Fine Art Connoisseur - 2024-05-06

O D D N E R D R U M | S A N T A F E & C H A R L E S T O N | O N T H E WA T E R | S A R A G A L L A G H E R

JUNE 2024

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A Lifetime of Learning:
Two Artistic Journeys
Chris Morel Ed Smida
Rose Garden The Goosehunter (Homage to E. I. Couse)

Oil 40 x 30 inches Edition of 11, Bronze 21 x 14 x 13 inches
June 22 – July 12, 2024
Nedra Matteucci Galleries

1075 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501
PDWWHXFFLFRP
Santa Fe’s Landmark Gallery For Over 50 Years

Walter Pach (1883–1958), Brooklyn Bridge, 1919, etching on paper, 7 x 4 4/5 in., Stanley Museum of Art, Iowa City, gift of Alan and Ann January. On view
through December in the exhibition A Year in Print at the Stanley Museum of Art (University of Iowa, stanleymuseum.uiowa.edu).
The steel bridges, the steel buildings, the newly designed machines, and utensils of all
kinds we are bringing forth show an adaptation to function that is recognized as one of
the great elements of art.
— – Walter Pach (artist, critic, scholar), 1922
F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M MAY/ J U N E 2 0 2 4 003
Kim Middleton, Signature
“Old and New, Orange and Blue” 20 x 24 Oil
Diana Reuter-Twining, Associate

“The Fox’s Prophecy” 28 x 13 x 5 Bronze
Jane Hunt, Master Julie Gowing Hayes, Signature Emeritus

“Western Grove” 36 x 24 Oil “Three Graces, Trumpeter Swans” 40 x 30 Oil
PUBLISHER
B. Er ic Rhoads
[email protected]
X: @ericrhoads
f a c e b o ok . c o m /e r ic . rh o a d s
i n s t a g r a m . c o m /e r ic rh o a d s
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Peter Tr ippi
[email protected]
MANAGING EDITOR
Brida Connolly
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Matthias Anderson David Masello
Kelly Compton Louise Nicholson
Leslie Gilbert Elman Michael J. Pearce
Max Gillies Charles R askob Robinson
Daniel G rant Brandon Rosas
DESIGN DIRECTOR Kenneth W hitne y
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sean Byr ne

sby [email protected]
DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING

K atie Reeves
k [email protected]
VENDORS — ADVERTISING & CONVENTIONS

S a ra h We b b
[email protected]
SENIOR MARKETING SPECIALISTS

Dave Ber nard
d b e r n a r d @ s t r e a m l i n e p u b l i s h i n g .com
Megan Schaugaard
m s c h a u g a a r d @ s t r e a m l i n e p u b l i s h i n g .com
Helen Wallace
[email protected]
Gina Ward
g [email protected]
N AT I O N A L S A L E S C O N S U LTA N T
Je ffrey St rahl
j s t r a h l @ s t r e a m l i n e p u b l i s h i n g .com
ACCOUNT SERVICE MANAGER

Br iana Sher idan
b s h e r i d a n @ s t r e a m l i n e p u b l i s h i n g .com
MARKETING CONTENT EDITOR

K ather ine Jennings
k j e n n i n g s @ s t r e a m l i n e p u b l i s h i n g .com
E D I TO R , F I N E A R T TO DAY
Cher ieDaw n Haas
[email protected]
006 M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 4 F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M
2263 N W 2nd Avenue, Suite 207
Boca R aton FL 33431
Ph: 561.655. 8778 • Fa x : 561.655.616 4
CHAIRMAN/PUBLISHER/CEO
B. Er ic Rhoads
[email protected]
X: @ericrhoads
f a c e b o ok . c om /e r ic . rho a d s
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PRESIDENT
Tom Elmo
C H I E F O P E R AT I N G O F F I C E R
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CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
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A S S I S TA N T TO T H E C H A I R M A N
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CUSTOMER SERVICE
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S ub s c rip tio n s: 800.610.5771

Also 561.655.8778 or www.fineartconnoisseur.com
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F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R
J U N E 2 0 2 4 • VO LU M E 2 1 , I S S U E 3
061 092
003 Frontispiece:
Walter Pach
012 Publisher’s Letter ARTISTS MAKING THEIR WALTER H. EVERETT:

MARK: FIVE TO WATCH RECOVERING A MASTER
014 Editor’s Note Brandon Rosas highlights the talents of Maudie ILLUSTRATOR
Brady, Brad Davis, Christina Grace Mastrangelo, By Daniel Grant
098
051 Favorite: B.J. Parker, and José López Vergara.
066
Reginald Ferguson
on William H.
Johnson
THE POWER OF SELECTION:
120 Off the Walls ON AND NEAR THE WATER THE FRENCH FAMILY’S
By Matthias Anderson ART COLLECTION AT
078
136 Classic Moment: CHESTERWOOD
Ruth Fitton By Dana Pilson
ODD NERDRUM:
AT HOME IN NORWAY
By Michael J. Pearce
105
AN ARTFUL SEASON
084
There are at least 6 great reasons to celebrate
the American West this spring.
BEING REAL
By David Masello 108
088
GREAT ART WORLDWIDE
We survey 13 top-notch projects
occurring this season.
2 ARTISTS, 1 TOWN,
10 PAINTINGS
By Anne Underwood 114
ARTISTS & INSPIRATION
ON THE COVER IN THE WILD
By James Lancel McElhinney
MAUDIE BRADY (b. 1974), The
Philosopher, 2023, HydroResin
(artist’s proof), 12 1/2 x 6 3/4 x
8 3/4 in. (not including base),
available in bronze (edition of 3) + Expanded Digital Edition Content:
through the artist. For details, see ANNOUNCED: THE LATEST
page 63. PLEINAIR SALON WINNERS
By Matthias Anderson
Fine Art Connoisseur is also available in a digital edition. Please visit fineartconnoisseur.com for details.
P U B L I S H E R ’ S L E T T E R
KNOWING
WHN AR IS
GOOD
“H
ow can I know what’s good?” which is perfectly fine), each collector should Painted by
asks a friend who has ultimately love the things surrounding him or JOHN HOWARD SANDEN (1935–2022)
recently grown fascinated her. Yet love alone does not mean it’s “good.” Publisher B. Eric Rhoads
by the idea of collecting art. For example, I have visited mansions filled 2015, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.
“I know what I like, but what with well-loved prints that I consider com-
if it isn't good?” mercial or even kitsch. (I don't mean to be
His question stirs a valid debate because a snob, because, frankly, I started with com-
each collector has distinctive objectives. For mercial things, too.) museums and quality art whenever possible.
most, there is the passion for art and the need Happily, my friend already has a good Though they will eventually chart their own
to be surrounded by it. For others, it’s about eye and has purchased some fine works from course, there is no substitute for a solid base.
filling their homes with pieces that impress a dealer who offers only the best. Just like I have also reminded my friend that
visitors. Still others want a hedge against artists and artworks, not all galleries are cre- art collecting is a journey, not a destination.
inflation, something that rises in value as curated equal; they cover the whole spectrum. In his case, historical masterworks are not
rency falls. In all these cases, the best thing a And though price is not always an indicator affordable, so he is doubly fortunate to live
collector can acquire is the ability to assess of quality, it certainly says something about at a time when younger “post-contempo-
an artwork’s quality. demand for the artist, and suggests that he rary” artists are making outstanding repre-
Today I shudder to recall what I loved or she has a loyal following. I have told my sentational works, often as good as the Old
at age 20, and I’m thankful I did not get it friend to visit museums frequently and iden- Masters’. These works are already growing
tattooed on my arm because my taste has tify the artists he responds to, then read those in value, and many will surely be considered
evolved since then. Indeed, my evolution is artists’ monographs (art-speak for biogra- significant in future years.
ongoing; there are paintings I collected early phies). Though some museum curators fol- At the end of the day, my friend should
on that no longer please me now. Fortunately, low the fads, most are solidly grounded in follow his own muse and buy what most
someone else will find those pieces wonder- connoisseurship, so it makes sense for a new pleases him. The journeys of discovery, and
ful, as I once did, and so I deaccession some collector to watch what they are exhibiting. of self-discovery, are truly wonderful and
from time to time. Though all of my artworks Taste, I suppose, is a function of age and well worth the effort.
bring me at least some joy, I’d rather see the upbringing. Loud, garish colors and strik-
less loved ones in a new owner’s home than ing subjects attracted me earlier in life, but
stored away in mine. now the opposite is true. But exposure plays
So what guidance should I give my col- a key role as well: I’ve met people who were B. ERIC RHOADS
lector friend? First, he must seek art he loves exposed to superb art when they were young, Chairman/Publisher
and responds to emotionally. While some and that certainly helped them start collect- [email protected]
collectors rely on others to make the deci- ing on a higher level right off the bat. That’s facebook.com/eric.rhoads
sions (like dealers, advisers, or decorators, one reason I expose my own children to @ericrhoads
E D I T O R ’ S N O T E
A CHANGING
AR MARK
R
ecently I have been reviewing this no surprise, have just merged. Now there are
magazine’s back issues, and I am excellent auctioneers nationwide handling
struck by how often — before the artworks that the “big boys” no longer bother
pandemic — we covered record- with, and that’s fine, but the media is not inter-
breaking prices obtained at auc- ested in covering middling sale prices fetched
tion for masterworks by the likes of Pablo in cities that are not particularly glamorous.
Picasso, Mark Rothko, and Lucian Freud. We’re One result is that art collecting now
talking $150 million here, $100 million there. strikes many middle-class Americans as even
I have not noticed until now how signifi- more exclusive — and less accessible — than
cantly those stories have faded. Occasionally ever before. We should particularly be con-
we learn through the art press that a certain cerned about people under 40 who have no
billionaire or oligarch has acquired one of history of buying “real” art and are now look-
these masterworks, but their sales are now ing to adorn their first proper home. They are
conducted privately rather than in public auc- reading less about art in the media, and they
tions, though still most likely via Sotheby’s or may not have noticed that storefront art galler-
Christie’s in New York City. There is nothing ies are disappearing in many communities due
illegal about this, but it does make the auction to the difficulties that all retailers face in get-
scene less exciting and visible than it once was. ting foot traffic. Art collecting, then, may not
More importantly, it means that auction strike them as a viable pursuit, or perhaps the
catalogues, in most departments, are getting only option visible is to buy what the British
thinner. Staffs are being pruned, too, often with call “cheap and cheerful” — contemporary art
the experts being reassigned to the “private made by students or folks selling it at festivals.
sale” divisions, where they essentially become The readers of Fine Art Connoisseur know
high-end bank officers who happen to know a better. We realize that galleries, auction houses,
lot about art. Again, none of this is illegal, yet and artist’s studios nationwide are still out
it erodes the visibility of art collecting nation- there, full of fascinating artworks that “real”
wide, especially to the upper middle class people can afford. But not everyone reads Fine
that has historically sustained the art market. Art Connoisseur (yet), so let’s all spread the
Those were folks who had some cash to burn word, please. Visiting your local art museum
and some homes to decorate, who spent week- regularly is a great way to train the eye, just
end afternoons prowling the showrooms look- one reason this magazine highlights exhibi-
ing for $50,000 paintings to acquire the follow- tions you should see.
ing week at auction. Do get out there and look as widely as you
As Sotheby’s and Christie’s have shed this can — at museums, and also in your region’s
function, much of the slack has been taken galleries and auction houses. The more you see,
up by such regional auctioneers as Freeman’s the more likely you will fall in love with some-
(Philadelphia) and Hindman (Chicago) who, thing you must bring home.
TRIPPI PHOTO: FRANCIS HILLS
2024 C O L L EC TO R’ S G U I D E TO C H A R L E S TO N A N D S A N TA F E
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 24 Aimee Erickson, Lemons, Limes and Spider Mums (detail), oil, 18 x 24 in.
Fine Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden
Featuring over 60 Nationally Acclaimed
Award-winning Artists
MELISSA HEFFERLIN | “My Golden Age” | 19.75 x 24 in., oil
CHRISTOPHER ZHANG (OPA MASTER) DAUD AKHRIEV (OPA MASTER)

“Bass Players” | 36 x 36 in., oil “Almost Through” | 31.5 x 31.5 in., oil
JAMES SWANSON
“Water Dog In The Lillies” | 16 x 20 in., oil
RICK REINERT
“Courtyard Nocturne” | 48 x 36 in., oil
KIRK MCBRIDE JOHN MICHAEL CARTER (OPA MASTER)

“Above The Dunes” | 60 x 48 in., oil “Arrangement In Black & Yellow” | 60 x 36 in., oil
www.ReinertFineArt.com | 843.694.2445 | 179 & 181 King Street, Charleston, SC 29401

A Tale of Two Art Meccas
Photo of Santa Fe by Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.com

Photo of Charleston by f11photo/Shutterstock.com
CHARLESTON, SC SANTA FE, NM
Dear Fellow Art Lover, that of Gullah people, descendants generations: in New Mexico, you’ll
Part of the fun of admiring and of the enslaved Africans who worked be struck by how many people know
acquiring art is visiting the wonderful the British-owned plantations about the Taos Society of Artists a
places where it is made and sold. along the coast. With its impressive century ago, or in Charleston the
This season, as most Americans’ harbor, Charleston is also a major early 20th-century leaders of the
holidaying gets underway, we are destination for sailors of various so-called Charleston Renaissance.
pleased to highlight two standout kinds, so expect to see marine art in Locals are especially familiar with
art destinations: Charleston, South all its forms. more recent artistic greats and
Carolina, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe, by contrast, features probably can tell you about the
Both cities are among America’s the side-by-side flourishing of time they waited at a bus stop with
oldest, yet both are experiencing the Native American, Hispanic, one of them.
thrilling new bursts of energy in and “Western” legacies (the latter It’s a truism that art galleries
every category. Their populations encompasses both European- like to set up shop in the same
are growing (though not overly American and the American West). neighborhoods because their
so), and so the range of artistic It’s particularly exciting for visitors clients can stroll from one to the
endeavors pursued there has to take a side trip to a Native pueblo next and discover something new.
broadened accordingly. Both offer (e.g., Tesuque, Acoma, Taos) or Literally, it’s the more, the merrier.
a delightful mix of excellence, a historically Hispanic town (like Santa Fe boasts three lively gallery
diversity, and laid-back charm. The Madrid or Chimayo) to see where districts (near the Plaza downtown,
art available ranges across periods — some of these artforms originated. Canyon Road, and the Railyard),
from the 18th century right through There’s also a level playing field while Charleston’s focal points are
last week — and there is always among the fine and decorative King Street, Gallery Row on Broad
someone interesting to chat with. arts in Santa Fe and Charleston: Street, and the French Quarter.
Your coffee barista may be a folk great jewelry, textiles, ceramics, Exploring these enchanted places is
musician, and the receptionist at the metalwork, and ethnographic part of the aesthetic adventure: it’s
gallery an up-and-coming artist. artifacts are prized just as much not just art on the walls, but also the
Particularly intriguing is the as paintings, sculpture, and works evocative architecture and intriguing
cheek-by-jowl flourishing of on paper. Practitioners in these lifestyles all around you.
artforms drawn from different artforms see and respect each other, Enjoy your visits there, and
cultural legacies. In Charleston we and much creativity has flowed from please tell us what you discovered.
see the legacy of the British who their encounters.
settled the region in the 17th century In both cities, there’s a
— and thus lots of colonial and familiarity among non-experts with Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief,
colonial-revival antiques — and also the great artistic talents of previous Fine Art Connoisseur
ANGELA TROTTA THOMAS
P U B L I S H ER
B. Eric Rhoads
e r ic rho a d s @s t r e a m l i ne .c om
X : @e r ic rho a d s
f a c e b o ok .c om /e r ic . rho a d s
i n s t a g r a m .c om /e r ic rho a d s
E D I TO R - I N - C H I E F
Peter Trippi
pt r ip pi @s t r e a m l i ne publ i s h i n g.c om
M A N AG I N G E D I TO R
Brida Connolly
CO N T R I B U T I N G W R I T E R S
Matthias Anderson, Kelly Compton,
Leslie Gilbert Elman, Max Gillies,
Daniel G rant, David Masello,
Louise Nicholson, Michael J. Pearce,
Charles R askob Robinson, Brandon Rosas
D E S I G N D I R E C TO R
Kenneth Whitne y
GR APHIC DESIGNER
Sean Byr ne
s b y r n e @ s t r e a m l i ne p u b l i s h i n g. c om
D I R E C TO R O F S A L E S & M A R K E T I N G
K atie Reeves
k r e e v e s @s t r e a m l i ne p u bl i s h i n g.c om
“Mesmerized” 30x30 Oil - Baccarat NYC
V E N D O R S — A DV E R T I S I N G & CO N V E N T I O N S
BAR AND RESTAURANT SCENES S a ra h We b b

s w e b b @s t r e a m l i n e p u bl i s h i n g.c om
IN CHARLESTON AND NYC SENIOR MARKETING SPECIALISTS
ANGELATROTTATHOMAS.COM Dave Ber nard
d b e r n a rd @s t r e a m l i ne p u bl i s h i n g.com
[email protected] | Instagram: AngelaTrottaThomasArtist
Megan Schaugaard
m s c h au g a a rd @s t r e a m l i ne p u bl i s h i n g.com
Helen Wallace
hw a l l a c e @s t r e a m l i ne p u bl i s h i n g.com
Gina Ward
g w a rd @s t r e a m l i ne publ i s h i n g.c om
N AT I O N A L S A L E S CO N S U LTA N T
Je ffrey St rahl
j s t r a h l @s t r e a m l i ne p u bl i s h i n g.com
ACCO U N T S E R V I C E M A N AG E R
Briana Sheridan
b s he r id a n @s t r e a m l i ne p u bl i s h i n g.com
M A R K E T I N G CO N T E N T E D I TO R
K ather ine Jennings
k j e n n i n g s @s t r e a m l i ne p u bl i s h i n g.com
E D I TO R , F I N E A R T TO DAY
CherieDawn Haas
c h a a s @s t r e a m l i ne publ i s h i n g.c om
“Red Snapper Tonight” 14x18 Oil ON THE COVER

Aimee Erickson
ReinertFineArt.com | 843.694.2445 Lemons, Limes and Spider Mums (detail), oil, 18 x 24 in.
179 & 181 King Street, Charleston, SC 29401 Available at Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.
Aimee Erickson is also represented by
Meyer Vogl in Charleston, SC.
Madina Croce
First Snow of October, 24 x 30, Oil on Belgian Linen
MADINA CROCE FINE ART

FINE IMPRESSIONIST PAINTINGS
By appointment in Santa Fe, New Mexico
ÑWWW.madinacroce.com
Please see website for my current show schedule!
Toward The Rim, 12 x 24 in., oil on board
Storm Light, 14 x 16 in., oil on board
Lee MacLeod
Represented by Worrell Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
505-989-4900 | WorrellGallery.com
A new expression of the Southeastern Wildlife Exposition’s
passion for the great outdoors, Gallery by Southeastern
Wildlife Exposition (Gallery by SEWE) is an art gallery and
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art and artists. Nestled in The Shops at The Charleston Place in
downtown Charleston, Gallery by SEWE celebrates the artwork
and sculpture of an evolving collection of wildlife artists.
SCAN QR CODE TO
VIEW AVAILABLE ART
205 MEETING STREET, CHARLESTON, SC | DAILY, 10 AM - 6 PM
PAULA B. HOLTZCLAW #C'C !
Sittin on the Dock of the Bay, 40 x 40, Oil
WAOW 54th National Exhibition | Phippen Museum | Prescott, AZ | March 1-June 23, 2024
American Impressionist Society “Impressions” Small Works Showcase | Anderson Fine Art Gallery | St. Simons, GA | April 25 - May 28, 2024
Oil Painters of America National Exhibition | Mark Arts | Wichita, KS | April 5 - May 31, 2024
ANDERSON FINE ART GALLERY St. Simons Island, GA

FLOYD FINE ARTS Pawleys Island, SC
HIGHLANDS ART GALLERY Lambertville, NJ
ILLUME GALLERY WEST Philipsburg, MT
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D E S T I N AT I O N A RT
SANTA FE: INSPIRING

