A Long Look Podcast

Well, here we are my friends, the 100th and final episode!  We go back to where it all started, the National Gallery of Art, for a look at one of Pieter de Hooch's idealized depictions of what a Dutch household was supposed to be. This cozy home may have been more wishful thinking than reality, though!  We'll find out how an embarrassing meeting helped create the Gallery! And I'll share final thou...

When critics hinted Maurice Prendergast was getting a little repetitive as he approached 50, he could've hung up his brushes. After all, he'd been pretty successful. Instead, he headed back to where it all began--Paris--and came away reinvigorated with "a new impulse," as he called it.   Today's episode takes us to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. We'll find out how an i...

So much better than Instagram! Pierre-Auguste Renoir invited 14 friends to lunch one summer--several lunches actually--and ended up creating this spectacular work of art.  In today's episode we find out about this happy group and that beautiful riverside restaurant they're clearly enjoying. And I'll tell you a pretty funny story about how Duncan Phillips was able to get this stunner for his new mo...

No bows and arrows, no hunting buffalo on horseback. Walter Ufer saw first-hand that Native Americans in the 1920s weren't the romanticized caricatures from the old Wild West shows. In today's episode we're looking at "Callers" and find out how a city boy from Chicago ended up in Taos, NM and broke all the rules when it came to depicting his friends and neighbors as real people trying to balance t...

While I'm taking a break, I thought you might enjoy this encore presentation of a popular episode from 2019—the gorgeous Woman Holding a Balance at the National Gallery of Art. If you want to follow along, you can find it at alonglookpodcast.com/vermeer .  And make sure to stick around to the end for a special announcement! Click here to view artwork SHOW NOTES  "A Long Look" themes are "Easy" by...

And you thought YOU were gonna have a lot of holiday company! Poor Mary, who's only given birth a week or so ago, now faces this onslaught of unexpected visitors in today's episode.  We'll find out who exactly all those folks are, their connection to one of the most powerful families in Europe, and what's up with the peacock. Pretty sure that wasn't one of the animals at the Nativity... Click here...

Today's episode is all about relaxing, taking a little break after a long year and before the holidays hit. So I offer you a quiet beach at the Jersey Shore in this serene painting by William Trost Richards.  We'll find out how this Philadelphia-born artist embraced the idea of nature and art as keys to a better life and his connection to the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. Thomas Cole and the...

Welcome back! I hope you all had a great summer. We'll be spending the rest of 2024 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, starting off with a stunning portrait of a red-headed Irish beauty that shocked London society. We'll find out who she is and how she was much more than a pretty face.  Then we'll learn about the very mercurial artist she had to put up with, James McNeill Whistler an...

"A Long Look" returns with new episodes soon! Meanwhile, I've been looking down the road trying to figure out the future of the show and realized I've been doing all the talking for the past 7 years! So now, I'd like to hear from you. I've put together a short audience survey to find out your thoughts and experience with "A Long Look." To be honest, I'm deciding whether or not to continue the show...

Well, we've reached the end of our brief tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum! I hope you've enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun getting to share this unique place with you and introduce you to some artists you might not have heard of.  I'll tell you about the two-for-one experience of visiting the museum and its hidden gems. And I have...thoughts...about the stories it tells. SHOW NOTES (TRANS...

In today's episode we look at "Floating Clouds" by Hisako Hibi, one of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in prison camps on the West Coast during WWII. Paintings like this served as the only visual record of life in the camps as well as a way for prisoners to deal with the harsh conditions. We'll find out how she and her family were able to build a new life after the war and how sh...

Just in time for your Memorial Day travels, here's an extended episode celebrating the anniversary of Impressionism! We take another look at three of the originals: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot. Her painting "The Mother and Sister of the Artist" is featured in the upcoming blockbuster "Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment" opening Sept. 8 at the National Gallery of Art in Was...

It's starting to get warm out so the seaside's on my mind! In the latest episode we visit Appledore on the Isles of Shoals with American painter Childe Hassam. This group of islands off the coast of New Hampshire and Maine was a long-time vacation fave for this Boston artist.  We'll find out how he fused the color and energy of artists like Claude Monet and Camille Pissaro with uniquely American s...

