Sporting Arts

The Melton Hunt Going to Draw the Ram’s Head Cover, Sir Francis Grant. Image courtesy Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Fine Arts & Flowers, Galas & Gowns – and Mellon

by Brooke Chilvers Around the time I bought my first pair of bellbottoms, my mother…
franz marc deer
Franz Marc, Deer in the Snow (2011)

From the Clairière de l’Armistice to Franz Marc

Virtually every French king, and two self-proclaimed emperors, hunted stag, roe deer and wild boar…
Poret’s Hermès scarf, “les Biches,” goes for $625 on the internet.

Xavier de Poret and the Hermès Scarf

The beloved 90 x 90 cm (approximately 35 x 35 inches) piece of twill de…
oyster eater
"The Oyster Eater," Jan Steen; Maurithuis, The Hague.

My Love Affair with Huîtres

Helen LaRose found me on Facebook, more than 40 years after we were teenagers on…
arthur wardle
Arthur Wardle, A Lion and Lioness Lying in the Grass

Returning Home to Wardle

What joy when I saw my two favorite paintings on this side of the pond,…
Dogs:  A Point of Honor Courtesy of National Sporting Library & Museum

Sculptor Walter Matia Is Coming to Town – Middleburg, VA, That Is

But first we went to Walter’s town. Artist C.D. Clarke had been promising for ages…
Antoine-Louis Barye
Antoine-Louis Barye (French, 1796–1875) "Tom the Algerian Greyhound", ca. 1889 Bronze 7⅞”H × 14 3/16”W × 4”D 20 cm × 36.04 cm × 10.16 cm. Marks: signed at center front: Gift of Mrs. Nelson L. St. Clair Jr. Photo: Travis Fullerton © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

An Exemplary Personal Collection of Barye Bronzes

Virginia thoroughbred breeder Patricia R. St. Clair has donated her museum-quality collection of 30 Barye…
The Refuge Tucker Smith
Tucker Smith, The Refuge, 1994, oil on canvas, 36 x 120 inches, JKM Collection©, National Museum of Wildlife Art (Image cropped to fit)

Tucker Smith’s Painting, The Refuge, Has Taken to the Road

One of the most important paintings in the collection of the National Museum of Wildlife…
elephants drinking bodo meier
Elephants Drinking from the Chobe River

Bodo Meier, the Artist Who Takes Artists to Africa

I first met watercolorist Bodo Meier on a snowy night in the dead of winter,…
Mare and Foals
Mares and Foals

Stopping in Georgia to Meet Larry D. Wheeler

What a great excuse to exit I-95 on our trip back north – going to…
haunt of the woodcock
"Haunt of the Woodcock: Sensation and Bang Bang," by John Martin Tracy, was recently acquired by the Museum of the Dog.

A New Masterpiece for Museum of the Dog

The American Kennel Club Museum of the Dog, now returned to its original location in…
Bison Dance of the Mandan Indians, courtesy of Arader Galleries

Museum Blues

When I was young in Paris and London, there was rarely a crowd at any…