American Art · Women in the Arts

Resurrecting Female Artists – an interview with Eve Kahn

Eve Kahn's new book Forever Seeing New Beauties: The Forgotten Impressionist Mary Rogers Williams, 1857-1907 tells the life story of Connecticut-born painter Mary Rogers Williams. Last week, Kahn was kind enough to sit down with me to talk about her book, her research, and the important work of "resurrecting" forgotten female artists.

American Art · Historic Places

Miss Florence’s Painted Dining Room

Some of the paintings in the dining room at the Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme, CT. Photo by A Scholarly Skater. I recently visited the Florence Griswold Museum - the Connecticut boardinghouse where American Impressionists of the Old Lyme Art Colony stayed and worked during summers in the early-20th century. And I saw the… Continue reading Miss Florence’s Painted Dining Room

American Art · Art That Inspires Me

Art That Inspires Me: Lady Agnew of Locknaw by John Singer Sargent

I love the American artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), and I have wanted to write an Art That Inspires Me post about him for a while. However, there are just so many things that inspire me about Sargent, and I struggled to pick a few to focus on. This is my all-time favorite Sargent painting. It depicts Lady (Gertrude) Agnew of Locknaw, the wife of a Scottish nobleman.

American Art · Books

American Artists and the American Revolution

Here in the United States, paintings play a big role in how we experience the story of our country's origins. Portraits of our Founding Fathers and other paintings of the Revolutionary War appear on our money, in our textbooks, and decorating our government buildings. These paintings have become a huge part of our national consciousness. Paul Staiti's Of Arms and Artists: The American Revolution Through Painters' Eyes is about the five American painters most responsible for depicting the Revolution era.

American Art · Art That Inspires Me · European Art

Art That Inspires Me: Still Life Painting

I recently enjoyed an art exhibition at my local library. I saw many wonderful works there, but I noticed that the majority of the pieces I was drawn to were still lives. So I started to think about why that is. Back in the days of the European and American artistic academies, still life was considered the least prestigious of the painting genres, but it's one of my personal favorites.