Speculative Landscapes

"Tracing the rise of the modern real estate economy through art's entanglements with processes of speculation, gentrification, and various forms of land management between 1820 and 1900, Speculative Landscapes makes a compelling case for painting as a key site where those processes were worked out and, in some cases, resisted. Ross Barrett's case studies reject any opposition between art and business to argue for both as 'deeply imaginative' endeavors."--Jennifer A. Greenhill, author of Playing It Straight: Art and Humor in the Gilded Age "Speculative Landscapes is a comprehensive look at speculation, enclosure, outlay, debt, recompense, and the process by which land becomes property. Barrett shows how painting provided a tool for comprehending and commenting on that act of becoming."--Leo Mazow, Louise B. and J. Harwood Cochrane Curator of American Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts