Born in Richmond in 1869, architect J. Stewart Barney studied at Columbia University and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Barney designed many buildings and churches in New York City and also in his native Virginia. He retired from the field in 1915 to paint, but returned to architecture in the 1920s to develop a plan for the restoration of Colonial ... MORE

Often referred to as “the American Van Gogh,” Reynolds Beal was a leading early twentieth century impressionist. His lifelong love of the water was borne out in brilliant seascapes and marine subjects, while more whimsical works executed in lively colors identified him as an aesthetic adventurer.

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Known best for landscape, genre, and mural paintings, George Beattie was born in Cleveland, Ohio and studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art at a time when social realism prevailed in many American academies and art circles. During World War I, he served with the Army AIr Force's Visual Aids Service, honing his skills as a draughtsman and ... MORE

Though born in Philadelphia, Henry Benbridge's career flourished in the South where he fulfilled portrait commissions for distinguished citizens and society families. Formally educated at the Philadelphia Academy, Benbridge also received early artistic training in his hometown, studying with the English portraitist John Wollaston. In 1764, ... MORE

Raised in privileged circumstances in Salem, Massachusetts, Frank Benson began his formal training in 1880 at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, honing his artistic skills alongside Edmund Tarbell, who would become his lifelong colleague and friend. He continued his training in 1883 at the Académie Julien in Paris. Upon his ... MORE

Best known for his watercolors of sailing yachts executed in a crisp Precisionist style, Sandor Bernath was born in Hungary and lived in Budapest before immigrating to New York. By 1918, he had begun to establish himself in the art life of the city. Although slightly younger than Edward Hopper and the Precisionist painters Charles Sheeler and ... MORE

An artist best known for his mid-nineteenth century views of Virginia, Edward Beyer was born in the German Rhineland in 1820. He studied at the Dusseldorf Academy and worked in Dresden before coming to the United States around 1848. Active in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and Virginia during the 1850s, Beyer was one of the earliest ... MORE

George Biddle, well educated, deeply cultured, and widely traveled, led an eclectic and peripatetic life that encompassed a broad array of life experiences. He largely worked in a style of social realism, though his skills were multi-faceted as borne out in works in oil, watercolor, pen and ink, clay, print media, and murals.

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Distinguished by his Southern heritage, Walter Biggs is considered one of the foremost American illustrators. He was born in Elliston, Virginia, where he spent his youth before moving to the city of Salem when he was ten. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute for one year, but left to study art in New York City. There, he enrolled at the ... MORE

For over twenty years, Tarleton Blackwell has created lively, antic scenes of Southern rural life, featuring livestock, human portraits, and familiar icons from both high and popular culture. Born and raised in Manning, South Carolina, Blackwell received his bachelor's degree in art education from Benedict College, followed later by advanced ... MORE

Renowned for his landscape and abstract paintings, as well as his tireless devotion to the arts, Carl Blair has created a series of colorful sculptures that explore the boundaries of realistic and abstract imagery. These sculptures represent an entirely new dimension of Blair's work: animated wooden creatures rendered in a bold palette of oil, ... MORE

Though the details of his life are obscure, Alfred Boisseau, born in Paris, probably began his formal studies around 1840, training under Paul Delaroche. Delaroche's was the most popular Parisian atelier at the time, attended by the best French students. His style, which he naturally passed on to his pupils, was a fusion of the academic ... MORE

A Virginian by birth, Hugh Henry Breckenridge became a fixture in the vibrant turn-of-the-century art community in Philadelphia, earning renown as both a painter and beloved teacher. A precocious artist from an early age, Breckenridge enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1887, launching an association that would endure for ... MORE

A native of Lauterecken, Bavaria, Carl Christian Brenner is noted for his landscapes and genre paintings. As a youth, he demonstrated sufficient artistic talent to be offered admission to the Munich Art Academy. However, instead of undertaking academic training, Brenner's father insisted he be trained as a glazier. At the age of fifteen, ... MORE

Alexander Brook, born in Brooklyn, studied at the Art Students League in New York with Kenneth Hayes Miller from 1914 to 1918. A critic for The Arts during the early 1920s, he became an assistant for the newly-founded Whitney Studio Club in 1924. It was at this time that he began to paint in earnest, ... MORE

Born in Warrenton, Virginia, Richard Norris Brooke was educated at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. Following studies with Edmund Bonsall and James Lambdin at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he also exhibited, Brooke taught at several schools, including the Virginia Military Institute (1871-1872). From ... MORE

A peripatetic artist with a passionate interest in the natural world, Charles Brownell is best known for his distinctive landscapes of both American and international scenery. Often executed with a scientist’s preciseness for physical details, these works record Brownell’s extensive travels through the United ... MORE

The discovery of this early drawing by the artist Patrick Henry Bruce adds yet another illustration to the life and work of a man often ranked as one of the leading lights of modernism in American art. While his style may have been modern, his life was more than slightly tinged with a tragic air. Born to a prominent Southern family that fell on ... MORE