Metropolitan Seminars in Art, Complete 12-Portfolio Set, 1958–1959 — by John Canaday | Metropolitan Museum of Art, Book of the Month Club

A complete set of all 12 portfolios in John Canaday’s Metropolitan Seminars in Art, published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1958 and 1959 and distributed through the Book-of-the-Month Club.

The series was designed as an art appreciation course for people who couldn’t attend museum lectures, with Canaday—then art editor and critic for The New York Times—leading the reader through different ways of looking at and understanding art. Each 10” x 13” portfolio contains an illustrated text section, review questions, and a pocket holding 12 individual color art prints. The prints measure 9.5” x 12” and reproduce works by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Degas, Renoir, Whistler, Ingres, Cézanne, Jan van Eyck, and others.

The twelve subjects move from the fundamentals of painting into increasingly specific approaches to art and its history: What Is a Painting?, Realism, Expressionism, Abstraction, Composition as Pattern, Composition as Structure, Composition as Expression, Fresco, Tempera and Oil, Water Color, Pastel, and Prints, The Artist as a Social Critic, and The Artist as a Visionary. Portfolios 1 through 10 were issued in 1958, followed by Portfolios 11 and 12 in 1959.

This is the complete 12-portfolio series, with the original text and print pockets present. The color prints are loose within their individual portfolios rather than bound into the books, making them particularly interesting for anyone who wants to actually look at the reproductions individually or display them.

There are 144 prints in a complete set. All of the prints are present in Portfolios 3 through 12. Portfolio 1 is missing 11 of its 12 prints. One print is missing from Portfolio 2. The books themselves are included as issued, so this is a complete set of the 12-part seminar even though the loose print collection is incomplete. The portfolios show age and patina with some yellowing and soiling.

This is a really interesting mid-century art-education set, and a nice piece of the history of the Metropolitan Museum’s efforts to bring art appreciation into people’s homes.