Samuel F. B. Morse’s ＂Gallery of the Louvre＂ and the Art of Invention

Insightful essays that offer a wide-ranging examination of a 19th-century American masterpiece

Samuel F. B. Morse’s (1791-1872) Gallery of the Louvre (1831-33) is one of the most significant, and enigmatic, works of early 19th-century American art. It isalso one of the last works Morse painted before turninghis attention to the invention of the telegraph andMorse code.

A signature painting in the collection of the Terra Foundation for American Art, Gallery of the Louvre underwent an extensive conservation treatment in 2010-11 and was the focus of three symposia held at the Yale University Art Gallery (April 2011), the National Gallery of Art (April 2012), and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (April 2013). This collection of essays, carefully drawn from the proceedings of these scholarly sessions, brings together the fresh insights of academics, curators, and conservators, who focus on the painting’s visual components and its cultural contexts. The book accompanies a multi-year tour of the painting to prominent museums across the country.

Distributed for the Terra Foundation for American Art

Exhibition Schedule:

Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens
(01/24/15-04/04/15)

Amon Carter Museum of American Art
(05/23/15-08/23/15)

Seattle Art Museum
(10/01/15-01/10/16)

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
(January-April 2016)

Detroit Institute of Arts
(June-September 2016)

Peabody Essex Museum
(October 2016-January 2017)

Reynolda House Museum of American Art
(February-June 2017)

New Britain Museum of American Art
(June-October 2017)

Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University
(November 2017-March 2018)

Peter John Brownlee is associate curator at the Terra Foundation for American Art.