There’s a fascinating exhibit at the Mystic Seaport Museum’s stunning new gallery that you shouldn’t miss: Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass: American Artists and the Magic of Murano. Organized by Crawford Alexander Mann III, curator of prints and drawings at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, you’ll be transported to Venice, much like the 20th-century artists and tourists who flocked there for inspiration.

Alongside the Sargents, Whistlers, and their contemporaries are vitrines filled with astounding and elaborate works of Venetian glass. Besides the whimsical vessels, I was (and you will be) blown away by the intricate glass mosaic portraits. It’s a thoughtful and beautifully curated show and shouldn’t be missed. Through February 27, 2023. Collins Gallery, Thompson Exhibition Building

More info and tickets here: https://www.mysticseaport.org/exhibit/sargent-whistler-and-venetian-glass/

Images:

Enrico Podio, Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1866, glass mosaic tiles, 22 3/4 x 20 1/4 in., U.S. Senate Collection

John Singer Sargent, A Venetian Woman, 1882, oil on canvas, 93 3/4 x 52 3/8 in., Cincinnati Art Museum, The Edwin and Virginia Irwin Memorial,

Attributed to Vittorio Zanetti, Fish and Eel Vase, 1884, oil on canvas, blown and applied hot-worked glass, 12 x 4 1/4 x 5 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly,

Giovanni Boldini (Italian, 1842-1931). Portrait of James McNeill Whistler, 1897. Oil on canvas, 67 1/4 × 37 1/4 in. (170.8 × 94.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of A. Augustus Healy,