The Metropolitan Museum began acquiring American drawings and watercolors in 1880, just ten years after its founding. Since then it has amassed more than 1,500 works executed by American artists during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in watercolor, pastel, chalk, ink, graphite, gouache, and charcoal. Roughly a third of the collection is by John Singer Sargent and was published as a single volume in 2000. …

The celebrated expatriate painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and his heirs enjoyed a cordial relationship with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. In consequence, the museum has an unparalleled collection of Sargent's works, in particular his drawings and watercolors, which are all presented in this comprehensive volume. …

This catalogue commemorates the first large loan exhibition of American decorative arts and pictures to be organized by the American Wing in many years. Among the well-remembered exhibitions of the past are the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition of 1909, the Girl Scout Loan Exhibition of 1929, the Loan Exhibition of New York State Furniture of 1984, and The Greek Revival in the United States of 1943. It is our hope that this current offering will be followed by many other shows, a hope supported by the generosity of The Friends of the American Wing. …