The Birth of The American Tradition in Art

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940. Hardcover. VG, light spot on front cover. Blue cloth. xvii, 159 pp. 119 two tone repros. Karpel H52. Some of the historical methods used by the author in writing this book are debated and attacked by contemporary scholarly review of this book. Nonetheless, it does contain significant reproductions and is footnoted. Large index at rear. Hard to find. Contents as follows: The archaic phase of colonial art. The colonial background ; British antecedents ; Limners in seventeenth-century New England ; Sunday painters defined ; Followers of the Stuart tradition in New England ; Professional painters from overseas ; The primitives of New York -- John Smibert. Smibert in England and Italy ; Smibert in New England -- Robert Feke. Feke in New York ; Feke, the mariner ; Feke's imprisonment in Spain ; Feke's art in New England -- John Singleton Copley in New England. Copley's fame ; Copley's early portraits ; Copley and Joseph Blackburn ; The consummation of the colonial tradition -- Benjamin West. West in Rome ; West in London -- Copley in Europe. Copley in Rome ; British painters in Copley's London ; Copley's British portraiture ; Copley's historical pictures.