Beyond the Paint podcast changed things up a bit for this episode. I celebrate the historian and writer, John Launius—He wrote a book about 19th century philanthropist and art collector, and one of the founders of the Kemper museum, Charles Parsons—I connected with John through our shared enthusiasm for the 19th century woman artist and Neo-classical sculptor Harriet Hosmer—John in his research for his book “The Life and Times of Missouri’s Charles Parsons: Between Art and War,” explores Hosmer and her relationship with Charles Parsons, and through his well researched narrative, glimpses of Hosmer’s relationship with Parsons’ wife Martha, and the ways women navigated their lives within the constraints of societal norms in the Victorian era.
John and I thought it would be a lot of fun to have a conversation about our deep interest in women’s lives, their artistic contributions, and the ways art and writing shapes and informs our personal lives.
Works discussed include Nanu Berks, “Hickory,” an NFT drawn from a painting. The photograph “Hottentot Venus,” composed by artist Renee Cox. In the image she reclaims the often stereotyped black, female body.
