Written for The English Review in 1913, this essay was much criticised by contemporary American artists for its prejudice and unfairness. The essay's lasting value is largely historical - how differently things have come to look in the intervening seventy years of American Art.

Written for The English Review in 1913, this essay says more about Crowley than about American Art. It was much criticised by contemporary American artists for its prejudice and unfairness. Crowley says in his Confessions that he planned other, more positive essays dealing with the present and future of American Art. The essay's lasting value is historical -- how differently things have come to look in the intervening seventy years.