Degas and America

"Degas and America: The Early Collectors is organized by Ann Dumas and David Brenneman. The catalogue includes several illustrated essays. Ann Dumas details the early awareness of Degas in America ... the first exhibitions and purchases, the movement of works around the country, the first collectors, the development of the American taste for the Frenchman's art. Rebecca Rabinow writes of Louisine Havemeyer, the first great American collector of Degas, who was led by her friend Mary Cassatt to begin amassing a collection that was bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. David Brenneman surveys the critical response to first appearances of art by Degas in the United States, noting the generally warm acceptance and admiring attention earned by Degas. Richard Kendall contributes an essay on the impact of Degas's art and sensibility upon American artists, especially painters of the Ashcan generation and members of The Eight. Valerie Fletcher writes a short overview of the problematic subject of Degas's sculpture; almost none of the sculpture was intended for public viewing, yet it was warmly embraced by American collectors and museums, whose holdings now form the best representation of Degas's work in this medium."--BOOK JACKET.