BEAUTY, INDOORS AND OUT
Photo courtesy of Gina Ward

I n a world where we must usually
choose between destinations of
natural beauty or cultural riches,
the city of Santa Fe in northern
New Mexico offers that rarest of
— barely — by Spaniards venturing
northward from Mexico City in
the early 1600s. The flag of newly
independent Mexico was raised
here in 1821 but replaced by Old
celebrating various aspects of the
visual and performing arts, and
the city remains one of America’s
largest markets for fine art.
Although most artists’ studios are
luxuries — having it both ways. Glory in 1848, and New Mexico off-limits, you can be sure artists
Located 7,200 feet above sea did not achieve U.S. statehood are all around you, absorbing the
level, this community of 88,000 until 1912. Thus the city is adorned
city’s funky vibes and channeling it
residents is set in a high desert with handsome buildings that
into their own creations.
landscape of wildflowers, sagebrush, reflect its multicultural history,
and juniper pine. Driving including some grander “Pueblo Few visitors have enough
northward out of Santa Fe through Revival” buildings erected by the energy to hit all of Santa Fe’s
canyons and mesas, or hiking in beloved local architect John Gaw hundreds of commercial galleries.
nearby foothills and mountains, Meem (1894–1983). Planning your itinerary is aided
visitors are virtually guaranteed a Even a quick drive around by visiting the website of the
dose of clear, intense light and vast Santa Fe suggests why its motto Santa Fe Gallery Association
blue sky with scudding white clouds, is “The City Different,” and why (santafegalleryassociation.org),
punctuated by the occasional sharp, UNESCO added it to the relatively which on July 11 will kick off the
short thunderstorm. Dotting the small Creative Cities Network. city’s popular ArtWeek with a festive
surrounding landscape are imposing Beyond the counterculture legacy it party. (Watch its website for details.)
Indian pueblos and tawny adobe cherishes, Santa Fe is highly focused
churches that have long withstood on arts and culture, with more ABOVE: Sagebrush and billowing
the climate’s extreme heat and cold. artists, performers, and writers cloudscapes can be found all around
Santa Fe
Settled by Native Americans per capita than any other U.S.
long ago, the region was colonized city. Every season features festivals RIGHT: A quintessential scene in Santa Fe
DOWNTOWN Heritage Foundation’s annual Many visitors begin their artistic
Summer is when the city really Traditional Spanish Market, to be adventures downtown near the
hops artistically. Its biggest event held on the plaza July 27–28. The plaza. Often their first destination
is the renowned Indian Market, city capitalizes on its handsome is the New Mexico Museum of Art
organized by the Southwestern convention center downtown, (nmartmuseum.org), which has two
Association for Indian Arts (swaia. where the flagship fair ART Santa buildings of rotating exhibitions
org), which will take over the Fe (artsantafe.com) will occur July and fascinating displays that blend
main plaza again August 17–18. 12–14. And on most days, visitors Native, Hispanic, and European-
Participating this year will be more get an enticing glimpse of local American works from the collection
than 1,200 artists representing entrepreneurship by strolling past to provide an intercultural history
100 tribal nations selling their the blankets laid out by Indian of the state. The Georgia O’Keeffe
work directly to an estimated artisans under the Portal of the Museum (okeeffemuseum.org)
100,000 visitors. Smaller but Palace of the Governors, which nearby is very popular, so consider
also intriguing is the Atrisco faces the plaza. booking your tickets in advance. On
Canyon Road

view this season is the exhibition with Duffy Sheridan, Jane its festive open houses, scheduled
Rooted in Place, which highlights the Jones, and Desmond O’Hagan), every Friday evening after work
studies of trees she made throughout Victory Contemporary during all but the coldest months.
her life, from New Mexico to the (victorycontemporary.com, with On those evenings, Canyon Road
Caribbean. Nicole Finger and Tal Walton), and is filled with art lovers strolling in
The world-renowned artist Worrell Gallery (worrellgallery. and out of the latest exhibitions
(1887–1986) first visited New com, with Jan DeLipsey, Matthew and deciding which of Santa Fe’s
Mexico in 1917 on a holiday from Higginbotham, William A. Suys, excellent restaurants to visit later.
her native Texas. “If you ever go to and Bill Worrell himself). If you Scheduled for May 11 is the annual
New Mexico,” she noted, “it will are downtown on a weekend, find Canyon Road Spring Art Festival
itch you for the rest of your life,” the parking lot where members (visitcanyonroad.com), showcasing
and indeed much of her work after of the Santa Fe Society of Artists dozens of artists demonstrating
1929, and all of it after 1949, was (santafesocietyofartists.com) exhibit their techniques and answering
made here. Since opening in 1997, their works and happily explain how onlookers’ questions.
the museum has earned a global they were created. Among the standouts here
reputation for intriguing contextual handling both contemporary and
exhibitions and its research center CANYON ROAD historical art are Gerald Peters
devoted to American modernism. Santa Fe’s largest hub for art Gallery (gpgallery.com), which
O’Keeffe fans should contact the remains Canyon Road, which is showing recent paintings by
museum to learn about visiting her winds along an old Indian trail Logan Maxwell Hagege (through
homes at Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú, and is lined with an array of May 23); and Nedra Matteucci
an exhilarating drive away. handsome adobe houses, some Fine Art (matteucci.com) with its
While downtown, don’t miss dating back to the 18th century. atmospheric gallery building and
the Museum of Contemporary The best introduction is attending lush sculpture garden. Among its
Native Arts, operated by the
Institute of American Indian
Arts, and also five superb galleries
handling primarily historical
art: Addison Rowe Gallery
(addisonrowe.art), Shiprock
(shiprocksantafe.com), Owings
Gallery (owingsgallery.com, in
two locations), William R. Talbot
Fine Art (williamtalbotfineart.
com), and William Siegal
Gallery (williamsiegal.com).
Six standout galleries dealing
in contemporary art here are
Hecho a Mano (hechoamano.org,
where local artist Kat Kinnick’s
paintings of animals staring down
our modern dystopia are on view
May 3–June 3), Manitou Galleries
(manitougalleries.com, which
represents Douglas Aagard, Thomas
Blackshear, and Jim Eppler),
Sorrel Sky Gallery (sorrelsky.
com, with Edward Aldrich, Linda
Glover Gooch, and Peggy Immel),
Sugarman-Peterson Gallery Betsy James (b. 1948), Cities of Gold: Two Pueblos, 2024,
watercolor and gouache on paper, 5 x 5 in., Nedra Matteucci Galleries
(sugarmanpetersongallery.com,
finest living artists are William comparatively cutting-edge works Lisa Marie Kindley), Ventana
Acheff, Michael Coleman, Terri by such talents as Daniel Blagg), Fine Art (ventanafineart.com,
Kelly Moyers, and Jill Soukup. Canyon Road Contemporary Art with Doug Dawson and Natasha
Historical New Mexico masterworks (canyoncontemporary.com, with Jeff Isenhour), and Winterowd Fine Art
are available nearby at Zaplin Faust and Ed Sandoval), Giacobbe- (fineartsantafe.com, with Charlie
Lampert Gallery (zaplinlampert. Fritz Fine Art (giacobbefritz.com, Burk and Jamie Kirkland).
com) and Matthews Gallery with Bruce Cascia, Gail Haire,
(thematthewsgallery.com), while and Albert Scharf), Globe Fine RAILYARD DISTRICT &
superb contemporary art is found Art (globefineart.com, with Karen MUSEUM HILL
at Meyer Gallery (meyergalleries. Haynes and Reid Richardson), Once sleepy and run down,
com), where painter Ken Daggett Legacy Gallery (legacygallery.com, the Railyard District has — over
kicks off the busy season with with Russell Case, John Coleman, the past decade — taken on a hip,
a show of Desert Impressions (May and Don Oelze), New Concept post-industrial vibe thanks to
10–30). At McLarry Fine Art Gallery (newconceptgallery.com, the influx of galleries and other
(mclarryfineart.com), painter with Douglas Atwill, Ellen Feinberg, artistic enterprises. At its heart
Kenny McKenna is presenting his and Woody Galloway), Sage Creek is the cutting-edge, nonprofit
Santa Fe and Beyond show May 29 – Gallery (sagecreekgallery.com, with venue SITE Santa Fe (sitesantafe.
June 12. Calvin Liang, Zhaoming Wu, and org) and — as of last year — the
Other Canyon Road venues Marilyn Yates), TurnerCarroll Vladem Contemporary, one of the
to visit are Acosta-Strong Fine (turnercarrollgallery.com, with New Mexico Museum of Art’s two
Art (acostastrong.com, with Calyxte Campe, Davin Linn, facilities. On view at the Vladem
Evelyne Boren and Gregory and Igor Melnikov), Underwood from June 8 is the intriguing
Frank Harris), Aurelia Gallery Gallery (underwoodgallerynm.com, exhibition Off-Center: New Mexico
(aureliagallery.com, which has with D. Nelson Barnhill and Art, 1970–2000, which explores
Ken Daggett (b. 1953), Autumn Dream (Diptych), 2020, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 in., Meyer Gallery
Ethel Fisher (1923–2017), Alice Baber and Paul Jenkins, 1967, oil on canvas, 51 x 40 in., LewAllen Galleries
Kenny McKenna (b. 1950), Afternoon Light on a Morning Snow (Canyon Road), 2024, oil on linen, 40 x 50 in., McLarry Fine Art
the arrival of artists from across (evokecontemporary.com, with PRACTICALITIES

America in such smaller towns Lynn Boggess, Francis Di Fronzo, Getting to Santa Fe is now easier
as Galisteo, Gallup, Las Cruces, and Kristine Poole), LewAllen than ever, thanks to the Rail
and Roswell. More than 125 Galleries (lewallencontemporary. Runner Express train line running
artists will be featured during the com, showing paintings by the late from Albuquerque’s airport
show’s 11-month run. While in the Ethel Fisher through May 25), and northward to Santa Fe Depot.
district, visitors should also check Zane Bennett Contemporary Art Though the city is well supplied
out El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe (zanebennettgallery.com, with Jim with hotel rooms, consider
(elmuseocultural.org), which Dine and Carol Mothner). organizing your trip now in order
focuses on Hispanic artforms. If you have extra time, spend a to get the best room at the best
Located in the Railyard area day further out of town on Museum price. Visit the Tourism Santa
are several top-quality venues Hill, a cultural complex that is home Fe site (santafe.org) for leads on
to see art, including Blue Rain to the Museum of Spanish Colonial all sorts of practicalities. Then
Gallery (blueraingallery.com, Art, Museum of Indian Arts & get ready to experience a unique
with Deladier Almeida, Hyrum Culture, Wheelwright Museum of American destination.
Joe, and Mark Pugh), Charlotte the American Indian, and Museum
Jackson Fine Art (charlottejackson. of International Folk Art. On May 4,
com, which offers superb abstract the latter will host its Folk Art Flea, Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief,
works), EVOKE Contemporary where bargains are usually found. Fine Art Connoisseur
KYLE BUCKLAND
Sunlit Memories Oil 48x48”
Visit website for gallery representation.

6:;*09*5:1.992;175*:*9;2:;C
D E S T I N AT I O N A RT
SOUTHERN CHARMS:
ART IN CHARLESTON
The most prestigious visual arts
institution in town is the Gibbes
Museum of Art, opened in 1905
and now possessing more than
10,000 works spanning 350 years,
many with a connection to South
Carolina or the South generally.
The permanent collection is
Photo by Sean Pavone/Shutterstock.com
arranged to highlight significant

people and themes in Charleston’s
rich history, including its crucial
roles in the American Revolution
and Civil War.
This season the Gibbes is
celebrating its recent acquisition of
an important painting, The Battery,
Charleston, S.C. by Edward Hopper
(1882–1967). In 1929, this now-
F
famous artist and his wife, Jo, spent
ounded in the 17th century Many of the latter are operated by three weeks in Charleston, where he
with the support of England’s the Historic Charleston Foundation, completed 11 watercolors, including
King Charles II, the and knowledgeable guidance can this one. It fits neatly into the
picturesque seaport of Charleston, always be obtained through the Gibbes’s superb permanent display
South Carolina, has long been visitor bureau (charlestoncvb.com). about 20th-century American
renowned not only for well-
preserved houses, churches, and
cobblestone streets, but also for its
cultural sophistication. Although
it was even more cosmopolitan
in the 18th century, when almost
every British or American ship
trading along the Atlantic coast put
in here, today’s Charleston offers
art galleries, antique shops, and
boutiques well worth exploring.
Its inns, bed-and-breakfasts, and
cafes are admired for hospitality
and quality, with most an easy stroll
from the city’s many historical sites.
Edward Hopper (1882–1967), The Battery,

Charleston, S.C., 1929, watercolor, chalk,
and pencil on paper, 13 7/8 x 19 7/8 in.,
Gibbes Museum of Art
John Hull (b. 1952), The Green Lantern, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 30 in., Corrigan Gallery
regionalism and the Charleston their year between the Catskills Reynier Llanes (b. 1985), who
Renaissance (1915–45), when artists and Charleston, where the artist lived in Charleston for six years.
of all kinds flocked here to admire celebrated the city’s architecture, Although it generally focuses on
its historic scenery and relatively rural environs, and residents regional history and nature more
bohemian atmosphere. in various mediums. Other key than on art, the Charleston Museum
One leader of this “school” figures in that period included mounts the occasional exhibition
was Alfred Hutty (1877–1954), Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, Anna devoted to the latter. On view
who had already established Heyward Taylor, and Walter W. through September 15 is The Art of
himself in the art colony of Thompson. Also on view at the Abstraction: Modernism in Quilting, and
Woodstock, New York, when he Gibbes this season (May 24– you can find rotating art installations
discovered Charleston in 1920. September 15) are recent paintings with a local flavor at the City
Locals claim he wired his wife to and watercolors inspired by nature Gallery at Joe Riley Waterfront Park,
say, “Come quickly, have found and daily life, created by the operated by the City of Charleston
heaven.” The Huttys then split Cuban-born, Miami-based artist Office of Cultural Affairs.
THE GALLERY SCENE
Most of Charleston’s art galleries
are located in or near King
Street, Broad Street, and the
French Quarter, named for the
talented Huguenot community
of Protestants who fled Catholic
France and contributed significantly
to Charleston’s prosperity. The
Charleston Gallery Association
(CGA) coordinates art walks on the
first Friday evenings of almost every
month, allowing opportunities to
explore galleries after regular hours.
Although they offer a range of styles
and mediums, the galleries are
aesthetically more traditional than
the city’s best-known cultural project,
the Spoleto Festival USA mounted
annually since 1977. (Tickets are now
on sale for performances occurring
May 22 through June 9.)
Because so many galleries
in Charleston offer wonderful
artworks, it seems only fair to cite
them in alphabetical order rather
than pretending to “rank” them.
Anglin Smith Fine Art features the
vibrant paintings of founder Betty
Anglin Smith and of Kim English,
the observant animal sculptures of
Darrell Davis, and the black-and-
white photographs of Tripp Smith,
who deftly captures the flat, marshy Alfred Hutty (1877–1954), Old St. Philip’s, c. 1950, watercolor and gouache on paper,
“Lowcountry” along the coast near 26 3/4 x 20 1/4 in., private collection
Charleston. On view May 3–20 are
Corrigan Gallery features such Grier. Its current show (May 3–28)
recent coastal scenes painted by
local standouts as Valerie Isaacs, is Flow: Sea and Sky, which painter
Shannon Smith Hughes.
Gordon Nicholson, Kristi Ryba, Jeanne Rosier Smith describes as her
Ann Long Fine Art represents
the classical realist masters Charles and Sue Simons Wallace. On view “love song to the coast — paintings
Cecil, Daniel Graves, and Ben there May 3–31 will be Tales from the that hold moments of awe.” On May
Long, as well as younger talents like Butcher Shop, a show of John Hull’s 3 she will demonstrate her impressive
Jura Bedic, Paul Brown, Kamille new paintings of professional skill with pastels at the gallery.
Corry, Marc Dalessio, Louise Fenne, wrestlers in the gym. (Hull is Ella Walton Richardson Fine
Jill Hooper, Elizabeth Leary, Leo already known for his scenes Art features painters like Lindsay
Mancini-Hresko, Mario Robinson, of baseball teams and traveling Goodwin, Craig Nelson, Aleksander
Paula Rubino, Jordan Sokol, and carnivals, so this is not too and Lyuba Titovets, and John C.
Frank Strazzulla. Long also handles surprising a direction for him.) Traynor. Scenes of South Carolina’s
superb sculptures by Robert Dare Gallery handles the art of natural beauty are made by West
Bodem, as well as the estate of the such talents as Allison Chambers, Fraser, who is represented by Helena
aforementioned Alfred Hutty. Trent Gudmundsen, and Douglas Fox Fine Art. Fox also champions
Jeanne Rosier Smith (b. 1966), Take Flight, 2024, pastel on paper, 28 x 34 in., Dare Gallery
such nationally prominent figures LePrince Fine Art features Marc be commissioned.
as Sarah Amos, Patt Baldino, Anderson, Mark Bailey, Jacob Dhein, Meyer Vogl Gallery (located
Christopher Blossom, John Budicin, Ignat Ignatov, Kevin LePrince, and downtown and also on Daniel
John Cosby, William R. Davis, Aaron Westerberg Island nearby) displays the
Donald Demers, Kathleen Dunphy, As its name suggests, paintings of its namesakes Marissa
Billyo O’Donnell, Scott W. Prior, Lowcountry Artists Gallery focuses Vogl and Laurie Meyer, as well as
and Kent Ullberg. primarily on landscapes, including works by Anne Blair Brown, Marc
At Hagan Fine Art, you’ll find scenes created by its owners Kellie Hanson, Quang Ho, Lori Putnam,
top works by Mary Garrish, Ulrich Jacobs and Lisa Willits. Mary and Christopher St. Leger. Its
Gleiter, Joe Gyurcsak, Kevin Martin Galleries of Fine Art, current show is devoted to recent
Macpherson, and Daniil Volkov, as which has two spaces downtown, paintings by Carlos San Millán
well as founder Karen Hewitt Hagan. offers not only paintings and (May 1–29); up next is a group
Horton Hayes Fine Art has impressive sculptures, but also a wide range exhibition featuring works using
paintings by Kathy Anderson, Larry of decorative arts, and even a the color yellow (June 7–28).
Moore, and Elizabeth Pollie, while roster of gifted muralists who can Neema Fine Art Gallery focuses
only on African American artists
such as Noland Anderson and
Otto Neals, while Principle
Gallery offers leading realists like
Anthony Ackrill, Lynn Boggess,
Paige Bradley, Greg Gandy, Gavin
Glakas, Christine Lashley, Robert
Liberace, Jeremy Mann, Joseph
McGurl, Sara Linda Poly, and
Sergio Roffo. Its May show
highlights recent still life paintings
by Elizabeth Floyd.
Reinert Fine Art represents
numerous talents including Lee
Alban, Heather Arenas, Jill Basham,
Calvin Liang, Neil Patterson, and
William Schneider. This season it
is presenting a show dedicated to
Leonard Mizerek, who is highly
regarded in the field of marine art.
Robert Lange Studios offers work by
its namesake, plus such colleagues as
Timur Akhriev, Mia Bergeron, and
Brett Scheifflee.
Several galleries in Charleston
have tightly focused specializations.
Particularly intriguing is Gallery
Chuma, which features colorful
artworks reflecting the Gullah
culture that arose in the 19th century
when African Americans settled in
the isolated islands and marshlands
stretching from Jacksonville, Florida,
north to Wilmington, North Carolina.
Dog & Horse Fine Art & Portraiture
has everything for devotees of the
hunt and kennel, including works
by Roger Henry, Ian Mason, Nancy
Pellatt, and Stone Roberts. Their rival
Carlos San Millán (b. 1969), Electric Light (Interior #200), 2024, oil on panel,
nearby is The Sportsman’s Gallery and 21 3/4 x 18 in., Meyer Vogl Gallery
Paderewski Fine Art, which handles
works by Douglas Aagard, Nelson A LIVELY CALENDAR Charleston’s oldest neighborhoods
Boren, Mick Doellinger, Eldridge Every February, at least 40,000 open their doors to visitors. To get
Hardie, Ralph Oberg, and Kyle Sims. people participate in the annual a sense of the plantation culture
And two galleries work exclusively with Southeastern Wildlife Exposition, that buoyed those neighborhoods
local artists: Charleston Artist Guild the largest event of its kind in via the hard work of enslaved people
Gallery is a nonprofit with more America. And every March comes a brought from Africa, visit Drayton
than 600 members and 70 regular wave of activities that kick off Historic Hall, a magnificent Palladian-style
exhibitors, while Studio 151 Fine Arts Charleston Foundation’s month-long house from the 18th century located
also offers jewelry, wearable art, and Charleston Festival, during which in the Lowcountry, roughly 15 miles
wildlife photography. more than 150 private homes in northwest of Charleston.
Elizabeth Floyd (b. 1974), Peonies and Cassatt (detail), 2024, oil on linen, 36 x 36 in., Principle Gallery
Also on deck every March is the Whenever you visit Charleston, Leonard Mizerek (b. 1947),
city’s major art fair, the annual there is bound to be a cultural St. Tropez Twilight, 2024, oil on linen panel,
16 x 12 in., Reinert Fine Art
Charleston Show featuring more happening on the docket. Just be
than 30 dealers. And if you are sure to leave enough time to wander
seeking bargains, keep an eye on the the city’s atmospheric streets and Peter Trippi, editor-in-chief,
sale schedules of Charleston Estate shoreline: Losing track of time is Fine Art Connoisseur
Auctions, where intriguing antiques a key reason to visit this seemingly
and fine art can surface. timeless place.
ALBERT
HANDELL
UPCOMING
2024 EVENTS
May 20-24
Cherokee, NC
Plein Air Convention
June 11-16
Albuquerque, NM
IAPS Convention
October
Santa Fe, NM
Sedona, pastel, 12x16
4-Day Pastel Workshop
December
Santa Fe, NM
4-Day Oil Workshop
STUDIO VISITS WELCOMED call or text 505-603-1524
www.alberthandellstudio.com [email protected]

S TAC Y N I X O N
To Give and To Receive, 32 x 69 inches, oil and 22K gold on panel
STAC Y NIX ON CO NTEMPO RARY FINE ART

1512 Pacheco St. D207 Santa Fe, NM
505-521-9358 StacyNixonArt.com
GALLERY
WA L K
Showcase Your Art to Collectors and Galleries
EVERY FRIDAY
Contact [email protected]
All the painting
inspiration you want.
In one place.
Plein Air Today is a free newsletter
that chronicles the plein air movement CYNTHIA
worldwide, including the stories of
painters, events, painting tips, artist INSON
profiles, and more.
Nedra Matteucci Galleries,
If you want to keep up on Santa Fe
the plein air world as a painter www.matteucci.com
or collector, sign up at 505-982-4631
PaintTube.TV/pat
FROM THE EDITORS OF PleinAir™ MAGAZINE Hollyhocks, 12” x 6”, oil
CAROLE
BELLIVEAU
Sandia Shadows & Red Grasses, 12 x 12 in., pastel
Lee McVey
Snow Traces, 11”x14”, Plein Air Oil PAPNM-M, IAPS Master Circle, PSA
leemcvey.com
carolebelliveau.com
Enchanted Colors Exhibition | March 30-June 2, 2024
[email protected]
Millicent Rogers Museum | 1504 Millicent Rogers Road | Taos, NM
KENNY MCKENNA
Santa Fe and Beyond
Opening Reception Friday, May 31, 2024 4 to 6 pm
M CLARRY
F I N E A R T
225 Canyon Road Santa Fe, New Mexico 505.988.1161 LQIR#PFODUU\ÀQHDUWFRPPFODUU\ÀQHDUWFRP
&ORFNZLVH´2FWREHU6XQOLJKWµ[2LO´$W'RQ*DVSDU :DWHU6WUHHWµ[2LO´3HGHUQDO&UHHN$XWXPQµ[2LO´3HGHUQDO$XWXPQ$IWHUQRRQµ[Oil

WRIT TEN BY DAVID MASELLO
H A R L E M O N H I S M I N D
REGINALD
FERGUSON
Founder, New York
Fashion Geek
W
hile the self-described
New York Fashion Geek,
Reginald Ferguson, knows
that clothing styles go in
and out of fashion, his
taste for the artist William H. Johnson (1901–
1970) never varies. Ferguson, who is New
York’s best-dressed man, is also someone
who helps make other men look their best,
and he remembers the first time he saw the
paintings and drawings of Johnson, an artist
he so reveres that he calls him “Mr. Johnson.”
“I’ve known of Mr. Johnson’s works since
childhood, when I first encountered them at
the Studio Museum in Harlem. Now here he
is in the show at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art [The Harlem Renaissance and Trans- William H. Johnson (1901–1970), Children at Ice Cream Stand, c. 1939–42, tempera, pen and ink, and pencil
atlantic Modernism, on view through July on paper, 12 5 ⁄8 x 15 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum
28].” (A portrait painted by Johnson serves as
that exhibition’s lead image.) So intrigued is
Ferguson with Johnson’s oeuvre that he trave- kids, and when I look at this work, I think Ferguson admits that Johnson’s scene doesn’t
led to the Smithsonian American Art Museum that any of the figures could be them. I love its relate directly to his sense of fashion and style,
in Washington, D.C., to see what he considers ethos and how it reverberates even now. You he is keenly aware of the colors it employs,
a favorite work, Children at Ice Cream Stand. can still find someone rolling a cart of flavored just as he is of the hues of the many suits and
Ferguson grew up in Manhattan’s Green- ices, ringing a bell, and having kids congregat- ties, shirts and trousers, shoes and accessories
wich Village, yet he always felt the cultural ing like a Pavlovian call.” Ferguson notes, too, that fill the closets of his Brooklyn apartment.
pull of the uptown neighborhood of Harlem. the details of the mother and child in the back- “I grew up in an environment with my
“When I was little, Harlem was already on my ground passing a table of produce, as well as late mother and grandparents, who taught me
mind. It is the center of African American one of the boys posed with a wooden hoop, a the importance of style and fashion and look-
culture, and you can’t be Black in New York toy of the era. “Mr. Johnson gives such a strong ing good. My mother was cosmopolitan, eru-
and not have a relationship with Harlem and sense of community, of childhood, of summer.” dite, cultured, and a good mother is your first
its community.” Of the many works Johnson Since founding New York Fashion Geek teacher.” They also imparted lessons to young
created in his lifetime, Children at Ice Cream in 2020, Ferguson has become a much-sought- Ferguson on how to coordinate differing hues
Stand continues to affect Ferguson, notably in after resource for the men who hire him to and patterns. “I’ve always been struck by
its direct evocation of a Harlem street. “help achieve their goals, relieve their stress, the bold colors Mr. Johnson used in his art.
“It’s a joyful scene,” he says of this draw- and make them feel better about dressing.” There’s an angularity to the figures and other
ing, which depicts children stopping at a He says, “I hope to take them from fashion- elements, not so unlike the way I appreciate
wheel-drawn cart for scoops of ice cream on confused to fashion-confident. Most of my the lines of clothing. I may be a jaded New
what is likely a weekend summer afternoon. male clients would rather have their teeth Yorker, but I am never jaded about the art
“My late grandparents were Depression-era pulled than go shopping for clothes.” While of Mr. Johnson.”
2024 Membership Showcase
UPCOMING SHOWS:
7th Best of America Small Works Associate Member Online Exhibition
International Exhibition July 15, 2024
Sugarman-Peterson Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Submissions accepted through
July 5-31, 2024 June 14, 2024
Spring Online International Exhibition
May 22, 2024
Kay Cassill, Musicians, 12 x 12 in., Oil

kaycassill.com
Amber Dong, Still Life with Steak, 11 x 14 in., Acrylic

amberdongart.com
Brian McClear, Another Blown Fuse, 48 x 48 in., Oil

McClearart.com
National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society www.noaps.org

