Art and Museums

Val Castronovo reviews: A collaboration between The Met, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the works collected chronicle the golden years of Impressionist painting from the mid-1860s to the mid-1880s when Paris became the style capital of the world ... the avant-garde sought to distinguish themselves ... and paint their subjects in a new, modern light, focusing on au courant costumes and accoutrements at the expense of the individuals’ physical characteristics. more »

Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Wayne State University in Detroit have launched a new online resource, a comprehensive guide to James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room and its dynamic history. The elaborately painted former dining room and one of the most famous masterpieces in the Freer’s collection, celebrates its 90th anniversary of being on public view in 2013. more »

Val Castronovo writes: Almost one-third of his portraits are of family members, and the ones of his wife, to whom he was extremely devoted, are quite arresting. Portraits were one of the mainstays of his career; he painted them from the time he arrived in the city up until his death. For an artist intent on blowing up the art world and defying convention, he had a quite conventional personal life. more »

Tam Gray writes: A favorite museum of ours is the New York Historical Society. Their online shop is appealing and quite different. Products range from Tiffany-style lamps, to retro dresses and handbags based on their own spectacular Audubon collection, which is the largest single repository of Auduboniana in the world. more »