In recent years American painting has enjoyed one of the most lively, interesting, and deserved revivals in the art world. Museums all over the country have rediscovered, dusted off, and added to their American collections, installed them handsomely, and presented them in numerous worthwhile exhibitions, thereby helping to reopen the eyes of Americans to an immensely appealing and important part of their artistic heritage. Although art museums have good reason to be pleased with this activity, it should be remembered that private collectors have often been the pioneer reviving force in American art. They, through their enthusiasm and acumen, have shown the way for the museums. Currently nineteenth-century painting is probably the most restudied and sought-after American art, and the work produced by the last generation of that century and first two decades of the twentieth—impressionist and realist pictures—has begun to receive particular attention. Margaret and Raymond Horowitz, as a result of their perceptive collecting, have been primary leaders of the large and ever-growing group that appreciates the lyric beauty of this work. The Horowitzes have collected examples in painting and drawing of the highest quality, which, brought together in this exhibition, isolate some of the most noticeable characteristics of the art of the period—quietude, simplicity, delicacy, and intimacy. The consistent quality of the Horowitz collection is a remarkable accomplishment and a tribute to the collectors' knowledge and taste. The Metropolitan Museum is grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Horowitz for sharing with the public what they have achieved as collectors of American art.
