An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection (Daniel J. Terra Collections)

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

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.