Enchanted Lives, Enchanted Objects

Download or read book Enchanted Lives, Enchanted Objects written by Dianne Sachko Macleod and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This insightful and beautifully illustrated book offers the first feminist analysis of the phenomenon of women art collectors in America. Dianne Sachko Macleod brings a surprising paradox to light, showing that collecting, which provided wealthy women with a private sense of solace, also liberated them to venture into the public sphere and make a lasting contribution to the emerging American culture. Beginning in the antebellum period, continuing through the Gilded Age, and reaching well into the twentieth century, Macleod shows how elite women enlisted the objets d'art and avant-garde paintings in their collections in causes ranging from the founding of modern museums to the campaign for women's suffrage.