Publisher's Synopsis
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, America's oldest museum and school of fine arts, was founded in Philadelphia in 1805. Today the Academy boasts one of the nation's finest collections of American art and a roster of alumni embracing the greatest artists this country has produced. This volume celebrates two centuries of the Academy's achievement. Six scholarly essays document the history of the institution and its collections, curriculum, and buildings. In addition, 220 masterpieces of American art from the permanent collection are presented in full color with descriptions of each. The illustrations document the Academy's position as one of the premier art institutions in the United States. Artists represented in this volume include Charles Willson Peale, Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, Thomas Eakins, Cecilia Beaux, James McNeil Whistler, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Mary Cassatt, Robert Henri, John Sloan, Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Philip Pearlstein, Robert Motherwell, Richard Diebenkorn, and many other masters of American art. Contributors: Stephen May (freelance writer), Michael Lewis (Ph.D., architectural historian), Peter Saylor (FAIA, architect), Ron Onorato (Ph.D., professor of art history), Lynn Marsden-Atlass (senior curator of American art at the Academy), Mark Hain (former assistant curator at the Academy), and Cheryl Leibold (archivist, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts).
