Intellectually gifted and from a prominent New England family, the young Samuel F. B. Morse played a crucial part in defining the artist as a professional rather than a craftsman in early nineteenth-century America. Morse received critical acclaim for his portraits and two of his history paintings. Yet his disappointment in never earning a subsistent livelihood from his art eventually led him to pursue another aspect of his creativity, scientific innovation. More…John Leslie Breck, Studies of an Autumn Day
Throughout series of paintings known as Studies of an Autumn Day by John Leslie Breck, hay mounds, farm buildings, ridge, and trees maintain their positions as their colors, textures, and shadows evolve with the moving sun and changing atmospheric conditions in the manner of time-lapse still photography. Although only twelve paintings of the series now are known to exist, Breck painted fifteen, as indicated by the numbered stanzas that comprise the poem “The Day (On Seeing John Leslie Breck’s ‘Studies of an Autumn Day’),” by the artist’s brother Edward. More…