Drawn from Tradition: American Drawings and Watercolors from the Susan and Herbert Adler Collection

The Adler collection of 19th- and 20th-century drawings and watercolors by American artists was begun over 20 years ago with the purchase of Leon Kroll's Head of a Young Woman. The collection was extended to include the work of Mary Cassatt, Childe Hassam, Winslow Homer , John Frederick Kensett and John Singer Sargent , and later artists such as Reginald Marsh and Saul Steinberg. But the Adlers' interest in the images of women remains the focus, readily apparent in the 18 color plates and 77 duotone reproductions that here catalogue virtually the entire collection. Weber ( Arnold Newman in Florida ) discusses the pictures, which comprise landscapes, still lifes and abstractions. This catalogue of a traveling exhibition details the provenance of each in an elegant, simple design that enhances the subjects and unifies the collection. Unfortunately, however, the book provides no information about the collectors themselves, noting only that the Adlers are ``avid.'' (Dec.)