Born in Italy, trained in Paris and a resident of London, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) became Boston's favorite painter in the 1880s. His commissions from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, to decorate its new building's grand staircase and rotunda resulted in one of Sargent's last and most ambitious works. Sargent regarded the entire space as a giant canvas and brought together all the pictorial, decorative and architectural elements with a painter's skill and vision. This compact volume offers a guide to the murals and their surroundings, elucidating their allegorical subjects drawn from classical mythology to emphasize the museum's role as the guardian of fine arts.

American Moderns on Paper presents a selection of approximately 100 of the finest watercolors, pastels, and drawings by leading American modernists from the Wadsworth Atheneum's renowned collection of American art. Works by Sloan, O'Keeffe, Hopper, Marin, Dali, and Wyeth, among many others, serve as notable examples of the various styles and subjects pursued by artists in America from 1910 to 1960. The catalogue entries are accompanied by artist biographies. Organized chronologically, and generously illustrated throughout, the catalogue is introduced by two essays exploring the historical significance of the collection and the importance to American modernists of working on paper, rather than canvas. Providing a rich history of the collection, the volume illuminates not only its historic roots, but also the concurrent national evolution of interest in watercolor and drawings. Published in association with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art Exhibition Schedule: Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX (2/27/10-5/30/10) Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (6/22/10-9/12/10) Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT (10/2/10-1/2/11)