Andrew McClellan

A narrative history of the founding of the Louvre that also explores the ideological underpinnings, pedagogical aims, and aesthetic criteria of this, the first great national art museum.

Art, Politics, and the Origins of the Modern Museum in Eighteenth-Century Paris

Inventing the Louvre

Alexander Nemerov

Wendy Bellion

Lance Mayer

Gay Myers

Richard Read

Jean-Philippe Antoine

David Bjelajac

Peter John Brownlee

Rachael Z. DeLue

Sarah Kate Gillespie

Tanya Pohrt

Catherine Roach

"Samuel F. B. Morse's (1791-1872) large-scale painting Gallery of the Louvre (1831-33) is one of the most significant, and enigmatic, works of early-19th-century American art. It is also one of the last works Morse painted before turning his attention tothe invention of the telegraph and Morse code. Gallery of the Louvre, owned by the Terra Foundation for American Art, was the focus of three separate international symposia held in 2011-13 at the Yale University Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This collection of essays, carefully drawn from the proceedings of these scholarly sessions, brings together fresh insights by academics, curators, and conservators, who focus on the painting's visual components and the social and historical contexts that make it such a rich, complex work. The book accompanies a multi-year tour of the painting to prominent museums around the country"--

Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre" and the Art of Invention

Sally Anne Duncan

From 1921 until 1948, Paul J. Sachs (1878–1965) offered a yearlong program in art museum training, “Museum Work and Museum Problems,” through Harvard University’s Fine Arts Department. Known simply as the Museum Course, the program was responsible for shaping a professional field—museum curatorship and management—that, in turn, defined the organizational structure and values of an institution through which the American public came to know art. Conceived at a time of great museum expansion and public interest in the United States, the Museum Course debated curatorial priorities and put theory into practice through the placement of graduates in museums big and small across the land. In this book, authors Sally Anne Duncan and Andrew McClellan examine the role that Sachs and his program played in shaping the character of art museums in the United States in the formative decades of the twentieth century. The Art of Curating is essential reading for museum studies scholars, curators, and historians.

Paul J. Sachs and the Museum Course at Harvard

The Art of Curating

Art museums, cases of beauty and calm in a fast-paced world, have emerged in recent decades as the most vibrant and popular of all cultural institutions. But as they have become more popular, their direction and values have been contested as never before. This engaging thematic history of the art museum from its inception in the eighteenth century to the present offers an essential framework for understanding contemporary debates as they have evolved in Europe and the United States.

The Art Museum from Boullée to Bilbao

Bringing together essays by museum professionals and academics from both sides of the Atlantic, Art and its Publics tackles current issues confronting the museum community and seeks to further the debate between theory and practice around the most pressing of contemporary concerns. Brings together essays that focus on the interface between the art object, its site of display, and the viewing public. Tackles issues confronting the museum community and seeks to further the debate between theory and practice. Presents a cross-section of contemporary concerns with contributions from museum professionals as well as academics. Part of the New Interventions in Art History series, published in conjunction with the Association of Art Historians.

Museum Studies at the Millennium

Art and Its Publics

Andrew McClellan

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