American Made: Paintings & Sculpture from the Demell Jacobsen Collection

The DeMell Jacobsen Collection of paintings and sculpture--an assemblage rich in American cultural heritage--parallels the development of art in the United States. American Made features some of the country's most recognized artists: Thomas Cole, John Kensett, Asher B. Durand, and William Trost Richards, while works by Theodore Robinson, Childe Hassam, Willard Leroy Metcalf, and William Merritt Chase represent the Grand Tour and concepts gained abroad. Wonderful still lifes appear throughout the collection, including paintings by Severin Roesen, William Harnett, and a late work by William Bailey. Portraiture is represented in stellar examples by members of the Peale family, Thomas Sully, Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and Edmund Charles Tarbell. Classically-inspired marble works from Hiram Powers and Randolph Rogers, bronze pieces from Paul Manship and Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and a modern copper and bronze example from Harry Bertoia are highlights of the sculpture collection. Early modernist and interwar works by Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Emil Bisttram, Paul Cadmus, and Joseph Stella explore colour, form, and abstraction. Highlights of contemporary art include Frank Stella's 1988 The Try-Works (Moby Dick Series), Louise Nevelson's 1977-79 Maquette for Sky Landscape, and a recently acquired painting by Alexis Rockman that delves into the theme of climate change.

Fully illustrated--with several paintings including profiles of their appropriate period frames--each work of art features an extended entry with full specifications, information on style and stylistic influences, significance and social context, as well as notes.

Jonathan Stuhlman is senior curator of American Art, The Mint Museum.