Look and Learn

This thirty minute exploration of a single artwork, led by experienced docents, is rich with great group discussions full of surprises. Each Look & Learn session encounter is different, and no prior art knowledge is required.

The granddaughter of Charles Crocker, Ethel Mary was fifteen when she sat for this portrait in Paris. Like her sister Helen Victoria, seen in the portrait nearby, she traveled to the city shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed their home. Ten years later, while aiding the war effort in France, she met her future husband, the pilot André, Count de Limur. Serving as a diplomat, he brought the family to Washington, DC, during World War II, where they remained.

A friend of Édouard Manet and John Singer Sargent, Boldini painted fashionable portraits of aristocrats and merchants. The son of an Italian artist, he preferred to work in Paris, where he moved as early as 1871. His talent with the brush and his agreeable manner ensured his success for decades.