Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the art of invention

Abstract

"Samuel F. B. Morse's (1791-1872) large-scale painting Gallery of the Louvre (1831-33) is one of the most significant, and enigmatic, works of early-19th-century American art. It is also one of the last works Morse painted before turning his attention to the invention of the telegraph and Morse code. Gallery of the Louvre, owned by the Terra Foundation for American Art, was the focus of three separate international symposia held in 2011-13 at the Yale University Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Art, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This collection of essays, carefully drawn from the proceedings of these scholarly sessions, brings together fresh insights by academics, curators, and conservators, who focus on the painting's visual components and the social and historical contexts that make it such a rich, complex work. The book accompanies a multi-year tour of the painting to prominent museums around the country"--