In this ongoing series, Fine Art Today delves into the world of portraiture, highlighting historical and contemporary examples of superb quality and skill. This week we consider a powerful and loving portrait of a mother and her child.

We seem to be on a theme this week: those unforgettable moments between mother and child. This week’s featured portrait, titled “Her Gift,” is a tender and moving image by talented California artist John Rowe.

Before a soothing solid background, the viewer is presented with two subjects: a brown and dark-haired mother tenderly grasping a pale-skinned infant. Albeit simple in subject, the piece bursts with emotional and interpretive potential. The piece has a very special meaning to the artist, made palpable through his description.

He writes, “The painting of my wife and our foster child — who has since been returned to his family — is still very close to me. I watched my wife over months give her love and strength and protection to this child. Tears, joy, fierce protection, devotion, sleepless nights — all while knowing she might never see him again but that he would carry the sense of being loved unconditionally into his future life and it would become a foundation for him. We had taken classes to learn about how those first relationships can lay a groundwork for the core of who you become. I wanted the differences in hair, skin, and ethnicity to be apparent and for the emotional connection between her and the baby to be strong enough to make that completely irrelevant. I wanted to leave the viewer with the feeling of profound love that only a mother can have for her child.

“We did a photo shoot at my studio, and I combined several different shots together. I closed her eyes to give the composition a feeling of peace and began painting. To me one of the most important parts was her hand. Each finger held the baby differently: from the talon-like security of her thumb and forefinger gripping him, to the gentle touch of her ring finger and left pinky floating in space, half touching and half letting go, as she would eventually have to do. I painted my wife’s face out of focus so other mothers could relate to her and not become too specific. The child’s fine hair was represented as real as possible so the viewer could relate to the fragile nature and delicate features of a baby.”

To learn more, visit John Rowe.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

The art world is reacting to the death of billionaire David Rockefeller at age 101 this week with one simple question: What is to happen to his art collection of more than 15,000 objects?

Less than 48 hours after David Rockefeller’s death at 101 years old, museums, collectors, investors, lawyers, galleries, and many more are setting into motion what could be the art sale of the century. A major patron of the arts and modernism, Rockefeller spent a large portion of his life — and money — amassing a personal collection of more than 15,000 objects whose worth is estimated in the billions (yes, we used the b-word).

According to Art Market Monitor, the sale of Rockefeller’s estate could happen as early as the fall of 2017, but will most likely take place in 2018, with Christie’s owning the rights to the auction. Art Market Monitor also suggests that the sale of Rockefeller’s collection could have a major effect on the global art market for decades to come: “Though Yves Saint-Laurent-Pierre Bergé sale in 2009 came at a very different time when the global economy was at its most vulnerable, the sale contributed greatly to the idea of art as an asset. In a more stable financial environment, a huge A+ sale of this size and quality could have transformative effects on the market.”

To learn more, visit Art Market Monitor.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

The $64 billion global art market is considered by many to be a world reserved for the wealthy, an environment unattainable for the average individual. However, Madelaine D’Angelo is launching a project that could change the narrative. How?

Arthena, a new startup founded by Madelaine D’Angelo, is aiming to help non-millionaires and non-billionaires enter the global art market — a world traditionally populated only by the uber-wealthy. The strategy is to allow anyone to invest in fine art via funds, using data analytics to get investors more reliable returns from their investments.

“Rather than just having a ‘good eye’,” says D’Angelo, “our software takes into consideration things like a work’s artist, year created, and auction results to create a quantitative strategy for the art market, grouping pieces into different funds based on risk tolerance, like traditional mutual funds.”

Continuing, D’Angelo said, “Fine art is an alternative asset class with the highest barrier to entry and strongest historical returns. In other words, it’s a strong long-term investment (the index of fine art sales shows an average annual return of 10 percent compared with the Dow Jones’ 8-9 percent average annual growth.”

To learn more, visit Arthena.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

A prolific and talented painter is the focus of a solo exhibition at Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona, this month, but for only a few more days! Details here!

Legacy Gallery’s Scottsdale, Arizona, location is exhibiting recent paintings by George Hallmark, who is renowned for luminous scenes of rural life in the Southwest and Mexico. Born and raised in Texas, Hallmark was an architectural designer and commercial artist before turning to easel painting. His fascination with buildings endures in his delineation of stucco walls and tile roofs, and the long shadows they cast.

Hallmark’s exhibition opened on March 18 and will continue through March 26. To learn more, visit Legacy Gallery.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

The Reynolda House Museum of American Art — located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina — is the current home of a brilliant exhibition of several masterpieces by this 19th-century painter.

