Claude Raguet Hirst Realism
Nothing showcases the American obsession with realism in art during the 1800s better than the brief Trompe l’Oeil Realism movement of the 1880s and 1890s. Like the Dutch Baroque realist still-li ...
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Curator's Corner
Porcelain in the West
What do you think of when I say “porcelain”? “American” is probably not the first word that springs to mind when paired with “porcelain.” We all know that China dev ...
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Curator's Corner
African American History Month: Thomas Gross, Jr. and Moses Williams
Let us not forget that African American artists have existed since the founding of America. Unfortunately, they were not colonists, but forced here as slaves on Dutch, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and ...
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Curator's Corner
What's in a Number? Ancient Persia, Anna Claypoole Peale, McKim Mead and White
It’s 2018 now. Does the number eighteen conjure up anything for you? A lot of people make a big deal about turning age eighteen, but for me that just conjures up nightmares of bullying, a face b ...
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Curator's Corner
American Artists Appreciation Month: Dr. Samella Lewis and Jeremiah Paul, Jr.
My blog series about American Artist Appreciation Month continues. Here’s some wonderful art by Dr. Samella Lewis and Jeremiah Paul, Jr. ...
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Curator's Corner
Deceiving the Eye: American Trompe-l'Oeil Realism
I’ve written before about the long-standing interest in extreme realism in American painting. Colonial American self-taught artists (“limners”) may not have been schooled in anatomy, ...
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Curator's Corner
And This Is a Portrait of Whom?
I don’t often laugh about art history (seriously!), but now and then one just can’t help it. With this group of “portraits,” I had to keep in mind that: A) the people who bough ...
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Curator's Corner
Still Life and Our Culture of Abundance: John F. Francis
I got so excited the other night while watching Antiques Roadshow. A person brought two little still-life paintings from 1865, and I said to myself, “Oh, those look like John Francis’s wor ...
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Curator's Corner
Not an Easter Egg
On our planet, the egg has been almost universally viewed as a symbol of rebirth and fertility since ancient times (imagine ancient eyes seeing something living come out of something hard and apparent ...
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Curator's Corner
African American History Month 2017: Joshua Johnson
Today’s artist from the exhibit Two Centuries of Black Art is Joshua Johnson. You probably get sick of hearing me say “I’m a big fan of…” but I don’t say what I do ...
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