See also my Facebook artist page; you will find lengthier thoughts and views of work in progress there.  Use the contact form below or email me with questions, comments, or requests.  This work is all from 2014 - 2023.  All are archival pigment prints on uncoated BFK Rives paper in editions of 12.  Every one of them has a story of her life, of her time.

Layers and layers of artifice. Guillaumet (1840-1887) made his career painting the colorful peasants of Algeria; one critic termed it a romance about poverty. He is buried in Paris where sculptor Barrias used his own ten year old daughter Madeleine to model as an Algerian. The blue wall and branches are in Yves Saint Laurent’s fantasy of a Moorish garden which I photographed in Marrakech; I photographed her in bronze in the Montmartre cemetery, Paris. She has remained there, unperturbed, for over 130 years. "Madeleine Barrias at 10, 1890, after Barrias" 19 x 31" 4/19/2022 $1000

They died in 1945, he (her brother) in the war, she of tuberculosis just before its end. Their grieving mother had Vannucci sculpt their portraits in marble (from photographs, none of which showed the two together) for their tomb in Florence where I photographed them. She's glanced up, noticed you on the mezzanine, an involuntary smile spreads across her face. Will you offer her a drink, a dance... or are you too shy? "Maria Mazzone at 23, 1945, after Vannucci" 18 x 27" 5/16/21 $1000

Is she trapped, or simply wishing spontaneously to escape? She hadn't counted on the locked gate, and now she's been seen. Can you help her? From the marble on the tomb of Giuseppe Abrami in Milan, possibly sculpted by Chilean Lola Mora who worked in Rome with Milanese Giulio Monteverde from 1897 to 1900. "Caught girl, after Mora? Ca. 1898" 1/20/2022 20 x 22"

Stina Schröder, 23, rescued by Klaus Löpthien, 1887, after Adolf Brütt 2024 24 x 39” (61 x 100 cm) I photographed the bronze in 2024 in Berlin. Several views combine to make a 2D print from the 3D statue. She wears just a nightdress, having tried to commit suicide in the North Sea, hence the grief on Klaus’ face, as a suicide would not be buried in consecrated ground, her soul damned. Bewildered, he cannot imagine what would make someone do this. He may not have considered what could happen when women became pregnant prior to marriage. Brütt had seen the event of her rescue himself. By 1880 she had emigrated from Prussia to Minnesota with husband Hermann and daughter Mary.

Cornelia Ornati, daughter of Giuseppe Ornati, probably the single greatest 20th century maker of violins in Italy. The only child, she died at age 31 in June 1953 in Milan during the polio epidemic of that year. Her father had noted sculptor Remo Brioschi render her life size portrait (violin and all) in bronze, which I photographed in the monumental cemetery of Milan a couple of years ago. The salon is adapted from a small side salon at La Scala, the venue in which she would most have yearned to perform. She prints 18 x 27 inches (45 x 68 cm). "Cornelia Ornati at 31, 1953, after Brioschi" 12/25/2021

In her mid 30s, Maria was taken by the goddess who causes the soul to forget her life, on the way to her afterlife. Stagliano's bronze of them stands in the monumental cemetery of Turin and has done for nearly a century, where I photographed them in 2017. "Lethe takes Maria Ossola, 1920, after Stagliano" 1/30/19 26 x 39" $2000

From Moses Ezekiel's 1880 marble "Jessica," the Shakespearean heroine of "The Merchant of Venice." Love-struck, enraged at her autocratic, authoritarian father, she's about to exact her vengeance, simultaneously eloping with her young Christian man, taking her father's riches with her, and renouncing her Jewish faith. Her tiara of enormous pearls is modeled after some Elizabethan pieces, at a time when fine pearls were much, much more valuable than diamonds. 12 x 18", 12/28/2023

Felicina di Paolo died in childbirth at 32, 1905 in Lucca; her portrait is the deceased woman here. We don’t yet know who modeled for the survivor who caresses her so tenderly. Petroni sculpted them in bronze which was my model; I moved the survivor so that we could see them both. "Felicina di Paoloat 32, 1905, after Francesco Petroni " 18 x 27" 1/30/2023

Sculptor Giulio Monteverde's 17 year old daughter Corinna was his model for the marble angel on the renowned Oneto tomb in Genoa, where I photographed her. Thee belt is from the copy I photographed in Buenos Aires. Her powerful arms and torso suggest she sculpted some. To angels, there's only right and wrong; the idealism of adolescence admits no gray areas. 14 x 21" 2021

