Joan Whitaker
Looking at art here since July 2026 · 2 perspectives · ♥ 6 received · 2 public collections
Retired high-school art teacher — twenty years of first periods spent convincing teenagers that a crooked bedroom can be the truest thing in the room. These days I look at paintings slowly and on purpose.
Collections
Stories
The Girl Who Painted Herself Into the Room
A guild seized her brushes. A queen sat for her some thirty times. A revolution chased her across Europe. Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun outpainted every one of them.
Perspectives
Renoir does that. The reproductions go flat and sweet, and then the real canvas is practically humming.
on Two Sisters · Jul 7, 2026 →
I taught this painting to high schoolers for twenty years. Every year someone would point out that the room looks crooked, and every year we would end up in the best discussion about why "wrong" persp…
on Bedroom in Arles · ♥ 6 · Jul 3, 2026 →