Berthe Morisot (French, 1841–1895)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Berthe Morisot was born in Bourges, a town in central France, in 1841 and moved with her family to Paris in 1852. Raised in a well-connected, upper-middle class family, Morisot started taking drawing lessons in her teens. In Paris, Morisot and her sister Edma trained under Joseph-Benoit Guichard and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and furthered their studies by copying Old Master paintings at the Louvre.
Emilie Preyer (German, 1849–1930)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Emilie Preyer was born in 1849 to an established and respected art family in Düsseldorf, Germany. Her father, Johann Wilhelm Preyer, taught at the Düsseldorf Royal Academy of Art and was considered the leading still life painter in Germany in the 19th century.
Eva Gonzalès (French, 1849–1883)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Born into an affluent Parisian family in 1849, Eva Gonzalès was immersed in artistic circles from an early age, meeting critics and writers who gathered at her family’s home.
Suzanne Valadon (French, 1865–1938)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Born to an unmarried maid in 1865, Suzanne Valadon became a professional artist against all odds. Forced to support herself from the age of 10, she worked odd jobs in her Montmartre neighborhood in Paris as a waitress, nanny, and acrobat before becoming an artist’s model when she was 15.
Käthe Kollwitz (German, 1867–1945)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The influential work of Käthe Kollwitz resulted from the horrors that marked her life. Born in the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1867, she was destined to experience the direct consequences of both World Wars.
Gwen John (British, 1876–1939)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Born in Wales in 1876, Gwen John had an unfortunate childhood marked by the death of her mother and subsequent restricted home life. In 1895, at the age of 19, she began her artistic education at the Slade School of Fine Art in London alongside her younger brother Augustus, who also became a painter.
Gabriele Münter (German, 1877–1962)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Gabriele Münter was born in Berlin into an upper-middle-class family in 1877. Growing up, Münter had a passion for drawing and began taking private lessons in the studio of Ernst Bosch in Düsseldorf.
Natalia Goncharova (Russian, 1881–1962)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Born in Negayevo in 1881, Natalia Goncharova was a pioneer of Russian avant-garde art. Her father was an architect and graduate of the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture—the same school where she began her early training as a sculptor from around 1898 to 1910.
Aaron Siskind (1903-1991)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The following essay was originally published in connection with the exhibition Aaron Siskind: Fifty Years, which opened at the Dallas Museum of Art in 1986.
Jean Lacy (b. 1932)
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Jean Lacy was born in 1932 in Washington, D.C. and grew up near the campus of Howard University. Lacy was introduced at an early age to the philosophical thought and writings of Alain Locke, W.E.B. Du Bois and other African-American intellectuals. A museum education specialist, Lacy developed a number of educational programs aimed at emphasizing cultural enrichment through student study of art, artifacts, and memorabilia related to African-American history. Ms.