2024 Membership Showcase
Desree Pettera, The Box Turtle Gang, 24 x 36 in., Oil

desreepetteraart.com Karen Budan, OOPS!, 16 x 16 in., Oil
karenbudan.com
Larry Riley, Antique Navajo Doll, 11 x 14 in., Oil

Victoria Brooks, Beach Stretch, 30 x 24 in., Oil
larryriley.com
vbrooks.com
National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society

Pat Tribastone, Symphony of Yellows, 16 x 20 in., Oil
patriciatribastoneart.com
Robin Williamson, Blossoming Beauty, 14x18, Oil

robinwilliamsonfineart.com
thedavincistudios.com
Gina Warren Buzby, Chesapeake Sunset, 24x24, Acrylic

ginawarrenbuzby.com
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Community Garden, Joe Paquet, 2021, oil, 40 x 40 in., plein air with tweaks in the studio
There is a lot of superb art being made these days.
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The Cincinnati-based artist BRAD DAVIS

(b. 1993) is drawn to symbols of change in his life
and surroundings. “When I paint the city,” he says,
“I look for places that are on the verge of demoli-
tion or renovation. When I paint portraits, they’re
often of people with whom I interact daily and
who operate as vessels for personal narratives.
Painting has the incredible capacity to preserve,
and I am at my core a preservationist.”
Davis inherited his gift for representation
from his father, an elementary school art teacher.
“I was always in awe of his ability to translate the
visual world, and I remember him drawing with
me anywhere we went,” he recalls. “At age 9, I saw
N.C. Wyeth’s Treasure Island illustration series at
the Brandywine Museum of Art [in Chadds Ford,
Pennsylvania], and after that I knew I wanted to
be an oil painter.”
To that end, Davis earned a B.F.A. and
M.F.A. in painting from the Art Academy of
Cincinnati and Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts, respectively. “It was a difficult path to
pave through the ocean of conceptual critique,
but I feel that it made me a stronger realist,” he
recalls, noting that he began identifying with
the urban focus of Ashcan School painters such
as John Sloan.
Much like the Golden Age illustrators who
first inspired him, Davis is committed to delight-
ing viewers with the material quality of his art.
“For me, painting is all about the experience of the
physical surface of a work in conjunction with the
depth of an illusion,” he explains. “Half of my job
is to get viewers to see the work in person so that
its physicality can be understood. That is where a
viewer is most in conversation with all the human-
centric nuance that oil painting has to offer.”
Although many of Davis’s works feature lus-
ciously rendered urban scenes, he has recently
been exploring more symbolic figurative works,
such as Noumena. “This piece is about presence
in the midst of absence,” says Davis, explaining
that the title is a term coined by the philosopher
Immanuel Kant for that which exists beyond
human perception. “I posed my wife, Alex, with a
cast of Diana the Huntress, who is seen in mythol-
ogy as a beacon of life and death. In this way, she references the loss of
Alex’s mother, who passed away unexpectedly a year ago. In the dark BRAD DAVIS (b. 1993), Noumena, 2024, oil on wood, 32 x 24 in., available through
recesses on the painting’s left side is an empty bowl symbolizing the cavity the artist
of loss that always remains, as well as an openness to receive.”
DAVIS is self-represented. His solo exhibition Heirlooms will appear at Studio

Kroner (Cincinnati) May 10–June 1.
F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 4 061
CHRISTINA GRACE MASTRANGELO (b. 1983),
Hope Tends Upwards, 2021, oil on linen over
panel, 24 x 24 in., Guild of Boston Artists
Using materials and techniques handed down through the centu- which she used to attend workshops at the Grand Central Atelier in
ries, CHRISTINA GRACE MASTRANGELO (b. 1983) portrays New York City after returning to the U.S. in 2009.
the beauty of her world through a deeply attentive yet interpretative Over the past 15 years, Mastrangelo has continued to work in
lens. “In classical realism, the artist makes many choices, whether to the classical realist tradition, exhibiting at venues such as the Museu
create color harmony or guide the viewer’s eye,” she says, “and it is Europeu d’Art Modern in Barcelona and the Villa Bardini in Flor-
within this artistic play that I find the most joy.” ence. She now divides her time between Massachusetts and Florida,
Mastrangelo’s love of figurative art was awakened during a and although she paints everything from still life to narrative multi-
childhood visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, figure works, she has a special passion for highlighting the character
Massachusetts, and nourished by trips to Rome, Paris, and London and inner strength of female subjects.
during her teenage years. At 16, she learned to copy masterworks in This focus can be seen in Hope Tends Upwards, in which a
a portrait workshop with American artist Frank Covino. “His ability woman gazes downward while raising her hands in a gesture that
to paint what he saw and match colors with ease was awe-inspiring. echoes the bird design printed behind her. “The crane is a symbol of
I was hooked,” she recalls. hope and healing, of finding peace in challenging times,” Mastran-
Mastrangelo brought her hunger to learn to James Madison gelo explains, “and with her eyes closed, I imagine this woman is
University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia, but was disappointed picturing the lightweight feeling of her troubles flying away. I paint
when her art professors could not teach what she sought. While these works to remind us of who we really are, and how peace comes
studying in Florence during her junior year, she came across a poster from a connectedness with nature and ourselves.”
and brochures for nearby academies that teach realist painting and
drawing from life. “I was shocked to learn these schools existed,”
she laughs. MASTRANGELO is represented by the Guild of Boston Artists and Wil-
After graduating from JMU with honors, Mastrangelo returned liams Fine Art Dealers (Wenham, Massachusetts). Her solo exhibition
to Florence to study at the Angel Academy of Art under Michael What Nature Whispers will appear at the Guild June 8–July 3. In July she
John Angel, Jered Woznicki, and Martinho Correia. The work will teach the workshop Painting the Academic Still Life on Zoom and in
she completed in its three-year program earned her a scholarship person at the Mill Studio of Fine Arts (Manchester, Connecticut).
through the Art Renewal Center’s International Salon Competition,
MAUDIE BRADY (b. 1974), The Philosopher, 2023, HydroResin
(artist’s proof), 12 1/2 x 6 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. (not including base),
available in bronze (edition of 3) through the artist
The work of Australian-born sculptor MAUDIE BRADY

(b. 1974) can be seen not only in Barcelona’s Museu
Europeu d’Art Modern, but also in such celebrated film
franchises as Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean, for
which she sculpted set pieces and other assets.
Brady’s immersion in the arts began at 2 years old,
when her mother left a career in architecture for life as
an actor and director. “We traveled Europe perform-
ing at fairs, then moved back to Australia to live off the
grid in the tropical paradise of the New South Wales
coast,” she says. “It was a spectacular childhood full of
creativity.”
Brady earned her B.F.A. in sculpture from the
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 1998, then
began working in the art and construction depart-
ments of film studios. “The experience opened my
eyes to how important it is to observe nature, with all
its infinite variety, in order to achieve beauty through
technical craftsmanship,” she recalls.
After more than a decade in film, Brady realized
that she had more to learn about sculpting figures, so
she decided to pursue her education — and eventu-
ally, a fine art career — at the Florence Academy of Art
(FAA). “I realized that if I didn’t continue studying, I’d
be always working for other people, never finding out
what I had to offer the world on my own terms,” she says.
After graduating in 2016, Brady went on to win Best
Nude in the Art Renewal Center’s 12th International
Salon Competition and was twice named joint winner of
Australia’s prestigious Tom Bass Prize. She now serves
as director of anatomy and écorché at the FAA, dividing
her time between teaching there and sculpting in the
studio she shares with her husband, Björn.
Today Brady’s focus is firmly on the human figure: “I enjoy I’m seeking to represent and sometimes amplify a universal human
exploring ways to express a person’s inner world and complexities, condition that opens the door for viewers to relate in their own
as well as finding ways to represent that in a pose that creates emo- unique way,” she explains. “The point of artistic dialogue is not to be
tion through impression.” She lists Auguste Rodin, Lotta Blokker, literal, but to allow subconscious connections to be made and per-
and Grzegorz Gwiazda among her inspirations. sonal meaning to be formed.”
Brady’s penchant for visual drama can be seen in The Philoso-
pher, a rapidly sculpted portrait that was cast in resin but would be
equally suited to Carrara marble. “When I create figurative work, BRADY is self-represented.
B.J. PARKER (b. 1980), The Overly Icon, 2022, oil on marble in vintage wooden kiot (icon case), 8 x 10 in., available through the artist
Georgia-born artist B.J. PARKER (b. 1980) has always been fas- is recognized as an associate living master by the Art Renewal
cinated by art, and by life’s big questions. “I grew up steeped in Center, is lead instructor at the Gateway Academy of Classical Art
Southern religion and felt a strong pull to the transcendent,” says in St. Louis, and creates art that explores the narratives humans
Parker, whose early memories involve sitting in church and draw- use to make sense of the world.
ing pictures of the sermons on the backs of papers that were in “In my last body of work, In Search: (Re)building Myth, I imag-
the pews. ined a world in which the loss of all meaningful stories led to a
This affinity led to an interest in Greek mythology, and in high collapse of civilization that left individuals searching for ways to
school Parker learned “bits of Greek and Hebrew so that I could understand the past and build new stories,” Parker says. “I also
explore the ideas in the texts more fully,” he recalls. Although a made several artifacts that could come from this world, items that
career in art was always his goal, consulting his faith community I saw as being quasi-sacred and used by common people.”
about his interest in the transcendent led Parker first to a career One such work is The Overly Icon, a mysterious piece Parker
in ministry. created by painting a portrait on pieces of marble from a decaying
After years of working at churches, Parker decided to pursue St. Louis building and float-mounting them in a 19th-century icon
a doctorate in religious studies at Texas’s Baylor University, which box known as a kiot. “I hope to provoke a sense of wonder and
led to a key realization. “It finally clicked that I had been separat- awe in my work, but also to open the door to a bit of fermenting
ing my search for the sublime from the use of visual language, and restlessness,” he says. “I think the combination of those feelings
that I was happiest when I merged the two,” he explains, adding can lead to a recognition of the value of humanity and of the fun-
that it was then, at age 34, that he decided to pursue an art career. damental goodness of individual life.”
Parker enrolled at the nearby Texas Academy of Figurative
Art while completing his dissertation at Baylor, and later he stud-
ied online with Sadie Valeri and Patricia Watwood. Today, he PARKER is self-represented.
JOSÉ LÓPEZ VERGARA (b. 1994), Pegasus,
2023, oil on linen, 15 x 12 in., private
collection
Working in Madrid, JOSÉ LÓPEZ

VERGARA (b. 1994) draws inspi-
ration from art history to idealize
modern life in timeless composi-
tions. “I’m very attracted to the raw
shapes and design of antique art
and the first representations of the
human figure,” he says. “The icono-
graphy in my work comes from a
mixture of influences and my desire
to simplify shapes.”
Vergara first developed an
interest in classical painting on
a childhood trip to the Museo
Nacional del Prado, where he was
exposed to masterworks by Diego
Velázquez and Peter Paul Rubens.
“I was around 8 or 10 years old, and
that visit left a mark,” he remem-
bers. “One painting I saw, Rubens’s
St. George and the Dragon, inspires
me to this day.”
Around that same time, Ver-
gara suffered an accident that per-
manently impaired the movement
of his dominant arm. “Fortunately,
it didn’t prevent me from holding a
pencil or a brush,” he affirms. “More
than anything, the accident pushed me to draw more and to prove while wearing headpieces that signal their status in the fictional
that it wouldn’t be an obstacle.” worlds Vergara creates.
Vergara achieved viral fame as a teenager when his hyper- “For the background, I referenced a tapestry from 1520 titled
realistic colored pencil drawings won a contest on Instagram and ‘Fame’ that shows Perseus riding fire-breathing Pegasus and holding
were subsequently shared by celebrities and news outlets world- the severed head of Medusa, which I think fits the model’s attitude
wide. “It was an extraordinary experience, but those drawings were perfectly,” Vergara explains. “To me, both the figure and the tapestry
just a technical exercise,” he notes. “After all the fuss disappeared, I represent strength, power, seduction, mystery, and beauty.”
started working on my actual interests and realized I had to find a Through a blend of Renaissance techniques, medieval heraldry,
way to make paintings like that Rubens I saw at the Prado.” and modern attitudes, Vergara hopes to create work that will outlive
After six years of classical study — three at Florence’s Angel its present context. “I think true art transcends cultures, religions,
Academy of Art and three at the Grand Central Atelier in New York ideologies, and even time,” he declares. “I want to create something
City — Vergara now creates arresting compositions that pay hom- pure that can be enjoyed now and in a thousand years.”
age to the great artists of the past while speaking to present-day
collectors. Pegasus, illustrated here, is from a recent series that
depicts fierce-looking women posed in front of medieval tapestries VERGARA is represented by Arcadia Contemporary (New York City).
BY M AT T H I A S A N D E R S O N
T O D A Y ’ S
M A S T E R S

here is nothing quite so soothing as the sound of water, Whatever their motif, whatever their style, these talents have
whether it comes in the form of a crashing wave or a succeeded in welcoming us into their visions of life along the shore
lapping ripple. This pleasure is often enhanced by the and on the water. Enjoy, and please head to the water yourself, soon.
experience of rocking gently aboard a boat or ship, a
sensation that many of the artists illustrated here have
chosen to convey. MATTHIAS ANDERSON is a contributing writer to Fine Art Connoisseur.
BETH BATHE (b. 1959), Mary Day, 2022, oil on panel, 18 x 36 in., Camden Falls Gallery (Camden, Maine)
RYAN DAVIS (b. 1995), Gloucester Harbor Sail,
2024, oil on canvas, mounted on custom-
shaped panel, 29 x 29 in., Gallery
Poulsen (Copenhagen)
(ABOVE LEFT) MIKE BAGDONAS (b. 1942), Crumbling Coast, 2012, oil on linen board, 11 x 14 in., private collection (ABOVE RIGHT) SUE BARRASI (b. 1963), Louisiana Summer,
2022, oil on archival Ampersand Gessobord, 5 x 7 in., private collection
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) LAUREL DANIEL (b. 1956), Island Beacon, 2023, oil on
panel, 12 x 9 in., private collection DEENA S. BALL (b. 1961), Fog Shift, 2023, oil on
copper, 12 x 12 in., private collection JUDITH FEINS (b. 1951), Edge Illuminated, 2019,
oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in., private collection DEBRA JOY GROESSER (b. 1957), Morning
Glory, 2013, oil on linen panel, 24 x 30 in., private collection RICK DELANTY (b. 1951),
Sleeping Cat, 2022, oil on board, 12 x 16 in., Minnesota Marine Art Museum (Winona)
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) DOUGLAS GRIER (b. 1947), Evening Crabber, 2022, oil on canvas,
35 x 27 in., Dare Gallery (Charleston) MARIANNA FOSTER (b. 1982), Young Odyssey, 2023, oil on wood
panel, 14 x 14 in., private collection CATHERINE HILLIS (b. 1953), Seaside Geometry, 2020, watercolor
on paper, 22 x 28 in., available through the artist NEAL HUGHES (b. 1952), Blue Skiff, 2024, oil on linen,
24 x 36 in., Hughes Gallery (Boca Grande, Florida) ELLEN HOWARD (b. 1965), Last Light, Carmel River
Beach, 2024, oil on linen panel, 11 x 14 in.,Carmel Fine Art (Carmel-by-the-Sea, California)
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) BARBARA JAENICKE (b. 1964), Cape Kiwanda
Surf, 2022, oil on linen, 18 x 24 in., private collection JOHN T. EISEMAN
(b. 1958), Morning Has Broken, 2022, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in., private
collection STEPHANIE AMATO (b. 1959), A Grand View, 2023, oil on
canvas, 36 x 48 in., Huff Harrington (Atlanta and Paris) CHRISTINE
LASHLEY (b. 1967), Sun Sparkles, 2024, oil on canvas, 60 x 48 in., Principle
Gallery, Charleston
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) MATT DEPROSPERO (b. 1965), Tethered, 2024,
oil on panel, 18 x 14 in., MADE Gallery (Lambertville, New Jersey) JIM LAURINO
(b. 1961), Hills Bay Fence-line, 2023, oil on canvas, 16 x 16 in., private collection KIM
LORDIER (b. 1966), The Magic Hour, Torrey Pines, 2023, pastel on paper, 24 x 30 in.,
Huse Skelly Gallery (Newport Beach, California) GAYLE MADEIRA (b. 1969), Sunset
on the Marshes, 2019, oil on linen panel, 7 x 14 in., private collection SUSAN LYNN
(b. 1963), At the Bow, 2023, oil on linen, 9 x 12 in., available through the artist
(TOP) DAVID MARTY (b. 1951), A View of Crescent Bay, 2021, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in., private collection (ABOVE LEFT) JEFF MATHISON (b. 1950), Not So Bad, 2013, watercolor
on paper, 9 x 12 in., available through the artist (ABOVE RIGHT) KELLY SCHAMBERGER (b. 1985), Once upon a Childhood, 2020, oil on aluminum panel, 24 x 33 1/2 in.,
private collection
LAURENCE O’TOOLE (b. 1968), Harbour Swans
Evening, 2022, oil on canvas, 16 x 16 in.,
private collection
(ABOVE LEFT) SCOTT ANTHONY (b. 1948), Calm Afternoon at Mendocino Point, 2021, oil on hardboard panel, 12 x 16 in., Prentice Gallery (Mendocino, California) (ABOVE RIGHT)
LORI PUTNAM (b. 1962), Yorkshire Coast, 2023, oil on linen, 30 x 36 in., available through the artist
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) BARBARA TAPP (b. 1954), Winter Light, Big Sur,
2023, watercolor on paper, 13 x 18 in., private collection BRENT SCHREIBER
(b. 1975), Heathen Chemistry 11, 2023, oil on panel, 48 x 36 in., Westland Gallery
(London, Ontario) BARB WALKER (b. 1954), Good Day, 2023, oil on paper,
9 x 12 in., Camden Falls Gallery (Camden, Maine) JILL STEFANI WAGNER
(b. 1955), Yacht Club Reflections, 2017, oil on linen, 12 x 12 in., private collection
(TOP) DAVID SHINGLER (b. 1982), Ocean Sky, 2019, oil on wood, 40 x 48 in., Momentum Gallery (Asheville, North Carolina) (ABOVE) RICHARD WILSON (b. 1971), Calm after the
Storm, 2023, soft pastel on archival board, 20 x 60 in., available through the artist
(TOP) BENJAMIN LUSSIER (b. 1988), Under the Floods, 2023, oil on board, 12 x 16 in., private collection (LEFT) SARAH WARDA (b. 1967), Summer Light, 2020, oil on canvas, 24 x
30 in., 33 Contemporary (Miami) (RIGHT) PAULA HOLTZCLAW (b. 1954), Moment of Quiet, 2024, oil on linen panel, 24 x 36 in., Highlands Art Gallery (Lambertville, New Jersey)
MARK SHASHA (b. 1961), Côte d’Azur, 2023, oil on panel, 12 x 9 in., private collection
BY MICHAEL J. PEARCE
T O D A Y ’ S
M A S T E R S
A HOM IN NORWAY
A
t the snow-covered tip of south-
ern Norway, the liminal coast-
line shimmers between the end
of the earth and the beginning
of water. Smooth little islands,
ground gray by ancient glaciers from extru-
sions of Stavern granite, push through the sur-
face. Steam from the sea freezes into a stripe
of hanging fog suspended in a weighty layer
beneath a pale blue sky. A bare and brief winter
sun lights the thickened snow in a low, elon-
gated dawn and stretched dusk. The reflected
northern light bounces through a tall window
into the second story of a cold, wooden barn,
its exterior walls of red ochre contrasting
sharply against the white snowdrifts.
Inside the barn is a warm bohemian
tangle of bare wood, chaos, and creativ-
ity, with a cluster of huge linen canvases
stretched onto sturdy bars tied with strips
of cloth to the frames of wheeled wooden
easels. There a painter, draped in a large
white cotton smock, stares through round-
rimmed spectacles at a gray and naked man
who stands on a sturdy crate, his bare feet
turned in and ashamed, head hung, with
hands covering his crotch. The white hair
of the artist Odd Nerdrum (b. 1944) curls beneath the flopped brim
of his wide straw hat, spilling over a black cashmere sweater tied like The studio barn; photo: Michael Pearce
a shawl over his smocked shoulders. His thick ankles are wrapped in
heavy woolen socks sagging gray over new black sneakers that jar the
17th-century tones of bare wood and coarse cloth. Nerdrum’s head On his palette, Nerdrum mixes warm mustards of vermillion and
tilts back, and in the melodic song of the Norwegian language he yellow ochre, scrapes lead white and ivory black, and adds layers to the
directs his model to adjust the position of his fingers. warmth and glow of the painting before him. His hands are sheathed in
Odd Nerdrum painting The Burning Boat; photo:
Michael Pearce Odd Nerdrum; photo: Bork Nerdrum
fingerless white gloves; with a short-handled

flat he brushes paint with the casual famili-
arity of flow. Somewhere in the mysterious
birthplace of imagination he has found a raw
image of a shipwrecked man and woman
standing on a bedraggled shoreline as their
skiff burns in the ocean behind them, heated
in a conflagration of white light and red flame
beneath an oily black smear of smoke rising
through the still and filthy air. The couple are
wretched and humiliated. Nerdrum explains
that they were careless with their untended
fire; now their chances have past, and they
have nothing. What hope do the aged have for
salvation from the consequences of their own
failures? He says he will call this painting The Burning Boat.
CALLING IT LIKE IT IS
Nerdrum is often criticized for the grim horrors he favors as the sub-
jects of his dramas, as though art should be ashamed to offend. But to
complain of his dark depictions of human experience is to pretend that
our species is blameless and already capable of life in utopia, despite
the overwhelming evidence that we are as degenerate, casually violent,
and abusive as we have ever been. The unease and fear that Nerdrum’s
paintings generate arise precisely because he paints scenes reflecting the
brutish cruelties present in contemporary life. That these cruelties exist
creates intense discomfort among idealists who fantasize about West-
ern progress toward a perfected world; Nerdrum shatters their hopes by
cutting to the sensual bone of the human experience. Worse, he uses the
traditional techniques of the individualist Rembrandt, and the shadows
and violence of Caravaggio’s melodramas; for subjects he uses perennial
themes sourced directly from the ancient literature and imagery that
A corner of the studio; photo: Michael Pearce
The Murder of Andreas Baader, 1977–78, oil on canvas,
127 1/2 x 103 in., Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo
have provided the foundations of Western

culture. Aristotle is his friend and guide, for
Nerdrum is at heart a tragedian. A Shake-
spearean dramaturge of pigment and palette,
he doesn’t paint the truth; he paints raw feel-
ings and experiences, offering no answers
but telling no lies, following Aristotle’s wise
advice that “tragedy is a representation, not
of men, but of action and life, of happiness and
unhappiness.”
For avant-gardists, then, Nerdrum
has been a ghastly, kitsch creature — a tra-
ditionalist and a truth-teller revealing the
primitive nature of our species by exposing
eternal themes with a critical eye cast upon
their pretensions to utopia. They have seen
the spectral shape of their enemy in his
art. To conservatives he has been almost as
awful. This was a successful and prospering
bohemian armed with both the cut of truth
and the simple compassion of clear sight.
Thus, Nerdrum became the reviled genius
of our time. His mature paintings of the
1980s were astonishing images that showed
a wandering generation of painters that it
was possible to say something new with the
figure, that there was a brave new world of
potential, that they had a home and refuge
from the wasteland. His 1990s paintings of
women defecating and of hermaphrodites,
and his self-portrait with an impressive
erection, were as shocking and topical as
any scandalous postmodernist’s work, yet
always remained within the realms of hon-
est inquiry. Odd Nerdrum changed our lives.
Until he was almost 40, Nerdrum was
a graphic and gory social realist, painting —
among other scenes — a scandalous staging
of the murder of imprisoned German terror-
ist Andreas Baader; a lush and gruesome still
life of blood and guts spilling from the belly
of an eviscerated victim killed in a hit and
run; and a massive emulation of Théodore
Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa remade for
the new era. Nerdrum’s cast of characters
were already physiological creatures, but
soon they bore a new, sensitive, and subtle
burden. Tragedy aims at representing men
better than they are, wrote Aristotle, and
since the early 1980s — when Nerdrum truly
became Nerdrum — his instinctive compas-
sion, which is coupled to human conscious-
ness, became the principal characteristic
that redeemed his subjects from cruel bes-
tiality. There was emergent transcendence
there, and experience, but in paint he was no
longer a didactic sermonizer. If he wished to
Refugees at Sea, 1979–80, oil on canvas, 132 x 201 in.,

private collection
View from the studio barn, with a bronze sculpture of
an Indian boy in the foreground; photo: Michael Pearce
fabulous Christina’s World was hung igno-

miniously in a hallway near the elevators
at MoMA. But Nerdrum cut the conceptual
cloth with visceral repulsion and disgust,
and his sensual apocalypse felt real.
LIFE IN THE NORTH

