederic Edwin Church, Martin Johnson Heade, Fitz Henry Lane, Thomas Moran, and others. Scenes and portraits by artists including John Steuart Curry, Robert Henri, Peter Hurd, Maurice Prendergast, and John Sloan provide honest, enduring assessments of early 20th-century American life. A stunning sample of early Modernism is seen in important canvasses by Albert Bloch, Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, and Marsen Hartley, to name a few.

Volume 1 includes 140 extended essays on the most important canvases in the collection, which are represented in full-page color reproductions. Volume 2 reproduces in color all the works in the collection and is accompanied by thorough technical notes based on recent object examination, complete provenance, listings of directly related works, and exhaustive exhibition and publication histories.

American Paintings is an outstanding resource and a beautifully illustrated record of our country’s history and culture.