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“Kah-béck-a, The Twin, Wife of Bloody Hand” by George Catlin (American) - Oil on canvas / 1832 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC) #WomenInArt #GeorgeCatlin #Catlin #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum #SAAM #Smithsonian #NativeAmericanArt #art #arte #artText #AmericanArt #PortraitofaWoman
It’s a bust-length portrait of an Indigenous woman, shown front-facing and centered, her posture steady and composed. She has long, dark hair that falls over her shoulders, and a direct gaze that meets ours. Her skin appears warm brown in tone, softly modeled with light across the cheeks and forehead. Her hair-part and upper cheeks are painted vermilion red which was a widespread women’s custom American artist George Catlin observed. She wears a light-colored hide garment with feathery edging at the neckline and sleeves. Multiple strands of blue and white beads layer across her chest, adding weight and texture. Her hands rest together near the lower edge of the picture, suggesting a seated pose. The background is spare and atmospheric, a muted, open field of color that keeps attention on her face, hair, and adornment. Painted during Catlin’s 1832 journey along the Missouri River, this work records Kah-béck-a (“The Twin”), identified as the wife of Bloody Hand, a chief of the Arikara (Sahnish) people, and painted at a Mandan village. Catlin’s project was to create a self-styled “Indian Gallery” which was driven by urgency and ambition to document Native lives as the United States intensified expansion, forced removal, and the cascading disruptions of disease, trade, and violence. The portrait therefore holds a tension. It offers a rare named presence of an Arikara woman in early U.S. painting, but it is also shaped by an outsider’s framing and the era’s collecting impulse. Even within that constraint, Kah-béck-a’s stillness reads as self-possessed like an image of personhood rather than spectacle. It invites us to consider what is known, what is omitted, and whose voice gets to define the story.
January 25, 2026 at 9:51 PM
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“Ruth St. Denis” by Alice Pike Barney (American) - Oil on canvas / 1910 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC) #WomenInArt #AlicePikeBarney #AliceBarney #Smithsonian #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #artText #RuthDennis #RuthStDenis #WomenPaintingWomen
American artist Alice Pike Barney painted the celebrated dancer Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Dennis) as modern performance was reshaping ideas of the “new woman” in American culture. St. Denis was gaining fame for theatrical solos that mixed stage spectacle with spiritual longing and imagined “Eastern” motifs. Her work would soon lead her to co-found the Denishawn company and school (1915) with Ted Shawn. The legendary dancer is depicted as a light-skinned woman posing with her torso angled back as if catching a spotlight mid-performance. She wears a low-cut, sleeveless gown of blue-green satin washed with chartreuse highlights. The fabric pools in broad, feathery strokes that suggest motion rather than stillness. A sheer, sparkling drape slips over her one shoulder and across her waist, dotted with tiny white flecks like sequins. Her dark hair is gathered under a silvery, beaded headscarf that frames her face. With softly arched brows, half-lidded eyes, and vivid red lips, she lifts her chin and looks up and away. She is poised, self-possessed, and slightly untouchable. One arm bends to plant a hand at her hip, keeping a dancer’s readiness. Behind her, warm browns sweep diagonally like curtains or vibrating air, while small dabs of light skim her cheekbones, neck, and bare upper chest. Edges blur at the hem and along her shoulders, so Ruth seems to emerge from atmosphere rather than a fixed room. Cool greens and blues in the costume flare against an amber background, and the painterly softness makes her body feel both present and in motion … like a remembered gesture held just long enough to be seen. Barney, an artist and arts patron active in Washington, DC, often presented women as public figures with interior force. Here, a swirling background and shimmering costume act like choreography including Ruth’s lifted chin and firm hand at the hip turning portraiture into performance, suggesting celebrity as self-invention and power.
January 9, 2026 at 8:07 AM
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Latergram: Outside the Smithsonian American Art Museum, September 2017. #latergram #washington #washingtondc #smithsonian #smithsonianamericanartmuseum #frontsteps #whysoserious
Latergram: Outside the Smithsonian American Art Museum, September 2017. #latergram #washington #wash...