Much of Nerdrum’s work is misunderstood
by people unfamiliar with his Norwegian
home, where the thin light of pale winter
caresses the shadowed landscape in trun-
cated days, with a long dawn and stretched
twilight; the low sun slips embarrassed
across the ashamed meridian like a fugitive,
barely peering above the horizon. Here man-
kind wakes and sleeps in darkness. The old
gods hang closer to the earth in the North,
where sometimes the aurora lights glow
green, reflected in drifting snow. The peren-
nial mysteries of life and death are present
and personal, and the pragmatic practicali-
ties of survival dwell comfortably alongside
the mysteries and magic of this strange land.
Nature is a moody mistress here. It is not her
role to play a Gaian lover or friend, and she is
comfortable with killing.
When Nerdrum paints figures wrapped
in furs, they are pictures of individuals
engaged in a real fight against the fierce
frost cutting to their bones, not a fantasy
from the Northern Wall of Westeros. When
Nerdrum paints people’s heads and hands
covered in leather skullcaps and sheepskins,
he is inspired by the circumstances of sur-
vival. When Nerdrum paints naked men
and women basking on the sculpted rocks in
the pale sun of Norwegian spring, they radi-
ate honest relief that the days of light have
come, that silent winter has closed until time
restores her season.
Nerdrum is a cathartic creature of
mood. It is easy to overlook the transcendent
and galactic light he paints when his subjects
soar in the effervescent eternity of sparkling
space, and to forget that when his Dogger-
land refugees find comfort in spring’s new
growth, and when his motif babies are raised
aloft by empathetic men and women bearing
their fragile bodies as symbols of hope, love,
and life, borne into the future’s golden light
Crossing the Border, 2013, oil on canvas, 80 1/3 x 100 3/4 in., Nerdrum Museum by willing hands and upright hearts, these
are paintings of joy.
In the converted barn, Nerdrum’s vis-
teach anything through those mature paintings, it was the lesson that iting students make brief homes in simple rooms. In exchange for
humans are sensual beings, and compassion is a sensual experience. lodging and learning, they help in the atelier upstairs, preparing
As we begin the second quarter of the postmodern 21st century canvases, grinding paint, and sometimes modeling. They paint in
awash in popular figurative art, it is hard to imagine the strangled cul- the spacious students’ studio next door, overlooking a long pasture
ture that languished at the end of the previous era. From New York, the stretching down to the astonishingly beautiful beach, toward the
so-called avant-garde gripped the throat of imagination and squashed light and budding landscape of Nerdrum’s springtime paintings. A
representation, exiling their advocates into a cultural wilderness. Then, solitary bluestone monolith rises from the snow, and a bronze sculp-
there were almost no ateliers to train in, and even Andrew Wyeth’s ture of an Indian boy squats upon a rock, face lifted to the southern
Nerdrum’s preliminary drawing for Leaving the Sanitorium appears on the title page of
a Rembrandt monograph; photo: Michael Pearce
sun that glows three thin fingers above the horizon. Horses and
long-horned goats chew hay and stare.
Some fine and famous painters have served short apprentice-
ships with Nerdrum — Maria Kreyn was his muse, and Amy Sherald,
Fergus Ryan, and Rose Freymuth-Frazier have broken bread with
him. Hundreds have benefited from his generosity, and dozens have
awakened here and raised their heads to breathe the heady trails of
Swedish coffee brewing black in the austere kitchen. They have fol-
lowed that drifting aroma through the wooden hall past a little self-
portrait etching by Rembrandt, who is the patron saint of this special
place, past a palette encrusted with rich pigment nailed to the wall,
winding up the crack and creak of narrow stairs to mingle with the
scented weight of linseed oil and conversation in his studio, where
bare chairs wait to bear them.
Nerdrum paints while the radio burbles pleasant folk songs and
chatter. Shelves under the angled attic snug are loaded with boxed
paint and books, and a line of studied heads painted onto encrusted
ground-mixing boards lean against the sloping ceiling. Battered
books of his heroes lie in stacks, the empty spaces between picture
pages filled with blue biro sketches — like his preliminary drawing for
Leaving the Sanitorium scrawled onto the title page of a Rembrandt
monograph. Beside the glass doors are jumbled animal skulls and
skins, stuffed birds and baskets, boxes and bundles of linen and rolled
rags. Nerdrum’s big black coat hangs from a metal light stand. A jam
of easels bearing a half-dozen broad canvases surround him, ochred
linen stretched over strong frames, some of them close to completion.
A new version of The Animal

Stone; photo: Michael Pearce
Egg Snatchers, 2011, oil on canvas, 70 1/2 x 79 1/2 in., Nerdrum Museum
Among them, a young, bearded longbowman stands impassive and

Paleolithic before an Icelandic arch of cooled tectonic lava. He has no
arms, a tragic figure at the end of the world, hanging on the edge of com-
edy. A plump nude hermaphrodite awaits our admiration. Naked women
look out at the ocean with a swaddled baby balanced on their boulder and
an empty moored boat gently drifting. Nerdrum’s wife, high-cheeked
Turid, wears the white of midsummer and walks with her daughter
among the light-leaved aspens. A shocked and shrinking group of naked
women wades into the still cold waters of springtime. And, as always, the
Öde Nerdrum (one of Odd’s two sons) in the Nerdrum Museum’s great hall, before its end is everything. In a final flourish on a huge canvas, a group of patients
renovation say farewell to a friend: cured, he must leave their shared sanctuary in the
summerland and make his way back into the world.
These paintings are destined for the new Nerdrum Museum, now
open in Stavern, about 90 miles southwest
of Oslo. The museum is a daring venture in
the painter’s twilight years. Aging gently, he
turned 80 in April, and says he works only for
legacy now; everything he makes in future will
go directly into the museum’s collection. The
museum is a vast series of renovated halls built
into two floors of a former match factory on the
waterfront, a short drive from the barn. In the
high spaces where explosive phosphorus was
once carefully applied to sticks and packaged
to bring the sustaining gift of fire and light to
homes and hearths, now Nerdrum’s profound
paintings glow with the light of revelation,
exposing the eternal fragility and strength of
the human spirit.
Information: Visit nerdrum.com/museum to learn

more about the new museum, which is directed by
the Norwegian composer Martin Romberg (b. 1978).
MICHAEL J. PEARCE, PHD is the author of

Kitsch, Propaganda, and the American Avant-Garde
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2023), and pro-
Dawn, 1989, oil on canvas, 75 x 111 1/2 in., private collection fessor of art at California Lutheran University.
BY DAVID MASELLO
T O D A Y ’ S
M A S T E R S

he artworks of Sara Gallagher (b. 1990)
sometimes come with an asterisk, actual
fine print that defines what she does in
case someone might be confused. When
her San Francisco gallery, CK Contempo-
rary, exhibits her works at Art on Paper in New York or
the San Francisco Art Fair, it affixes the following two
words: “Pencil drawing.”
As the gallery’s founder and director, Lauren Ellis,
says of Gallagher’s work, which she has been showing
since 2022, “At art fairs, where people are often walking
past our booth and assume that many of our pieces are
photographs, we find it helpful to put up that sign, espe-
cially for Sara. We make the type size large enough that
people can read it from the aisle.”
So uncannily realistic are Gallagher’s drawings of
people, rendered in graphite and PanPastel (a highly mix-
able dry pastel akin to what its manufacturer describes
as “velvety paint”), that they are commonly mistaken for
photographs. That confusion is about more than just the
fact that she possesses the ability to render details with
a keen verisimilitude, whether it’s the individual hairs
on a head or the look that water assumes in a bathtub.
Gallagher’s subjects wear expressions so real, poignant,
complex, nuanced, true-to-life that anyone could easily
make the mistake about the medium employed.
“From a technical standpoint, Sara’s skill is some
of the best I’ve ever seen,” says Ellis, “but she’s able to
Without Sanctuary, 2023, graphite and PanPastel on paper,

34 1/2 x 31 1/4 in., CK Contemporary (San Francisco)
take that skill and create an emotionally rich beauty. Her figures tell
intimate stories for us. While those stories are very specific, Sara cap-
tures emotions that are universal to humans.”
At her home studio in Nicasio, California (where Gallagher and
her musician husband, Jacob Aranda, account for two of the town’s
98 residents), she can complete one drawing of a figure, imbued with
a character and feelings we know to be accurate, in two to six weeks.
“There is a little wiggle room, depending on the intricacy of the
work,” she explains, “such as one of my recent pieces, Without Sanc-
tuary, which is actually my husband posing in the tub. That took eight
weeks to complete as the floral background was much more intricate
than other, simpler backgrounds.” While that rendering of vines and
flowers may have slowed the process, Gallagher was able to capture
the mood of her sitter in less time, which is odd, given that the inner
life should be the most labor-intensive and elusive to capture.
Surrounded by the towering redwood trees that grow an hour
north of San Francisco, Gallagher draws every day, often beginning
the morning with a walk through the mighty forest with her dog. “My
actual pencil-to-paper time averages five to eight hours a day,” she
says, “but I often end up working 12 hours, which includes thinking
(TOP) Let Them Fall, 2023, graphite and PanPastel on paper, 23 x 30 in.,
CK Contemporary (San Francisco) (LEFT) Retrospect, 2023, graphite and PanPastel
on paper, 28 x 28 in., private collection
(ABOVE) Hold Your Grief Gently, 2022, pencil on paper,
20 x 40 in., private collection (RIGHT) The Work,
2022, graphite and PanPastel on paper, 22 x 20 in.,
private collection
as I take walks or stop to play the banjo and

sing some songs, mostly country tunes.” An
added asterisk to her career might men-
tion that she and Jacob are performers.
He makes guitars by hand and plays them,
while she strums the banjo as they both
sing. Their two-week honeymoon through
northern Italy in October 2022 doubled as
a multi-town performance gig. “We had
the tour booked before we even decided to
marry,” she recalls. “Once we got married,
we suddenly thought, ‘Well, we’ll make it
our honeymoon tour.’”
Gallagher knows how to read people’s
emotions and states of mind, then trans-
late them through graphite and pastel. “My
drawings are not a portrait of a person,”
she emphasizes, “but, rather, portraits of
an emotion or an emotional experience.”
Indeed, to look at a recent work such as Let
Them Fall is to see a contemplative woman
in a bathtub who is metaphorically bathing
away what Gallagher describes as her “men-
tal clutter, which can become so prevalent
that it seeps deep into our subconscious.”
In Retrospect, a woman appears to literally
be looking back, but in Gallagher’s view the figure is examining her AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE
past, “reminiscing on something that may have gone a different way.” While most artists seek out imagery to fill their blank sheets of paper,
And in No Longer Mine, another woman in a bathtub has, the artist Gallagher searches for emotions. “Every single person has concerns
explains, reached a point where hard work, an actual “hustle,” has about their physical health, but there is also mental health to con-
resulted in the reaching of a goal. “When we work hard and succeed, sider,” she notes. “I work with individuals from the general public who
the fruits of our labor separate from us, birthing something brand new reach out to me,” some indicating that they have experienced anxiety
into the world — and it’s beautiful.” or fears, a pervasive sorrow, existential perplexity, or other emotional
reflectiveness. To further protect the works, she uses a “workable
fixative” throughout the drawing process, a sprayed concoction that
Now with You, 2022, graphite on paper, 6 x 13 in., CK Contemporary (San Francisco) keeps everything firmly in place on the paper.
Now, just two years into this new technical phase, Gallagher has
emerged as a master of the form. Apart from her representation by
CK Contemporary, she has received numerous awards and has been
depths they want to explore. When she finds them (and they are every- included in various exhibitions and collections, including the Bennett
where, since that is the human condition), Gallagher converses with Collection of Women Figurative Realists, The Lunar Codex (through
them, winning their trust and confidence. Most of them, though not which some of her works will reach space in a time capsule), and the
all, agree for her to photograph them, and she uses the resulting photo- Art Renewal Center’s 16th International ARC Salon.
graphs to create her drawings. “I make sure they’re very comfortable She has emerged from all of this with a new designation for her
when they agree to be photographed. I feed them, always give them work: Emotional Realism. This aptly descriptive term was coined, in
a free print after the work is done, as well as a healthy friends-and- fact, by Scott Schryver, a sales consultant at CK Contemporary, who
family discount!” Most important, she listens to their stories. used it to describe what he saw. Now Ellis says, “‘Emotional Realism’
Despite the skill that artists may reveal, it’s not uncommon for is often the term we use when describing Sara’s work to clients who
many of them to continue searching for their ultimate medium and walk in.”
subject matter. Although Gallagher had worked as a thoroughly Gallagher readily admits to why she has embraced depicting the
seasoned oil painter for years after graduating from San Fran- “taboos that surround emotional and mental health.” She says, “To be
cisco State University with an emphasis on painting, drawing, and honest, I had experienced a great deal of anxiety myself, so much so
photography, she felt something was missing. “I just wasn’t satis- that I worked hard with a therapist to find the emotional tools to deal
fied with my paintings,” she confesses, “and so I ended up seeking with it, to battle it, to fight and conquer the anxiety.” Through these
another medium. I wanted to push my skills somewhere else.” In sessions, Gallagher had what she considers an epiphany, in that once
2019, she went to Germany to attend a rigorous graphite workshop she understood her anxiety, she was able to shift the negativity into
led by Dirk Dzimirsky, the hyper-famous hyper-realist artist of something “emotionally beautiful.”
our time. “Graphite clicked for me,” Gallagher recalls. “With this Because she is, by nature, an empathetic person, she started
medium, I was finally able to translate what was in my head and the thinking that by drawing others suffering from mental issues, she
messages I wanted to convey.” could help them. “My personal experience translated into curiosity
But while graphite allowed her to draw in a truly realistic man- about others and how to bring about a community of people, to let
ner, something was still missing: color. “I longed to have color, but I them know there are others suffering. The mission of my work that
wasn’t willing to give up the medium of graphite,” a material noted, of makes me feel so good is the hope that I am helping other people,
course, for its monochromatic gray tones. “I kept asking myself, ‘What connecting them and fostering a healing experience. I always want
would work with graphite and that I would be happy to include?’” She to include others in my process of making art. It’s about making it
found that PanPastels, as dry in consistency as graphite, were a way to about them.”
introduce color. “When the pastels are mixed with graphite, which has
a natural shimmer to it, I am able to bring in muted hues over every-
thing.” The softness of the colors and the softness of the appearance DAVID MASELLO is executive editor of MILIEU magazine, and a writer
of the pastels on paper reflect Gallagher’s desire to depict emotions in about art and culture. He writes one-act plays, poetry, personal essays, and
powerful yet gentle ways. monologues, which he often performs.
Because her materials are so fragile, Gallagher must frame
the works behind glass. “It’s a bit of a bummer to have to do that,”
she says, “but it’s museum-quality glass” with comparatively little
BY ANNE UNDERWOOD
H I S T O R I C
M A S T E R S

he year was 1924, and an American artist named Isadore ning). They paid for workmen to extract the murals, then re-plaster
Levy was visiting the tiny town of Le Pouldu on the south and paper the wall.
coast of Brittany in France. As he sat at a table in a small Gauguin and his entourage were the most famous artists to descend
inn awaiting his food, he began studying some murals on Le Pouldu in the late 1880s. But they were not the only ones. A month
that workmen had recently uncovered beneath layers of before Gauguin moved into the Buvette de la Plage, another artist had taken
wallpaper. The proprietress was about to repaper the walls. But Levy up residence nearby at the Hôtel Destais. His name was William Sergeant
spied a signature on one mural that would
change everything: “P Go,” short for Paul
Gauguin (1848–1903).1
Levy came along at exactly the right
moment to rescue an astonishing piece of
art history. It turned out that Gauguin had
lived in this very building — the Buvette
de la Plage — between October 1889 and
November 1890. The Buvette had a din-
ing room and a taproom downstairs and
three bedrooms upstairs, where Gauguin
had lodged with his fellow artists Jacob
Meyer de Haan, Paul Sérusier, and (later)
Charles Filiger. Late in 1889, they had
painted the dining room’s walls, ceiling,
and even its windowpanes.2 Now, before
the murals could disappear from sight
again, Levy purchased one of them from
the landlady and persuaded two friends
to purchase another (Breton Girl Spin-
(RIGHT) PAUL GAUGUIN, Breton Girl Spinning,

1889, oil on plaster, 53 1/8 x 24 2/5 in., Van Gogh
Museum, Amsterdam, s0513S2006 (FAR RIGHT)
WILLIAM SERGEANT KENDALL, Two Young Gossips
of Le Pouldu, 1889, oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 21 3/4 in.,
private collection, New York City, photo courtesy
Michael Owen, Owen Gallery, New York City
(LEFT) PAUL GAUGUIN,
The Kelp Gatherers,
1889, oil on canvas,
34 1/4 x 48 1/2 in.,
Museum Folkwang,
Essen, Germany, photo:
Artothek (BELOW)
WILLIAM SERGEANT
KENDALL, Désirs, 1892,
oil on canvas, 68 3/4 x
58 1/4 in., Smithsonian
American Art Museum,
Washington, D.C.,
1974.45, gift of Elisabeth
Kendall Underwood
gained admission to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts — quite a coup for
an American in those days. But his stay in Brittany marked the first time in
his life that he was free to hire his own models and choose his own subjects.
Le Pouldu nurtured not only Gauguin’s radical experiments, but
also Kendall’s efforts, which were likewise striking, if more traditional.
A new museum in Le Pouldu, set to open in the spring of 2025, will trace
the outsized role of this tiny town in the art world of its day.3 But visitors
seeking to retrace the steps of the artists can do so now. Next door to
the site of the future museum is the Maison-Musée Gauguin, a faithful
reconstruction of the Buvette de la Plage as it looked in Gauguin’s time.
And along the shore, visitors can take a walking tour comprising 19 stops,
where they see the scenes that inspired Gauguin and other painters.
That a village with a population of 48 (281 if you include the con-
tiguous hamlets) could draw so many artists may seem unlikely.4 But Le
Pouldu offered cheap accommodations, a rugged coastline, unspoiled
countryside, and ways of life that hadn’t changed for generations, pro-
viding plenty of “motifs” for painters. Gauguin and Kendall were just
two of the artists who walked the same paths, met the same people,
and painted the same scenes, yet rendered them in very different ways.
A side-by-side comparison of five paintings by each of the two art-
ists shows their different approaches. Illustrated here, each pair takes
a specific theme related to life in Le Pouldu — spinning, harvesting sea-
weed, praying, and viewing the landscape or ocean — and shows how
the two artists addressed it.
In this, his third stay in Brittany, Gauguin was pushing the bound-
aries of art — flattening perspective, moving away from naturalism,
and eliminating all but the basic elements in a scene. He deliberately
avoided sunlight and shadow, and he dispensed with the shading that
creates the illusion of three dimensions, favoring instead solid blocks of
color. This style became known as synthetism. Although he had formu-
Kendall (1869–1938), and he was one of a number of American and Brit- lated its principles with Émile Bernard in nearby Pont-Aven the previ-
ish art students who came from Paris to Le Pouldu to paint during summer ous year, Le Pouldu provided Gauguin with the time and space to fully
breaks. Born in what is now the Bronx, Kendall had trained at the Pennsyl- develop these ideas. Here he would depict sand as red (as in The Wave)
vania Academy of the Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins and at the Art Stu- and stylize the image of a spinner so much that we can barely make out
dents League of New York with Harry Siddons Mowbray. In Paris, he had her distaff and spindle (Breton Girl Spinning).
(ABOVE) PAUL GAUGUIN, Landscape at Le Pouldu, 1890, oil on canvas, 27 7/8 x
(ABOVE) PAUL GAUGUIN, Adam and Eve, or Paradise Lost, c. 1890, oil on canvas, 36 3/8 in., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983.1.20, collection of Mr. and
18 1/8 x 20 3/8 in., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 1971.144, gift Mrs. Paul Mellon (BELOW) WILLIAM SERGEANT KENDALL, The Glory of Fair Promise,
of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin E. Bensinger, B.A. 1928 (BELOW) WILLIAM SERGEANT 1892, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in., private collection, New Jersey
KENDALL, Saint Yves, Pray for Us, 1890–91, oil on canvas, 38 1/2 x 42 1/2 in., private
collection, photo courtesy Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts, New York City
Kendall may have steered clear of such “suddenly born aesthetic “Saint Yves has wall power,” says Peggy Stone of Lawrence Steigrad
fancies,” yet his approach was also modern.5 He, too, stripped scenes Fine Arts (Manhattan), which recently acquired and then sold the
down to their essentials, eliminating Victorian-era fussiness, and he painting to a private collector. She contrasts Saint Yves with another
made excellent use of negative space (as in Saint Yves, Pray for Us). painting offered by the gallery that “screams 19th century, with a beau-
His religious pictures weren’t Biblical tableaux like those of the past, tiful mother and lovely children — it’s pretty, but that’s all.” By contrast,
but scenes of real people in real places. Where Gauguin layered his she says, Saint Yves feels edgy and modern. “Kendall was a man out of
religious paintings with symbolism (Adam and Eve, or Paradise Lost), his time, a forward-thinking painter,” she notes.6
Kendall captured the raw emotion of an impoverished young woman Gauguin’s pictures fascinate, and they represent an important step
imploring St. Yves, the Breton protector of the poor and of orphans, to in the development of art, paving the way for fauvism and other styles.
help her. In a radical move, Kendall even lopped off the saint’s head, But Kendall’s best works practically leap off the canvas. The Glory of
apparently feeling that a wooden statue in a church was less important Fair Promise, one of several paintings of apple trees he made in Brittany
than the young woman’s expression of faith. This painting won an hon- in 1892, combines flat brushwork for the grass with thick impasto for
orable mention at the Paris Salon of 1891. the dense clusters of pinkish white flowers. The branches, laden with
(ABOVE) PAUL GAUGUIN, The Wave, 1888, oil on canvas, 24 x 29 in., private collection
(RIGHT) WILLIAM SERGEANT KENDALL, On a Cliff by the Sea—Le Pouldu, 1890, oil on
canvas, 17 x 13 in., unlocated, photo courtesy Michael Owen, Owen Gallery, New York City
blossoms, bend in a breathtaking sweep that’s heightened by the sun-