Princesses of Prussia, 1796, teenagers about to be married, the elder Luise to be a queen, Friederike to have four husbands among other suitors, an adventurous life in her circumstances. Neither lived past her mid 30s, Luise dying of sepsis following a botched goiter operation, Friederike of pneumonia. I photographed the plaster original and the marble in Berlin in early 2024. I think we know which is Luise and which Friederike. They were sculpted by Rudolf Schadow. 7-30-2024 12 x 18"

"Erminia Fua' Fusinato at 41, 1876, after Stefano Galletti" Famous mid 19th century feminist, she died of tuberculosis at 41 in 1876 in Rome after a career promoting womens' education and as a poet as well. Remember her. At this moment, she's found an especially great bit to read to you, and is absolutely delighted to share it with you! 22 x 33" 2020

"Urania, muse of astronomy, after Dupré, 1867" 1/1/20 Dupré, as with most sculptors, never mentioned who modeled for the portrait in marble he placed on the Mazzotti tomb in Pisa, where I photographed her. He had been one of the first sculptors to insist on using live models with actual facial features that suited the sculptor's concept of the allegorical piece he was making. Me, I've seen a half dozen and known a couple of women (Lithuanian, Polish) who look very much like her. Around 25 in 1869, she must have died well over a century ago. 26 x 39" (67 x 100 cm)

Bartholomé sculpted a child in his studio seven years after the death of his vivacious 38 year old wife Prospérie de Fleury (Périe to her friends); most of his work in those years was about grief. At that time parental permission was necessary; here, the sculptor transmuted his loss to a veritable icon of abandonment, distress, and reduction to pure anguish. I photographed her in bronze in March in Paris. I didn't know why I needed to work with her until it was pointed out to me how appropriate she is for the transition to a post-Roe nation. The poor kid. Some work has to be painful. Now is her time. "Crying girl, after Bartholomé , 1894" 12 x 16" 5/6/2022

"Sylvia Day at 19, 1915, after McCartan" 29 x 19.33 inches 2021 Sylvia Day, who went by Shannon Day as a Ziegfeld girl as of 1913, and later t in films, retired at age 37 to teach acting. She attended and modeled at the Art Students' League, where McCartan encountered her. Two bronze casts were made of the sculpture, one is in Reading PA where I photographed her, the other in Norfolk VA. Ms. Day was born in 1896 in the Austro-Hungarian empire but by 1902 was in public school in New York City and lived there until her death in 1977. Modeling had become respectable; she was accustomed to it, and to appearing on stage before large audiences. In composing her surroundings I used a view in the New York Botanical Garden, and the rippling water of the Salzach river, a tributary of the Danube, where it flows through Salzburg, once also part of the empire in which she was born. She is absolutely trusting, and confident.

Plutarch said Cleopatra had fair hair. Balzico modelled her body from a live model (but even in the 1875 monograph on this piece the model's name is not mentioned), her face from Roman coins. The asp is apocryphal, so I left hard to spot right off. She was not so much attractive as brilliant, spoke 12 languages, highly trained in rhetoric, and the wealthiest human to date. I photographed her in the modern art museum in Rome. The illumination like a flash photograph is my doing afterward; the Egyptian backdrop is in the archaeological museum in Turin which I had photographed the year prior. Here, despite her creature comforts and lifetime of ruling a wealthy empire, she realizes the finality of her decision, and its inevitability. "Gift basket, after Balzico, 1874" 39 x 26" $2000

"Lucia Varrese at 16, 1921, after E. Gazzeri" 26 x 39" Buried in Rome, she died at 16 in 1921 of typhus. I photographed her marble portrait there in 2017. Her mother had moved with her, the only child, from Chile to live with the mother's sister after her father died. I have seen the black and white photograph that served the sculptor as a model; she really had that much hair. She had been training to teach, and perform, piano.

Two views of Desha Delteil, Slovenian pop ballerina, at 22 in 1921, after the bronze by Frishmuth. I've seen some of the photos used for the general pose work, Desha indeed had her axillae shaved but not elsewhere, a question that came up in relation to another print some time ago. Frishmuth mostly worked in bronze, changing the black and green metal to flesh was a bit of a challenge. "Making Waves (Desha Delteil at 22, 1921, after Frishmuth)" 10/1/19 40 x 60"

"Madeleine Parker at 13, 1923, after Harriet Frishmuth" 24 x 14.8" 2021 Frishmuth liked fit, young women, notably ballerinas, as models. Madeleine at 13 in 1923, very much a child, straddling the carnival ride fish, a wild cowgirl! Principal ballerina in a renowned ballet company, she died at 25 of leukemia while on world tour in Adelaide, Australia. She was fond of an audience.

