Book Description
The National Gallery's collection of eighteenth-century American paintings includes some of its greatest treasures and most beloved national icons. John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark, Gilbert Stuart's The Skater (Portrait of William Granti) and George Washington (Vaughan portrait)--as well as his portraits of the first five presidents of the United States, the so-called Gibbs-Coolidge portraits--and Edward Savage's Washington Family. Ellen G. Miles, curator of painting and sculpture at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, presents new research culled from letters, wills, and other previously unpublished documents that offer a fresh perspective on the artists and sitters, as well as new insight into the paintings. (This publication is made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation).
American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century FROM THE PUBLISHER
The energy and optimism of the new nation are abundantly apparent in this catalogue. It features some of the icons of American art, such as John Singleton Copley's The Copley Family and Gilbert Stuart's portraits of the first five presidents. Numerous paintings, including Benjamin West's Colonel Guy Johnson and Karonghyontye (Captain David Hill), are discussed from a new perspective, the result of information culled from letters, wills, and other previously unpublished documents. The author offers new interpretations of some works, among them Charles Willson Peale's portrait of the Baltimore couple Benjamin and Eleanor Ridgely Laming. The volume is richly illustrated, with carefully selected comparative illustrations.
Art & Photography
Book Info
