Overview
The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting is a new critical translation of René Brimo’s classic study of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century patronage and art collecting in the United States. Originally published in French in 1938, Brimo’s foundational text is a detailed examination of collecting in America from colonial times to the end of World War I, when American collectors came to dominate the European art market. This work helped shape the then-fledgling field of American art history by explaining larger cultural transformations as manifested in the collecting habits of American elites. It remains the most substantive account of the history of collecting in the United States. In his introduction, Kenneth Haltman provides a biographical study of the author and his social and intellectual milieu in France and the United States. He also explores how Brimo’s work formed a turning point and initiated a new area of academic study: the history of art collecting. Making accessible a text that has until now only been available in French, Haltman’s elegant translation of The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting sheds new critical light on the essential work of this extraordinary but overlooked scholar.
Full Product Details
Author: René Brimo ,
Kenneth Haltman (University of Oklahoma)
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Imprint: Pennsylvania State University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 17.80cm
, Height: 3.00cm
, Length: 25.40cm
Weight: 1.021kg
ISBN: 9780271073255
ISBN 10: 027107325
Pages: 424
Publication Date: 07 December 2017
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
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Reviews
The judicious reader will find much to admire and much of scholarly value in Kenneth Haltman's translation of Rene Brimo's The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting. Brimo's encyclopedic knowledge of his subject results in a host of penetrating observations about artists, critics, collectors, dealers, and institutions. Haltman's introduction is a research tour de force that brings to light an extraordinary if mainly forgotten scholar and his opus magnum, hitherto virtually unknown to students of American art and history. --Alan Wallach, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History and Professor of American Studies Emeritus, The College of William and Mary
Brimo's book is a remarkable, groundbreaking investigation of America's evolving artistic tastes, a compendium of collectors--individual and institutional--and the cultural backdrops for their interests, an early history of museums in America, and a comprehensive overview of the literature of American art up to his time. Haltman's translation makes this significant scholarly achievement more widely available and, thanks to his judicious editorial interventions, more reliable. His introduction brings to light--and to life--an intriguing personality. --Carol Troyen, caa.reviews Kenneth Haltman's edition makes the book available in English and also provides a rich biographical and intellectual context for Brimo's work, a most timely contribution to an emerging discipline of art market studies. --Julie Codell, Journal of the History of Collections Kenneth's Haltman's edition makes the book available in English and also provides a rich biographical and intellectual context for Brimo's work, a most timely contribution to an emerging discipline of art market studies. --Julie Codell, Journal of the History of Collections The judicious reader will find much to admire and much of scholarly value in Kenneth Haltman's translation of Rene Brimo's The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting. Brimo's encyclopedic knowledge of his subject results in a host of penetrating observations about artists, critics, collectors, dealers, and institutions. Haltman's introduction is a research tour de force that brings to light an extraordinary if mainly forgotten scholar and his opus magnum, hitherto virtually unknown to students of American art and history. --Alan Wallach, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History and Professor of American Studies Emeritus, The College of William and Mary
Kenneth Haltman's edition makes the book available in English and also provides a rich biographical and intellectual context for Brimo's work, a most timely contribution to an emerging discipline of art market studies. -Julie Codell, Journal of the History of Collections The judicious reader will find much to admire and much of scholarly value in Kenneth Haltman's translation of Rene Brimo's The Evolution of Taste in American Collecting. Brimo's encyclopedic knowledge of his subject results in a host of penetrating observations about artists, critics, collectors, dealers, and institutions. Haltman's introduction is a research tour de force that brings to light an extraordinary if mainly forgotten scholar and his opus magnum, hitherto virtually unknown to students of American art and history. -Alan Wallach, Ralph H. Wark Professor of Art and Art History and Professor of American Studies Emeritus, The College of William and Mary Brimo's book is a remarkable, groundbreaking investigation of America's evolving artistic tastes, a compendium of collectors-individual and institutional-and the cultural backdrops for their interests, an early history of museums in America, and a comprehensive overview of the literature of American art up to his time. Haltman's translation makes this significant scholarly achievement more widely available and, thanks to his judicious editorial interventions, more reliable. His introduction brings to light-and to life-an intriguing personality. -Carol Troyen, caa.reviews
Author Information
René Brimo (1911–1948) was an antiquarian dealer and a graduate of the École du Louvre, as well as a recipient of master’s degrees from Harvard and the Sorbonne and a docteur ès lettres from the University of Paris. Kenneth Haltman is H. Russell Pitman Professor of Art History at the University of Oklahoma and the author of many books, including Looking Close and Seeing Far: Samuel Seymour, Titian Ramsay Peale, and the Art of the Long Expedition, 1818–1823, also published by Penn State University Press, and critical translations from the French, notably of works by Gaston Bachelard.