"African sibyl, 1861, after Story" 3/21/20 18 x 27" She quite clearly sees what the future holds for her people; the knowledge has rendered her mute and filled her with dread and grief.

"In dreaming, 1884"; 6 x 9", $150. Anonymous model whose image graces a grave in Vienna's central cemetery. She is lovely. She is dreaming.

In his sculpture, Vela shows us a young woman, possibly not eighteen, maybe twenty, who hasn't yet grown into her figure (hips, breasts, nose) and won't until about 25 years old, of a time more innocent than ours, when a twenty year old might still play dress up in front of a mirror - but for Vela the mirror is us. I've made us not the mirror but an observer whom she certainly knows is watching, and she's enough of an exhibitionist to enjoy preening, knowing she's being seen. She's coming into beauty and she knows it and enjoys showing it off. At the time, this was all seen as innocence, not meaning we should be thinking about sex but we should be admiring her form, the stage of development she's reached, and imagining the woman she's yet to become. Prurience would have been seen to be the path taken by low, weak minds. "Flower girl, after Vela, 1882" 18 x 27" (46 x 69 cm) limited edition of 12 prints on BFK Rives paper $1000 8/6/18

"Eugénie (Nini) Pasque at 19, 1893, after MacMonnies" 24 x 39" 11/24/20 I photographed her in marble in the Brooklyn Museum, that version has the bear skin; the bronze in the Met doesn't but I'd gone there specifically for the marble. The bear skin's barbaric opulence, the outrageously exuberant Nini as bacchante, the baby hers with the sculptor; his wife eventually left, sick of his philandering and Nini's pranks, like going to a masque ball naked but for her mask and Mrs. MacMonnies' Japanese robe. By 1897 Nini married into American wealth and left France and her career as an artists' model (she was quite well known in Paris at the time, it had become common that models would eventually find a prosperous husband smitten with them). The little girl was in the museum that day, delighted and entranced at this joyous dance of wild abandon; her father wanted her to look at something more proper. She was utterly pleased.

"Pellegra Migone Piaggio, 1873, after Benetti" She was sculpted in marble for her husband Giovanni's tomb at Staglieno monumental cemetery in Genoa, where I photographed her. A small, intimate piece showing her resignation; at this point, the howling grief was exhausted. 8 x 12" $250 2/26/2020

Possibly his daughter, the bare breast to indicate how very absorbed she was in her reading (about Italian independence from the Austrians), Pietro Magni sculpted her portrait and she was an instant international sensation. The original in Milan has a tear on one cheek, so moved is she by the text. "Reading Girl, after Magni, 1856" 2020

"Mary Hallock at 32, 1903, after Murray" 1/1/20 She would have been aware of the Viennese Secession, so I used the golden reflection of a light sculpture in a pool in Atlanta for her environs to suggest her contemporary, Klimt's, work. She was brilliant, from Beirut high society (Syrian in origins) and married into the wealthy Duponts in Philadelphia, where I photographed her portrait bust. She held patents for her inventions (a sort of musically synchronized color organ), defended them successfully against General Electric corporation, was a piano soloist with the Philadelphia orchestra (one recording exists). A very serious woman, she had no patience for the sculptor's wish to have her pose nude, bared shoulders being enough for her taste. I enjoy her reserved, skeptical, gaze.

Enrico Pancera (prolific, lyric sculptor of monuments in Milan's monumental cemetery) had his sixteen or seventeen year old daughter Nunzia model for the bronze that was my model. She's life size, on the Meyer tomb in Milan's monumental cemetery, where I photographed her. I photographed heru nder drizzling, cold clouds in November in Milan, wonderful light for marble, problematic for bronze, partly patinated and partly black, glossy with rain. I have a number of bleak photographs of leafless winter trees; the pattern of a neon light sculpture reflected in a pool provides the impression of crackling energy. Her ties to earth severed, she becomes a woman electric, lighter than air, and by her last breath is drawn softly upward into her final illumination. She prints 17 x 40 inches, about 45 x 100 cm. "Nunzia Pancera, ca. 1933, after Pancera"

Commentators on the arts modeling profession in the 19th century were of the opinion that Jewish women didn't even know they were naked, next that Italians were comfortable with it, but finally that Parisian models could only be making an aesthetic statement to so pose. Carrier-Belleuse and many others worked in a tradition that sought to render the woman (female models being employed only in private ateliers, not in the academies of Paris) more naked than nude, partially clothed seen as more titillating than simply without clothing; yet we are admonished that, should our thoughts stray to the carnal, it's a reflection on our low state, that refined (men) will maintain their lofty appreciation of pure form. Oh, right. So here she is, uncomfortably averting her eyes from the male gaze, goosebumps on exposed skin, 145 years ago. "Flora discomfited, ca. 1875, after Carrier-Belleuse" 12 x 18" (46 x 69 cm) 12/18/2020

