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Curator's Corner

Rococo Spring Fashion on Goya's Birthday

Monday, March 30, 2026 | Karl Cole

The 30th of March is the birthday of Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828). Instead of presenting one of his darker subjects, I opted for a fresh spring Rococo fashion statement, from ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: John Smibert (1688-1751 US, born Scotland)

Tuesday, March 24, 2026 | Karl Cole

The first successful, trained painter to open a studio in the American colonies (in Boston), John Smibert represented the archetypal society portrait painter that the newly prosperous New England colo ...

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Curator's Corner

March 2026 is Women's History Month

Monday, March 2, 2026 | Karl Cole

I have always maintained that there is no period in history anywhere in the world when women artists did not play a significant role in the world’s cultures. Up until about fifty years ago, howe ...

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Curator's Corner

February 6, 2026 is National Wear Red Day: Art by Bronzino (1503-1572 Italy)

Friday, February 6, 2026 | Karl Cole

National Wear Red Day was established in 2004 by the American Heart Association as part of their “Go Red for Women “ campaign. The campaign was aimed at calling attention to the under-diag ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Alice Neel

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 | Karl Cole

Alice Neel was a great American portraitist. Her portraits were insightfully realistic, although not to the point of Photorealism, for her works tended to emphasize rich color. The most enduring aspec ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Frank Duveneck

Thursday, October 9, 2025 | Karl Cole

At the same time Impressionism was developing in France, a parallel movement was blossoming among American ex-patriate artists in Germany and Italy. Frank Duveneck was a pioneer in this style call ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Martha Edelheit

Wednesday, September 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

Martha Edelheit was active in the Women’s Art Movement of the late 1960s into the 1970s. She is known for her provocative, allegorical paintings of male and female figures, as well as for her in ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Kanō Motonobu

Thursday, August 28, 2025 | Karl Cole

The Kanō School artists—the favored group of painters for the nobility and shogunate—worked in a variety of genre, including traditional yamato-e that included bright patterns and gold lea ...

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Curator's Corner

Fiercely Independent: Ellen Day Hale

Monday, June 16, 2025 | Karl Cole

Out of nine children, Ellen Day Hale was the only daughter of the noted orator and author Edward Everett Hale (1822–1909). She came from a family filled with notable figures. Her great ...

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Curator's Corner

National Brothers and Sisters Day: Sturtevant Hamblin

Friday, May 2, 2025 | Karl Cole

The majority of Hamblin's known works are portraits of children. This was no doubt more attractively priced than portraits of adults, and, there was a certain formula that itinerant painters such as H ...

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