American Masterpieces

John Wilmerding has been an original and sustained scholarly voice in American art history for six decades and is the author of many books and catalogues on American art.

“Boston publisher Godine has long championed fine bookmaking. Witness John Wilmerding’s American Masterpieces: Singular Expressions of National Genius, a gathering of essays contributed to the Wall Street Journal by this distinguished former curator of American art at the National Gallery.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post“The pieces here assembled cover the full spectrum of American art, both in terms of genre – painting, sculpture, architecture, public monuments – and time period, ranging from the Colonial era through America’s Gilded Age to modernism and the current moment. To be sure, boldface names like Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth are here, but there are also less well-known figures such as Robert S. Duncanson and Richard Caton Woodville… Besides John’s encyclopedic knowledge of American art and culture what unites these essays is his ability to take readers to the heart of a work of art or an artist’s intention in the most succinct yet penetrating prose.”—Eric Gibson, Arts in Review Editor, The Wall Street Journal