February 9, 2025 at 3:06 PM
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“Mún-ne-o-ye, a Woman” by George Catlin (American) - Oil on canvas / 1832 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC) #WomenInArt #AmericanArt #art #PortraitofaWoman #artwork #Smithsonian #GeorgeCatlin #Catlin #NativeAmerican #womensart #AmericanArtist #blueskyart #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum
“I have visited 48 different tribes, the greater part of which I found speaking different languages, and containing in all 400,000 souls. I have brought home safe, and in good order, 310 portraits in oil, all painted in their native dress, and in their own wigwams . . . as well as a very extensive and curious collection of their costumes, and all their other manufactures, from the size of a wigwam down to the size of a quill or a rattle.” — George Catlin American painter, artist, lawyer and writer Catlin probably painted this woman (from Iowa) at Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) in 1832. Mún-ne-o-ye appears to be of relatively young adult age. Her black hair is parted in the middle and styled in long, thick braids that fall down her chest. Small, reddish dots are visible on her forehead. She wears large, ornate dangle earrings. Her expression is contemplative, almost melancholic, yet maintains a composure that suggests inner strength. Her gaze is directed slightly downward. She is dressed in a long light beige robe. Over this garment, or perhaps integrated into its design, is a lighter-colored decorative piece. She also wears several necklaces decorated with what looks like blue beads in a layered pattern. Her wrists are adorned with wide, dark bracelets with accents of lighter grey. The overall effect of the jewelry is decorative yet not ostentatious. The background is a soft mix of earth tones—browns, tans, and muted oranges—that suggests a landscape under a hazy sky. The brushstrokes are visible and contribute to the overall slightly diffused and subdued vibe. The background sets a calm yet slightly somber mood that complements the young woman’s expression. The overall atmosphere is one of quiet dignity mixed with resignation. Catlin was likely the first well-known painter to travel beyond the Mississippi River to paint native indigenous people, and his “Indian Gallery,” staggering in its ambition and scope, is a unique perspective from the 19th century.
July 14, 2025 at 5:52 AM
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Ida Rubinstein by Romaine Brooks (American) - Oil on canvas / 1917 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC) #womeninart #art #oilpainting #womensart #artwork #womanartist #femaleartist #portraitofawoman #SAAM #RomaineBrooks #womenpaintingwomen #womenartists #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum
In 1911, American painter Romaine Brooks met Russian dancer and arts patron Ida Rubinstein in Paris after Rubinstein's first performance as the title character in Gabriele D'Annunzio's play "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian" (for which Rubinstein was excommunicated by the Parisian archbishop because she starred as St Sebastian, a Catholic saint, while she was a Jewish woman). Rubinstein was already well known for her refined beauty and expressive gestures; she secured her reputation as a daring performer by starring as the male saint in this boundary-pushing show that combined religious history, androgyny, and erotic narrative. D’Annunzio had an obsessive but unrequited attraction to Rubinstein, whereas Rubinstein fell deeply in love with Brooks ... and a romantic triangle unfolded. Rubinstein was so committed to Brooks that she wanted to buy a farm in the country where they could live together undisturbed, yet Brooks was not interested in hiding at all. Brooks found her ideal -- and her artistic inspiration -- in the tall, lithe, sensuous Rubinstein, who modeled for many sketches, paintings, and photographs Brooks produced during their relationship, from 1911 to 1914. In her autobiographical manuscript, "No Pleasant Memories," Brooks said the inspiration for this portrait came as the two women walked through the Bois de Boulogne on a cold winter morning. The couple split around 1914. Was it because of another woman? Some say Brooks had already met her future lover – Natalie Clifford Barney, an American-born writer – in 1914, others say in 1916. Anyway, the relationship with Barney was the longest and most important for Brooks. It was, however, yet another triangle, as they shared their lives with Lily de Gramont. Nonetheless, Brooks couldn’t forget Rubinstein, and she painted her one last time in The Weeping Venus (1916-1917). She said she tried to repaint Venus’ facial features many times, but Rubinstein’s face kept haunting her: “It fixes itself in the mind.”
