A wonderful glimpse into the fascinating Gilded Age era; a time of railroads, the gold rush, and the adventurous push ever westward.
The Art of Wealth: The Huntingtons in the Gilded Age provides a fresh perspective on the complicated mix of public and private motives and models that characterized art collecting and philanthropy in America in the early 20th century. The author focuses on four remarkable individuals: Collis Huntington, who started out as a peddler and went on to found a railroad empire; his second wife, Arabella, a woman of great intelligence and taste; her son, Archer, who devoted his life to creating and supporting museums; and Collis's nephew, Henry E. Huntington, who built up an extraordinary foundation and then gave it to the public as an enduring legacy.
Author Shelley M. Bennett received a doctorate in art history from UCLA and, after a brief career in academia, joined the staff of the Huntington for a thirty-two-year tenure, serving as curator of European art and then as senior research associate. She curated and supervised thirty-five exhibitions as well as contributing to and overseeing the publication of two landmark catalogues of the collections, British Painting at the Huntington and French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington. She has also taught at the California Institute of Technology for more than two decades and has published widely on British art and collecting in America.
- Hardcover
- 368 pages, 226 illustrations
- 11 1/2 x 8 6/7 x 1 1/3"
- Author: Shelley M. Bennett
- Published by Huntington Library Press
