"The remarkable Smith College Museum of Art in Northampton, Massachusetts, is one of America's outstanding college art museums. Begun 120 years ago as a collection of "contemporary" American art (an early acquisition was the first painting by Thomas Eakins to enter a public collection, purchased in 1879 for $100), it now holds a comprehensive survey of American painting and sculpture of three centuries. This volume presents 79 of its most important works in full color, accompanied by essays about each artist and work, supplemented by an illustrated checklist of 85 additional examples.". "Masterworks of American Painting and Sculpture provides a beautifully illustrated survey of American art from about 1733 to the 1990s. It is edited by Linda Muehlig, Associate Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Smith College Museum of Art, who has also provided a history of the collection. The essays about key works were written by Muehlig and a group of Smith College alumnae and former associates of the Museum with distinguished careers as art historians and curators, among them Betsy B. Jones, Patricia Junker, Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Deborah Chotner, Elizabeth C. Evans-Iliesiu, and Cynda L. Benson."--BOOK JACKET.