Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
academy and museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest art academy and museum in the United States, founded 1805. Specializing in American painting and sculpture of the 18th to the 20th century, the Academy's Art Museum was built between 1872 and 1876 according to designs by architect Frank Furness (Furness, Frank Heyling) (1839–1912). The building's architectural (Western architecture) style is high Victorian. For its centennial year (1976), which coincided with the U.S. Bicentennial, the museum underwent a complete renovation.
The museum's collections of 19th- and 20th-century American landscape and genre paintings include pieces by such artists as Mary Cassatt (Cassatt, Mary), Thomas Eakins (Eakins, Thomas), Robert Motherwell (Motherwell, Robert), Charles Willson Peale (Peale, Charles Willson), and Andrew Wyeth (Wyeth, Andrew). A 12,000-volume library of art history focuses primarily on American painting and sculpture.