May 2, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Untitled (from the portfolio “Photographs of New York”). Reginald Marsh (American; 1898–1954). Gelatin silver print, ca. 1938–45, printed 1976. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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December 6, 2024 at 12:16 PM
“Coney Island.” Leo Meissner (American; 1895–1977). Linoleum cut on paper, ca. 1929–39. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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June 3, 2024 at 10:03 AM
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“Sha-kó-ka, Mint, a Mandan Girl” by George Catlin (American) - Oil on canvas / 1832 - Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC #womeninart #art #oilpainting #NativeAmerican #womensart #portraitofawoman #GeorgeCatlin #Catlin #Smithsonian #prettygirl #mandan #beauty #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum
American artist and author George Catlin painted Sha-kó-ka at a Mandan village in 1832. The portrait depicts her with beautiful warm, reddish-brown skin and long flowing straight silver and black hair. She wears a light beige leather garment with fur fringe, dangling leather tassels, and ornate green and bone decorations plus multiple green and white earrings and necklaces. Her features are well-defined, with smooth skin, straight nose, thin lips, and high cheekbones painted with red circles to match red paint near her hairline. Catlin described Sha-kó-ka and her gray hair in “Letters and Notes, vol. 1, no. 13” published in 1841, as “a very pretty and modest girl, twelve years of age, with grey hair! peculiar to the Mandans . . . There are very many, of both sexes, and of every age, from infancy to manhood and old age, with hair of a bright silvery grey; and in some instances almost perfectly white.” He continued, “This singular and eccentric appearance is much oftener seen among the women than it is with the men; for many of the latter who have it, seem ashamed of it, and artfully conceal it, by filling their hair with glue and black and red earth. The women, on the other hand, seem proud of it, and display it often in an almost incredible profusion, which spreads over their shoulders and falls as low as the knee. I have ascertained, on a careful enquiry, that about one in ten or twelve of the whole tribe are what the French call ‘cheveux gris,’ or greyhairs; and that this strange and unaccountable phenomenon is not the result of disease or habit; but that it is unquestionably a hereditary character which runs in families, and indicates no inequality in disposition or intellect.” His conclusion was, “And by passing this hair through my hands, as I often have, I have found it uniformly to be as coarse and harsh as a horse’s mane; differing materially from the hair of other colors, which amongst the Mandans, is generally as fine and as soft as silk.”
April 13, 2025 at 10:43 PM
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“Untitled; Shely” by Yigal Ozeri (Israeli) - Oil on paper / 2017 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC) #womeninart #art #realism #oilpainting #photorealism #womensart #YigalOzeri #Ozeri #artwork #fineart #SAAM #IsraeliArtist #NYCartist #smithsonian #bskyart #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum
Yigal Ozeri is an Israeli artist based in New York City. He is known for large-scale cinematic portraits of young women in landscapes. As one of the leading Photorealism painters, his works tend to capture ethereal scenes of women in nature. In this beautiful oil painting, we see a young woman with a light complexion and calm expression, lying horizontally in a rocky shallow stream of water. Her long brown hair flows freely over her shoulders and body, with some strands touching the rocks in the water. She wears a red paisley dress, which is a striking feature of the painting. The fabric appears to be flowing in the water, with subtle variations in color and texture, reflecting the light. Her body position is relaxed and suggests a sense of peace. The water around her reflects the light and appears slightly translucent, showing the rocks and natural elements beneath the water's surface to create a textured natural background. The realistic artistic style captures the subtlety of water, fabric, and skin while the colors are rich and vibrant and the lighting creates a warm tranquil atmosphere. Ozeri’s compositions "probe the boundaries between painting and photography within the context of the Digital Age.” He takes photos of his subjects that evoke the aestheticism of late Romanticism and 19th-century melancholia. These photographs are projected onto a canvas with traced outlines. The projection is then removed, and the artist translates the forms into tiny painted color shapes that are gradually tightened and blended for varying degrees of focus. In his process of visual translation, Ozeri "preserves the handmade as a record of its own means of representation, rather than that of what it depicts." The painting thus serves as an act of abstraction, transcription, and transformation. This results in a painting that is formal and conceptually open to interpretation rather than merely a skillful rendering of appearances.
April 16, 2025 at 2:57 AM
“The Young Guitarist.” Leon Kroll (American; 1884–1974). Oil on canvas, ca. 1961–2. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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January 1, 2025 at 12:18 AM
“Souls of Puerto Rico.” Richard Benson (American; 1943–2017). Palladium print, n.d. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. © Richard Benson.

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July 21, 2024 at 5:34 PM
“Frank O’Hara, 1926–1966.” Grace Hartigan (American; 1922–2008). Oil on linen, 1966. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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August 22, 2024 at 12:24 AM
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Panel: ‘Textile Mill’
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July 3, 2025 at 1:32 PM
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Excited to finally share this news! Thank you Smithsonian American Art Museum for the opportunity to finish book research (also supported by
NGA & The Andy Warhol Foundation) on Bob Thompson as the William H. Truettner Senior Fellow. #BobThompson #smithsonianamericanartmuseum
Photos of museum researchers for 2025-26.
