Folk Art

The American Museum has the most significant collection of American folk art in Europe. Portrait painters represented include John Brewster Jr, Ammi Phillips, and William Matthew Prior. Monumental sculptures, which once decorated ships, cigar stores, and fairground carousels, now demand, in their gallery setting, to be reappraised as works of art. Other star pieces include carved eagles – one by Wilhelm Schimmel – and scrimshaw etched by Frederick Myrick.