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 and the chaos he caused in his own life and others!

SHOW NOTES
“A Long Look” opening and closing themes are by Ron Gelinas:
“Ascension” https://youtu.be/jGEdNSNkZoo and “Easy” https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs

Episode music
“Chopin Waltz in A Minor, B. 150.” Performed by Aya Higuchi

String Quartet no. 2 in B minor - II. Minuetto moderato.” Composed by Joseph Miroslav Weber, Performed by Steves Bedroom Band. Courtesy of musopen.org

Artwork information
https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.12198.html

https://www.nga.gov/features/joanna-hiffernan-the-white-girl.html

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.12198.html#relatedpages

https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2022/woman-in-white.html

https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights/whistler-symphony-in-white-no-1-the-white-girl.html

https://www.nga.gov/blog/how-whistler-painted-white-in-full-color.html

James McNeill Whistler info
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/whistler-james-abbott-mcneill

Joanna Hiffernan Bio
https://www.dib.ie/biography/hiffernan-joanna-jo-a9605

The Peacock Room
https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/interactives/peacock-room/making-the-peacock-room/

Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/symphony-in-white/

“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 and your feedback will really help. You can find it at alonglookpodcast.com/survey and it shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. It's a Google form but you DO NOT need a Goole account to fill it out. The deadline is Nov. 15. I look forward to hearing from you and thanks so much!

SHOW NOTES
“A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

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 (TRANSCRIPT BELOW)

“A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

Smithsonian American Art Museum
https://americanart.si.edu/

Luce Foundation Center for American Art
https://americanart.si.edu/visit/saam/luce

Lunder Conservation Center
https://americanart.si.edu/art/conservation

National Portrait Gallery
https://npg.si.edu/

Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/american-art-finale

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 she persevered through her art and with the help of fellow immigrants.

SHOW NOTES
“A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

EPISODE MUSIC
“Timeless One” by Solas Composer
https://soundcloud.com/solas_composer/timeless-one

“Eastern Thought” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html

Artwork information
Hisako Hibi https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/floating-clouds-119617

Detention camp paintings
https://janm.emuseum.com/groups/hisako-hibi-collection/results

Hisako Hibi info
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/hisako-hibi-33445

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hisako_Hibi

https://americanart.si.edu/blog/japanese-american-artists-hibi

https://www.becomingvisible.si.edu/stories/hisako-hibi

https://womenshistory.si.edu/blog/hisako-hibis-work-artist-was-almost-lost

Exhibition info
Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo

Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/floating-clouds

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 Washington DC. Find out more on their site.

SHOW NOTES
Opening theme: "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs

Episode Music:
OFFENBACH CAN-CAN by Light Symphony Orchestra; Offenbach
https://archive.org/details/78_offenbach-can-can_light-symphony-orchestra-offenbach_gbia0309744b

EPISODES
Monet--Grainstack
Show notes and transcript
https://alonglookpodcast.com/grainstack/

Pissarro--Place du Carrousel
Show notes and transcript
https://alonglookpodcast.com/place-du-carrousel-by-camille-pissarro/

Morisot--Mother and Sister of the Artist
Show notes and transcript
https://alonglookpodcast.com/the-mother-and-sister-of-the-artist-by-berthe-morisot/

EXHIBITIONS
“Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment” National Gallery of Art (Sept 8-Jan. 19)
https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2024/paris-1874-impressionist-moment.html

“Mary Cassatt at Work” Philadelphia Museum of Art (May 18-Sept. 8)
https://press.philamuseum.org/mary-cassatt-at-work/

“The Impressionist Revolution from Monet to Matisse” Dallas Museum of Art (thru Nov. 3)
https://impressionistrevolution.dma.org/p/1

SUGGESTED READING
“Luncheon of the Boating Party” by Susan Vreeland
https://bookshop.org/p/books/luncheon-of-the-boating-party-susan-vreeland/11716075?ean=9780143113522

Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/impressionism

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 settings like this stunning rocky New England shoreline. And the ruckus he and some of his fellow painters started to create a brand-new kind of American art!

Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/appledore

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.

SHOW NOTES

“A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

Episode music

“Preludes, Op. 28 - No. 21 'Sunday'” by Frédéric Chopin

Courtesy of the European Archive and musopen.org

https://musopen.org/music/82-preludes-op-28/

“Preludes, Op. 28 - No. 17 'Scene on the Place de Notre-Dame'” by Frédéric Chopin

Performed by Ivan Ilic. Courtesy of musopen.org

https://musopen.org/music/82-preludes-op-28/

“String Quartet no. 12 in F major 'American', Op. 96” by Antonín Dvořák.

Courtesy of the European Archive and musopen.org

https://musopen.org/music/4887-string-quartet-no-12-in-f-major-american-op-96/

Artwork information

https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/man-cat-henry-sturgis-drinker-1635

Les Dernier Jours d’Enfance

https://www.pafa.org/museum/collection/item/les-derniers-jours-d-enfance

Cecilia bio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecilia_Beaux#cite_ref-16

“Cecilia Beaux: A Modern Painter in the Gilded Age” by Alice A. Carter.

https://archive.org/details/ceciliabeauxmode0000cart

“Cecilia Beaux: American Figure Painter” by Sylvia Yount.

https://archive.org/details/ceciliabeauxamer00beau

Henry Sturgis Drinker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Sturgis_Drinker

Transcript is available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/cecilia-beaux/

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 America.

SHOW NOTES

“A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

Episode music:
“Passing Fields” by Quantum Jazz
Courtesy of Free music Archive (CC BY-SA) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Quantum_Jazz/End_of_Line/05_-_Quantum_Jazz_-_Passing_Fields/

“Ghost Carousel” by LAURENT BUCZEK
Courtesy of Pixabay https://pixabay.com/music/build-up-scenes-ghost-carousel-155303/

“Between Worlds” by Tobias Webster (CC-BY)
http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/tobias_weber/56664

"Shades of Spring" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artwork information 
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/confrontation-78130

Artist information
Biography
Hughie Lee-Smith by Leslie King-Hammond and Aiden Faust. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2010.

Hughie Lee-Smith papers, c 1890-2007, bulk 1931-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

https://americanart.si.edu/artist/hughie-lee-smith-6317

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughie_Lee-Smith

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/04/nyregion/art-a-painter-finally-gets-his-due.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/12/nyregion/art-review-a-painter-s-evolution-visual-and-political.html

Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/confrontation