light striking the branches. Only after taking in all of this do we notice a
figure in the shade below. This painting earned Kendall a medal at the
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
Kendall would go on to become dean of the Yale School of the Fine
Arts (1913–22) and a National Academician (associate membership in 1901
and full membership four years later). He became known for his portraits,
especially of children. In the early 2000s, one crooked art dealer in Vero
Beach, Florida, even passed off a couple of Kendall’s studies as the work ANNE UNDERWOOD is a longtime writer and editor for a variety of publica-
of Mary Cassatt (and was sentenced to seven years in prison for various tions. She is a great-granddaughter of William Sergeant Kendall and is writing
swindles).7 Yet Kendall’s pictures never give in to sentimentality, as paint- a book about him, based on her research on his artwork, journals, letters, family
ings of children so often do. One could argue that he learned that approach photos, and other archival material.
in Le Pouldu, where the realities of life were harsh, despite the presence of
great beauty.
In The Kelp Gatherers, Gauguin represents a major occupation in Notes
Le Pouldu — seaweed harvesting. In the autumn, when storms would 1 Author’s written communication with Maud Naour, director of the Maison-
tear kelp loose from the seabed, peasants would collect it to use as fer- Musée Gauguin in Le Pouldu.
tilizer on their farms. While Gauguin’s style is pathbreaking, his subject 2 The four walls were fully decorated by December 13, 1889, according to
matter is traditional. Kendall’s approach is exactly the opposite. His Gauguin’s Nirvana: Painters at Le Pouldu 1889–1890 (Eric M. Zafran, ed., p. 64).
style is traditional, but the subject is not. In Désirs, his kelp gatherers This book includes a complete description of the murals on pp. 64–67.
are not at the beach at all, but back at the farm, where one of them rests 3 Author’s interview with Maud Naour.
on a wheelbarrow full of seaweed. She gazes into the distance, wearied 4 Archives départmentales du Finistère. Recensements de population, 1886.
by “the thousand little incidents and accidents of life,” as Kendall put it, 5 Kendall’s interview with Montrose J. Moses in preparation for Moses’s article
complete with the constant struggle, fatigue, and longing for rest that “William Sergeant Kendall: Philosopher of Form and Color,” Hearst’s Magazine,
come with such an existence. But Kendall hated trying to describe his Jan 1916. The quote did not appear in the final copy, which was significantly edited.
paintings and the meaning behind them. He concluded: The early draft is in the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS) files on Kendall,
Box 1.
What is the good of painting an idea if it can be expressed 6 Author’s interview with Peggy Stone of Lawrence Steigrad Fine Arts.
in words? The only excuse of existence of a picture is that it 7 Author’s interview with Robert Austin, who presented proof for the trial that
expresses some thought or idea or feeling that can be expressed Matthew Taylor had doctored Kendall’s work. Also, author’s interview with the
in no other way. That is the canon of art.8 Los Angeles collector who purchased the two studies after being led to believe
they were by Mary Cassatt. The items in question were studies for Kendall’s
For once, Gauguin would likely have agreed with him. paintings Mrs. Hoyt and Her Children and Il Penseroso.
8 Kendall’s journal, May 4, 1892; N-YHS, box 4.
Information: The Maison-Musée Gauguin (open April-October) is located at 10

rue des Grands Sables in Le Pouldu. Its website, maisonmuseegauguin.blogspot.
com/p/pratique.html, includes visitor information, brief histories of the Buvette
and the painters who lived there, and a map of “the painters’ path” walking tour.
BY DANIEL GRANT
H I S T O R I C
M A S T E R S
WAR H. VR
P
erhaps the most singular event in the life and career of
Walter H. Everett (1880–1946) was the day in 1935 when
he set fire to many, perhaps most, of his own paintings and
drawings. A student of the renowned illustrator Howard
Pyle (1853–1911), Everett had been a highly successful illus-
trator himself, producing covers and inside-the-book art for The Sat-
urday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, McCall’s, and Woman’s Home
Companion, as well as other popular publications.
But it all ended in 1935, when he decided to terminate his illustra-
tion career, apparently with some bitterness. Was he depressed? Did he
have a mental breakdown? Had he wanted to be accepted as a fine artist,
rather than as an illustrator (to some, a second-tier pursuit)? Had his
later work deteriorated in quality, as some have posited, spurring him
to destroy it all? At the time, Everett was separated from his wife, the
result of his cheating on her with his models. Perhaps he was ensuring
she wouldn’t get any artworks in a divorce settlement? (In fact, they
never did divorce and she returned to live with him, but she certainly
held a grudge.) Almost 90 years after the fire, we can only speculate.
Not everything was destroyed. Sometime after his death, his son,
Oliver Everett, discovered 35 or 40 oil paintings on canvas rolled up in
a barn on Walter’s property. “I have always been told that the works
recovered from the barn were not burned essentially because Wal-
ter forgot about them. They were rolled up in the rafters,” says Olivia
Everett Dodd, Walter’s great-granddaughter. “He had cut them off their
stretchers in order to reuse the stretchers and just forgot they were
there.” These salvaged works were dispersed among various members
of the Everett family, then eventually reassembled by Mark Everett,
Oliver’s son. This “Mark Everett Family Collection” was donated to the
Walter H. Everett Foundation in 2023.
Cover of the October 15, 1904 issue of The Saturday Evening Post
Dodd says, “Our goal is to make reproductions available to the public
Skirmish aboard a Ship, 1932, oil on canvas, 26 x 36 in., illustration for “Strange Rescue” by for educational purposes. We have already been selling reproductions
Elinor Mordaunt, Woman’s Home Companion, May 1932 issue on canvas and some museum-quality giclées on canvas, as well as paper
prints. Then someday we would love to put together a book, which is
often requested by those who follow us on Instagram.”
That collection was almost lost to fire itself when wildfires rav- Like every savvy foundation chair, Dodd has been developing a
aged parts of Northern California in 2017, reaching the house where board of kindred spirits who can help advance the organization’s work.
Mark lived with his wife, Gloria. “Fortunately,” Dodd explains, “before The Chinese-born, U.S.-based artist Vincent Xeus (b. 1981) is one such
their house burned down, the only thing my parents grabbed was the board member, and he has been covered in the pages of Fine Art Connois-
art. It was 10:30 at night and they were ripping art off the walls and seur several times. Xeus says, “The foundation’s mission to preserve Wal-
putting it in their car,” says Dodd, who is now chief executive officer ter’s surviving works and to honor his legacy holds great significance. I
of the Walter H. Everett Foundation. Two oils were lost, as well as all remember being mesmerized when I first discovered his drawings, most
of the drawings, Walter’s collection of arrowheads (he liked to fashion of which, sadly, were lost in the Napa fire. Art reflects and conveys lives
arrowheads from stones), and his brushes, the bristles of which he had beyond time. The representational art community can be enriched by
reshaped to allow him to paint in his own way. learning about Walter’s works and life, for he is one of the now-hidden
The collection today contains several dozen oils on canvas, some giants upon whose shoulders generations of artists have stood.”
sketches and tear sheets that happened to have been framed, and some The expending of such energy and passion for a man Mark, Olivia,
studies in gouache, oils, and watercolors. The mission of the foundation and Vincent never met is remarkable. So who was this guy?
is to spread the word about Walter Everett to a world that has heard of
the Golden Age of American Illustration (from the 1880s through the A UNIQUE LIFE
early 1930s), when painters enlivened magazines and books until pho- Walter was one of 10 children born to George and Jane Everett in the town
tography took over — but now generally associates it with Norman Rock- of Haddonfield, New Jersey. His parents had emigrated from England, and
well, J.C. Leyendecker, Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth, and Maxfield Parrish. his father worked as a typesetter, “a respectable job,” Dodd notes. When
To achieve this goal, the foundation shows examples of Everett’s Walter exhibited artistic talent, his parents encouraged him to go into illus-
work on its website and Instagram, ultimately aiming to display them in tration “because they thought it was a way that he could both pursue his
actual galleries or museums. Supporting the foundation are funds con- interests and make a good living.” At 17, he enrolled at Philadelphia’s Drexel
tributed by Mark Everett, who chairs the board of directors, and there Institute of Art, Science & Industry (later Drexel University), where Pyle
are plans to sell reproductions of the paintings, but not the originals. had been teaching since 1894.
By 1900, Pyle was ready to move on. According to Alice A. Carter,
Couple in a Canoe, c. 1930, gouache on paper mounted on board, 14 x 20 in., illustration a longtime illustrator and professor emeritus of illustration at San
for “Bitter Sweet” by Katherine Newlin Burt, McCall’s, July 1930 issue Jose State University, Drexel had an open admissions policy, but Pyle
wanted to select his own students. The school also wanted him to
teach more days each week, which interfered with his own work, so
Pyle stands at the pinnacle of American illustration. He wrote he left to start his own school in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. (It was
and illustrated books for children (among them
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Men of Iron,
and The Story of King Arthur and His Knights), and
he illustrated others’ stories in such popular maga-
zines as Harper’s. Pyle’s colorful, realistic images
of medieval subjects and pirates influenced other
illustrators, and eventually Hollywood set and cos-
tume designers. His teaching emphasized not so
much technique, which he assumed that students
would glean from other sources, as “how to go
about making a picture,” says Roger Reed, president
of the art dealership Illustration House. He contin-
ues, “Pyle’s most famous contribution was psycho-
logical, akin to method acting. He would challenge
his students to mentally place themselves at the
scene they were depicting, and observe what must
be happening, to research the back story in order
to predict its outcome, and to inhabit the charac-
ters so as to live in the picture.” Among his stu-
dents were some of the most renowned illustrators
of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including
N.C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, and Jessie Willcox
Smith.
Pan Playing Flute, c. 1930, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 25 1/2 in.,

illustration for “Take a Look at Life,” Redbook, July 1930 issue
Here we see a pale, round-faced young woman wearing a robe that
Trees on the Farm (or The Sycamores), n.d., oil on canvas, 26 x 24 in. might hark back to ancient Greece (or Roman women celebrated by the
19th-century painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema), holding grapes freshly
picked from an arbor. It’s a competent work, not overly burdened with
located near the Brandywine River, so his operation came to be called detail and colors. What makes it of interest, Reed notes, is less the
the Brandywine School.) Pyle recognized real talent in Walter Everett image itself and more that it was “reproduced in two printing inks only,
and invited him to join him. a blue and an orange.” The four-color printing process — dubbed CMYK
At the time, the U.S. had very few art museums, so magazines and for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) – wasn’t “standardized at that
books were the principal way in which most Americans saw art of any point, and every trip of a sheet of paper through the printing press was
kind. Essentially, there was no distinction made between fine art and expensive, so there was a widespread effort by engravers to get a full-
illustration because the latter was so prevalent. Everett’s earliest illus- color effect out of two or three inks.”
trations were competent but “stiff,” Carter says — “a lot of detail but not In time, Everett’s style became more identifiable and included
a lot of movement” — but eventually his style and approach to composi- flat areas of color, a sense of movement, and figures making gestures
tion began to “loosen up.” that were more or less exaggerated. We see this in Skirmish aboard a
His cover for the October 15, 1904 issue of The Saturday Evening Ship, which appeared in the May 1932 issue of Woman’s Home Com-
Post exemplifies Everett’s earlier phase and was certainly his first major panion, illustrating a story (“Strange Rescue”) by Elinor Mordaunt, and
piece, though it’s unlikely his original painting for it exists anymore. also in Couple in a Canoe, which illustrated a story (“Bitter Sweet”) by
Armory Show of 1913, which introduced Braque, Brancusi, Duchamp,
Matisse, and Picasso to residents of New York City, Chicago, and Bos-
Indian Summer, 1934, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 47 3/4 in., illustration for “Indian Summer” ton. It is likely that Everett saw it somewhere, but its appeal to him was
by Brooke Hanlon, Ladies’ Home Journal, November 1934 issue probably limited. Everett “was very rigorous in his draftsmanship and
had little interest in high modernism as it lost touch with fidelity to
nature,” notes Kevin Ferrara, an illustrator who has written extensively
Katherine Newlin Burt in the July 1930 McCall’s. (Made 26 years after about Everett. (If anything, Everett might have been influenced by Art
that Saturday Evening Post cover, Couple in a Canoe still relies on just blue Nouveau, a decorative trend that captivated the world around 1900.)
and orange, Reed notes, reflecting Everett’s “parsimonious discipline.”) Ferrara says Pyle told his students — and Everett absorbed this lesson
Pan Playing Flute, an oil painting made for a story (“Take a Look at well — that artists should “try to express deeply felt emotions under-
Life”) in the July 1930 Redbook, seemingly has little going on: the mis- neath the narrative,” noting that “any emotion was fair game, any mood.
chievous Greek god Pan lulls a young
woman to sleep in the woods with his
music. But in fact there’s quite a lot
happening visually: bright sunlight
peeks through tree leaves (depicted in
a range of colors) and bounces off the
grass and flora, while a rabbit makes
an appearance at left bottom. Patches
of solid color that come together to
evoke a landscape became a signature
element for Everett. The undated oil
on board Trees on the Farm was likely
a “personal work,” Dodd suggests — i.e.,
not commissioned for a magazine.
CHANGES AND CHALLENGES

Everett’s heyday coincided with the
arrival of European modernism in
America, most notably via the touring
Preparatory drawing for Indian Summer, c. 1934,

graphite on vellum, 8 x 14 in.
Olivia Everett Dodd and her father, Mark Everett, with Indian Summer after it was pledged to the foundation (along with two other works) by the artist’s great grandnephew, Doug Jones
They were taught to be artists first, and commercial second. Pyle said, to incinerate all those paintings, that document is lost. What remains is
‘Get money for your work, but do not work for money.’” the art he didn’t burn — his sole legacy. Without the fire, Carter notes,
Like Pyle, Everett worked for magazines and taught his own stu- there would have been more for collectors to admire and buy, elevating
dents. One of the latter, Henry Pitz (1895–1976), did the same thing, and his standing in American art, not just in illustration.
indeed, one of his students was Alice Carter. She maintains that Everett In 1999 and 2000, the exhibition Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the
“was one of Pyle’s best students, certainly one of his most creative.” He American People visited major museums in cities nationwide, including
did not manage his time as well as Pyle did, however; meeting editors’ Atlanta, San Diego, and even the Guggenheim in New York City, which
deadlines was an ongoing problem. Reed recalls seeing a photograph of (ironically) was founded to display “non-objective” art. Perhaps in Olivia
a painting “taken unfinished off his easel due to the art director being Dodd’s mind is the idea that museum shows of her great-grandfather will
impatient,” and Carter knows that Everett sometimes “had his students move him into the pantheon of top American artist-illustrators. But one
bring his paintings by train to New York City when they were still wet.” reason Rockwell is so well-known, Carter warns, that “there are many col-
Ferrara adds that Everett was “quite mercurial and did both master- lectors of his drawings, preliminaries, and finished paintings who spend
pieces and a lot of slapdash work on deadline.” millions of dollars whenever the artist’s work comes up for sale.” Alas, the
He was also restless, moving quite a bit, living in Philadelphia dur- fires of 1935 and 2017 may have robbed Everett of that outcome.
ing his 30s, then residing in Audubon, New Jersey, and Middletown,
Delaware. He spent some time in San Diego around 1918, but not long.
By 1946, when he died of a heart attack (coronary thrombosis), he was Information: walterheverett.com
living on a farm in Parker Ford, Pennsylvania, that was owned by a rela-
tive or in-law.
In the mid-1930s, when Everett was in his 50s, his career came to DANIEL GRANT is the author of several books, including The Business of Being
an end, and if he ever explained in a diary or letter what spurred him an Artist (Skyhorse Press). He also is a contributing writer to Fine Art Connoisseur.
BY DANA PILSON
H I S T O R I C
M A S T E R S
H RNCH AMIY’S AR

COCION A CHSRWOOD
A
rt has long been considered a commodity, a way
to show off personal net worth and pave a path
into higher echelons of society. Thus the field
of art collecting has often been dominated by
those with enormous means, and so it is hardly
surprising that most scholarly attention has been directed
to their acquisitions.
Comparatively overlooked, however, are the collec-
tions formed by artists themselves, who often seek to feed
their creative souls, decorate their studios and domes-
tic living spaces, and gather tokens of treasured personal
relationships. For example, the sculptor Augustus Saint-
Gaudens (1848–1907) adorned his New Hampshire home
with artworks by fellow Cornish Colony artists such as
Thomas Wilmer Dewing; a portrait of his wife, Augusta,
and their son, Homer, by John Singer Sargent; and a taste-
ful mix of Flemish tapestries, Japanese prints, commercial
plaster casts, and art from his travels abroad. In Falmouth,
Virginia, the home and studio of Gari Melchers (1860–1932)
now holds over 400 works amassed by that painter and his
wife. Perhaps the best-known artist/collector of that era was William
Merritt Chase (1849–1916), who enlivened his Manhattan studio with Interior of Daniel Chester French’s Concord studio, c. 1885, photograph by Alfred
richly patterned textiles, paintings, and decorative objects.1 Aestheti- Winslow Hosmer, Courtesy William Munroe Special Collections, Concord Free Public
cally curated studios like Chase’s functioned as social spaces for regaling Library, Concord, MA
patrons while projecting the artist’s persona and cosmopolitan taste.
Visitors to Chesterwood, the historic home, studio, and gardens
of sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) in Stockbridge, Massa- by French’s assistants, friends and family, lesser-known artists, and
chusetts, rightly expect to see French’s maquettes and models related unknown makers. Nestled in the scenic Berkshire hills, Chesterwood
to his well-known monuments and memorials, as well as portraits and may be the largest repository of works by a single sculptor, but it also
allegorical works. What may surprise them is discovering that French represents an artistic family’s vision of curating a creative environment.
was also interested in interior design and an avid collector of textiles,
eclectic furniture, commercial plaster casts, Old Master paintings, RIGHT FROM THE START
and art by friends, colleagues, and other contemporary artists. Early in his career, working in Florence in the mid-1870s, French wrote
Today, the Chesterwood collection includes important sculptures to his father of his frustrated art collecting attempts: “…unless you
by Saint-Gaudens, Herbert Adams, Evelyn Beatrice Longman, and happen to have a certain amount of ready money you cannot afford
Bessie Potter Vonnoh, as well as notable paintings by American to purchase. ... I have neither the money, nor the time, nor the power
impressionist Robert Vonnoh, portraitist John C. Johansen, and vision- of selection that I wish I had.”2 Upon his return to the U.S., he lived
ary Abbott Handerson Thayer. The collection also has many works in Washington, D.C., where, thanks to his father’s position in the U.S.
Vincenzo Camuccini (1771–1844) and Tommaso Piroli (1752–1824) after Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Death of Priam, 1794–95, hand-colored engraving, 9 x 17 in., Chesterwood
Works on Paper Collection, Chapin Library, Williams College, Gift of the National Trust for Historic Preservation / Chesterwood, A National Trust Historic Site, Stockbridge, MA
Treasury Department, French won commissions for sculpture for new

government buildings in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Boston. He often
traveled back to his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, and with
money now in the bank, he built a sculpture studio next to the family
home. Finally commencing his collecting journey, he filled that studio
with “pretty things” and asked his friend Ellen Ball to pick up “any old
rags (rich & handsome) that you see lying about Florence.”3 A later photo-
graph of French’s Concord studio shows it completely filled with art-
works ranging from plaster busts and screens to tapestries and pottery.
A popular way for young artists to perfect their talents was to trade
portraits. In this way, one of the first artworks French acquired was by
Benjamin Curtis Porter (1843–1908), who would develop a successful
career as a society portraitist. Acquaintances through William Rimmer’s
drawing classes in Boston, the two artists decided to swap portraits in
1874. French excitedly reported to his brother: “Porter yesterday made
the proposition to me, that if I would make a bust of him, he would make
a portrait in oils of me … He certainly makes the best pictures I know
of.”4 This endeavor was put on hold as the two traveled to Italy. Although
they saw each other often there, it wasn’t until they later took up stu-
dios in Boston that the portraits were finally executed. In August 1877,
French told his sister that he had “…. the bust well under way. It is even
now a good likeness & promises well. My portrait is also progressing, and
being by Porter will undoubtedly be good.”5 French always kept Porter’s
accomplished portrait and displayed it in the dining room at Chester-
wood; at the time it had as much cachet as a portrait by Sargent. Today
French’s bronze bust of Porter is owned by New York University.
Over time and with more disposable income, French developed a
Chesterwood studio “cozy corner,” c. 1930s, showing German-school Madonna and more refined “power of selection” to create a notable collection for his
Child with St. Dominic (NT 69.38.852); Lorenzo di Bicci / Florentine School, Saint homes in New York City and Stockbridge. A photograph of the Manhat-
James and Two Female Saints (NT 69.38.851); and Evelyn Beatrice Longman’s tan townhouse on West 11th Street shows framed works lining the walls;
bronze Torso (NT 69.38.567); photograph from Chesterwood Archives, Chapin Library, his wife, Mary Adams French, is a secondary blur within their tastefully
Williams College, Gift of the National Trust for Historic Preservation / Chesterwood, curated interior. As his sculpting career gained traction, so did French’s
A National Trust Historic Site, Stockbridge, MA involvement in art clubs, societies, and philanthropic institutions. He
Unknown, possibly Flemish, Adoration of the Shepherds (fragment), 1600s, oil on wood,
49 x 28 in., Chesterwood, Gift of the Daniel Chester French Foundation, NT 69.38.854;
photo: Williamstown Art Conservation & Preservation Center (BELOW) ALBIN
POLASEK (Czech-American, 1879–1965), Forest Idyll, 1924, bronze, 25 x 16 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.
Chesterwood, Bequest of Margaret French Cresson, NT 73.45.1426; photo: Gregory Cherin
exhibited nationwide and sat on selection committees for exhibitions

