@article{455678,
      recid = {455678},
      author = {Mayer, Lance. and Myers, Gay.},
      title = {American painters on technique : the colonial period to  1860 /},
      publisher = {J. Paul Getty Museum,},
      address = {Los Angeles :},
      pages = {xiii, 249 p. :},
      year = {2011},
      abstract = {This is the first comprehensive study of an important but  largely unknown part of the history of American art: the  materials and techniques used by American painters. It is  based on extensive research into primary and secondary  sources, including artist' recipe books, letters, journals,  and painting manuals, many of which are unpublished and/or  little known to scholars. In interpreting this mass of  evidence, the authors have used the experience gained from  having museums and private collectors. Detailed information  is provided on the methods of many painters, including  Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, Washington Allston, Thomas  Sully, Thomas Cole, and William Sidney Mount. Among the  important topics discussed are the quest for the "secrets"  of the old masters, which inspired experimentation with a  surprising variety of materials; how artists believed their  paintings might change over time; the application of  brownish "toning ' layers; and the evolving self-confidence  of American experimenters and innovators during the second  quarter of the nineteenth century. Because many Americans  wrote down what they learned in Europe, the book provides  new information for those studying European painting  techniques as well.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/455678},
}