"Irene Massazza at 18, 1928, after Sassi" 5/15/20 She sat for an informal photo in 1927 or '28, that photo was sculptor Sassi's model; she died in the scarlet fever epidemic that year, just shy of 19. She was fascinated by life, by you, and found much material for her wry wit. This was how her parents wanted her remembered. This is the last image of her. Wasn't she bright, and funny! 10 x 15" (25 x 37.5 cm)

"The precipitous summons, 1853, after Rude". Sculpted by 1852; this is Rude’s portrait of his niece, Martine van der Haert, as a 13 year old girl in 1425, who was hearing voices. Martine died in 1865, quite young; here, we see a terribly anxious woman in the 1850s who would have been thought mad rather than gifted, and the interested concern of the otherworldly voices she hears. I photographed Martine’s marble portrait in Paris in 2015. 27" x 18", $1000.

"Felicita Poggi at 26, 1869, after Villa" 7/19/18 12 x 18 inches Dead in a fourth childbirth at 26, she's buried in Genoa; her husband was well to do and had her portrait made in marble by G. B. Villa, whose work appears throughout the Staglieno monumental cemetery there.

"Maria José de Quevedo, 1933, after Benlliure" 12 x 18" 10/28/19 Benlliure was one of the best known sculptors of early 20th C. Spain; I photographed his plaster portrait of his second wife's niece last year in Madrid. There's scarcely any record of her, aside from a love for riding horses; I admire her calm, wise confidence.

Carmela died at 21, Michele Vedani did her portrait in bronze which I photographed in Milan's monumental cemetery a couple of years ago. The mistletoe, symbol of everlasting life, was to assure us that she is fine, having passed on to a world of grace. Here, she is losing her attachment to gravity. "Carmela Zampori at 21, 1920, after Vedani" While nearly all other pieces here are a 2:3 aspect ratio, this one shows best at an odd size, 17 x 39"

Ester is buried in Genoa; the ceiling in a palace in Turin, the sort of interior she would have frequented. I photographed both the ceiling and her marble portrait on her grave in 2016. Wealthy heiress to a shipping insurance fortune, she married the heir to a shipping fortune; but, ever aware that she just missed being beautiful (chin too large, not rounded enough for most mens’ tastes in the 1870s), ever, insecure, she proved her love by bearing him five children in14 years of marriage. She bled out in the sixth birth. "Ester Piaggio at 32, 1883, after Scanzi" 12 x 18" 2017 $500

Elisabet Ney, German living in Texas in the late 19th to early 20th centuries after leaving a thriving career in sculpting nobility of Europe, she valued her free will more than her happiness; she rejected medical advice when her two year old son fell ill with and died of diphtheria and she cremated the child in the yard. A rough life, often an unhappy one, which is why she cast herself as Lady Macbeth, bewildered, uncertain whether the horrific events had only been dreamt, in a self portrait at about age 49 in 1885, rendered in marble in 1905, a couple of years before she died. I photographed the marble in Washington DC. She prints 12 x 18", about 30 x 45 cm.

Monteverde's 1911 allegorical marble about the higher things of the mind victorious over the base impulses was my model. He hired a couple of circus acrobats as models, but as usual did not record their names anywhere. Their musculature is magnificent. I photographed the marble in Rome's museum of modern art. "Wild Ride, 1911, after Monteverde" 2020 26 x 39" (66 x 100 cm)

Gauquié sculpted his anonymous model in 1893; I photographed the weathered marble in Paris. Parisian artists' models were by that time seen as aesthetic professionals. She was quite a lively young woman, always ready for a pleasant surprise, always a jolly word. Now she's ready to liven up a fête! 4/22/21 10 x 15"

Amalia de Brondello, 1886, after Ginotti 18 x 27" $1000 The mosaic background, necklace and ewer are all from Pompeii. Had to go get the images to properly situate Amalia de Brondello, who was sculpted in 1886 (showing her as she had been at 25 in 1862), in Turin. 18 x 27" $1000

African princess, Roman winter, 1877. She is not African American, she is African, sculpted in Italy at the onset of winter, and is appalled. 2015, 18" x 12" $500.

