La Sculpture Française : Une Passion Américaine

Outside France, the United States is the country with the largest number of French sculptures, and French sculptures account for by far the largest proportion of foreign sculptures. The extraordinary abundance of French sculpture in the United States, from Houdon to Rodin, Brancusi and Duchamp, reveals not only a specific taste for this area of French art, but also the close historical and artistic ties between France and the United States. Once collected, combined and linked, they weave the story of a taste.

This book gives life and meaning to these works by placing them in their American context. The first part underlines their eminently political and official role; the second part is devoted to the part played by French sculptors in American urban décor, as well as in the art of parks and gardens; the third pays tribute to sculpture as a collector's item; the fourth and final part is devoted to the sculptor Auguste Rodin, who represented the art of today and sometimes the art of yesterday.

The study concludes with an assessment of the taste for French sculpture since the 1950s, which saw a change in the relative importance of the various players - dealers, collectors, academics and curators.