Looking at the Masters: George Inness
George Inness (1825-1894) was born in Newburgh, New York, on the west bank of the Hudson River. The family moved to Newark, New Jersey, in 1830. He studied art with an itinerant painter in 1839 that led him to New York City. There he worked as a map engraver and studied with French landscape painter […]
Looking at the Masters: Daniel Lind-Ramos
Daniel Lind-Ramos was born in 1953 in Loiza, Puerto Rico, where he still lives and works. Loiza is a coastal town northeast of San Juan. It was settled in the 16th Century by enslaved Africans from the Yoruba tribe. Their cuisine, music, and art have played a major role in Lind-Ramos’s art. He received a […]
Looking at the Masters: Autumn with the Hudson River School
“There is one season when the American forest surpasses all the world in gorgeousness…that is the autumnal; …then every hill and dale is riant in the luxury of color…every hue is there, from the liveliest green to deepest purple from the most…golden yellow to the in tensest crimson.” (Thomas Cole, 1835) Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is […]
Looking at the Masters: Ruth Leonela Buentello
Ruth Leonela Buentello (b.1984) is an American/Chicana artist. She was born and lives in San Antonio, Texas. She said, “The biggest influence [in my work] has been experiences with my family from around the house; some about joy, some about health, coping with family issues and just the things that we do together.” Always interested […]
Looking at the Masters: Julius LeBlanc Stewart
Julius LeBlanc Stewart (1855-1919) was born in Philadelphia. His father was William Hood Stewart. The family’s wealth came from the La Carolina sugar plantation in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The family moved to Paris in 1865. There, Stewart’s father began collecting the works of the Barbizon painters. Julius studied art with Jean-Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts […]
Looking at the Masters: Thomas Wilmer Dewing
Thomas Willmer Dewing (1851-1938) was born in Boston. He was apprenticed to a lithographer, and went to Paris in 1876 to study at the Academie Julian. On returning to Boston and then New York in 1878, he exhibited with the newly founded Society of American Artists. Its first exhibition in March 1878 took place at […]
Looking at the Masters: Prendergast in Venice
Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858-1924) was born in St John’s, Newfoundland, a British Colony at the time. The family owned a trading post, and when it failed, they moved to Boston. He was apprenticed at an early age to a commercial artist. Prendergast studied in Paris from 1891 until 1895 at the Academie Colarossi and the […]
Looking at the Masters: Sargent in Venice
One of America’s best-known artists, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) was born in Florence, Italy. His father was an eye surgeon, and his mother was an amateur artist. They moved permanently to Europe in 1854. Consequently, John traveled all over Europe as a child. He was well educated and spoke English, French, Italian, and German. His […]
Looking at the Masters: Duveneck in Venice
American painters Benjamin West visited Venice in 1772, and John Singleton Copley visited in 1775. They were part of the Grand Tour of Europe that American artists undertook to study the great art works of Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and others. These Americans did not paint scenes of Venice. Whistler was sent to Venice in 1879 […]
Looking at the Masters: Whistler in Venice
James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. His parents were Anna McNeill and George Washington Whistler. At the request of Czar Nicholas of Russia, the family moved to St. Petersburg in 1842. George was a railroad engineer, and he became an engineer for the Saint Petersburg-Moscow Railroad. At the age of eleven, […]