It’s always inspiring when we learn of a superb art collection formed by a non-expert, especially when it’s filled with terrific examples from a comparatively overlooked era. The acquisitor in question is the radiologist Lukas Charles, and the area he has focused on is academic figurative painting from late 19th-century Europe and America.
On view at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is the exhibition “An Artist’s Eye: The Lukas Charles Collection,” which includes 27 canvases Charles has collected over the past decade. Among the talents represented are such comparatively unfamiliar names as Solomon J. Solomon (Britain), Joseph DeCamp (U.S.), Thérèse Schwartze (Netherlands), Raimundo de Madrazo and Eduardo Zamacois y Zabala (Spain), Antonio Mancini and Giacomo Grosso (Italy), and Léon Bonnat and Émile Friant (France).
The Lyme Academy is an ideal venue for this project because its students are busy learning the same timeless techniques that were used to make the paintings in Charles’s art collection.
Lyme Academy of Fine Arts
“An Artist’s Eye: The Lukas Charles Collection”
Old Lyme, Connecticut
lymeacademy.edu
Through February 18, 2024
Mission of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts: The mission of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts is to teach the foundational skills of drawing, painting, and sculpture in the figurative tradition. By its commitment to training students in these skills and an engagement with contemporary discourse, the Academy will empower a new generation of artists. Through its programs, the Academy is committed to enriching the cultural life of the community.
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