Episodes

A watercolor of a brilliantly-colored, sunny beach filled with women wearing long gowns and bonnets and men in tunics and pants. Beyond them is a cluster of cabanas and buildings. A dark blue sea dotted with sailboats fills the right side with a line of purple hills beyond and puffy clouds overhead. The scene is loosely painted and the people and boats are indistinct and featureless.

Beach at Saint-Malo by Maurice Prendergast

April 25, 2025April 25, 2025

When critics hinted Maurice Prendergast was getting a little repetitive as he approached 50, he could’ve hung up his brushes. After all, he’d been pretty… Read More »Beach at Saint-Malo by Maurice Prendergast

Fourteen men and women gather on a terrace shaded by a striped awning overlooking a river. The terrace is surrounded by leafy trees and they wear 19th-century clothing as they seem to converse.

The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

March 22, 2025March 22, 2025

So much better than Instagram! Pierre-Auguste Renoir invited 14 friends to lunch one summer–several lunches actually–and ended up creating this spectacular work of art. In… Read More »The Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Two men on horseback with their backs to us facing a young woman holding open a tall gate in a picket fence. All three have medium brown skin and black hair and wear richly colored clothes.

Callers by Walter Ufer

February 21, 2025February 24, 2025

No bows and arrows, no hunting buffalo on horseback. Walter Ufer saw first-hand that Native Americans in the 1920s weren’t the romanticized caricatures from the… Read More »Callers by Walter Ufer

A young pale-skinned woman wearing a short blue jacket and mustard yellow skirt stands in front of a table holding a balance. She stands at a table scattered with jewels bathed in light coming from a window to our left.

Encore: Woman Holding a Balance by Johannes Vermeer

January 11, 2025January 11, 2025

While I’m taking a break, I thought you might enjoy this encore presentation of a popular episode from 2019—the gorgeous Woman Holding a Balance at… Read More »Encore: Woman Holding a Balance by Johannes Vermeer

A peacock and two brown birds perch on a stable roof with men grooming horses inside. A dense colorfully dressed crowd surrounds the stable and two heads with halos are visible in lower right.

The Adoration of the Magi: Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi

December 14, 2024December 28, 2024

And you thought YOU were gonna have a lot of holiday company! Poor Mary, who’s only given birth a week or so ago, now faces… Read More »The Adoration of the Magi: Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi

Hazy silver sunlight breaks through a cloud-filled blue-grey sky to illuminate green-grey waves breaking onto a wet beach that fills the lower half of this oil painting. Three white seagulls wheel overhead and a distant ship on the horizon sails from left to right.

On the Coast of New Jersey by William Trost Richards

November 22, 2024November 22, 2024

Today’s episode is all about relaxing, taking a little break after a long year and before the holidays hit. So I offer you a quiet… Read More »On the Coast of New Jersey by William Trost Richards

Portrait of a slender, pale-skinned young woman with blue eyes. She has shoulder-length copper-red hair and wears a white gown with grey and white striped sleeves belted at the waist. She stands before a brocaded ivory curtain.

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl by James McNeill Whistler

October 19, 2024November 29, 2024

Welcome back! I hope you all had a great summer. We’ll be spending the rest of 2024 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington… Read More »Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl by James McNeill Whistler

A man on an ivory white horse rides away from us on a rugged mountain path heading toward a forest of green trees. He wears a dark blue tunic and pointed brown hat and the scene is strongly lit from the left.

What’s Ahead for A Long Look?

October 10, 2024February 7, 2025

“A Long Look” returns with new episodes soon! Meanwhile, I’ve been looking down the road trying to figure out the future of the show and… Read More »What’s Ahead for A Long Look?

Looking down the length of a three-story atrium viewed from the second floor. It is lit by skylights and large hanging lights and the floor is patterned with a geometric white and black pattern. The mezzanines on either side and above us are filled with display cases bathed in amber light.

American Art Museum Finale

July 20, 2024July 20, 2024

Well, we’ve reached the end of our brief tour of the Smithsonian American Art Museum! I hope you’ve enjoyed it. It was a lot of… Read More »American Art Museum Finale

Oil painting of puffy clouds floating over the grey-green rooftops of three buildings spread across the bottom of the canvas and angled to our left. Only their upper walls, roofs, and chimneys are visible and they are bathed with warm light from that direction.

Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi

June 22, 2024June 22, 2024

In today’s episode we look at “Floating Clouds” by Hisako Hibi, one of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated in prison camps on the West… Read More »Floating Clouds by Hisako Hibi