July 25, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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Anna Washington Derry by Laura Wheeler Waring (American) - Oil on canvas / 1927 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC) #womeninart #SAAM #art #womensart #artwork #womanartist #femaleartist #LauraWheelerWaring #AfricanAmericanArt #1920s #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum #AfricanAmericanArtist
This portrait is perhaps American artist Laura Wheeler Waring's most acclaimed work. The sitter is laundress Anna ("Annie") Washington Derry. One of five children, Derry was the daughter of George and Nancy Washington who moved their family from Maryland to Stroudsburg, in the Pocono Mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. Monroe was home to a small free Black community who had arrived via the Underground Railroad used by enslaved African Americans to escape into free states. Given that the majority of Waring's sitters were middle/upper-class patrons, the fact that Derry was of working-class origins makes this portrait unique in her oeuvre. Derry was in fact something of a community matriarch who was fondly addressed locally as "Annie". Waring communicates Derry's dignity and inner resolve through the simple, brown-beige tones of her dress, her expressive face, her folded arms and hands, and through the inclusion of text: "Anna Washington Derry, Anno Domini". The fact that Waring paints her full name coupled with the Latin inscription "Anno Domini" (in the year of the lord), connotes the esteem in which Waring held her humble and devout sitter. While her treatment of Derry might have been considered rather "traditional" by modern standards, her style proved better suited to the tastes of emerging Black portrait painters. The portrait was unveiled in 1926 at a select exhibition for Black Philadelphian professionals. However, as art historian Amanda Lampel notes, "Although Derry's portrait did not sell that day, the Philadelphia Tribune, the oldest continuously published African American newspaper in the United States, called it remarkable". The following year, Waring exhibited Derry's portrait at New York's Harmon Foundation where it received the "First Award in Fine Art - Harmon Awards for Distinguished Achievement Among Negroes". It later exhibited at Les Galeries du Luxembourg in Paris and across the United States.
May 11, 2025 at 4:17 AM
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Excellent tour of #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum #SAAM by Melissa Clark!🖼️ My personal fav #artwork was definitely the powerful sculpture by artist #GlennKaino of 200 golden arms representing courageous acts of 1968 Olympic 200 meter gold medalist #TommieSmith 🥇& bronze medalist #JohnCarlos 🥉 #atSAAM!
July 31, 2025 at 2:46 AM
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#AUTUMN at #Taos & the #PublicWorksOfArtProject (PWAP)
‘Fall in the Foothills’
W. Herbert Dunton (1878-1936)
Oil on canvas #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum (from the U.S. National Park Service) 1934
#AmericanArt #WHerbertDunton #TheNewDeal #PWAP #AmericanArt #autumncolors
October 14, 2025 at 1:07 PM
“The South Strand.” Emil Carlsen (American, born Denmark; 1853–1932). Oil on canvas, ca. 1909. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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November 8, 2024 at 4:11 AM
“Beach Profile.” David Park (American; 1911–1960). Oil on canvas, 1953. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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August 21, 2024 at 2:58 AM
“Times Square, NYC.” Louis Faurer (American; 1916–2001). Chromogenic print, ca. 1949 (printed later). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. © Estate of Louis Faurer.

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October 19, 2024 at 2:54 AM
mdstamper.bsky.social
“Head of an Arab Girl” by Miner Kilbourne Kellogg (American) - Oil on paperboard / c. 1844–1846 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC) #WomenInArt #MinerKilbourneKellogg #Kellogg #SAAM #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum #Smithsonian #art #artText #artwork #BlueskyArt #arte #Orientalism
American artist Miner Kilbourne Kellogg painted this idealized head after extensive travels in Egypt, Palestine, and Constantinople in the 1840s. Back in Florence, he promoted works like this as “national representative portraits,” distilling features and dress he sketched abroad into studio images meant to signify a type rather than record a specific person. A small, bust-length portrait shows a young woman turned slightly to her right with her gaze downward as if lost in thought. Her light beige-olive skin is softly modeled with rose at the cheeks that warms a contemplative expression beneath dark brows. A gray-green headscarf frames her face, and three pale coin-like discs rest along the hairline. At the center of her lower lip and chin, fine vertical tattoo marks draw the eye to her closed rouge mouth. She wears a brown robe over a pale chemise with edges roughly brushed. The background is a warm tan field of visible strokes, leaving the woman suspended in shallow space, intimate and quiet. The sitter here remains unnamed. Her costume with the coin ornaments at the brow and the delicate chin tattoos once found in several Middle Eastern and North African communities signal cultural identity while also revealing the 19th-century fascination with the “Orient.” Painted in oil on paperboard and modest in scale, the study invites close viewing with its soft tonal modeling and spare background that heighten the young woman’s inward mood, even as the title’s language reminds us that such pictures framed living people through an ethnographic and touristic lens. These days, the work opens conversation about how American artists absorbed global encounters, what they chose to emphasize, and how viewers can honor the sitter’s presence beyond the period terms that named her.
