Frederick Church and Albert Bierstadt painted huge, magnificent canvases of the American West and other exotic locales: people paid just to look at them. The Metropolitan Museum's site describes the viewing…
Because I’m a mom who writes about painting and sculpture, friends often ask me how I’d introduce a kid to art. The suggestions below are a combination of what I…
Excerpted and adapted from Innovators in Sculpture. Faun Teased by Children is a technical tour de force by 18-year-old Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), whose career spanned seven decades. I'm a sucker for…
Knowledge is never wasted except on those too lazy to use it: Augustus Saint Gaudens produced exquisite portrait reliefs throughout his career using skills he learned at age thirteen, as a cameo-cutter. One…
Reynolds's Captain Coussmaker always makes me think of the Scarlet Pimpernel, even though the Pimpernel did his heroic deeds in disguise, not in uniform. The real Capt. George K.H. Coussemaker (1759-1801) served in…
I know exactly when I fell in love with history: the moment in my sophomore year in college when the archaeology professor put a Greek "little-master" cup in my hands.…
Through January 8, 2017, the Metropolitan Museum is showing Fragonard: Drawing Triumphant. The exhibition includes about 100 drawings by this top-notch 18th-century artist, some from the MMA, others from private collections…
When I see an exhibition of an artist I'm unfamiliar with, I always ask: Why do I like or dislike his work? And are there any of his works that…
The Metropolitan Museum is showing "Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio" through January 16, 2017. But before we go beyond Caravaggio, let's talk about what made Caravaggio himself such a big…
My Innovators in Sculpture tour starts at Frishmuth's The Vine, one of my favorite sculptures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art - and a great example of how far sculptors had…