WHERE: Portland Museum of Art.
WHEN: April 21 through July 15, 2012.
TITLE: From Portland to Paris: Mildred Burrage’s Years in France
BRIEF ABOUT: More than 70 works of art including paintings, drawings and never-before-exhibited letters from a collection of works given to the Museum in the 1980s as well as works on loan from private collectors of Portland-born artist Mildred Burrage (1890-1983), who as a young aspiring painter traveled to Giverny, France in the early 1900s.
Burrage took her first art classes from Portland artist Alice H. Howes and encouraged by her family, Mildred continued her art studies at Miss Wheeler’s School in Rhode Island, who also owned a cottage in Giverny, France, where she invited her to spend the summer painting there in 1909. Under the direction of Miss Wheeler and other painters in the area, including American expatriate artist Richard Miller who became her mentor, she painted countless paintings and sketches of the landscape and of the French villagers whom she met.
Her works reflect the influences and inspiration of Miller as well as Monet, with their portrayal of light and shadow, and use of fluid brushwork and bright natural colors. She exhibited her works in exhibitions in Paris as well as submitted them to exhibitions back in the States. She traveled widely throughout Europe until 1914 when the onset of the First World War brought her back to Maine.
MORE DETAILS: Call 207.775.6148 or see www.portlandmuseum.org.