A Study Of Impressionist Art Collecting In The United States Of America

Today,the United States is one of the greatest depositories of work of impressionism art in the world,and its collections,both private and public,rival or excel in extent and variety those of most European countries.This has come from scratch in less than 150 years.There was no heritage of native art nor royalty hand down to provide a storehouse on which collectors could draw on.The vast wealthy of the United States which developed after the Civil War made collecting on a large scale possible;but even so,to have achieved so much in so short time is witness to remarkable energy,courage and imagination.This dissertation,“A study of impressionist art collecting in the United States of America”,is intended to exam the trajectory of French impressionist art collecting in the U.S.;to study the formation of early art markets in relation to impressionist art;to analyze how the U.S.tax legislation influenced art collection,donation and culture development.It is often said that collecting art is mostly inspired by the these motives: pure greed,pride in possession,desire for social prestige,and rivalry with other collectors.However,after combing through the collection of impressionist art in the United States,what manifested is a love for the art;patronage and encouragement of the art;and wish to instruct and benefit the public.These elements became core principles and motivations of art collecting in the late 19 th century.As commonly celebrated as they are,room still exists for wide differences,and these differences are sufficient enough to give all collectors distinctive characteristics.As the century turned,commercialism started to merge,art collecting deviated from its original purpose.Especially after 1990,Impressionism art was widely used as investment vehicle.The market can be viewed as the most spectacular of the many collisions between art and commerce that modern society has generated.Impressionist painting,the driving force in the art market during this time,has frequently been the catalyst to those collisions.Art dealer,art advisor and auction house played significant roles for impressionism art collecting in the United States.They have displayed a tremendous amount of strength in pursuing the establishment of the modern art market,such as Paul Durant-Ruel,Ambroise Vollard and Mary Cassatt.In the early 20 th century,commercialism started to emerge.Economic forces have acted in other ways to reshape American art collecting in ways distinct from collecting motives,tactics,conformations and values.This paper emphasizes on these transformations and addresses the fate of impressionism in America,and argues that the use of marketing techniques may have been critical in ensuring the success of impressionism in the early days.It is true that today the Federal Government encourages gifts and bequests to galleries and museums,by including these among charities and allowing substantial tax exemptions from tax to benefactors.Additionally,total custom duty exemption on work of art allowed a considerable amount of European liberal art to be admitted free of duty.This was largely due to strenuous efforts of American collectors,artists,dealers,advisors and the government itself.This,however,is a comparatively new innovation.The research of this dissertation consists of four main topics.1.Through the understanding of the American response to impressionist painting,this paper strives to comprehend the prevailing American attitude to France in 19 th century;to establish the influence of French political theory on American founding mechanism,cultural ideology and art movements.2.By examining the course of impressionism art collecting in major U.S.cities,to classify the collecting forms and configurations with regard to each city's cultural milieu,attempt to establish art collecting as cultural resources and social value for major U.S.cities development.3.Analyzing the evolution of the U.S.impressionism market before and after WWII and evaluating the perceptions of early collectors through market trading volumes and purchase values.In comparison with European nations and collecting status during the 19 th century,in order to identify the differences in the way other nations reacted to French impressionism actually provided America with abundance of impressionist art resources.Market globalization accelerated after WWII.This research turns the focus to international market adaption,auction houses,supply chain and commercialization,which leads to how impressionism advanced itself to become the “blue chip” art merchandise globally.4.This research tends to collaborate U.S.Custom duty regulations,tax legislation,charitable gifts,planned gifts and bequests with the collecting of impressionist art,with the purpose of analyzing the development of a public service culture and a charitable community in the U.S..As a major part of non-profit organizations,art foundations became the leading partners in supporting public museums and community education.By studying its categories,funding and operational data analysis,it exploits the inter-relation among art foundations,federal tax legislations and other non-profit organizations,which ultimately benefit the general public.This study is intended to be more than an outline of a history.The focus is beyond private collections,galleries or museums.It is not a description of collections in the United States today,nor does it aim at giving detailed accounts of impressionism collections formed in the past.Its purpose is to trace the various forms that collecting impressionist art has taken place in the United States at different periods,and to suggest how political,market,tax legislation,social and cultural influences and personal predilections have influenced this great movement.