The United States Section consists chiefly of contemporary work, but includes a small historical section, which is to be found to the left as one enters at the main doorway. It is in this part of the exhibit that one should start

The Historical Section consists of two well-defined parts. The first contains examples of foreign schools of painting that have influenced American art. The second contains the works of American painters from the beginnings to the early Twentieth Century. The Foreign Historical Section occupies rooms 91-92 and 61-63.

Gallery 91-Early Schools. A gallery of old paintings, chiefly of the Italian, Flemish and Dutch Schools, designed to suggest the earliest roots of American art. Practically all the canvases are mere echoes of the "old masters," and they may well be passed over hastily by all but the most thorough historical student.

Gallery 92-French Influence. This gallery and the next two are designed to show works of those schools, chiefly French, that have had direct influence upon American art. On wall A is a painting by Courbet, interesting in the light of that artist's influence on Whistler's early work. But most important here are the examples of the Barbizon School, romantic landscape painters of the mid-Nineteenth Century, who had much to do with the development of the Inness-Wyant group in America. On wall B are two canvases by Corot, both badly placed, one of which (1486) is typically poetic and beautiful. The examples by Daubigny and Rousseau on wall C are not satisfying. On wall D the two Monticellis suggest the source of some of the rich qualities of the work of Keith and similar American painters.

Gallery 62, adjoining 92, shows the best example of Barbizon work, in Troyon's beautiful "Landscape and Cattle" on wall C. On wall A is a small painting, interesting but not characteristic, by Millet, who influenced the whole world of art toward sincerity. On wall B is Sir Laurens Alma-Tadema's "Among the Ruins," sole representative here of the English School of "polished" painters that strongly influenced a number of American artists. On wall D are two very interesting portrait studies by Franz von Lenbach, intended to suggest the influence of the Munich School on American art, before Americans began to flock to Paris to study.

Gallery 61-Recent French Influence. On wall A is an uneven collection by Monet, the greatest apostle of Impressionism. This group, with the exception perhaps of the sea-shore scene, should be studied thoroughly, in regard to the technique that juxtaposes colors to give the right resultant tone at a distance; in regard to the general tendency to subordinate subject interest to the expression of fleeting aspects; and in regard to the masterly handling of light. No other group will be referred to so often in connection with the American galleries. On wall B is a typically joyous canvas by Gaston La Touche, who carries Impressionism into figure work. On walls C and D are other examples of the Impressionist School, by Pissarro and Renoir and the English Sisley. On wall C is a portrait by Eugene Carriere. On wall D is a panel by Puvis de Chavannes, who has influenced modern mural painting more than any other artist. This picture has the typical union of the classic feeling with very modern technique, but it is representative of de Chavannes' manner rather than of his whole art at its best.

Gallery 63-English Influence. This is the richest of the historical rooms. Although there is a scattered collection including the names of Van Dyke, Guido Reni, Tiepolo, Ribera, Velasquez, Goya, and Turner, on walls A and B, the important thing is the fine collection of the English portraitists. Here are examples, many of them among the finest, by Hogarth, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, Lawrence, and Hoppner. It is hardly necessary to point out the close connection between the work of this English group and early American painting, since a visit to the adjoining gallery 60 will show how the first important development in the States grew out of the art of the mother country.

The American Historical Section covers the entire development of American painting from the beginning to the early years of the present century. To obtain the proper sequence, one should start in room 60, working gradually down to 57, then visiting 64 and 54.

Gallery 60 contains a profusion of fine examples of the early portrait school, which was so closely connected with English art of the time. Gilbert Stuart, the most important figure, is represented by an extensive collection on wall A. In this room, too, are canvases by West, Peale, Copley, and their followers well into the Nineteenth Century.

Gallery 59 contains chiefly the work of that barren mid-century period when portraiture and landscape painting alike became hard and labored. Insofar as any foreign influences can be detected here, they are of the "tight" schools of England and Germany.

Gallery 58 contains some interesting work of the latter half of the Nineteenth Century-notably the paintings by Eastman Johnson, an important figure of the time when American art was finding itself. Albert Bierstadt's two landscapes are typical of the so-called Hudson River School, the mechanical forerunner of the Inness-Wyant group. An interesting contrast is offered here by H. J. Breuer's "Santa Inez Mountains," a contemporary landscape that is full of the freshness and light of present-day American painting.

Gallery 57 shows another great step in advance. A generous portion of the space is given to Edwin A. Abbey, an American-born artist who really was more a part of English art. The exhibit shows clearly that Abbey was greater as illustrator than as painter, the finest things here being the exquisite pen drawings. Wall D has five paintings by John LaFarge, who by his work and by his theories greatly influenced American art at the end of the century. Worthy of study, too, are the more modern landscapes of Theodore Robinson.

From this room one should turn back into the central line of galleries.

Gallery 64 contains historical American paintings that range through the latter half of the last century and into this, with such well-known names as Parrish, Gifford, Hunt, Wylie, Martin, the Morans, Eakins, and even the more recent Frederic Remington. Such pictures as F. E. Church's "Niagara Falls" (wall A), J. G. Brown's "The Detective Story" (wall B), and Thomas Hovenden's "Breaking Home Ties" (wall D), are typical of what was accepted as the best work a generation or two ago.

Passing through room 65, one should next go to 54.

Gallery 54 is the most important in the American Historical Section, for it shows the work of the men who really emancipated American painting from the old hardness and tightness of technique, and from the old sentimentalism. Wall A is given up to the work of the late Winslow Homer, who has been called "the most American of painters." The seashore scenes alone of the things here are representative of this big man at his best. Wall B has a varied assortment by lesser painters, but ones of importance: Blakelock, Currier, William Morris Hunt, and Fuller. On walls C and D the very important canvases are those by Inness and Wyant, men who were deeply influenced by the French Barbizon School, but whose individual achievement marked the first great stride toward the bigness, freedom and lightness of present-day American landscape painting.