Hand-Painted Fine Art Reproductions of Famous Paintings

The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 250-member organization whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art.
The Academy was founded in 1904 by seven members of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in emulation of the French Academy. An amalgam of the two groups called the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters appeared in 1976, and lasted into 1992, then the current title was adopted. The first seven members were William Dean Howells, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Edmund Clarence Stedman, John La Farge, Mark Twain, John Hay, and Edward MacDowell.
The former title reflected the two-tiered system of the Academy and Institute. There were 250 members in the Institute, selected from among the leading figures in American art and literature, and these members elected 50 members to form the Academy. This two-tiered system was abandoned in 1993, and today, all 250 members have equal standing.
In 1924, the complete list of members of the Academy were these men: John Singer Sargent; Daniel Chester French; James Ford Rhodes; William Milligan Sloane; Robert Underwood Johnson; George Washington Cable; Henry van Dyke; William Crary Brownell; Arthur Twining Hadley; Henry Cabot Lodge; Edwin Howland Blashfield; Thomas Hastings; Brander Matthews; George Edward Woodberry; George Whitefield Chadwick; George de Forest Brush; William Rutherford; William Rutherford Mead; Bliss Perry; Abbott Lawrence Lowell; Nicholas Murray Butler; Paul Wayland Bartlett; Owen Wister; Herbert Adams; Augustus Thomas; Timothy Cole; Cass Gilbert; Robert Grant; Frederick MacMonnies; William Gillette; Paul Elmer More; Gari Melchers; Elihu Root; Brand Whitlock; Hamlin Garland; Paul Shorey; Charles Adams Platt; Archer Milton Huntington; Childe Hassam; David Jayne Hill; Lorado Taft; Booth Tarkington; Charles Dana Gibson; Joseph Pennell; Stuart Pratt Sherman; John Charles Van Dyke.
Members of the Academy are chosen for life and have included some of the leading figures in the American art scene. They are organized into committees that award annual prizes to help up-and-coming artists achieve their potential.