Scenes of New York City celebrates the promised gift of 130 works from the Elie and Sarah Hirschfeld Collection to the New-York Historical Society. The Hirschfeld promised gift is at once a collection of individual works by talented artists from the 19th and 20th centuries, a series of vivid "snapshots" of the iconic city, and a tapestry weaving a narrative of Gotham's vibrant history. These fascinating celebrations of New York City-paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, and sculpture whose strength lies in the 20th century-include 113 works by 82 American and European artists not currently represented in the collection. They expand the Museum's holdings in the modern era and help to diversify them, adding numerous works by pivotal artists including Isabel Bishop, Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger, George Grosz, Keith Haring, Franz Kline, WIllem de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol among many others. The catalogue features an introductory essay covering the sweeping history of New York City, an interview with the collector Elie Hirschfeld, 110 scholarly entries about the 130 works, and comparative material that illuminates the history of the City and the artistic contributions in the works of art

This lavishly illustrated volume is the first comprehensive study of the folk art collection purchased by the New-York Historical Society from Elie and Viola Nadelman in 1937. Exhibited by the couple from 1926 to 1937 in their pioneering Museum of Folk and Peasant Arts in Riverdale, New York, the nearly fifteen thousand works come from a collection spanning six centuries, thirteen countries, and a broad range of media. Authors Margaret K. Hofer and Roberta J.M. Olson explore a nucleus of some two hundred and sixteen highlights in eighty-seven catalog entries, as well as nine of Nadelman's own sculptures, and consider the possible interchanges between the Nadelman's collecting and his avant-garde art. Their research, employing new archival evidence from the Historical Society and the rich cache of Nadelman Papers, has resulted in exciting discoveries, among them Nadelman's active role in restoring some of his folk art objects. Featuring seven provocative essays, Making It Modern breaks new ground not only on the Nadelmans and folk art, but also in the history of American art and taste during the fast-paced cultural revolutions of the early twentieth century. Margaret K. Hofer is curator of decorative arts, New York Historical Society Roberta J.M. Olson is curator of drawings, New York Historical Society Elizabeth Stillinger is an independent scholar. Kenneth L. Ames is professor at the Bard Graduate Center, New York City. Cynthia Nadelman is an independent scholar and writer. Barbara Haskell is the curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Since time immemorial, the nocturnal skies have mesmerized people, and heavenly bodies have inspired the imaginations of artists, poets, and scientists. This book showcases the superstars of the firmament and universe in sumptuous illustrations featuring paintings, sculpture, drawings, watercolours, prints, as well as plates from books, celestial diagrams, and astronomical photography. Cosmos: The Art and Science of the Universe charts the human love affair with the heavens in art and astronomy, based on sound science and insightful art and cultural history. While its illustrations are thrilling and seductive, the book also recounts the fascinating story about the quest to discover the mysteries of the universe in ten lively chapters. Embellished with new information, interpretations, and amusing anecdotes, the authors weave a rich tapestry about the interconnections in the cosmos and the efforts to understand them. A stunning book that unveils the beauty of the cosmos and its compelling story.

Artist in Exile is the first in-depth, illustrated exploration of the life and work of Anne Marguerite Josephine Henriette Rouille de Marigny, Baroness Hyde de Neuville (1771-1849), who arrived in America in 1807 as a refugee from Napoleonic France and embarked on an extraordinary journey of discovery. Her unparalleled, beguiling, watercolors and drawings--over 200, made while traveling through seven countries and on the high seas, published here together with previously unpublished documents and letters--provide an invaluable historical visual record of the early years of the American Republic and its racially diverse population. From this exciting material Henriette emerges as a cosmopolitan artist who exerted her influence in political and social circles on both sides of the Atlantic, courageously traversing the European continent, unescorted, to beg Napoleon to spare her husband's life.Neuville's status as a woman, and an outsider, made her a particularly keen and sympathetic observer of individuals from a range of socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. She drew the earliest ethnographically correct images of indigenous Americans, together with vistas predating the works of other traveler-artists, and long-vanished buildings. Although she arrived in America as an outcast, by the end of her second residency, as the celebrated wife of the French Minister Plenipotentiary, she was interacting with political leaders and making her mark on society in Washington, DC and New York City. Artist in Exile tells her compelling story.

The New-York Historical Society's drawing collection is one of the earliest assembled in the United States, yet its trove of over 8,000 sheets and 75 rare sketchbooks is surprisingly unknown. "Drawn by New York" presents over 200 highlights of the Society's vast holdings; a collection which spans six centuries, from 16th century avian watercolours and a Dutch view of New Amsterdam (1650), to the facade of St. Patrick's Cathedral captured from inside Rockefeller Center by Richard Haas (2002) and representations of the World Trade Center, both before and after September 2001.There are works by Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, sheets by members of the Hudson River School, including 29 sketchbooks and 310 individual drawings by Asher B. Durand, and a cache of 500 watercolours by John James Audubon. The main catalogue of featured works includes a biography, selected bibliography and full technical entries on each work, and is followed by an essay on the historical and cultural significance of the collection.