Join Ed as he traverses the centuries to spotlight the work of Joshua Johnson (1763-1824), Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), Horace Pippin (1888-1946), and Helen La France (1919-present). Johnson, considered America’s first acclaimed African American artist, leads the way with his boldly schematic portraits of Federal period Marylanders. Next, Henry O. Tanner imbues his landscapes and genre scenes with luscious skies and tranquil waters enhanced by his European sojourns. Horace Pippin looks inward, his quiet interior scenes offering a record of self-sufficiency and dignity. And living legend, Kentucky-born Helen La France, paints the daily lives of people going to church, walking to a funeral, or attending a nighttime revival, all amid the undulating hills of Graves County.

Ed welcomes acclaimed historical novelist Edward Swanson, who will describe his book Madoc’s Legacy (published by RiverRun Select), a thrilling, tour-de-force journey into the wilds of upper Michigan, c. 1845.

More at: edwardswanson.com

Francesco Goya (1746-1828) was Spain’s foremost portrait painter, printmaker, and
satirist from the late 18th to the early 19th centuries; a time of massive upheaval for his country. Using the backdrop of Napoleon’s invasion in late 1807, which sparked eight years of famine, atrocities against civilians, and grinding guerilla war, Ed highlights Goya’s most influential works, including his two etching series Los caprichos (1799) and The Disasters of War (1810-20). Find out how this artist, called ‘the last Old Master and first Modern,’ combined virtuosic technique and a journalist’s eye with a profound humanitarian sense.