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For over a century the majority of America's major sculptors chose one
particular foundry to cast their works in bronze. That foundry was the
Roman Bronze Works and its castings (and often the initials R.B.W.)
represent a vast and fascinating collection of sculptures, ranging from
the monuments of French and Saint-Gaudens to the cowboys of Remington
and Russell, from the grand and graceful figures of Paul Manship and the
charming salon pieces of Bessie Potter Vonnoh, to the brilliant
abstractions of Archipenko and Calder. To study the ledgers and archival
photographs of Roman Bronze Works is to see the unfolding of American
sculpture through the 20th century, for here are examples from the many
schools and "isms" that locked the nation's art world in
titanic battles between realism and modernism and the many significant
styles in between. Over 700 photographic examples (many in color) and
biographical information about over 120 sculptors make up this book, the
first to examine R.B.W.'s role in American art.
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