and competitions. His circle grew to include not only fellow sculptors,
but painters, architects, and interior and landscape designers.
Thus his art collection grew as well. He had met Abbott Handerson
Thayer in New York in 1872; visiting Paris in 1876, the two “talked art &
roamed through the galleries,” activities that could only have improved
French’s appreciation for fine art.6 He eventually acquired four works by
Thayer, including a marvelous self-portrait of the painter presented to
French in 1882–83, and the tender Old Sailmaker, which French later hung
in the study at Chesterwood. In 1889 French visited Thayer at his home
in Dublin, New Hampshire, where the sculptor, who enjoyed paint-
ing in his leisure time, worked on his own canvases “under Thayer’s
eye.”7 French often acquired works directly from other living artists, such
as a series of dream-like oil paintings of women dancing by Theodore
Baur; moody, atmospheric forest scenes by Robert Loftin Newman; and
a sensitive portrait of a girl by tonalist George Fuller.
French developed his art appreciation by reading and clipping images Left to right: William Penn Cresson, Margaret French Cresson, Mary Adams French,
from magazines, purchasing photographic reproductions of famous paint- Daniel Chester French, 1929; Chesterwood Archives, Chapin Library, Williams
ings and sculpture in European museums, and visiting exhibitions and College; photo: The Boston Post, Boston, MA
artists’ studios. In 1885, he attended an exhibition of paintings by the
British symbolist George Frederic Watts at the Metropolitan Museum of
ROBERT VONNOH (1858–1933), Daniel Chester French in the Chesterwood Studio, 1913, oil on canvas, 31 x 32 in., Chesterwood, Gift of the
Daniel Chester French Foundation, NT 69.38.786; photo: Cassandra Sohn
Art. “Roused to a high pitch of enthusiasm,” French wrote his father, “they antique shop. They were almost always ‘unknowns’ as he was not buying
are very strange and very powerful, not to be measured by any ordinary many originals. But being an artist himself, he knew enough to buy good
standard, impressing you with the fact that there was a man of genius things.”12 One “good thing” he snagged at auction was a German school
behind them.”8 In London a year later, he visited Sargent’s studio, where Madonna and Child with St. Dominic that he displayed in his New York
he saw Madame X. French called it a “powerful picture, but a disagree- studio, where it announced his good taste to visitors.13 After the 1921 sale
able one to me as most of his things are—but he does know how to paint. of that townhouse, French moved the altarpiece to the reception room in
I am very glad to know him.”9 On a later European trip, he spent a day in the Stockbridge studio. Now considered the most important Old Master
Brussels to see the “marvellous [sic] collection of Flemish paintings that painting at Chesterwood, the original remains safely in storage while a
they have brought together there,—100 Rubens and 100 Van Dykes [sic] reproduction in the original frame hangs in its place.
among them.”10 French greatly admired Antonio Canova’s work in Venice, Other works French purchased at auction include a Flemish school
where he saw “some statues ... the best that I have seen of his I think.”11 Entombment of Christ and two portraits then attributed to Peter Lely,
He might have marveled at Canova’s masterful bas-relief Death of Priam Lady Frances Hamilton and the Duchess of Portsmouth.14 He hung these,
and was moved to purchase a tinted engraving made after it by Vincenzo along with Frau Maria Koerter after Marten Jacobsz van Heemskerk
Camuccini and Tommaso Piroli, the added color heightening the already the Elder, and Portrait of a Court Lady attributed to Thomas Hudson,
exaggerated gestures, raw emotions, and epic tragedy. alongside likenesses of his own ancestors and contemporary portraits of
With Yankee frugality, French enjoyed antiquing in New York and the French family by William H. Hyde, John C. Johansen, and Robert
the Berkshires; his daughter Margaret French Cresson recalled, “My Vonnoh. Together they created visual connections between the U.S. and
Father would buy things wherever he saw them in an auction room or an Europe, the present and the past, and real and imagined pedigree.
HERBERT ADAMS (1858–1945), La Jeunesse, modeled c. 1894, cast c. 1899, glazed
terracotta, 20 1/4 x 27 1/4 x 9 7/8 in., Chesterwood, Gift of the Daniel Chester French
Foundation, NT 69.38.3710; photo: Gregory Cherin
As a member of the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City,

French was entitled to throw his name into an annual lottery. In 1924,
he won Albin Polasek’s bronze Forest Idyll, which features a young
woman holding a faun while its mother looks on. French wrote Polasek:
“I consider myself very fortunate that I have drawn ... your charming
bronze group. It is a delightful piece of sculpture and I shall value it
not only for itself but as an example of a man whom I value as a friend
and respect very much as a sculptor.”15 He proudly displayed it in his
new Gramercy Park apartment. Later, French’s daughter installed it
on Chesterwood’s breakfast porch; it is now on view in the Collections
Gallery at Chesterwood.
A FAMILY LEGACY
The collection also grew with objects bestowed by members of the French
family, who had deep roots in New England’s colonial past. While the
Frenches were not wealthy by Gilded Age standards, many held prestig-
ious positions in banking, law, and government; names on the family tree
include Stuyvesant, Vanderbilt, and the Barony of Cheylesmore. French
was proud of this heritage and prominently displayed family heirlooms,
including a silhouette of Judge Daniel French (1769–1840) in Chester-
wood’s main hallway. A paternal uncle, Phineas P. Wells, with whom
French had stayed in Brooklyn in the early 1870s, left him a small but fine
collection of early Italian and Old Master paintings purchased on a Euro-
pean trip in the 1850s, including a Pisan School Madonna and Child and
a magnficent Florentine School gold ground panel painting, Saint James
and Two Female Saints. French displayed the Florentine painting in his
Concord studio and later in the cozy corner of his studio at Chesterwood.
Artists flocked to Chesterwood for pleasure and inspiration, and
they subsequently gifted works of art to his family. French’s sister-in-law,
the artist Alice Helm French, was inspired by the expansive views of the
surrounding Berkshire hills and intimate views of the garden; she gave
the family her oil painting Monument Mountain and a colorful pastel of
the studio garden, which French considered a “great delight.”16 A water-
color by Edward Lind Morse is equally attractive and documents the
garden before French and Henry Bacon designed a decorative fountain
as a centerpiece. Impressionist Robert Vonnoh painted a sparkling gar- AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS (1848–1907), Sarah Redwood Lee, 1881, plaster,
den scene, as well as portraits of French in his studio and of Margaret 26 x 11 1/4 in., Chesterwood, Gift of the Daniel Chester French Foundation, NT
in French’s study, bathed in light. Swedish-born John C. Johansen, who 69.38.1170; photo: Paul Rocheleau
with his artist wife, Jean MacLane, spent summers at Weybourne Hill
in Stockbridge, painted double “conversation piece” portraits of French
EDWARD CLARK POTTER (1857–1923), Sleeping Faun Visited by an Inquisitive Rabbit,
1888, marble cement, 13 1/2 x 39 x 16 1/2 in., Chesterwood, Gift of the Daniel Chester
French Foundation, NT 69.38.3534; photo: Paul Rocheleau
BESSIE POTTER VONNOH (1872–1955), Girl Dancing, 1897, cast c. 1906, bronze, include Longman’s bronze Torso, Bessie Potter Vonnoh’s bronze Girl
14 1/2 x 12 x 8 1/4 in., Chesterwood, Bequest of Margaret French Cresson, NT Dancing, and Edward Clark Potter’s charming Sleeping Faun Visited by
73.45.1686; photo: Gregory Cherin an Inquisitive Rabbit. French considered Potter’s marble version “one
of the very finest pieces of ... sculpture in the country,”19 and he installed
a marble cement version in “the Circle,” an outdoor room along the
and his wife in the Chesterwood residence’s parlor, and also Margaret woodland walks at Chesterwood. It is not surprising that the Metro-
and her husband, William Penn Cresson, at the Dormouse, their small politan acquired versions of these same works during French’s three-
cottage down the road. Milton Bancroft’s 1904 pastel portrait of French’s decade tenure as its de facto sculpture curator.20
student and protégée, sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman, who was con- Important works in marble at Chesterwood include the neoclassical
sidered part of the family, was likely much treasured. A replica usually Eve, a gift from sculptor Thomas Ball, in whose Florence studio French
hangs in the residence while the original is now in the Chesterwood had worked in the 1870s. In his 1875 essay “The Studio of Thomas Ball,”
Works on Paper Collection at Williams College’s Chapin Library. French marveled at seeing the original full-size statue of Eve Just Created;
Additional gifts from artist friends include sculpted portraits of today Ball’s bust of Eve is displayed in Chesterwood’s parlor. A Renaissance-
Margaret by Longman, as well as Poetry and Prosperity, two drawings by style Bust of an Italian Woman carved in the studio of Larkin Mead, another
muralist Edwin H. Blashfield, whom French thanked in a note saying, “I American working in Florence, sits on the dining room mantel. According
am positively embarrassed by the magnificence of your present to me.”17 to a handwritten label on its reverse, Mary Adams French purchased it for
Around 1899, sculptor Herbert Adams gave French a polychromed ter- $70 with “the first money earned in literature in 1900.” Perhaps she had
racotta, La Jeunesse; French later recommended that the Metropolitan recently sold one of her short stories, though her best-known publication,
Museum acquire a magnificent marble and applewood version, declar- Memories of a Sculptor’s Wife, was not published until 1928.21 Although not
ing that this head had “received the applause of the best artists in New as active as her husband in collecting art, this purchase indicates she had
York.”18 An even more significant friendship is explored in the exhibition refined taste and an eye for quality.
Monuments and Myths: The America of Sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaud- Margaret and Penn Cresson were also art afficionados. Wed in Sic-
ens and Daniel Chester French, now traveling across the U.S. French is ily, they began their life together by acquiring watercolors of Taormina
known to have worked on tinting the plaster Parthenon frieze at Saint- street scenes. A talented portraitist, Margaret French Cresson continued
Gaudens’s studio in Cornish, but little else by him is found in the collec- sculpting after her marriage, and in 1925 made a sculpted portrait of
tion there. At some point Saint-Gaudens gave French a plaster portrait the landscapist Henry Parton, a family friend and frequent participant
of Sarah Redwood Lee, which Saint-Gaudens considered one of his most in Stockbridge’s annual art exhibitions. She gave Parton this bronze and
successful bas-reliefs. French treasured it, and most likely attempted to in return received Tom Ball Mountain, an autumn view of Monument
emulate his friend’s masterful technique in his own bas-relief work. Mountain from the west porch of the Chesterwood residence. Parton
Along with Sarah Redwood Lee and La Jeunesse (now in the stu- later gave her two more paintings; one of these, Berkshire Storm, has tra-
dio’s reception room), important American sculptures at Chesterwood ditionally hung in the residence’s stairwell.22 Like her father, Margaret
Diana in their Washington townhouse; when Margaret moved to Ches-
terwood, she installed it on the breakfast porch, later in the residence
main hallway, and finally in the dining room. More recently, it was on
long-term loan in the Metropolitan’s Luce Study Center, but now is
back on view at Chesterwood.
As Chesterwood continues to evolve, additional works by artists in
French’s circle will be placed on view throughout the site. It is hoped that
along with an appreciation for French’s creative process and achieve-
ments, visitors will gain an understanding of how an artist and his family
decorated their surroundings to foster a creative environment, support
living artists, and reaffirm their place in society. The Frenches’ collection
was deeply personal and rewards close looking; the works tell stories of
aspiration, connection, discovery, experience, family, and friendship.
Information: chesterwood.org. Details about the national tour of Monuments

& Myths are available on the website of its organizer, the American Federation of
Arts: amfedarts.org.
Dana Pilson is a curatorial researcher and collections coordinator at Chester-

wood, and a frequent contributor to Fine Art Connoisseur.
Notes
1 For Chase’s studio and collecting practices, see Isabel L. Taube, “William Merritt
Chase’s Cosmopolitan Eclecticism,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide (online),
Autumn 2016.
2 Daniel Chester French (DCF) to Henry Flagg French, 11 June 1876. Daniel Ches-
ter French Papers, Library of Congress (hereafter DCFP/LOC).
3 DCF to Ellen Ball, wife of Thomas Ball, 18 May 1879; DCFP/LOC.
4 DCF to William Merchant Richardson French, 16 Aug 1874; DCFP/LOC.
5 DCF to sister Harriette Van Mater French Hollis, 26 Aug 1877; DCFP/LOC.
French’s portrait of Porter was cast in bronze before 1914 at the John Williams
Foundry; it is now in the collection of New York University’s Hall of American
Artists, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.
6 DCF to Henry Flagg French, 15 July 1876; DCFP/LOC.
GARI MELCHERS (1860–1932), A Wayside Madonna, 1925, etching on paper, 7 DCF to William Merchant Richardson French, 2 Aug 1889; DCFP/LOC.
8 x 6 1/4 in., Chesterwood Works on Paper Collection, Chapin Library, Williams 8 DCF to Henry Flagg French, 15 April 1885; DCFP/LOC.
College, (Bequest of Margaret French Cresson, NT 73.45.5308) 9 DCF to William Merchant Richardson French, 10 Nov 1886; DCFP/LOC.
10 DCF to William Merchant Richardson French, 13 Aug 1910; DCFP/LOC.
11 DCF to Henry Flagg French, 10 August 1875; DCFP/LOC.
12 Margaret French Cresson (MFC) to Mrs. Henry Howell, Jr., Frick Art Reference
French Cresson was a member of art committees and societies, and her Library, 24 April 1967. Curatorial files, Chesterwood.
social circle included artists, photographers, and writers. Often in thanks 13 MFC suggests the work was purchased at a 31 May 1907 auction in New York.
for her hospitality at Chesterwood, she received numerous gifts from She recalls that her father purchased it before her 1909 debut party, for which
artists such as Donald De Lue, Jerry Farnsworth, and Isabella Banks French fixed up the “old Studio” in New York; she remembers seeing it in the
Markell. Berkshire neighbor Frank Crowninshield sent a 1921 Rockwell studio then. Oral History, 28 Sept 1972, curatorial files, Chesterwood.
Kent woodcut and inscribed Gari Melchers’s poignant etching A Wayside 14 Cataloguing information at Chesterwood indicates French purchased Lady
Madonna “To Peg and Penn.” Frances Hamilton for $300 at a 26 March 1909, auction. According to MFC,
Penn Cresson was from a wealthy Pennsylvania/Delaware family this was the most expensive painting he ever purchased. (Mary Anne Christy
related to the Quaker settler William Penn. The Chesterwood collec- to Michael Richman, 28 June 1964. Curatorial files, Chesterwood.) French pur-
tion includes works he inherited, such as a reproduction of Thomas chased The Duchess of Portsmouth at the Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms, New
Sully’s portrait of his ancestor Elliott Cresson (1796–1854), which Mar- York, 31 March 1903, for $82.50.
garet displayed at Chesterwood. Penn’s uncle George Vaux Cresson 15 DCF to Albin Polasek, 28 Oct 1924; DCFP/LOC.
left him a notable landscape by Scottish-born Hudson River School 16 DCF to William Merchant Richardson French, 30 Dec 1900; DCFP/LOC.
landscapist William Hart, and many other objects at Chesterwood also 17 DCF to Edwin H. Blashfield, 3 Feb 1906; DCFP/LOC.
have a Cresson provenance. Penn Cresson also amassed a large collec- 18 DCF to Robert W. de Forest, 1 Feb 1907; DCFP/LOC.
tion of art and ephemera during his travels and consular appointments 19 DCF to Oliver D. Russell, 1 April 1892; DCFP/LOC.
abroad, including Persian “miniatures” from Tehran and watercolors 20 Thayer Tolles, “‘One of the greatest interests of his life,’ Daniel Chester French and
by the Armenian artist Sarkis Katchadourian. The Chesterwood Works the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” Fine Art Connoisseur (May/June 2016), 48–53.
on Paper Collection includes many of Cresson’s own accomplished 21 Curiously, French’s 24 June 1900 letter to Newton Mackintosh states that while
drawings and watercolors. Trained as an architect at the Ecole des in Florence he ordered “thirty flower pots for the garden ... and a renaissance
Beaux-Arts in Paris, he made a detailed drawing for a house in Sheridan marble bust!” It is possible he is referring to the Bust of an Italian Woman, as it
Square, Washington, D.C., now the Irish Embassy. In 1923 he purchased resembles an Italian Renaissance marble bust more than almost any other object
a Saint-Gaudens bronze statuette of Diana at a sale at the Stockbridge in the collection.
estate of Daniel Rhodes Hanna. The Cressons displayed their prized 22 MFC’s bronze bust of Parton is in a private collection.
AN ARU ART IN
THE WEST
SASON
A GIFTED GENERATION
SAN ANTONIO
briscoemuseum.org
June 14–September 8
The Briscoe Western Art Museum is set to open

a major loan exhibition titled Survival of the Fit-
test: Envisioning Wildlife and Wilderness with
the Big Four.
On view will be more than 50 works
created by a quartet of masters who rewrote
the book — so to speak — on the painting of
wildlife worldwide. They were the German-
American artist Carl Rungius (1869–1959),
the Germans Richard Friese (1854–1918) and
Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865–1926), and Sweden’s
Bruno Liljefors (1860–1939). Part of a remark-
able generation, they are especially admired
for their unprecedented ability to show crea- CARL RUNGIUS (1869–1959), Morning Mist (Harlow Triptych), c. 1930, oil on canvas, 47 x 79 1/2 in., JKM Collection,
tures in their natural habitat, integrating National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming
them into the greater whole rather than iso-
lating them like anatomical specimens. These
works have been borrowed from the only two Located along the San Antonio River Walk, Janey Slaughter Briscoe, who envisioned a
museums anywhere that own masterpieces the Briscoe’s main building was constructed in museum that would share the story of Western
by every member of this elite: the Rijksmu- the 1930s as a public library. After an exten- heritage and the extraordinary people behind
seum Twenthe in Enschede, Netherlands, and sive renovation, the museum opened in 2013. it. The institution has recently produced the
the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jack- The institution is named in honor of the late first publication surveying its growing perma-
son, Wyoming. Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe, Jr., and his wife, nent collection.
WOMEN’S ART IN THE On view will be paintings and sculpture cre-

SOONER STATE ated by 37 artists across the U.S., Australia, and
Canada; the catalogue can be studied online now.
BARTLESVILLE, OKLAHOMA The opening day of May 4 will feature a lively
waow.org and woolaroc.org conversation among Shiloh Thurman (the Wool-
May 4–August 4 aroc’s director), Emily Burns (director of the Uni-
versity of Oklahoma’s Charles M. Russell Center
for the Study of Art of the American West), and
Women Artists of the West (WAOW) is a non- Lisa Staudohar (Art of the West magazine). This
profit organization in its 54th year of promoting will flow into the festive opening reception and
women painters and sculptors. Much antici- the fixed-price draw (which can be accessed via
pated every year, its Invitational Exhibition and proxy for those unable to attend in person). After
Sale will soon become the first project focused the 4th, anyone can purchase the remaining art-
on women artists ever to grace the Woolaroc works directly from the museum staff.
Museum. Located in the Osage Hills of north-
east Oklahoma, this museum is admired for its KATHY HARDER (b. 1951), Flying through the Air, 2024,
Native and Western art and artifacts, as well as watercolor on paper, 38 x 30 in.
a 3,700-acre wildlife preserve.
“shared vision of creating a uniquely Ameri-
CELEBRATING TAOS
can art permanently influenced not only the
world of art but also prevailing perceptions
TAOS, NEW MEXICO of Native America and the American West.”
LaLuzdeTaos.org and couse-sharp.org He says, “The artists in La Luz de Taos rep-
June 14–15 resent a breadth of backgrounds, presenting
a contemporary vision of our region, its peo-
ple, and the nuanced history and traditions
In 1915, six American-born, European-trained imbued in the landscape.”
artists founded the Taos Society of Artists Chaired by Peter and Paula Lunder, the col-
(TSA) to promote American and Native art of lectors and philanthropists who made the LRC
the Southwest. Their group grew to include possible, the site’s celebratory weekend will kick
12 active members and several more associate off on June 14 with an open house and exhibi-
and honorary members. Among the founders tion closing reception. The next day, scholar
were E.I. Couse and J.H. Sharp, whose names Marie Watkins will speak about TSA mem-
endure through the Couse-Sharp Historic ber Julius Rolshoven, and that night the gala
Site in downtown Taos, now owned and man- and art sale will occur at the nearby El Monte
aged by the Couse Foundation. Here visitors Sagrado Resort. There a draw will determine
have long enjoyed exploring Couse’s home which lucky people get chances to purchase the
and studio, the garden designed by his wife, artworks; most are offered at fixed price, but a
Virginia, the workshops of his son, Kibbey, few will be sold via secret-bid auction. Absentee
and Sharp’s two studios. ballot slips allow anyone to participate from afar,
The site is also home to the Lunder and all proceeds will support the site’s mission
Research Center (LRC), a 5,000-square-foot of “bringing the legacy of Taos art to life.”
facility that contains an exhibition space, col- Participating artist Logan Maxwell
lections storage, research library, and curato- Hagege notes, “Taos has an intense magnetic JOHN COLEMAN (b. 1949), A Mother's Journey,
rial and office space. Gathered in one place for draw to artists and people who are in tune to 2024, bronze (edition of 20), 25 x 8 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.
scholars’ convenient access are sketchbooks, its special beauty and character. I am so grate-
documents, and photographic materials related ful that the Couse-Sharp Historic Site exists landscapes, cultures, and luminaries of the
to TSA members, as well as to the Native Ameri- to help preserve the legacy of the TSA as well Taos Art Colony. There is something truly
can art and ethnographic items they collected. as educate the public on this fascinating time enchanting about the light — la luz — of
After its successful launch in 2022, the in Western American art history. On a very Northern New Mexico. Just as that light has
second edition of the exhibition La Luz de personal level, I’d love to dig into the archives inspired the work of generations of artists
Taos is already on view, featuring recent work and get to know these artists more intimately.” before me, it continues to ignite my own pas-
by more than 40 artists in various media. Another participating artist, Nathanael sion for painting. Participating in this exhibi-
Executive director and curator Davison Volckening, recalls, “Growing up in Taos, I tion is a homecoming to the artistic roots that
Packard Koenig notes that TSA members’ was deeply influenced by the surrounding continue to shape my own journey.”
Nedra Matteucci Galleries will soon CHRIS MOREL (b. 1958), Winter
QUITE A PAIR
mount the exhibition A Lifetime of Corral, 2024, oil on canvas,
Learning: Two Artistic Journeys, which 36 x 60 in. ED SMIDA (b. 1961),
SANTA FE presents recent works by the sculptor Ed The Seeker, 2022, bronze (edition
matteucci.com Smida and the painter Chris Morel. of 9), 35 x 11 x 8 in.
June 22–July 12 Ed Smida was enjoying a success-

ful career in engineering when he first
touched clay in 2012 at the age of 51. He
took to it instantly, and now
he is now a leading member
of the National Sculpture
Society.
Chris Morel started
drawing as a child and
earned a fine art degree
from Towson University
before thriving as a graphic
designer, art director, and
illustrator. It was a move
to Taos that launched his
full-time pursuit of paint-
ing, especially the plein air
scenes of the Southwest that
have won him acclaim.
106 MAY/ J U N E 2 0 2 4 F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M
BEST OF THE WEST
OKLAHOMA CITY
nationalcowboymuseum.org/
prixdewest
May 31–August 4
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage

Museum is set to launch its 52nd annual Prix de
West Invitational Art Exhibition & Sale, one of
the field’s highest-quality events. Opening on
May 31 will be a display of nearly 300 paintings
and sculptures created by more than 85 invited
talents. Their works depict landscapes, wildlife,
figures, portraits, and moments in Western his-
tory and lore. Prix de West is the museum’s larg-
est annual fundraiser, with last year’s revenues BRENT COTTON (b. 1972), November Morning, 2024, oil on board, 26 x 40 in.
totaling more than $4 million.
The action really gets underway on the
weekend of June 7–8, when collectors in per- live auction. Among the presenters that week- To make reservations, see the full sched-
son and online will enjoy a range of seminars, end will be John Coleman, Scott Gale, Daniel ule, or arrange to bid by proxy, please visit the
workshops, receptions, dinners, awards pres- J. Keys, T. Allen Lawson, Huihan Liu, Walter T. museum’s website.
entation, fixed-price sale, and of course the Matia, and Sonya Terpening.
LEARN BY DOING
COLORADO SPRINGS
broadmoorgalleries.com
June 23–28
Located at the scenic Broadmoor resort, the

Broadmoor Galleries Art Academy is poised to
welcome the master sculptor John Coleman
for a six-day workshop he has created for art-
ists who already understand the basic princi-
ples of composition and design. He will begin
each day with a demonstration highlighting
key concepts, then assign participants a daily
project that allows them to explore their artis-
tic vision and “breathe life into clay.”
Providing draped models and all nec-
essary materials, Coleman will address the
mechanics of applying clay to an armature, and
will be joined by fellow sculptor Erik Petersen,
who will share insights on the patination of
bronze and such casting phases as molding,
welding, and chasing. Their overall goal, Cole-
man says, is to stimulate a sense of “sculptural
poetry that resonates with each participant.”
JOHN COLEMAN (right) watches ERIK PETERSEN at work.
E V E N T S
P R E V I E W
GRA AR
LOOKING BACK
WORDWID artist to teach at all of the city’s major art
institutions and academies.
On view are almost 30 works, rang-
ing from portraiture and still life to scenes of
FINDING HIDDEN TREASURES
nature. Among the highlights are his 10-foot-
wide triptych The Legacy and Burial of Martin
Long Island Museum
Luther King, as well as landscapes painted not
Stony Brook, New York
far from the museum in East Hampton and
longislandmuseum.org
Shelter Island. Screening in the gallery are
through June 2
excerpts from a 2012 film about Adoquei writ-
ten and directed by Gabriel de Urioste.
The Long Island Museum is the first insti- After walking through the exhibition
tution to organize a retrospective devoted this spring, Adoquei noted, “It was interest-
to the artist Samuel Adoquei (b. 1964), ing to see some of my earliest paintings next
which it has titled Finding Hidden Treas- to some recent canvases. Same with my tech-
ures. Born in Ghana, Adoquei came to SAM ADOQUEI (b. 1964), Rodney, 1995, oil on canvas, nique: some paintings were approached with
New York in 1987 to continue his educa- 24 x 26 in., collection of the artist the most careful classical method, while
tion; there he matured into a master and others have a spirit of fun and spontaneous
has since become the first and only African innovation.”
SMALL BUT GOOD

DAN BECK (b. 1955), Down by the
River, 2024, oil on canvas, 16 x 12 in.,
AIS IMPRESSIONS SMALL WORKS available through the exhibition
SHOWCASE
Anderson Fine Art Gallery

St. Simons Island, Georgia
americanimpressionistsociety.org
andersonfineartgallery.com
through May 28
Anderson Fine Art Gallery is hosting the

American Impressionist Society’s 8th Annual
AIS Impressions Small Works Showcase. On
view are 150 pieces selected by a five-member
jury that reviewed approximately 1,500 sub-
missions, plus an additional 20 paintings cre-
ated by AIS masters, board members, officers,
and founders. Based in Wilmington, North
Carolina, awards judge Dan Beck faced a chal-
lenge choosing among the works in oil, water-
color, pastel, gouache, and acrylic.
AIS is a nonprofit art organization with
more than 2,300 members across the U.S. It
BREAKING NEW GROUND
FORWARD TOGETHER
Honolulu Museum of Art

Hawaii
honolulumuseum.org
through September 15
In 2022 the Honolulu Museum of Art (HoMA)

acquired 55 pieces from the Jean and Robert
Steele Collection — all works on paper created
by 26 African American artists. This acquisition
(part gift and part purchase) has radically trans-
formed HoMA’s representation of artists of color,
and this year it is celebrating with the exhibition
Forward Together: African American Prints from
the Jean and Robert Steele Collection.
Because works on paper are light-sensitive,
they are being shown in two rotations; the
first half closes on May 12, and the second half
appears soon thereafter (May 16–September
15). All were made between 1976 and 2014 by
such talents as Emma Amos, Romare Bearden,
Sam Gilliam, Barkley L. Hendricks, Gwendolyn RON ADAMS (1934–2020), Blackburn, 2000, lithograph on paper, 29 1/2 x 39 in. (framed), Honolulu Museum
Knight Lawrence, Jacob Lawrence, and Faith of Art: partial gift of Robert and Jean Steele; partial purchase with funds from the John V. Levas Trust, 2023
Ringgold. Working in a variety of techniques (2023-06-01)
and ranging from figuration to abstraction, their
pieces explore the retelling of significant stories,
cultural memory, social justice, war, and other student at Yale. The distinguished printmaker cans and the African Diaspora at the Univer-
themes through the lens of the African dias- Robert Blackburn, depicted here in a Ron sity of Maryland. His wife, Jean, is a former
pora. The show’s title comes from a 1997 work Adams lithograph that Steele acquired later, corporate executive, and the two relocated
by Jacob Lawrence, who honored Harriet Tub- encouraged the younger man to connect with to Honolulu in 2016. They have also gifted
man’s efforts to shepherd enslaved people from other printmakers like Lou Stovall and Allan art to other institutions, including the Mobile
captivity in the South. Edmunds. Ultimately Steele became director Museum of Art, Morehouse College (Atlanta),
Robert Steele purchased his first artwork of the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of College of William & Mary (Virginia), and Yale
in Harlem in 1968 when he was a graduate the Visual Arts and Culture of African Ameri- University.
HOW NATURE
MAKES US FEEL
SCENE: UNSEEN
Monroe Arts Center

Monroe, Wisconsin
monroeartscenter.com
through June 8
Scene: Unseen is an exhibition of paintings cre-

ated by Douglas Whittle, on view at the Mon-
roe Arts Center, an hour southwest of his home
in Madison, Wisconsin. Most of the works on
view are landscapes.
The artist notes, “A beautiful landscape it evokes in me when I’m there. That’s really DOUGLAS WHITTLE (b. 1957), Monument Valley,
elevates my soul somehow, and I’ve always what I consider the greater challenge: convey- 2019, oil on wood, 36 x 80 in., available through the
thought that it would be great if I could some- ing those feelings. It is the sensory experience Monroe Arts Center
how make that feeling last, and keep it with that I receive from the landscape that inspires
me. It may sound pretentious, but when I me to try and create a physical memory of it.”
begin a painting, I really am trying to repli- Whittle is a sixth-generation Floridian South Carolina, he spent 17 years devising and
cate the powerful feelings that were created who earned a B.F.A. in painting and an M.F.A. leading educational trips for the University of
in me by the landscape. The way that a place in printmaking from the University of Flor- Wisconsin-Madison. He retired in 2021 and
looks is not the same thing as the sentiments ida. After teaching for 12 years at a college in now is painting full-time.
SEARCHING FOR
AN ANCESTOR
WHAT BECAME OF DR. SMITH
Mississippi Museum of Art

Jackson, Mississippi
msmuseumart.org
through September 22
Raised in Mississippi and now based in Nashville, the artist Noah Sater-
strom earned a B.F.A. from the University of Mississippi and then an
M.F.A. from Scotland’s Glasgow School of Art. In 2017, he began a long
search in state, local, and private archives for information about his great-
grandfather, the traveling optometrist D.L. Smith. Eventually he learned
that Dr. Smith spent his last four decades at the Mississippi State Insane
Hospital in Jackson (“The Old Asylum”) and later in nearby Whit-
field. This ancestor had been all but erased from the family’s history, so
Saterstrom created a monumental painting — composed of 183 canvases
spanning 122 feet — that tries to tell the man’s story.
This vast work is the centerpiece of the Mississippi Museum of Art’s
exhibition What Became of Dr. Smith, which also presents artifacts from
Smith’s life, including letters, newspaper clippings, and photographs.
The show highlights the Asylum Hill Project, which is finding ways to
memorialize the approximately 7,000 individuals whose remains were
discovered on that site more than a decade ago.
The accompanying catalogue, edited by curator Megan Hines,
includes an interview with Saterstrom conducted by the novelist Ann
Patchett, whose 2019 book The Dutch House has a Saterstrom painting
on its cover, and also an essay by British painter Timothy Hyman situat-
ing What Became of Dr. Smith within the history of narrative painting.
Saterstrom has already sold more than 1,500 paintings related to Dr.
Smith through the charitable Instagram platform Artist Support Pledge.
NOAH SATERSTROM (b. 1974), What Became of Dr. Smith (detail), 2023, oil on canvas,
122 x 6 feet (overall), collection of the artist
AMERICAN ART’S JOURNEY Sophie Lynford, Kimberly Orcutt, and Richard

Saunders.
Their themes consider individual col-
TASTEMAKERS, COLLECTORS, lectors and collectives, civic philanthropy in
AND PATRONS the fine arts (including the forming of public
museums), the creation of an American school
Frick Collection with Penn State distinct from, yet rooted in, European tradi-
University Press tion, and the impact of sectionalism (especially
shop.frick.org pointed during and after the Civil War).
This is the sixth and final book in the
The Frick Collection and Penn State Univer- Frick’s Studies in the History of Art Collecting
sity Press recently published the book Tas- in America series. Its previous titles include
temakers, Collectors, and Patrons: Collecting Holland’s Golden Age in America: Collecting the
American Art in the Long Nineteenth Century. Art of Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Hals (2014); A
Edited by Linda S. Ferber, Margaret R. Laster, Market for Merchant Princes: Collecting Italian
and Samantha Deutch, it contains 10 essays Renaissance Paintings in America (2015); Buying
that explore American art collecting in the Baroque: Italian Seventeenth-Century Paintings
U.S. from the late 18th through early 20th Come to America (2017); The Americas Revealed:
centuries, ranging from the Eastern Seaboard Collecting Colonial and Modern Latin American
to the Old South, Midwest, and West Coast. Art in the United States (2018); and America
The contributors include Lynne D. Ambrosini, Susan Fort, Barbara Dayer Gallati, Lance and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by
Sarah Cash, Julie McGinnis Flanagan, Ilene Humphries, Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Their Circles (2020).
CELEBRATING NATURE
THE HARTLEY INVITATIONAL
Salmagundi Club
New York City
salmagundi.org
through May 31
The Salmagundi Club is presenting its third annual Hartley Invita-

tional: Celebrating Art in the Naturalist Tradition, which is named
for one of the organization’s founders, the sculptor Jonathan Scott
Hartley (1845–1912). On view this season are figure, landscape, and
still life paintings and sculptures created by 62 wide-ranging artists
who draw inspiration from nature.
The show has been curated by Milène J. Fernández, Alexander
Katlan, Jacob Collins, and Judith Pond Kudlow, and the juror for the
$12,000 grand prize is the art historian Gregory Hedberg. Fernán-
dez says she knows an artwork is worthy “when you can’t take your
eyes away from it. You are left feeling uplifted and awestruck. You
are relieved and delighted because this feeling is what you expect to
gain from art.”
JOSHUA LAROCK (b. 1982), Bather, 2024, oil on linen, 24 x 26 in.
VISIONS OF NATURE
MARCIA HOLMES (b. 1954), Cahaba Lily Reflections,
2024, oil on canvas, 59 x 63 1/2 in.
MARCIA HOLMES: VERDANT SPACES
Degas Gallery
New Orleans Based in Mandeville, Louisiana — just across
thedegasgalley.com Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans — Holmes
May 4 – July 4 says she feels deeply connected to life around
water. In her impressionistic scenes made in
oils and pastels, she evokes lush gardens, native
Verdant Spaces is the title of Marcia Holmes’s foliage, and bodies of water with gestural
seventh solo exhibition at Degas Gallery, and brushstrokes and organic forms that help view-
perhaps the most meaningful because it marks ers feel connected, too.
both her 70th birthday and 25th anniversary of
making art.
BEYOND PORTRAITURE
PETER PAUL RUBENS (1577–1640), Head of a Bearded
Man, c. 1616–17, oil on panel, 20 x 16 1/4 in., Princely
TURNING HEADS: RUBENS, Collections Liechtenstein, Vienna
REMBRANDT, AND VERMEER
National Gallery of Ireland

Dublin Brendan Rooney have added several more
nationalgallery.ie works.
through May 26 Their topic is not the portrait but the
tronie — a Dutch word for “face” that encour-
The National Gallery of Ireland is present- aged artists to experiment with facial expres-
ing the exhibition Turning Heads: Rubens, sions and showcase their skills. Among the
Rembrandt, and Vermeer, which features masterworks on view are Vermeer’s Girl with
more than 70 works by Dutch and Flem- the Red Hat, which rarely leaves Washington,
ish artists who worked in the 16th and 17th D.C., Rembrandt’s Laughing Man (Maurit-
centuries. This project launched at the shuis, The Hague), and the exquisite work by
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp last Peter Paul Rubens depicted here.
year, but the Irish curators Lizzie Marx and
HONORING THEIR OWN
GRAND OPENING
Palmer Museum of Art

University Park, Pennsylvania
palmermuseum.psu.edu
June 1
To mark the opening of its new 73,000-square-

foot location in the arboretum at Pennsylvania
State University, the Palmer Museum of Art is
presenting Made in PA, an exhibition featuring
artists who have lived or worked in the Com-
monwealth of Pennsylvania. Focused on post-
1945 painting, sculpture, mixed media, and
installations, the project contains more than
30 works, many from the permanent collec-
tion. Among the artists represented are Andrew
Wyeth, Keith Haring, Philip Pearlstein, and
G. Daniel Massad. A separate exhibition titled
Made in PA on Paper is also on view. and George Luks, and members of the early GRAFTON TYLER BROWN (1841–1918), Hot Springs
Not surprisingly, the Palmer’s collec- 20th-century New Hope impressionist colony. at Yellowstone, 1889, oil on canvas, 16 1/8 x 24 1/8 in.,
tion encompasses numerous works by artists The Palmer’s new teaching gallery is Palmer Museum of Art, purchased with funds from the
from the Keystone State. From the 18th cen- opening with The Art of Teaching: Medical Edu- Terra Art Enrichment Fund, 2020.97
tury come Benjamin West and members of cation and the Integrated Curriculum, an exhi-
the Peale family, and there are the pioneering bition co-curated with faculty in Penn State’s
19th-century Black artists Henry Ossawa Tan- College of Medicine. This project extends the
ner and Grafton Tyler Brown, individuals affil- two units’ partnership, which already offers
iated with the Pennsylvania Academy of the an integrated arts and science curriculum for
Fine Arts (e.g., Daniel Garber and Violet Oak- medical students.
ley), Ashcan School leaders like John Sloan
The title says it all. All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840–
ART ON THE RAILS 1955 is the touring exhibition premiering this summer at Vermont’s
Shelburne Museum, an institution that has long celebrated vari-
ALL ABOARD ous modes of transportation. On view are more than 50 works by
major artists who witnessed the railroad’s expansion and impact
Shelburne Museum for themselves.
Shelburne, Vermont Starting with trains’ emergence as a technological marvel, the
shelburnemuseum.org project traces the anxiety felt by such Hudson River School mas-
June 21–October 13 ters as Thomas Cole and George Inness about the railroad’s pro-
found impact on nature. Yet colleagues such as Albert Bierstadt
were enthralled by the Western landscapes that trains made it
easier to reach, while early 20th-century talents such as Edward
Hopper, Reginald Marsh, George Bellows, John Sloan, and Jacob
Lawrence relished the constant movement of freight and people.
Ben Shahn, Thomas Hart Benton, and others portrayed railroad
workers as modern-day heroes, while contemporaries like Geor-
gia O’Keeffe, John Marin, and Joseph Stella stripped the machine
forms down to highlight their power. It’s not all roses: the show
also explores how railroads damaged Native cultures and contrib-
uted to wealth inequality nationwide.
All Aboard has been organized by Shelburne in partnership
with the Dixon Gallery and Gardens (Memphis) and Joslyn Art
Museum (Omaha), where it will appear later.
EDMUND C. TARBELL (1862–1938), In the Station Waiting Room, Boston, c. 1915,

oil on canvas, 24 3/8 x 32 in., Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, gift of Dr. Joseph
R. Fazzano. 1956.7
LOOKING AGAIN
UNNAMED FIGURES
Historic Deerfield
Deerfield, Massachusetts
historic-deerfield.org
May 1–August 4
Located in New York City, the American Folk

Art Museum has won praise for its exhibi-
tion, Unnamed Figures: Black Presence and
Absence in the Early American North, which
closed there this March. Now Historic Deerfield,
the second and only other venue for this ground-
breaking show, is expecting crowds throughout
the run there.
Despite their importance, the experiences
and contributions of Black people have gener-
ally been invisible in our country’s historical
artworks. Slavery and racism were not uniquely JOSEPH RUSSELL SHOEMAKER (1795–1860), Dining Room of Abm Russell, New Bedford, 1848–54, watercolor on
Southern problems, as can be seen in this exhi- paper, 18 x 15 x 3/4 in. (framed), New Bedford Whaling Museum, Massachusetts, gift of Mrs. Edward K. Sampson,
bition’s 97 works, which include paintings, nee- 1962.4.13
dlework, ceramics, and photographs. Selected
by co-curators Emelie Gevalt, RL Watson, and
Sadé Ayorinde, they encourage visitors to con- come. Several objects from Historic Deerfield Historic Deerfield is a museum of early
sider who appears in these images — and who were added to the exhibition for this venue, American life situated in an authentic 18th-
has been omitted. including a cornice plane made by Black crafts- century New England village in the Connecti-
Curatorial department director Amanda man Cesar Chelor of Wrentham, Massachu- cut River Valley. In 2022, it partnered with the
Lange says that Unnamed Figures “will signifi- setts, a 1793 copy of Phillis Wheatley’s Poems Witness Stones Project to install 19 memorials at
cantly expand the conversation around His- on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, and a properties along Old Main Street, sharing names
toric Deerfield’s collection and regional history… recent acquisition of an 1818 ‘Bobolition’ broad- and information about the lives of Deerfield’s
[It] may also change the way visitors view our side with a Greenfield, Massachusetts, imprint, enslaved residents.
museum’s permanent collections for years to among others.”
EXCELLENCE IN
WATERCOLORS
INTERNATIONAL WATERCOLOUR
MASTERS EXHIBITION
Lilleshall Hall
near Newport, Shropshire, England
iwm2024.com
May 15–24
The English artist and author David Poxon

rejoices in the fact that Britain brought
watercolors to global attention as a fine art
during the 18th century. To celebrate this
heritage, he has organized the third edition of
the International Watercolour Masters Exhi-
bition at an idyllic spot in western England,
roughly 35 miles northwest of Birmingham.
On view will be 150 works by more than
50 of the world’s best watercolorists, includ-
ing Julia Barminova, Carol Carter, Veneta
Docheva, Pasqualino Fracasso, Laurie Gold-
stein-Warren, Xi Guo, Alex Hillkurtz, Coco DAVID POXON (b. 1960), Escapade, 2023,
Nguyen, Gerhard Ritter, Deepti Singh, Claire pure watercolor on paper, 27 x 16 in.,
Sparkes, and Sarah Stokes. Complementing available through IWME 2024 or the artist
the display will be a lively program of demon-
strations and workshops.
BY JAMES LANCEL MCELHINNEY
D E S T I N A T I O N
A R T
ARISS & INSPIRAION
Y
ellowstone and Yosemite may be more famous, yet the largest
publicly protected park in America’s lower 48 states is Adi-
rondack Park in northeastern New York, owned not by the
U.S. government but by New York State. In the middle of it,
Adirondack Experience: The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake
is the latest iteration of a private, nonprofit museum that arose from the
1948 formation of the Adirondack Historical Association, and the estab-
lishment of The Adirondack Museum 11 years later, on the former site of
a hotel built in 1876.
According to the website of ADKX, as the museum is known today,
its original mission was “ecological in nature, showing the history of man’s
relation to the Adirondacks. The first objects collected were from the
Blue Mountain Lake area. The exhibits featured the Marion River Carry
Railroad engine and passenger car, the steamboat Osprey, a stagecoach,
several horse-drawn vehicles, a birch bark canoe, and dioramas depicting
various aspects of life in the Adirondacks.”
Following a renovation, the museum repurposed its original exhibi-
tions hall as a home for its art collection, dubbing
it Artists & Inspiration in the Wild and welcoming
the public back inside last May. This past January,
I braved the cold to visit ADKX curator Laura Rice
and speak with her about the genesis of this perma-
nent installation. Having been greeted by the regis-
trar and other staff members, I accompanied Laura
into the exhibition, where she started by explain-
ing that the 32-acre campus has multiple buildings,
each with a different focus. Several of these dis-
plays had needed to become more interconnective,
in order to offer visitors a less siloed experience. As
Laura put it:
We mapped out a series of exhibitions that

would tie them together for visitors, starting
with Life in the Adirondacks … here’s what
the Adirondack Park is, and so forth. The
next thing on the list was making use of this
incredible art collection. We wanted to have
a place that would be permanently dedicated
(TOP RIGHT) ADKX’s main entrance (RIGHT) The Light

Gallery; photos courtesy ADKX
TYLER SCHRADER (b. 1996), Cosmic Portal, 2022, ash, poplar, maple, and LED lights,
9 x 6 feet, 2023.015.0001
to the art. We faced some challenges with that. Most visitors think of us
as a museum of history, not of art. I remember standing in the lobby of
this building before it was reconfigured. I watched a woman push a baby
stroller inside, look at an installation with paintings and say, “Oh, it’s
just art,” and wheel right back out. I thought, “Well, there’s a problem!
How do we engage people who might not be interested, who might be a
little intimidated by the idea of art?”
ADKX visitors often consist of intergenerational groups that include

small children, parents, and grandparents. The challenge for Laura and her
colleagues, then, was to create something that all age groups would find
engaging, without alienating the traditional art lover who prefers a quieter,
more contemplative experience.
Laura continued, “So we started taking a deep dive into the collection,
thinking about works we did not have, and would like to have, and the kinds of
artists not represented, especially 19th-century women. We have a large and
vibrant Mohawk and Abenaki community that is traditionally from the Adiron-
dacks, including artists doing amazing things. They were under-represented,
too.” Logically, the museum has been making acquisitions to fill these gaps.
Laura and her colleagues met with designers to develop spaces where,
by immersing themselves in the art collection, visitors would be inspired to
approach the museum’s other exhibits in fresh and exciting ways. By capturing
SANFORD R. GIFFORD (1823–1880), A Twilight in the Adirondacks, 1864, oil on canvas,

