America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Their Circles

The United States has a significant collection of seventeenth-century Flemish paintings, and this book explores how and why collectors and museums in the US embraced them over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the taste for specific genres and artists, the historical and cultural motivations behind these trends, and the effect of great bequests to American museums. The book is richly illustrated with almost one hundred representative pieces and is a valuable contribution to the scholarship on American collecting of Flemish art.

Format: Hardback
Length: 248 pages
Publication date: 09 October 2020
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

The United States boasts an extraordinary collection of seventeenth-century Flemish paintings, a testament to its longstanding fascination with this artistic genre. This groundbreaking and extensively illustrated volume brings together twelve esteemed scholars and museum curators, who delve into the origins of these collections by examining the American approach to and interest in collecting Flemish art throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The essays in this volume vividly chronicle the pivotal roles played by individuals in shaping private and public collections, shedding light on the factors that fueled the enthusiastic embrace of Flemish masters by collectors and museums in the United States. They trace the evolution of taste, from specific genres to the admiration for particular artists, such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. These scholars also explore the historical and cultural motivations behind these shifts, examining how they shaped the acquisition and appreciation of Flemish paintings in America.

Furthermore, they examine the profound impact of significant bequests of Flemish paintings to American museums and explore the private collections of prominent tastemakers, including the Baltimore merchant Robert Gilmor, the Gilded Age corporate lawyer John Graver Johnson, and the California oil magnate J. Paul Getty. The book is adorned with nearly one hundred representative pieces, providing a visual feast for art enthusiasts and fueling further research in the fields of art history and museum history.

The contributors to this volume are a diverse group of experts, including the editor, Ronni Baer, as well as Adam Eaker, Lance Humphries, George S. Keyes, Margaret R. Laster, Alexandra Libby, Louisa Wood Ruby, Dennis P. Weller, Arthur K. Wheelock, Marjorie Wieseman, and Anne T. Woollett. Their collective expertise and insights enrich the narrative, making this an essential contribution to the scholarship on American collecting of Flemish art.

Weight: 1250g
Dimension: 214 x 262 x 30 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780271086088