Excerpt from The Artists of America: A Series of Biographical Sketches of American Artists; With Portraits and Designs on Steel The immediate object of this Series of Biographical Sketches, is to make Our Artists and their Works better known at home. Abroad, this is not necessary, for there they have always been better known, and better appreciated than in their own country. The names of such men as West, Allston, Durand, and Powers, are a sufficient pledge of the truth of this statement. While every American of taste, and of national feeling, is proud of Our Artists, he blushes when this fact is told. It does not re ect much credit upon us, it seems to me, to have it said, and with too much truth too, that no American Artist can get bread at home till he has won fame abroad. I have long believed that the insensibility of the nation to the claims of Art and Artists was more owing to a lack of information on these subjects, than to any, perhaps all other causes; and I have long desired to see this want supplied with some work, uniting beauty of execution and cheapness of price, with authenticity of facts, to secure for it general circulation. Artists themselves will not do it, although well qualified for the task; perhaps they could not do it without suffering, however unjustly, unkind imputations. No one else seems inclined to make an attempt, and I have resolved to try it myself. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."