Katherine Keenum

A couple of days ago, I stumbled across this painting by Antoine Vollon, which brought to mind the night that Jeanette proposes to Amy and Sonja, “You know what we should do? Set up studies from a dairy shop: eggs, those big mounds of butter, and round cheeses—think of all the fat shapes.” Read More 

Blog tip: I’ve just discovered Bas van Houwelingen’s long-running blog Reading and Art. Each post features a single artist’s images of people reading. For more from Bashkirtseff, click here.

Like many bloggers, I post a day or two in advance. If I were adept at Photoshop, I might alter this morning’s restaurant image to show blood on the sidewalk. Many cartoonists and other artists, shocked by yesterday’s attack on Charlie Hebdo, have risen to the occasion with new work. Let us all be grateful. Read More 

It was great fun to invent the Petit Honoré where Robbie Dolson takes Jeanette and Effie instead of to Tortoni’s—so much fun that I made the café a favorite of Effie’s. (Generally speaking, if someone or something is important enough to  Read More 

After I saw Manet’s Woman Reading, I came across these two pictures, both by students in the 1880’s, both of women with the same sort of bangs and ears showing, each wearing a soft-crowned black hat. Could they be the same student?!?  Read More 

On this first day of January, would that we could all be sitting, smartly dressed, in a Parisian garden-café or brasserie!

When I first saw Manet’s painting early in my writing of Where the Light Falls, I did a joyous double-take. Here was  Read More 

On New Year’s Eve, temperatures are going to drop 12° F where I live; I’m staying indoors! But for those of you who attend First Night celebrations or go night-clubbing, just think what a difference artificial light in cities makes in our lives. While I was researching Where the Light Falls,  Read More 

Whoops! I forgot to hit "Publish" on Dec. 23rd—a bonus from Canadian-born Elizabeth Adela Forbes Stanhope (Jeanette’s contemporary). Happy Boxing Day.

The true meaning of Christmas may be the opposite of worldly vanity, but I can’t resist posting this image from the period of my present research for ANONYMITY.

San Francisco-based Grant Gordon (best known as a marine painter) provided illustrations to Puck and other periodicals.

I have to assume that my heroine, Mattie,  Read More 

Christmas Eve seems to me the loveliest, quietist day of the holiday season. I've always loved the story of the shepherds in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. It has also pleased me in recent years to find shepherdesses as well as shepherds present in medieval imagery of the angel's announcement.  Read More