This is a must-read for art historians, museum curators and those who are studying to enter these fields, as a buyer or a viewer might ask about it after this read (because the subject is particularly communicative).
Pennsylvania Literary Journal
This stunningly original and ambitious book seeks to rehabilitate, revise, and complicate our ideas about the ... Read moresentimental and its place in American art and culture, from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth. Bedell's scope is broad and her research is thorough and meticulous. Fresh, bold, and gorgeously written, Moved to Tears will provoke a great deal of discussion. -Sarah Burns, author of Painting the Dark Side An important contribution to American art history, Moved to Tears focuses our attention on a hugely critical element-the sentimental-that dominated the production and reception of art until the success of modernist art around 1900. Beautifully written, Bedell's case is well-made and irrefutable, and stands as a correction to our tendencies to disregard or devalue the emotional elements of nineteenth-century art. -Bruce Robertson, author of Marsden Hartley Show Less