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