Some interesting postmortem thoughts and seldom heard facts concerning the life and times of Impressionist painter Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917); of particular interest was the enormous amount of money fetched at auction for the assorted content of his studio during a time of national crises in France. When Fifth Avenue's Montross Gallery launched an exhibit featuring over one hundred creations by the American painter John Marin (1870 - 1953) in the winter of 1922, "art voyager" and all-around well-respected critic Paul Rosenfeld (1890 - 1946) was present, and very shortly put pen to paper in order to heap many bon-mots upon the man and his work:
"He applies his wash with the directness of impulse that is supposed to be discoverable only in the work of small children. One racks one's brain for memory of a water-color painter who reveals in every stroke of his brush a more uninhibited urge outward." A VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE profile of the American painter Robert Henri (1865 - 1929): "Robert Henri does not sympathize with the artists who throw their work in the face of the public with a 'There, take it or leave it.' Indeed, he has an almost hieratic belief in the power of the fine arts, not merely to delight, but to improve, to uplift and to educate the masses." Click here to read further about the 1913 Armory show. A one page article regarding Swiss-born painter Paul Thevenaz (1891 - 1921) and his thoughts on the relationship between dance and modern painting. The article is accompanied by four of his portraits; the sitters were Jean Cocteau, Igor Stravinsky, the Comtesse E. De Beaumont and Comtesse Mathieu De Noailles.The profile was written by the novelist Marie Louise Van Saanen. Read a 1937 article about another gay artist: Paul Cadmus. In order to mark the New York arrival of "Portrait of Madame X" by John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1924), VANITY FAIR's editors chose to run this anecdote concerning the 1884 creation of the work as well as a reproduction of one of the pencil studies for the profile head of the sitter, Madame Gauterau.
A few words on the water colors that John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925) made in 1917 which pictured the Villa Viscaya in Miami, Florida. The paintings were later purchased by the Worcester Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts. | 
