From Publishers Weekly
A Pennsylvania native who made his fortune in fast-drying printer's ink, Terra (1911-1996) was praised by Ronald Reagan as a man who was "doing more for American art than any other man in the history of the country." While that may be a stretch, Terra did amass a very respectable collection of American paintings during his lifetime, and he worked hard to share his enthusiasm with others; cultural conservatives considered his private philanthropy to be a model of post-public support for the arts. His Terra Museum of Art in downtown Chicago was inaugurated in 1987, and five years later he founded the Musée d'Art Américain in Giverny, France; this fine catalogue collects the highlights of his collection from both museums. Revealing a traditional but intelligent aesthetic, the Terra paintings present a vision of American life at its most bucolic and gentile, as well as its most Europhilic. The paintings, which are accompanied by mini-essays about the artists and their oeuvre, tend to hew closely to European developments in Impressionism, Japonisme and Cubism. The vibrant reproductions include the work of numerous American greats-John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt and Winslow Homer, just to name a few. Though the collection becomes more uneven as it enters the 20th century, overall it is a smart, tasteful slice of American visual history. 99 color plates and 97 b&w illustrations. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
This comprehensive, richly illustrated book spans the years from the Revolutionary War to World War II, presenting the 97 key works in the collection.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"For the first time, the remarkable collection of American art created by Daniel J. Terra (1911-1996) is featured in a single catalogue. This landmark publication presents 97 of the collection's finest works from the colonial era to the twentieth century. Among the highlights are paintings by John Singleton Copley, Samuel F.B. Morse, Martin Johnson Heade, John Frederick Kensett, George Inness, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, James MacNeill Whistler, William Merritt Chase, Mary Cassatt, Maurice Brazil Prendergast, Thomas Eakins, George Bellows, Robert Henri, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, John Marin, and Edward Hopper." "This beautifully illustrated book, which presents 99 color plates and 97 black-and-white illustrations, opens with introductory texts by Elizabeth Glassman and Wanda M. Corn on the history of Daniel J. Terra's collection and his two museums: the Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago and the Musee d'Art American Giverny in France. Two essays written by Elizabeth Kennedy and Katherine M. Bourguignon, curators at these museums, provide a detailed account of the founding of two institutions devoted to American art on both sides of the Atlantic." The featured works are discussed in 73 short essays supplemented by an illustrated appendix with selected bibliography, provenance and exhibition history. These authoritative studies include new research on these important works. For anyone interested in American art, this publication is an indispendable guide to a major collection that remains little-known and provides a richly illustrated survey of American art from the 1770s to the 1940s.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly