When museums put on large shows, they often commission a book describing the pieces in the exhibition and the history of each. “Americans in Paris” was put together by three museums and exhibited by each during 2006.  They consisted of the National Gallery in London, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The book was assembled by three main authors, Kathleen Adler, Erica E. Hirshler, and H. Barbara Weinberg representing each entity.  I have had the honor of visiting all but the National Gallery in London.

I ordered my copy from the Met as I have an interest in Impressionism and American artists.  Frank W Benson is my favorite, with some serious love for John Singer Sargent.  (I am also a fan of women artists like Berthe Morisot, but she is not an American.).

In the post civil-war era American Artists flocked to Paris as it was “the place” to study art.  There were several schools and the Americans mixed with French and other European artists.  This period also delineated the golden age of Impressionism.

The art community in Paris was tightly bound.  Everyone knew everyone else and bounced ideas off each other.  When I go to museums and like a painting, I’ll write down the artists name.  It was exciting to be reading about one painter and find out he was friends with someone I had once noted, such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot.

“Americans in Paris” is divided into different sections concentrating on different perspectives.  One on the interaction of artists, one on Americans who came and stayed, and so forth.

There is a bonus section at the end of the book, that shows each painting displayed earlier, indexed by artist.  Each piece has some more details on motivations, subjects, when and where painted, as well as ownership history.  This helped confirm my observation that the authors are big fans of Mary Cassatt, who has the largest number of paintings.

Americans in Paris is a coffee table art book with a lot of detail.  I think it does a good job of covering a wide variety of American artists from that period in an informed manner.