American Art at the Chrysler Museum

The collection of American paintings, sculpture, and drawings at the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, has long been admired by connoisseurs and casual visitors alike. With this handbook, its scope and detail are illuminated for the first time in print. Rich in works by major artists, the collection is also impressive for its depth and as such offers a highly instructive glimpse into the progression of American art through the centuries.

At the core of the Chrysler's holdings in American art are works acquired by Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. (1909-1988), whose collection came to what was then the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences in 1971. Supplementing this trove are important works of American naive paintings given by Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch and James H. Ricau's collection of neoclassical sculpture. Some of the Museum's most noteworthy objects have, however, come from local, Hampton Roads citizens committed to making the Museum an invaluable resource and continuing pleasure for the community.

The collection features works by major figures throughout the history of American art as well as important second-tier artists. Charles Willson Peale, for example, is included, along with the Boston still-life painter Thomas Badger. The nineteenth century is represented by the likes of Winslow Homer and the lesser known Francis Edmonds, the early twentieth by John Singer Sargent and Susan Watkins.