American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent (2017)
Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and “The Life Line” (2012)
Captain Watson's travels in America (1997)
Kathleen Adair Foster is an American art historian,critic,and curator. Since 2002 she has served as the Robert L. McNeil,Jr.,Senior Curator and Director of the Center for American Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From 1989 - 2002 she served as Senior Research Scholar and Class of 1949 Curator of Western Art at the Eskenazi Museum of Art. From 1979-1989 she worked at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,departing as Chief Curator and Director of Research and Publications.[2]
Foster received her B.A. in Art History from Wellesley College and her M.A.,M.Phil,and Ph.D. in the History of Art from Yale University. Throughout her graduate studies,she served as a Teaching Fellow and Curatorial Assistant at the Yale University Art Gallery.[5]
From 1975-1976 Foster served as Assistant Professor of Art History and Studio Art at Williams College. From 1976-1979 she served as an Assistant Professor in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. In 1979 Foster joined the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as an Assistant Curator,rising the ranks of Associate Curator,Curator,and eventually Chief Curator and Director of Research &Publications. During this period she also served as a Visiting Lecturer in the History of Art Department at the University of Pennsylvania.[6]
Foster would depart P.A.F.A. in 1989 to join the full-time Art History faculty at Indiana University Bloomington,where she jointly served as Class of 1949 Curator of Western Art at the Eskenazi Museum of Art. In 2002 she would accept the position of Robert L. McNeil,Jr.,Senior Curator of American Art at Philadelphia Museum of Art,where she concurrently serves as Director of the Center for American Art.[6]
Across multiple institutions,Foster’s work has focused on how American art—specifically from the 19th century—has shaped and reflected the cultural landscape of the nation. Her scholarship has paid particular attention to landscape painting,often emphasizing the work of Thomas Eakins,Winslow Homer,and the Hudson River School.[7]
A prolific author of art history and criticism,Foster's book-length publications include American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent (2017),Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and "The Life Line (2012),Thomas Chambers:American Marine and Landscape Painter,1808-1869 (2008),Captain Watson's Travels in America:The Sketchbooks and Diary of Joshua Rowley Watson,1771-1818 (1997),and Writing About Eakins:The Manuscripts in Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection (1989). Additional works as co-author include,In a New Light:Alice Schille and the American Water Color Movement (2019),Romancing the West:Alfred Jacob Miller in the Bank of America Collection (2010),and American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum:Volume 1:Drawings and Watercolors (2004).[3]
↑ Foster, Kathleen A., Tara R. Keny, James M. Keny, and Nannette V. Maciejunes. In a New Light: Alice Schille and the American Watercolor Movement. Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 2019.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent. Philadelphia and New Haven: Philadelphia Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2017.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. Shipwreck! Winslow Homer and “The Life Line”. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2012.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A., and Mark S. Tucker, eds. An Eakins Masterpiece Restored: Seeing “The Gross Clinic” Anew. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2012.
↑ Conrads, Margaret C., et al. Romancing the West: Alfred Jacob Miller in the Bank of America Collection. Kansas City, MO: Nelson‑Atkins Museum of Art, 2010.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. Thomas Chambers: American Marine and Landscape Painter, 1808–1869. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, 2008.
↑ Eakins, Thomas. A Drawing Manual. Edited by Kathleen A. Foster. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
↑ Wilmerding, John, et all. American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: Volume 1: Drawings and Watercolors. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum in association with Yale University Press, 2004.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A., Nanette Esseck Brewer, and Margaret Contompasis. Thomas Hart Benton and the Indiana Murals. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
↑ Binstock, Jonathan P., and Kathleen A. Foster. American Watercolors at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2000.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. Thomas Eakins Rediscovered: Charles Bregler's Thomas Eakins Collection at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. Captain Watson’s Travels in America: The Sketchbooks and Diary of Joshua Rowley Watson, 1772–1818. With commentaries by Kenneth Finkel. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A., and Nanette Esseck Brewer. An American Picture‑Gallery: Recent Gifts from Morton C. Bradley, Jr. Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum, 1992.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A., and Cheryl Leibold, eds. Writing About Eakins: The Manuscripts in Charles Bregler’s Thomas Eakins Collection. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. Daniel Garber. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1980.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A., and Michael Quick. Edwin Austin Abbey (1852–1911). New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1973.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. 2021. “A Research Portal for American Watercolors, Prints, and Drawings 1850–1925: A Source for Obscure Catalogues, Artists’ Societies, and Women Artists.” Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art Vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring). https://journalpanorama.org/article/a-research-portal/
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. “American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent,” American Art Review, vol. XXIX (Feb. 2017).
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. “The Watercolor Scandal of 1882: An American Salon des Refusés.” Archives of American Art Journal 19, no. 2 (1979): 19–25. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42620393.
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. “The Still‑Life Painting of John La Farge.” The American Art Journal 11, no. 3 (July 1979): 4–37. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1594164
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. “The Watercolor Scandal of 1882: An American Salon des Refusés.” Archives of American Art Journal 19, no. 2 (1979): 19–25. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1557451
↑ Foster, Kathleen A. "Edwin Austin Abbey," American Art Review, vol. 1, no. 3 (March–April 1974), pp. 83-95.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