24 x 36 in., 1963.124.0002
CHARLES CROMWELL INGHAM (1796–1863), The Great Adirondack Pass, Painted on
the Spot, 1837, oil on canvas, 48 x 40 in., 1966.114.0001, gift of Harold McIntyre Grout
a sense of place, the artworks help define how people think of the Adi-
rondacks — as “Forever Wild.” Interpretive wall panels and labels make
sparing use of the term wilderness because the museum wants to acknowl-
edge the fact that the Adirondack region has long been inhabited by the
Mohawk and Abenaki, who were displaced by newcomers seeking to
profit from extractive industries and seasonal tourism. The artworks now
on view were selected to tell those stories from different perspectives.
As we toured the exhibition, Laura described how this vision was
put into action:
The challenge was reaching all ages. How do you appeal to

children without turning off older art aficionados? So, we used
a number of different strategies. One was to put the interac-
tives in the center of each gallery, which gives kids something
to do while the adults look at art. We had worried about main-
taining that quiet, contemplative experience with a lot of kids
running around. For the most part, people are respectful, and
the kids are occupied. We’ve seen conversations occurring
between kids and their elders about the art, and there’s noth-
ing more natural than children and art.
Artists & Inspiration in the Wild is divided into four sections: Light,
Water, Forests, and Mountains. Within each gallery, artworks ranging
from oil paintings to baskets, ceramics, woodwork, metalwork, and tex-
tiles address a common theme. Initially this presented the designers
with daunting challenges because the conditions under which a water-
color may be safely displayed are quite different from those for a canoe
paddle. Exhibiting such a variety in the same
gallery would require a subtle manipulation of
light levels.
Laura said ADKX hopes “to bring in
all sorts of different works from different
periods.” She continued, “Coming next year
is Cosmic Portal, which is nine feet tall and
six feet wide. It was created by an up-and-
coming woodworker in the Adirondacks
named Tyler Schrader, who makes incred-
ible layers of wood with LED lights that can
respond to electrical impulses in the ground,
moving the lights accordingly. It offers an
opportunity to expand the collection in ways
we haven’t addressed before.”
Laura called my attention to a sculpture
by Margaret Jacobs (b. 1986), “an up-and-
coming artist in the Mohawk Nation. She does
a lot of work, as many do, with ideas about
cultural identity and sovereignty. This piece is
called Carrying Knowledge: Mint. It’s her take
on a pack-basket with mint leaves. It’s about
that connection with the natural world, herbal
medicine, and knowledge of what nature does
to benefit humankind, how that’s being car-
ried forward into the future.”
We made our way to Twilight in the Adi-
rondacks, a painting by Sanford R. Gifford (1823–
1880). Laura explained that this yellow-orange
PAUL MATTHEWS (1933–2019), Cascade Sunset

(The Dark Hills), 2001, oil on linen, 50 x 60 in.,
2001.053.0001
DAVID KANIETAKERON FADDEN (b. 1970), He Peers through the Trees,
2016, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 24 in., 2022.014.0002
his Asgaard Farm, while Ellen Phelan’s 2008 print Autumn

Border celebrates wildness in the artist’s garden. Arthur
Fitzwilliam Tait’s A Good Time Coming (1862) is a picture that
could almost serve as an upbeat pendant to Gifford’s elegiac
Twilight. Laura explained that Tait’s title is based on a line from
Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy, a reference to paradise after
death. “It was painted in 1862 as the Civil War was becoming
very bloody. So Tait was presenting the Adirondacks as a place
to find peace and camaraderie in the midst of this awful event.”
Nearby is a globe-shaped basket (1998) by a Mohawk artist
named Florence Benedict; according to Laura, it “also speaks
to peace and fellowship and camaraderie, but in a very differ-
ent way, and these works are hundreds of years apart.” Pairing
disparate objects like these can be traced back to the African
American artist Fred Wilson’s groundbreaking 1992 exhibi-
tion, Mining the Museum, at the Maryland Historical Society
in Baltimore. Today a growing number of curators and art-
ists are decolonizing museum narratives. On view at ADKX,
for example, is He Peers Through the Trees, painted by Akwe-
sasne Mohawk David Kanietakeron Fadden, who runs the Six
Nations Iroquois Cultural Center 70 miles away in Onchiota,
New York. His smiling portraits of indigenous people torpedo
racist stereotypes such as the glum-faced cigar-store Indian.
In 1978, Don Wynn (b. 1942) became the first contempo-
sunset scene is one of four canvases Gifford painted in the same location, rary artist granted a solo exhibition at the Adirondack Museum, due in
each capturing a different light effect. This one was made on a hunting trip part to the international acclaim he had garnered as a participant in the
he took during the Civil War, which had already claimed his brother’s life. As New Realism movement. On view at ADKX now is his portrait of Cedric
a member of the New York State Militia’s Seventh Regiment, Gifford himself Gates, or A Hunter in the Snow (Orion), which offers a contemporary take
had faced mobs during the 1863 New York City Draft Riots. “When you look on Tait’s Still Hunting on the First Snow.
at the light in this painting,” Laura noted, “you get
a sense of the sorrow and rage the artist felt.”
We came to another large canvas, a ver-
tical composition of gigantic boulders at the
foot of a rocky escarpment, Charles Cromwell
Ingham’s The Great Adirondack Pass. Laura
observed, “The first time people saw this,
what impressed them wasn’t Ingham’s skill as
a landscape painter, but his accurate portrayal
of the landscape, in scale with human beings.
Painters, poets, and writers were inspired to
come and stand on that spot. It was around
that time that American artists were search-
ing for something that would define them as
American — as opposed to European. That
connection to the landscape started to take on
nationalistic overtones. The landscape sym-
bolized who we were as a nation: pioneer set-
tlers going out to conquer, and thus improve
the land. That idea of wilderness really lingers
in the American imagination.”
The awesome power of nature is also
captured in the painting Cascade Sunset by
Paul Matthews (1933–2019), and in a brood-
ing depiction of Ausable Chasm (which some
call the Grand Canyon of the Adirondacks)
by Samuel Colman (1832–1920). The jum-
bled forms and slashing brushstrokes of John
Marin’s watercolor Adirondacks, Near Owl’s Head (1947) convey a
sense of latent violence, while in Harold Weston’s Giant (1922), dump- JOHN MARIN (1870–1953), Adirondacks, Near Owl’s Head, 1947, watercolor over
ling clouds swarm a bulging summit above broad snowy pastures. A graphite on paper, 15 1/4 x 20 1/4 in., 2011.050.0001
more pastoral view is captured by Rockwell Kent in a 1961 painting of
DON WYNN (b. 1942), Cedric Gates or A Hunter in the Snow (Orion), 1975, oil on canvas, 90 1/2 x 78 in., 2003.025.0001, gift of Jack Beal and Sondra Freckelton
Not all of the paintings here are representational, however: a 1972 artist known only as L.L.S. captures the unspoiled beauty of the
color-field painting by Ludwig Sander resonates with Edith Mitchell’s Adirondacks in the 1870s.
After the Microburst (1996–99), a vibrant quilt that echoes the feminist These are just a few highlights in this engrossing and comprehen-
aesthetic of Canadian-American artist Miriam Schapiro. sive installation. At the far end of the building, visitors come upon the
During my visit, I was drawn to several notebooks on display, Art Lab / Robillard Family Makerspace, a kid-friendly, hands-on learning
including a hunting-trip sketchbook from 1870 by Cassius Marcellus environment designed in collaboration with Adirondack artist Barney
Coolidge, an illustrator best known for his humorous paintings of Bellinger. There visitors can discover that, in Bellinger’s words, “every-
poker-playing canines. Another sketchbook had been produced by one is an artist, builder, crafter, or maker.”
self-taught artist Seth Moulton, who fashioned paintbrushes from
his grandchildren’s hair. A series of small, gorgeous watercolors by an
Information: ADKX (theadkx.org) is located 90 minutes by car from
Lake Placid, two hours from Albany, and three hours from Montreal.
This year it is open daily between May 14 and October 24.
JAMES LANCEL MCELHINNEY is a visual artist, essayist, and

author of the Sketchbook Traveler books, as well as many writings
that explore intersections between art, landscape, history, and the
environment. He resides in the Champlain Valley and Manhattan
with his spouse, the noted art historian Katherine Manthorne, and a
cat named Maeve. American Nocturnes, a selection of McElhinney’s
recent landscapes, will open on June 14 at Gerald Peters Gallery in
Santa Fe (gpgallery.com).
(LEFT) ARTHUR FITZWILLIAM TAIT (1819–1905), Still Hunting on the First

Snow: A Second Shot, 1855, oil on canvas, 54 x 76 in., 1965.036.0001
(BELOW) CASSIUS MARCELLUS COOLIDGE (1844–1934), Untitled page
from an Adirondack Hunting Trip Sketchbook, c. 1870, pencil on paper,
2019.072.0001
O F F T H E
W A L L S
statewide paint-out for members, to be followed by a items from Pittsfield that all have handles and have
juried show of up to 90 of their new paintings at Weems survived in good condition. These have been selected
Gallery. Their subjects will encompass New Mexico’s sce- by curator M. Stephen Miller.
nic deserts, rivers, mountains, architecture, and skies.
The jurors are Damien Gonzales, Richard Prather, and
Clive Tyler, and the awards judge is Paul Murray.
A RT I ST S & G A L L E R I E S
AU C T IO N S & FA I R S
James Whistler (1834–1903), Nude Model Reclining, c. George Gershwin in his Beverly Hills home with his
1900, chalk and pastel on brown paper, 6 3/4 x 11 in. finished and framed Portrait of Arnold Schoenberg, 1937;
photo: Gabriel Hackett/Archive Photos/Getty Images
Newbury, England
dreweatts.com Naples, Florida
June 12 artisnaples.org
through June 16
As part of its Old Master, British, and European Art auction, Artis—Naples, The Baker Museum has organized George
Clyde Aspevig (b. 1951), Hollyhocks, 2024, oil on Dreweatts is offering three drawings by the Anglo-American Gershwin and Modern Art: A Rhapsody in Blue, the first
linen, 60 x 48 in. master James Whistler. Two depict Venice — the city he loved major exhibition devoted to the famous American compos-
dearly — and the other is illustrated here. It has a particularly er’s passion for visual arts. Gershwin (1898–1937) remains
interesting provenance that is detailed on the firm’s website. beloved for his innovative work as a composer, songwriter,
Loveland, Colorado and pianist, but he also produced numerous paintings,
governorsartshow.org M USEU MS drawings, and photographs, and his collection of modern
May 11–June 9 art was one of the most significant of his time. This project
To be held at the Loveland Museum, the 33rd annual features 22 works he owned, 17 he made, and 18 by artists
Colorado Governor’s Art Show & Sale will feature more inspired by Gershwin’s music, ranging in date from 1935 to
than 60 artists offering four works each, encompassing today. Among the talents represented are Marc Chagall,
sculpture, mixed media, and paintings in oils, pastels, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Oskar Kokoschka, Miguel Covarru-
watercolors, and acrylics. Twenty of the artists are new bias, Isamu Noguchi, Andy Warhol, and Kara Walker.
to this juried program; returning to it are Legacy Art- Because 2024 is the centenary of Rhapsody in Blue,
ists Clyde Aspevig, James Biggers, Jane DeDecker, Kim Artis—Naples has been celebrating Gershwin all sea-
English, Quang Ho, and Daniel Sprick, along with 2023 son. The exhibition contains that masterwork’s original
Best of Show recipient Jen Starling. manuscript, loaned by the Library of Congress, and the
Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra will offer a pro-
gram of Gershwin’s music on May 15.
Carolyn Lindsey (b.
1960), From the Barbara Ernst Prey (b. 1957), Red Cloak Blue Bucket,
Bridge, 2023, oil 2019, watercolor and drybrush on paper, 28 x 40 in. Wausau, Wisconsin
on linen, 13 x 8 in. wmoca.org
New Britain, Connecticut through July 21
nbmaa.org The Wausau Museum of
through October 6 Contemporary Art is present-
The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) is ing recent works by Jennifer
presenting the exhibition Handled with Care: Shaker Balkan, who grew up near
Master Crafts and the Art of Barbara Prey. New York City and is based
It has been 250 years since the United Society of in Austin. On view are figu-
Believers, more commonly called Shakers, arrived in rative paintings with deftly
America from England. They made by hand most of what managed coloration and
they needed — tools, baskets, tubs, cleaning and meas- thought bubbles derived
uring devices — and sold many more of those items to from comic books that let us
Albuquerque the outside world. A leading repository of their creations know the subject is actively
papnm.org is Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), thinking. Also included is a Jennifer Balkan (b. 1970),
weemsgallery.com which in 2018 invited the artist Barbara Ernst Prey to group of works proposing a Untitled.Blue3 (Thoughts
June 1–23 create 10 large watercolors of anything on its property world in which dogs are the in Blue, Three), 2023, oil,
The nonprofit organization Plein Air Painters of New Mex- that engaged her attention. She has loaned six of the active thinkers, with humans acrylic, and spray paint on
ico (PAPNM) is set to launch Paint New Mexico!, its first resulting works to NBMAA’s show, which also features along in supporting roles. panel, 30 x 20 in.
D I G I T A L C O N T E N T BY M AT T H I A S A N D E R S O N
T O D A Y ’ S
M A S T E R S
ANNOUNCD:
H AS PINAIR
SAON WINNRS
his winter, talented plein
air painters around the
world participated in the
February 2024 edition of
the PleinAir Salon compe-
tition, which was judged
by Darrell Beauchamp, executive direc-
tor of the Western Art Museum in Kerr-
ville, Texas. The program encompassed
a bonanza of honors and awards: First
Place ($600 cash prize); Second Place
($300 cash prize); Third Place ($200
cash prize); People’s Choice Award ($100
cash prize); and the category winners
($50 cash prize each).
Dr. Beauchamp notes, “I believe
that every art competition results in the
growth of the artist. First, it requires the
artist to ask serious questions about the
overall quality of a work and how it will
hold up against other works in its genre. It
requires an artist to take a chance, to let
the work, and by extension themselves,
be thrown out there for judgment. If
approached with a positive attitude, com-
petition can allow an artist to grow by
looking at the works of others, knowing all
the while that art is subjective and beauty Looking East, Bill Farnsworth, oil, 12 x 16 in., First Place Overall, $600 cash prize
is truly in the eye of the beholder.”
All winners were automatically entered into the annual competi-
tion that will be awarded in May during the 11th Annual Plein Air Con-
vention & Expo in Cherokee, North Carolina. The Grand Prize winner
of that competition will receive a check for $15,000 and will have their
winning painting featured on the cover of PleinAir Magazine.
Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved, and please
visit PleinAir Salon Art Competition — Not Just for Plein Air Painters!
to learn more about upcoming competitions.
MATTHIAS ANDERSON is a contributing writer to Fine Art Connoisseur.
M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 4 F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M
D I G I T A L C O N T E N T
(LEFT) Fall Tilling, Warren Chang,

oil, 34 x 40 in., Second Place
overall, $300 cash prize (BELOW
LEFT) Port Clyde Co-Op Cove,
Thomas Bucci, watercolor, 14 x 21
in., Third Place overall, $200 cash
prize (BELOW) A Day in Autumn,
Antoine Khanji (Canada), acrylic,
30 x 40 in., People’s Choice Award,
$100 cash prize
F I N E A R T C O N N O I S S E U R · C O M M A Y / J U N E 2 0 2 4
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Hard Times, Warren Chang, oil, 36 x 24 in., Best Artist Over 65 Tomorrow’s Ascent, Susan Simmonds, pastel, 12 x 18 in., Best Beginner
Summer Oasis, Mo Myra, watercolor, 18 x 24 in., Best Animals & Birds Lo and Behold, Bill Farnsworth, oil, 20 x 30 in., Best Clouds & Sky Chrysler Building in
Winter, Mark Daly, oil, 24 x 18 in., Best Building
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) A Walk in the Country, Bill Farnsworth, oil,
30 x 24 in., Best Landscape Fragrant Diversion, Camille Przewodek, oil,
16 x 20 in., Best Floral Ready When You Are, Elizabeth Lewis Scott, graphite,
10 x 13 in., Best Drawing Tattooed Beauty, Johannes Wessmark (Sweden),
acrylic,, 21 x 38 in., Best Figure & Portrait Night Ship, Stock Schlueter, oil,
36 x 40 in., Best Nocturne
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Spring Peeking Through, Poppy Balser

(Canada), watercolor, 16 x 20 in., Best Plein Air Watercolor & Gouache
Rabbit Brush, Daved English, oil, 12 x 16 in., Best Plein Air Oil Near West
River, Megan Whitfield, acrylic,, 12 x 24 in., Best Plein Air Acrylic Spring
Creek at Fisherman’s Paradise, Jennifer Shuey, pastel, 12 x 16 in., Best Plein Air
Pastel Morning Orison, Nic Fischer, oil, 16 x 16 in., Best Plein Air Landscape
(CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Winging It, Mark Daly, oil, 20 x 16 in., Best Vehicle Rock Creek Waterfall, Sheryl Knight, oil, 16 x 20 in., Best Water Dirt n Dust, Sharon
Standridge, oil, 30 x 20 in., Best Western Rufous Hummingbirds & Wedding Vase, Rebecca Korth, oil, 20 x 16 in., Best Still Life
WILLIAM A.
SCHNEIDER
AISM, IAPS-EP, OPAM
An Alley in Morocco
110x8, Oil on Linen on Panel
Available at
Reinert Fine Art | Charleston, SC

(843) 694-2445
JILL BANKS
Capturing Life in Oils
Scan Me for an exclusive

offer plus info on upcoming
and current art events you
won’t want to miss!
Studio & Gallery

Great Falls VA by appt.
JillBanks.com
[email protected]
703.403.7435
ɑ jillbanks1
Ʉ JillBanksStudio This Is Bliss oil 16x20 in (detail) - $3350
SH A RON POM A LES
TOUSEY Fine Artist and Portraitist

¨W¨ µ¶¨·º ·º¨ °¨·ºĆ
Summer Friends (nine women, one man, and a sea lion) 72 x 48 inches, oil on canvas.
Now on view and available for purchase at

»Ée ÓedeÓicÌ ¹ WeismÂn ´ÖseÖm oÇ ¨ÓÕ in ´ÂliÃÖ
CA with the California Art Club’s exhibition
On Location in ´ÂliÃÖ
May 11th to July 28th, 2024.
¹eceÑtion ºatuÓday, May 11th {# Ñm.
Represented by Lovetts Fine Art Gallery, Tulsa OK

Some selected works at Abend Gallery, Denver CO
sharonpomales.com
[email protected]
Instagram: @sharonpomalestousey
30259 Palos Verdes Dr E, Rancho Palos Verdes CA | 843-384-8391.
Commissions Welcomed
Water Under the Bridge, 9” x 12”, oil
En plein air
sarabethfair.com
sara.fair @ outlook.com | 256-426-9163
Yank, 24” x 18”, charcoal
PleinAir Salon Best Drawing December 2023
directory of advertising
Antaya, Denise ................................................................................................. 123 Leer, Rebecca....................................................................................................124
Arenas, Heather ............................................................................................... 129 Lordier, Kim ......................................................................................................... 7
Art Renewal Center ........................................................................................... 60 MacLeod, Lee ................................................................................................CG 8
Bagdonas, Mike ............................................................................................... 130 Mangi, Johanne ....................................................................................................8
Barber, Chantel Lynn........................................................................................ 135 McLarry Fine Art ...........................................................................................CG 32
Bell, Chris .........................................................................................................122 McVey, Lee .................................................................................................. CG 31
Belliveau, Carole .......................................................................................... CG 31

Meister, John ................................................................................................CG 28
Boylan, Brenda .....................................................................................................9

Meyer Gallery, Santa Fe .................................................................................CG 5
Briscoe Western Art Museum ............................................................................ 52

Meyer Vogl Gallery .......................................................................................CG 29
Buckland, Kyle .............................................................................................. CG 19

Nanci France-Vaz Fine Art ................................................................................ 135
Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale ............................................................................... 13
National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum ...................................................1
Corrigan Gallery ...........................................................................................CG 28
National Museum of Wildlife Art .......................................................................127
Couse Foundation/Couse-Sharp Historic Site .................................................IFC
National Sculpture Society ................................................................................50
Croce, Madina ................................................................................................ CG 7
Nedra Matteucci Galleries ................................................................................... 2
Customs House Museum & Cultural Center.................................................... 129
NOAPS ......................................................................................................... 53, 54
Dare Gallery/Sandpiper Gallery ...................................................................CG 29
Paula Holtzclaw Fine Art .............................................................................. CG 10
David Marty Design ............................................................................................. 11
Reinert Fine Art ..............................................................................................CG 2
Drayton Hall Museum.................................................................................... CG 11
RJD Gallery ......................................................................................................... 15
Fair, Sara Beth ................................................................................................... 131
Schneider, William A. ........................................................................................125
Fehlman, Mark ...................................................................................................49
Scottsdale Art Week ...................................................................................... BC2
Florence Griswold Museum ............................................................................... 16
SEWE/Southeastern Wildlife Exposition ........................................................CG 9
Halbert, Karen .....................................................................................................6
Sneary, Richard ................................................................................................127
Handell, Albert ............................................................................................. CG 27
Springville Museum of Art .................................................................................59

Hatch, Caitlin Leline ......................................................................................... 135
Stacy Nixon Contemporary .......................................................................... CG16

He, Yuehua ........................................................................................................124
Sutherland, Dawn .............................................................................................125

Helena Fox Fine Art ...................................................................................... CG 27
Hillis, Catherine ............................................................................................... 135 TH Brennen Fine Art ......................................................................................... IBC
Hockaday Museum of Art ..................................................................................56 Thomas, Angela Trotta ...................................................................................CG 6
Holmes, Marcia .................................................................................................122 Tousey, Sharon Pomales .................................................................................. 130
Inson, Cynthia .............................................................................................. CG 31 Wausau Museum Of Contemporary Art ............................................................ 57
Jill E. Banks Art, LTD ..........................................................................................128 Wayne Art Center/Wayne Plein Air Festival ......................................................128
Kling, Chris ...................................................................................................... 123 Women Artists of the West ..................................................................................4
FE ATURED ART WORK | M ay/June 202 4
Caitlin Leline Hatch

Attunement, watercolor on paper, 12 x 16 in.
[email protected] | 608.341.8388
lelineartstudio.com
Catherine Hillis
A Conversation In An Irish Bar, watercolor on paper, 18 x 14 in.
[email protected] | 703.431.6877
catherinehillis.com
Nanci France-Vaz Chantel Lynn Barber

Guinevere, 20 x 16 in., oil on linen panel Some Things Don't Change, 10 x 8 in., acrylic on panel
[email protected] | 646-662-5960 Certificate of Excellence Winner ‘The International’ PSoA
www.nancifrancevaz.com chantellynnbarber.com
Represented by Pollak Gallery, Monmouth Center for the Arts
C L A S S I C
R U T H F I T T O N (b. 1 9 9 2), O nwa rd (S e l f- Po r t rait),

2023, oil on linen, 39 x 25 1/2 in., available
through the artist

5 5 "'5 2- 25 +331$ 5 5 5 5
.4/!()!(#*!04,%5 5 /!))!)#*!.4,&5

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