What type of art do skeletons like the most?
Skulltures of course!💀
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Happy Halloween from Vincent van Bones and everyone at the R. W. Norton Art Gallery!🎃
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Looking for a great way to get the festivities going before trick-or-treating tonight? Come and spend this frightful Friday afternoon here at the museum, where you can find hair-raising works of art and make sure to tell Vincent hello when you see him! ...

Introducing our spookiest new team member here at the Norton, Vincent van Bones!💀
Follow along with him on our social media stories as he stalks the museum halls, discovering art, activities, and more. Visit the museum this week, and you may even run into him making mischief yourself! ...

Spooky Spotlight👻

"Prochainement- Tournée du Chat Noire Rodolphe Salis" by Théophile Steinlen (1859-1923), 1886
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"Tournée du Chat Noir" was created in 1896 for Le Chat Noir, a Parisian establishment founded by impresario Rodolphe Salis that is now considered by many as the first modern cabaret. The iconic image of a black cat with a sly expression, arched back, and a halo-like circle symbolizes the bohemian and avant-garde spirit of the era. Steinlen`s design is a direct, satirical reference to the elaborate halos in Alphonse Mucha`s posters, and the artwork became a lasting symbol of Parisian cabaret culture even after the cabaret closed in 1897.

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen was a French-Swiss artist best known for his Art Nouveau poster designs and paintings. Steilen often depicted animals, specifically cats, as well as the bohemian cabaret culture of turn-of-the-century Paris. Cats appealed to Steinlen for their charm, movement, and character, as well as for their symbolic properties. Born on November10, 1859 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Steinlen studied design at the University of Lausanne, before moving to Paris. Amidst the artistic avant-garde in Montmarte, it was at the notorious Le Chat Noir club, that Steinlen met artists like Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Louis Anquetin, Adolphe Willette, and Félix Vallotton. 🐈 ...

Spooky Spotlight👻

"The Famine- Death of Minnehaha" by Frederic Remington (1861-1909), 1890
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"Then He Sat Down, Still and Speechless, . . . At the Feet of Laughing Water"

In 1888 Remington was commissioned to illustrate "The Song of Hiawatha," the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, for a deluxe edition published in 1891. By then a sophisticated practitioner of the grisaille technique, Remington executed twenty-two black-and-white oil paintings, one for each of the poem’s cantos.

In this depiction of Longfellow`s poem, Minnehaha dies from sickness and starvation during a harsh winter, which is presented as a consequence of a harsh famine and fever. As Hiawatha is away, seeking food, Minnehaha, along with her grandmother Nokomis, is left in their lodge where she succumbs to the illness. Her death is a poignant climax to the poem, highlighting themes of suffering, mortality, and the harsh realities of winter. ...

Spooky Spotlight👻

"The Blind Musicians" by Shirley Tattersfield (1926-2007), 1950
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Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the only child of an upper-middle-class family in Chestnut Hill, artist Shirley Tattersfield graduated from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, now the University of the Arts. Tattersfield was described as "flamboyant, like the eccentric dancer Isadora Duncan," with features that "strongly resembled Grace Kelly," said longtime friends. In 1964, Tattersfield told the Philadelphia Inquirer reporter that a teacher in art school had once even refused to look at her homework because he thought she was too pretty to make it as an artist and should just get married.

For the next three years, she struggled to make it as a freelance fashion illustrator, getting few jobs and lots of rejections. Then, in 1952, when she was turned down for another job, her career as a muralist was born. An executive at a popular department store told her that he couldn`t use a fashion illustrator but did need a mural. Tattersfield designed a 175-foot panoramic caricature of women shopping on bargain day, and it was a hit. She soon began designing murals for department stores all over the region. As her reputation grew, she began receiving commissions from businesses outside of Philadelphia. By the mid-1960s, Tattersfield had commissions from all over the United States and from other countries. In 1964, she even created a 78-foot mural for the Travelers Insurance Cos.` Pavilion at the World`s Fair in New York. ...