American Realism (2nd edition)

Edward Lucie‐Smith’s ground‐breaking study of American realism, first published in 1994, has now been re‐issued in paperback. Lucie‐Smith’s survey looks at the American realist tradition from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries. The author argues for a distinctly US brand of realism, based partly on the strongly pragmatic values of a nation of immigrants and the influence of photography. Photographs were used by artists for preparatory drawings and artists tried to capture the effects of photographs in paint. Photographic prints of the West encouraged artists such as Bierdstadt to make the wilderness their subject‐matter.

The book is divided...