Stories

I began working on the Henry Certigny Papers in April 2019 to prepare the collection for digitization. These archives, which document the life and work of the Belgian poet, writer, and art historian best known for his research on French artist Henri “Le Douanier” Rousseau, consisted of eighty archival boxes of stacked papers with almost

The WPI Oral Histories provide unprecedented firsthand accounts from art historians, archivists, gallerists, and others with close connections to WPI’s research projects. Issued in installments throughout 2021, each oral history will complement the WPI’s unique material. The WPI’s Oral History Series accompanies its forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné Projects. Some explore the artist’s life and work, and most cover scholarly

Still lifes are often considered a minor genre or a plain subject of study; in fact, the genre is not as static and silent as we think. In the nineteenth century, the genre revealed the intimate bonds that united several Impressionist painters. As discreet witnesses to the daily life of these artists, still lifes can

Almost 150 years ago, Théodore Duret (1838-1927), a defender of the Impressionists, went on a world tour with Henry Cernuschi.1 It was on this fateful tour, from 1871 to 1872, that Duret encountered the arts of Japan. Of the first stops in London and the United States, Duret left no written record of his travels.

The Reception of the Riviera Paintings As we discovered previously, Monet’s encounter with the Mediterranean coast was torn between a fascination for its lush vegetation and the difficulty to render the atmosphere of the Riviera. Upon returning to Giverny in late April 1884, Monet felt apprehensive of his paintings’ critical reception, but in fact was