A monumental painting titled “Gallery of the Louvre” by 19th-century painter Samuel Morse (1791-1872) is the centerpiece of a tantalizing exhibition at Winston-Salem’s Reynolda House Museum of American Art. On view through June 4, the new exhibition “offers a rare look at a historical painting as well as a unique presentation of the diverse talents that made Morse one of America’s first Renaissance men,” the museum reports.

Equally exciting is the fact that the museum secured another loan for the exhibition: Morse’s early Telegraph prototype, to be shown alongside “Gallery of the Louvre.” Together, the two objects give audiences a more comprehensive view of the life and career of Morse as both an inventor and an artist.

Via the museum: “‘Gallery of the Louvre’ was one of Morse’s last paintings. Disheartened when the tour he envisioned [for the painting] did not materialize, Morse turned his attention to a new means of communication: the telegraph. He used wooden canvas stretcher bars from his studio to construct his earliest versions, a selection of which are on loan for the exhibition from Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

“Over the years, ‘Gallery of the Louvre’ has seldom been exhibited. It was last purchased in 1982, setting a then-record for an American work of art. The Terra Foundation, which owns the painting, commenced a national tour in 2015, the much-delayed culmination of the creator’s intent. The installation at Reynolda House Museum is the only venue that has included both of Morse’s greatest creations: ‘Gallery of the Louvre’ and the telegraph.

“The Reynolda House Museum of American Art exhibition of Gallery of the Louvre also includes 19th-century paintings and prints from its renowned collection of American art along with Old Master prints on loan from Wake Forest University.”

To learn more, visit the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

The California Art Club (CAC) is poised for another year of fantastic art and fun during the 106th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition. All you need to know for 2017 is just one click away!

The California Art Club (CAC) is presenting its 106th Annual Gold Medal Exhibition, again hosted by the Autry Museum of the American West. On view from April 9 through April 30 are nearly 200 contemporary-traditional paintings and sculptures. The show kicks off on April 8 with a ticketed gala reception, followed the next day with demonstrations by painter Alexey Steele and sculptor Béla Bácsi. On April 22, scholar Jean Stern will discuss “the art of looking at art” before leading a gallery tour.

Meanwhile, at San Marino’s Old Mill until May 14, the CAC is highlighting the Golden State’s long romance with cinema and television through an exhibition of nearly 30 paintings during “Lights, Camera, California: Starring Roles for Scenic Sites.” Curated by such talents as Peter Adams, Karl Dempwolf, and April Raber, most of the works depict sites that have made appearances in films and TV programs. Among them are iconic landmarks like the Hollywood Sign, Golden Gate Bridge, and Griffith Park Observatory. Exhibition coordinator Kate Plumley says this project “makes perfect sense for the California Art Club, as the year-round sunshine and natural beauty that attracted our organization’s early artists to paint throughout the state have also enticed filmmakers with ideal settings and scenic backdrops.”

To learn more, visit the California Art Club.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

When extremely talented artists are involved, the sizes of their linens, panels, and canvases don’t matter, especially during a gorgeous display coming up at this Midwest Art Center. Don’t miss this exciting show!

American Plains Artists is set to present its annual Signature Member Show of Small Works at the Ole’ #1 Firehouse Art Center in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, this spring. Opening on March 24 and continuing through May 7, the exhibition encompasses roughly 55 works, including landscape, wildlife, and figurative subjects that highlight the Great Plains way of life past and present.

To learn more, visit American Plains Artists.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.

The next few weeks offer collectors several outstanding opportunities to grab that next prized piece. From New York City to Los Angeles, there’s no excuse for not looking here!

Although its March 16 Spring Auction has passed, there remain two opportunities to acquire works by contemporary American masters via New York City’s Salmagundi Club. On March 24 and 31, the club will again host auctions featuring nearly 200 works by its members, who include (among many others) Kathy Anderson, Lou Lalli, James Magner, Stephanie Marzella, Sharon Pearsall, Edmond Rochat, Sergio Roffo, Thomas W. Schaller, Carole Teller, and Christopher Zhang. Organizers welcome absentee, online, and phone bidding.

Another fantastic opportunity awaits collectors on April 11 in Los Angeles, California. Collectors of significant California and Western American paintings and sculpture should register for Bonhams’ next sale in this field. Among its highlights are historical and contemporary works by Laverne Nelson Black, Maurice Braun, E. Charlton Fortune, Anna Althea Hills, Ed Mell, Howard Terpning, and Marion K. Wachtel.

To learn more, visit the Salmagundi Club or Bonhams.

This article was featured in Fine Art Today, a weekly e-newsletter from Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. To start receiving Fine Art Today for free, click here.