Your clues this week are:

• The artist was American, but moved to Europe at age 27 and, with the exception of one brief return trip to the US, lived as an expatriate for 51 years.
• The artist attended the Académie Julian in Paris for only three months because Gustave Boulanger (French, 1824-1888), a professor there, advised that nothing remained to be taught or learned in the artist's training.
• The artist was born a twin. While the twin married and had children, the artist (a devout Roman Catholic) remained single and celibate, and lived with another sibling who did the same.
  
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• The artist had an in-law who was (1) a leader and teacher in the Cincinnati Art-Carved Furniture Movement, and (2) originally immigrated to the US from England not to create furniture, but to promote a phonographic writing system developed by his brother. Can you identify the furniture designer and his brother?

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

Lin sent the short and sweet email, "Seurat" for the win last week. Yes, it was our guy Georges' 1881 drawing The Harvester ... although it did resemble both van Gogh and Millet (so don't feel chagrined if you sent either of those gents' names; many readers did). Congratulations, Lin!

Your clues this week are:

• Though this is a drawing and the artist is best known for painting, the first formal art instruction this French artist received was in sculpture.
• More than anyone had before, the artist studied color theory and optical effects by reading chemical and mathematical treatises.
• A major influence on the artist was the 1827 book Essay on the Unmistakable Signs of Art by the author -- and I am not making this up -- Humbert de Superville.
  
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• The medium (Conté crayon) and support (Michallet paper) seen above are important clues. Michallet paper has two sides: smooth and ribbed, with a heavy "tooth." The artist always used the toothy side.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

Tui was the first person to email the correct answer: Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789). By the way, last week's picture was actually a trompe l'oeil painting. Kudos, Tui!

Your clues this week are:

• The artist was a French Huguenot, born and raised in Switzerland following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
• The artist was famous for portraiture ... a long time ago. Today the artist's name is fairly obscure.
• An inveterate traveler, the artist spent four years in Constantinople and wore Turkish clothing (including a fez) forever afterwards.
  
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• Among the artist's many sitters were: Pope Clement XII; Bonnie Prince Charlie; the Empress Maria Theresa; Madame de Pompadour; Augusta, Princess of Wales; the Earls of Sandwich and Bessborough; the French royal family; and the House of Orange.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

Last week's winning answer came courtesy of Jeanne, who knew that the artist's name was Jan Gossaert (Flemish, ca. 1472-1532), also known as Mabuse. His painting The Three Children of Christian II of Denmark (1526) depicts exactly that. The youngest child was Christina of Denmark (1521-1590), who actually had two marriages: first, by proxy, to Francesco II Sforza, Duke of Milan (1495-1535), who died before the couple even met, and second to Francis I, Duke of Lorraine (1517-1545). Well done, Jeanne!

Your first clues for 2012 are:

• The artist was born in France, but only according to modern boundaries.
• A "Northerner," this artist was the first non-Italian to travel to Rome and sketch its antiquities.
• The artist kept the Prince-Bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy, well supplied with erotic nudes. (Well, erotic in their day. Now? Not so much.)
  
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• The three sitters in this portrait are royals whose father was known by the sobriquet "The Tyrant" due to murderous actions in Sweden. Of the three, only the two girls made it adulthood, and the youngest girl -- the baby here -- had her portrait painted again about 15 years later, when Henry VIII had his scouts poking around Europe for a fourth wife. Do you know who she was and who she went on to marry instead, after rejecting England's offer? (There's another clue for you: she was smart enough to like keeping her head attached to her body.)

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

Nancy was first last week with the artist's name: Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). His painting Working In Marble or The Artist Sculpting Tanagra (1890) supplied the name I sought in its title: Jean-Léon Gérôme (a.k.a. "The Artist"). Our clever friend Val sent that answer in at the speed of light, and an astounding number of you sent in the titles of every artwork shown in this peek at Gérôme's studio. Congrats to Nancy and Val, and kudos all around!