Jasper Cropsey’s painting, The Backwoods of America (1858), is on display in the Rotunda of the Nelson-Atkins Building thanks to the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art. Crystal Bridges is a museum under construction in Bentonville, Ark., which will be dedicated to American art and artists.
In addition to this generous loan, the Nelson-Atkins dedication to American art continued with the publishing of the Museum’s first major catalogue of its American Paintings Collection on June 1st. This catalogue is the fourth and most extensive in a series of Nelson-Atkins catalogues. Totaling over 800 pages between two volumes, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: American Paintings to 1945 profiles over one hundred works while incorporating biographical information on the artist, and providing insights into the mysteries of the painter’s processes. The catalogue is available in the Museum Store.
Another opportunity to learn about our American paintings collection is the American Painting Symposium on Oct. 20.