2010 Presenters
Erica Hirshler
Erica Hirshler is Croll Senior Curator of Paintings, Art of the Americas, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from Boston University. She has written and lectured widely on American paintings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly on American Impressionism and the Boston School.
Her most recent book, Sargent's Daughters: The Biography of a Painting, explores the life of one of the country’s most celebrated painters, John Singer Sargent and his renowned portrait, "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.” Hirshler gives life to the renowned masterpiece, exploring the significance of the work of art, the people and events involved in its making and historical context, its weighty impact on Sargent’s painting career, and the number of facets that have contributed to the painting’s fame, popularity, and importance. Christopher Lydon of Open Source says of the book, “I’ve felt secret swoons and longings for these girls [in the painting] since I was eight years old. Erica Hirshler in conversation gives us all permission to fall in love for all time with the painting.”
LINKS:
Interview with Hirschler about Sargent's Daughters
Review of Sargent's Daughters, with audio, from The Huffington Post