Henry Sturgis Drinker and Cecilia Beaux had a complicated history but that didn't get in the way of Cecilia making him the subject of one of her best portraits.   In today's episode, we'll find out how Henry was just one example of the lengths this renowned Gilded Age artist went to pursue her dream of an art career. And how her talent, hard work--and the help of a good friend--got her started.  ...

Putting ordinary people in odd, unsettling surroundings was the specialty of Hughie Lee-Smith. In today's episode we look at his "Confrontation" from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  We''ll find out how an encounter with Italian Surrealism and a forbidden childhood carnival forged a visual language he used to depict universal feelings of loneliness, separation, and alienation in post-war Amer...

Merry Christmas! For this year's holiday episode we're looking at this kind of unusual Nativity scene jammed packed with the detail those Northern European Renaissance artists just loved! We'll find out how the birth of Christ went from early spring to late December, the story of the arch, and the mystery of the missing gold platter! Click to view artwork SHOW NOTES "A Long Look" opening theme is...

Just in time for Thanksgiving, we take a look at this sumptuous feast by one of the stars of still-life painting, Pieter Claesz. We'll find out three hints that tell us who might have owned this fabulous artwork and the amazing connection between the Dutch and one of your favorite ballpark treats!   Click here to view artwork SHOW NOTES  "A Long Look" themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu...

In today's episode we're looking at "Childhood" by Thomas Cole. It's the first of a series of enormous paintings he did called "The Voyage of Life."  We'll find out how Cole used this series to push the boundaries of landscape painting from just pretty pictures to something much more meaningful. And we'll learn why the Gallery's version isn't the original!  Click to view artwork SHOW NOTES  "A Lon...

Autumn is a season of change, so it seemed like the perfect time to announce a few changes happening with the show!  First, I've got new music! The current theme did the job when I started way back in 2017, but it's time for a refresh so I went with a couple tunes that are welcoming and relaxed, but a little funky. I hope you like it! I'm also moving to a monthly release schedule. These changes wi...

This work by Edouard Vuillard reminds me of the old Magic Eye images that ran in the Sunday comics back in the '90s. You'd be presented with a dense, colorful pattern and have to figure out what the hidden image was. I could never do it.  In today's episode we'll find out how he and a group of young artists called the Nabis threw out the rules of traditional painting to create something more perso...

Today's episode takes us back to the reign of the Sun King, Louis XIV, whose court was every bit as frothy as the clouds the harvest goddess Ceres is lounging on. We find out crabs are sometimes lobsters and how a penniless young man from the outskirts of Paris named Antoine Watteau ended up scoring a big commission from one of the most powerful men in the court. And why this painting is now so ra...

Meet St. Francis, who's in the middle of receiving a…um…complicated divine visitation. This wealthy young party lover and man about town gave it all up to live a more meaningful life and lead others to embrace self-sacrifice, love nature, and encourage peace.  In today's episode we find out how his spiritual devotion led to this rather mixed blessing and why he's one of the most popular saints.  I...

In today's episode, we get to picture ourselves in a dreamy landscape on a sunny afternoon courtesy of Annibale Carracci and the National Gallery of Art in DC. Annibale was a painter in Bologna, Italy from the 1580s to early 1600s and one of his big innovations was making landscapes like this a thing in Italian art.  We'll also find out how Annibale is connected to celebrity artist Lavinia Fontana...

In honor of Women's History Month, we find out about trailblazer Lavinia Fontana, a celebrity artist in Renaissance Italy. Her portraits were all the rage among the nobility of Bologna and with the help of a supportive (and broad-minded) husband/business manager, she became the first professional woman artist.   Click to view artwork SHOW NOTES "A Long Look" opening and closing themes are by Ron G...

Our final episode in our long look at Vittore Carpaccio examines the mysteries raised by a reunited panel painting and how a good cleaning can make all the difference.  SHOW NOTES "A Long Look" theme is "Ascension" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/jGEdNSNkZoo Episode music is "La Verde Primavera," "My Lady Carey's Dompe," and "Salterello" performed by John Sayles  http://www.jsayles.com/familypages...