Measurement approximate; while I have a longstanding affection for the 2:3 format of the SLR, this piece just would not accommodate that. It was also just fun to have her elbowing past the frame. Leone Tommasi (1903 - 1965) sculpted her for a cycle of five pieces to interpret the movements of Beethoven's sixth symphony in 1940 -1, by commission of Peron's government in Argentina. I contacted his granddaughter, who remembered the model's name, that she was the 25 year old (or so) wife of a friend of the sculptor. I photographed the marble in Buenos Aires' botanical garden; at some point she's been broken in half, repaired quite visibly. I've also photographed his plaster bozzetto for her in Pietrasanta, where he worked for all of his career after a couple of years in Rome in 1920-1. The baths are Roman, excavated and mosaic floors restored, at Conimbriga (now Coimbra), Portugal. I love her sly look, confident in her beauty, unconcerned that we see her. Nudity is natural to her, the lamb her concern. "Solidea Taiuti at the baths, 1941, after Tommasi" approx. 19 x 27" edition 12 $1000 8/27/17

At 30 in 1870, her sixty years older husband had died; here, she lifts the cover to be certain. "Virginia Aprile Pienovi in the house of ghosts, 1870" 18 x 12" $500

Swoon, 1975. 27 x 39.5"; $2,000. The heat and humidity have stunned her. Will she succumb to gravity or float off enraptured? The only way out is up.

Two performers Carpeaux used from the company of the Palais Royale as his models. I used his marble of 1868 as my model. Dancers then were not required to be as thin as they are now, they just had to be very strong and graceful. The fairer was Mlle. Miette, a singer, and the brunette Marfa Muravyova, a ballerina who danced the resurrected story ballet Giselle. I love their ecstatic gazes. "Ecstatic dancers, 1868, after Carpeaux" 9/16/16 18 x 12"

About 35 when sculpted in 1915, Jlona Hiller died in a concentration camp in 1942. Her son survived and had a memorial made for her in the cemetery in Munich, where I photographed her. "Woman in Green (Jlona Hiller), 1915"; 2016, 8 x 12"; $250.

"Nathalie de Laborde at 15, 1789, after Pajou". She was months away from a very advantageous marriage; the world was her oyster and she knew it well. 8 x 12", 2016, $250.

I photographed Montegani's portrait of the young woman, who died age 20 in 1910 of causes unknown to me, at the Cimitero Monumentale di Milano in November 2016 in cold, drizzling rain. I have since revisited, and the holly has taken over, like Zeus accosting a mortal woman; which made me think this story: A sweet young girl is accosted by the Holly King, lord of winter. In the north, gods took this form; in the south, swans or showers of gold. It was a piece of luck to find her name and who sculpted her, the marble is unsigned; an article on him from 1930 turned up online, and his plaster model for her was illustrated, along with two other unsigned pieces at the Monumentale di Milano. I left her where I found her, in the cemetery, she straddles her granite plinth, bemused by the effrontery of the holly. "Lena Bozzi at 20, 1910, after Montegani" 2018 12 x 8" $200

Miriam Rosa Silberer, sculptor, lived and worked in London, Rome, and Paris, returned to her native Vienna, was deported to Therezienstadt ghetto by the Nazis, and committed suicide there at 69. At 35 in 1908 her teacher, Rudolf Weyr, had sculpted her for the Brahms memorial in Vienna, where I photographed her marble portrait in 2016. 5/16/16 $500

She was hardly the only young woman to model for a famous sculptor and fall in love with him and become his lover. We don't know her name. She would have been born around 1870. She went on exhibit some months after Delaplanche's death at 54. His widow wanted her outdoors where she would rot in the rain; she’s indoors in Paris, where I photographed her. "Lover, after Delaplanche, 1891" 12 x 18" archival pigment print edition limited to 12 $500

Madness, terror, 1725. No consent was required for her portrait; the inmates of the asylum had no rights at that time. 8" x 12"; $250.

"Her furious grief, 1902, after Hausman" Her father died. All her hopes and dreams are now futile; she sits, caught between bouts of weeping, with what remains to her. 26 x 39" 2018

20 years old, later a Ziegfeld girl, she modeled for McCartan's Diana in 1920. She worked with other artist through the NYC Art Students' League, and was promoted as "the most beautiful woman in America." Later she took up sculpture herself, perhaps reliving fond memories; her theater career fizzled buy 1931, she moved to L.A. where in 1957 she was working at I. Magnin's jewelry counter. Then the record goes silent. 23.8 x 39", 60 x 99 cm. "Dorothy Knapp at 20 as Diana, after McCartan" 5/1/2024