I do love someone with really good technical skills—someone who can draw the figure like nobody’s business always gets my attention, but then, of course, they need content to back that up.

Artist Snapshot: Phil Padwe

It was just me, surrounded by so much amazing artwork night after night, just me, a flashlight and the collections of popes, kings, and pin-drop silence.
The rewards of Manet/Degas accrue not from revelation but from the juxtaposition of work by two friends and rivals, each cerebral, urbane, and dedicated to—obsessed with—painting life in Paris.
The Art Students League served as a key training ground in miniature painting, where students acquired skills particular to watercolor painting on ivory, as well as a solid grounding in figural representation, so evident in drawings in the school’s collection.