Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting (Used book)

Since the Fogg Art Museum opened one hundred years ago, the art museums of Harvard University have grown from a study collection of mostly plaster casts and pho- tographs of works of art to a large and diverse collection of art of the highest quality. Today, the Fogg is joined by the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, and collectively they are regarded as the world's premier teaching museums.

Published to celebrate the centenary of the Fogg, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting tells the story of how these remarkable institutions grew, thanks to the guidance of two visionary men, Edward W. Forbes and Paul J. Sachs. Although their time as the Fogg's director and associate director ended in 1944, the influence of Forbes and Sachs can be seen and felt today in the great works of art that entered the collections during their tenure, and in those that have since been acquired by purchase or gift in re- sponse to the standards they set.

As this superbly illustrated book demonstrates, each of the three museums is distinct: the Fogg specializes in the art of Europe and North America from the Middle Ages to the present; the Busch-Reisinger focuses on the art of German- speaking countries and related cultures of Central and Northern Europe; and the Sackler offers unparalleled col- lections of ancient, Asian, and Islamic and later Indian art.

James Cuno, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director of the Harvard University Art Museums, provides an overview of the formation of the collections, which is followed by a rich selection of the most important works from all three museums reproduced in large, full-color plates. These include paintings and sculpture by Constantin Brancusi, J.-A.-D. Ingres, Peter Paul Rubens, David Smith, Max Beckmann, and Edouard Manet; drawings and prints by Rembrandt, Edgar Degas, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Winslow Homer, Paul Klee, and Pablo Picasso; photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron, Man Ray, and Diane Arbus; Persian and Indian miniatures; Chinese bronzes and jades; Korean ceramics; Japanese paintings and prints; ancient Roman and Greek coins, sculpture, and vases. An essay by each department's curator precedes the selected works, and individual commentaries provide full technical information and historical interpretation. In addition, a chronology outlines significant events in the history of all three museums, including their role in the development of art museums and the study of art history in the United States.