Arts & humanities

摘要

The catalog of a major exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (through January 2010) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (through May), this elegant volume captures the very human elements of daily life through many generations. The changes in style and content vary as the years progress from pre-Revolutionary War America to the eve of World War I. The works covered range from early group portraits and family scenes to narrative painting, all telling a story for the public to see and understand, from the glorified images of the far West to the ravages of the Civil War, to the effort to rebuild a nation rnand go forward with pride, and finally to the cosmopolitan culture of a people about to face the upheaval of the coming war.