On this week’s Culture Desk, Brooks Museum curator Stanton Thomas asks: Was she worth it?
It’s the question that, in retrospect, seems to justify a $25,000 purchase of art work made by the City of Memphis under Mayor Walter Chandler in 1943. At the time, a huge civic debate erupted over the use of public money on fine art. The purchase from a St. Louis art collector included 38 paintings total; among them were works by Winslow Homer, George Inness and the oil on wood panel pictured here by Renaissance master Sofonisba Anguissola.
Sofonisba Anguissola
Italian, 1532/35 – 1625
Self-Portrait, ca. 1560
Oil on wood panel
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; Memphis Park Commission purchase 43.11
