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.

Issued in conjunction with the exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art of over 450 works of art from the legendary Havemeyer collection, formed at the turn of the century by pioneering American patrons of art Henry O. and Louisine Havemeyer, this lavishly illustrated catalogue combines 800 illustration (176 in color) with the collaborative efforts of 27 authors who examine the various aspects of the collection in summarizing essays and in entries on individual works. In addition, one essay is devoted to the Manhattan residence designed for the Havemeyers by Tiffany and Colman. An exhaustive 90-page chronology offers a perspective on the formation of the collection, outlining the roles of friend and advisor Mary Cassatt and a succession of dealers, and focusing on the history of the family and its business interests. 9.25x12.25" Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR