American Rococo 1750 1775 Seventeen Hundred And Fifty To Seventeen Hundred And Seventy Five Elegance In Ornament

Published in conjunction with an exhibition organized by, and held at, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this volume examines the American (i.e. British colonial) manifestations of the European rococo style. Following an introductory chapter, separate chapters are devoted to architecture, engravings, silver, and furniture, plus iron, glass, and porcelain grouped together as factory products. Illustrated are 173 objects (many in color) that are part of the exhibition, and some 50 related objects. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A lavish, illustrated volume published to accompany an exhibition of Copley's work that will be traveling to several cities during 1996. The focus is on the paintings, miniatures, and pastels that Copley, the supreme portraitist of the colonial era, produced before he moved to London in 1774. Four principal essays place the work in historical and social context and bring new critical methods to bear upon the study of portraits and portraiture; four shorter essays treat various aspects of Copley's art and techniques. Catalog entries detail the sitters' lives and the ways in which Copley enhanced his subjects' status and presence. 10x12.25" Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute of History and Art is one of the nation's oldest cultural institutions. Today, it boasts outstanding collections largely focused on New York State's Upper Hudson Valley. These include Hudson River School landscape paintings, portraits by Ezra Ames and Charles Loring Elliott, sculpture by Erastus Dow Palmer, landscape and interior paintings by Walter Launt Palmer, and Albany –made silver and other crafts. This comprehensive overview of the Albany Institute of History and Art's American art and decorative-arts collections, presents color plates and essays on about 130 objects (of a total exceeding 20,000). Dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century to the 1990s, each object in this volume was chosen for its national significance, artistic merit, and relevance to the Institute's mission: collecting and interpreting the art, history, and culture of New York State's Upper Hudson Valley through four centuries.

The first comprehensive catalogue of the Getty Museum’s significant collection of French Rococo ébénisterie furniture. This catalogue focuses on French ébénisterie furniture in the Rococo style dating from 1735 to 1760. These splendid objects directly reflect the tastes of the Museum’s founder, J. Paul Getty, who started collecting in this area in 1938 and continued until his death in 1976. The Museum’s collection is particularly rich in examples created by the most talented cabinet masters then active in Paris, including Bernard van Risenburgh II (after 1696–ca. 1766), Jacques Dubois (1694–1763), and Jean-François Oeben (1721–1763). Working for members of the French royal family and aristocracy, these craftsmen excelled at producing veneered and marquetried pieces of furniture (tables, cabinets, and chests of drawers) fashionable for their lavish surfaces, refined gilt-bronze mounts, and elaborate design. These objects were renowned throughout Europe at a time when Paris was considered the capital of good taste. The entry on each work comprises both a curatorial section, with description and commentary, and a conservation report, with construction diagrams. An introduction by Anne-Lise Desmas traces the collection’s acquisition history, and two technical essays by Arlen Heginbotham present methodologies and findings on the analysis of gilt-bronze mounts and lacquer. The free online edition of this open-access publication is available at www.getty.edu/publications/rococo/ and includes zoomable, high-resolution photography. Also available are free PDF, EPUB, and Kindle/MOBI downloads of the book, and JPG downloads of the main catalogue images.

J. Paul Getty began to collect French decorative arts in the 1930s and continued to do so until his death in 1976. The Museum’s collection has continued to grow since then at a rapid pace and contains over three hundred individual pieces at the time this book is published. This volume illustrates fifty of them. The selection represents a cross section of the collection, which covers the period from approximately 1660 to 1800. In the eighteenth century it became fashionable in Parisian society to decorate the interiors of houses with Far Eastern materials such as lacquer and porcelain. This taste was catered to by the marchands-merciers, members of a guild who combined the functions of the modern interior decorator, the antique dealer, and the picture dealer. These men devised highly ingenious settings for Far Eastern porcelains to adapt their exotic character to the French interiors of the period. Information about them and their clientele has been used in cataloguing the Getty Museum’s collection of mounted oriental porcelain, which is large and of high quality. This book is not a catalogue, nor is it a mere picture book or checklist. Each piece has been chosen because it represents a particular aspect of the crafts involved in the production of objects that were made by Parisian craftsmen for the crown, the nobility, and the rich bourgeoisie. The pieces are arranged in chronological order. Translations of the French archival extracts, an index, and a concise bibliography have been provided.