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that given to living men of equal or
greater abilities; but even if the
earlier men who are comparatively few in number were
completely
omitted, the space gained would suffice no better for
individual
criticism of the men of to-day. Moreover, a history of
American
painting should have its importance not through its
description
of isolated men or their works, but as a record of the
growth of the
country in intelligence and culture; as a part, in fact,
of that
History of Taste which still awaits its author. The lives of the
early painters have consequently been given in some
detail so that
it may be seen not only what manner of men they were but
also
how they were formed by their surroundings and the sort
of public
to which they catered.
For the same reason an attempt has been
made to note the rise
and growth of the different art organizations and their
social and
intellectual character, and also to give some record of
the foreign
influences that have been brought to bear upon them. The
artists
have changed their ideals but not accidentally or
arbitrarily. Even
when some of them seemed to be opposing the taste of
their coun-
trymen, they were in fact but aiding it in a necessary
and inevitable
advance. It is this development of painting and of the
appreciation
of painting which it has been the aim of this book to
trace, and
mention of the lives and works of individual painters has
been made
as they seemed to illustrate such development. The
ungrateful and
impossible task of recording the names and works of every
meritorious
painter has not been attempted.
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