Curator's Corner: Lil' Docent Tours featuring Aiden Smith

No joke!! How cute is this?! Our friend Aiden led a Lil' Docent Tour for us, featuring one of the works from our permanent collection! Aiden picked out "The Orange Sail, Venice" by Jane Peterson.

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What's a docent?

do·cent /ˈdōsənt/ (noun) : a person who acts as a guide, typically on a voluntary basis, in a museum, art gallery, or zoo.

About the Artist

Jane Peterson was an American Impressionist and Expressionist painter who lived from 1876 to 1965. She was known for her work with gouache, watercolor, and oils. Peterson painted en plein air, and many of her works hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other museums around the world today.

Peterson first moved to New York City from Illinois at the age of 16 with only 300 dollars in her pocket in order to better her artistic ability by studying art at the Pratt Institute. After graduating in 1901, Peterson remained in NYC and continued to work with her mentor, Frank Vincent Dumond, until she was able to afford to travel to Europe and work under artists in London and Madrid. This was her first time traveling to Europe; however, it wouldn't be her last.

Upon returning to the United States in 1912, Peterson began working at the Art Students League in New York, and then eventually the Maryland Institute in Baltimore. Additionally, Peterson hosted exhibitions of her work. She didn't leave the United States during the First World War, but after the war ended in 1918, Peterson returned to her love of travel each summer, both nationally and internationally.

When she married M. Bernard Philipp in 1925, Peterson agreed to stop traveling in order to settle down and live a domestic life with her husband. Philipp was a retired lawyer and over twenty years her senior, but he had a special appreciation for the arts. Peterson completed many still life paintings during this time. After he passed away in 1929, Peterson began traveling yet again. She continued to paint over the next forty years of her life. Throughout her career, she participated in more than seventy five exhibitions.

Do you engage your kids with the exhibitions while you're at the museum? What kinds of questions do you ask them?

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Image Credit: Jane Peterson (1876-1965). The Orange Sail, Venice, c. 1918-1922. Gouache on paper. BRAHM Permanent Collection.