October 27, 2025 at 3:12 AM
“Coney Island Beach.” Mabel Dwight (American; 1876–1955). Hand-colored lithograph on paper, 1932. Printed by George C. Miller. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

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October 18, 2024 at 9:24 PM
martyhoran144.bsky.social
Fabulous #RenwickGallery tour by #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum docent, Melissa Clark! 🤩🖼️👏 The highlight was definitely #WeGatherAtTheEdge ~ Contemporary #Quilts by #BlackWomenArtists ‼️🤎🎨

#art #SkyArt #DCart #Smithsonian #DMVart #SAAM #WashingtonDC #VisualArt #MustSee @smithsonianmag.bsky.social
May 5, 2025 at 10:37 PM
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Anna May Wong by Alice Pike Barney (American) - Pastel on fiberboard / c. 1927 - Smithsonian American Art Museum #WomenInArt #art #womensart #pastel #WomanArtist #Smithsonian #FemaleArtist #AlicePikeBarney #Barney #AnnaMayWong #Hollywood #ChineseAmerican #ArtText #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum #SAAM
Anna May Wong, born Wong Liu Tsong (黄柳霜) in Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese American parents in 1905, was a pioneering Asian American actress who overcame significant hurdles in Hollywood, becoming the first Chinese American film star. She faced challenges like being limited to stereotypical Asian roles and the impact of anti-miscegenation laws, which prohibited interracial couples from appearing on screen. Despite these obstacles, she achieved international fame, becoming a fashion icon, and a respected actress -- appearing in over sixty movies throughout her career. This pastel portrait by American artist Alice Pike Barney (born Alice Pike) depicts Wong with her black hair pulled back with bangs that cover her forehead. Her expression is calm and somewhat pensive. Her gaze from large almond eyes is quietly directed away from us. Her skin tone is light, and her features are delicately rendered with soft pastel strokes. She wears a loose light-colored, pale-lilac collared shirt partially visible under a sea-green jacket with a darker fur-like collar that frames her neck and shoulders. The background is muted teal with a subtle texture created by horizontal streaks and hints of lighter pastel. Faint, light-colored blossoms, butterflies, or dragonflies are scattered sporadically across the background, adding a delicate, almost ethereal quality. Born to privilege in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857, Barney was an influential figure in Washington, D.C.'s social and artistic scene in the early 1900s. She married the wealthy Albert Clifford Barney and had two children, but only began to pursue art seriously after an inspirational day with her daughter and Irish author, poet, and playwright Oscar Wilde in the summer of 1882 on the beach of New York City's Long Beach Hotel. Against societal norms and her husband's wishes, she went to study art in Paris in the late 1880s. She returned to Washington energized to establish a thriving art scene in the nation's capital.
June 5, 2025 at 5:39 PM
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"The Protagonist of an Endless Story" (Sandra Cisneros) by Angel Rodríguez-Díaz (American) - Oil on canvas / 1993 - Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington DC) #womeninart #art #portrait #oilpainting #AngelRodríguez-Díaz #PuertoRicanArtist #fineart #portraitofawoman #SmithsonianAmericanArtMuseum
Born in Puerto Rico in 1955, painter and sculptor Angel Rodríguez-Díaz created a wide body of artwork ranging from dramatized self-portraits to monumental public art. He spent the last several decades painting portraits of important cultural icons of San Antonio and the Southwestern United States. Known for his richly textured and painterly style, Rodríguez-Díaz used portraiture to, as he described in a retrospective of his work, “explore thoughts of identity, power, passion, and the everyday masks we all wear.” In "The Protagonist of an Endless Story," the "protagonist" is renowned Chicana novelist and poet Sandra Cisneros, best known for her debut novel, the coming-of-age classic The House on Mango Street. Cisneros stands before a fiery sunset, dressed in a traditional Mexican skirt embroidered with sequined imagery that refers to her profession as a writer. Her commanding pose with arms crossed gazing down at us from the low horizon in the lower third of the canvas is reminiscent of historic European portraiture and proclaims that she will endure in her native landscape. In the work's title, as well as its composition, the artist asserts that Chicanx culture will not be erased. Upon Rodríguez-Díaz’s death in 2023, Cisneros paid tribute to the artist, calling him “a gentleman and a genius.” Description source: Smithsonian American Art Museum
February 21, 2025 at 4:31 AM